From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Nov. 21, 1973:

A recent editorial focused on the proposal of county officials to “take a sizable chunk out of South Park to be used as a paved parking lot.” Such a proposal had come as a shock to Lawrence citizens “who somehow feel that public parks are hard to come by, they serve a great purpose in community life and they shouldn’t ever be considered as a land reserve for periodic public building projects.” The writer went on to state that the city had made a bad decision some years previously in locating a “rather commonplace, unattractive community meeting place almost in the middle of the other half of South Park. The building, which could have been placed at any one of numerous nearby sites, has since created something of a blot or eyesore in the park.” As for the current proposal, which had been presented as a solution for overcrowded parking for the building housing the jail and the courts, it “really is a jolt. Other county-owned land is close by and it wouldn’t seem to hurt county employees to be required to walk another hundred feet or so from their cars to their offices.”