Online campaign and video urge Lawrence to again take up East Ninth Project

A resting area has been proposed near the Turnhalle Building, at Ninth and Rhode Island streets, as part of the East Ninth project. This rendering, which looks east from the intersection, shows simple seating walls and native grasses.

Five weeks after the project stalled at the Lawrence City Commission, supporters of an East Ninth Street redesign started a new campaign, petitioning the city to again pick up the issue.

Dalton Paley, whose family owns Art Emergency — an art gallery and creative hub at 721 E. Ninth St. — posted a video to Change.org featuring local artists and East Lawrence residents and business owners who support the transformation of East Ninth Street into an arts corridor. The campaign went up at noon Thursday, and as of Friday night had 368 “signatures.”

“We wanted to give a voice to the people who are in support of what I think could put Lawrence on the map,” Paley said. “This is the way we could express our voice.”

On May 24, the City Commission listened for nearly four hours from both supporters and opponents of the project’s design. At 11 p.m., with not enough votes to move the design forward, commissioners voted to hold a work session about the project to go through its specifics, including funding and the scope of work that should be done to the street.

Dozens more individuals and groups sent written correspondence about the project, one of which was signed by 520 supporters asking for the design’s approval.

At the meeting, Mayor Mike Amyx urged other commissioners to move the project to its next phase. Commissioner Matthew Herbert has promised his support for it.

“I want to get it back on one of our work sessions as soon as possible,” Amyx said Thursday.

Later Thursday, the city released a meeting schedule that tentatively listed the East Ninth Project as the subject of a July 12 work session.

Some of those interviewed for Paley’s video included former Lawrence Mayor Mike Dever, who was on the City Commission when the effort to redesign East Ninth began.

Kansas University professor and filmmaker Kevin Willmott also makes an appearance, warning of the effects of not following through with the project.

In 2014, ArtPlace America awarded a $500,000 grant toward the project. Most of the grant, $381,000, would go toward both integrated and temporary art along the six-block corridor, as well as the cost of engaging artists to help in the street design.

Other project costs would come from the city. As of the May 24 meeting, the total cost was estimated between $3.6 million and $3.7 million. The project was first estimated to cost approximately $2.7 million.

Days before the May 24 meeting, Lawrence released a draft of its capital improvement plan, which had the East Ninth Project on the “unfunded” list for 2017. Leaders at the Lawrence Arts Center balked at the action, which City Manager Tom Markus later took responsibility for.

Jamie Bennett, director of ArtPlace America, said via email May 27 that the organization had been kept up to date on the project and “the Lawrence Arts Center remains responsible for substantively delivering the project as described.”

“The really bad thing that would happen if this fails, is it sends a message to all the people who are kind of looking at us that we’re not as hip as we told you we were, that art is not nearly as important as we told you it was here,” Willmott said in the video. “And that’s the thing you don’t want to see happen, because we’re the hope of the state. It’s a hip place. But for it to stay hip, it has to grow; it has to build upon that, and this would help do that.”

Supporters of the project aren’t the only group to make a video about it. Just prior to the May meeting, local filmmaker Nicholas Ward sent a video to the City Commission featuring an interview with a business owner who said the project would drive him out of East Lawrence.

“As far as I can tell, it’s going to raise taxes down the line,” Marty Olson, owner of Do’s Deluxe, said in the video. “Let’s try to keep including the people who can’t afford $450,000 homes. There’s a reason they live in this neighborhood, and I’d like to keep that reason intact. There’s a real community here.”

The redesign has faced criticism since its beginning, with some East Lawrence residents worried about its effect on property values, believing it could price them out of their neighborhood.

Thirteen people who spoke at the May meeting voiced concerns about the loss of parking and the project’s expense, among other things. Most asked for standard street, sidewalk and accessibility improvements at a lower price point and with less change to the street design.

A work session on the issue would include discussion among commissioners but no formal vote. It would be up to the City Commission about whether public comment would be allowed during the session.