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Would you use a lighted pathway between campus and downtown?
Asked at Jayhawk Boulevard on November 13, 2009
“Yeah … I live on Mass. Street. … I’d like it on maybe 13th or 14th Street. It seems like a safe idea.”
“Yeah, I think it would be very useful. … 13th or 14th Street I think would be the best (route).”
“Yeah, I would. It seems like it would be a little more safe. 11th Street would be my preference. That’s usually the only one I take anyway.”
“Probably not, just because I’m usually not on campus late enough to be going downtown.”
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Comments
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autie (anonymous) says…
sharp cheddar or bleu.
triplegoddess13 (anonymous) says…
Why let the spoiled college students have lights when the rest of the city doesn't get them? There are still plenty of unsafe areas left that need good lighting that should be taken care of.
merrill (anonymous) says…
Absolutely. It's over due. 13th and 14 the would be good as well.
Plus create a “8 ft pedestrian/cyclist exercise pathway” on both Tennessee and Kentucky. From 7th street to 19th street on the east side of each street. The sidewalk right of way is there.
Students create mucho jobs and mucho tax dollars for Lawrence,Kansas which makes it OKAY to invest in their safety.
Face it…. if KU students decided to participate in the voting process they could control Lawrence,Kansas
and why not?
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
Cheddar so sharp you could slice bread with it.
autie (anonymous) says…
TOB, today..well go ahead and pull one off.
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
Autie - I'm at work. Pulling one off might get me fired.
darthvedder (anonymous) says…
excellent point triplegoddess13!
Why should anyone be safe if everyone can't be safe? Especially 18-22 year old young women.
I like the way you think. We should party sometime!
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
I think we need a slippery slide going downtown so the students can get there faster to spend their money. Then to get them back up we could install a tram. Of course there would be a cost to take the slide and the tram back up. This is about getting the money outta the pockets of downtowns greatest patrons. Safety is only the scare tactic used to get the lighted pathway going. Downtown doesn't want to lose this business. It is all about getting them there. Downtown should pay for the lighting installation and operating cost.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
TOB, you scamp.
lawrence_native_at_KU (anonymous) says…
Thanks for adding the related story link!
RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Ronaldo Ignacio) says…
Damn light terrorists.
What is wrong with these people trying to screw with the darkness.
Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
There should be no outside artificial lighting at night!
It is an abomination before God.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. - Genesis 1:4-5
Please join me in fighting light pollution and respecting the darkness.
http://www.darksky.org/
The gods punished us when Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mankind, Pandora always the typical women , opened that jar anyway, despite the warning.
God will punish us for destroying the night he created.
puddleglum (anonymous) says…
Why let the spoiled college students have lights when the rest of the city doesn't get them? There are still plenty of unsafe areas left that need good lighting that should be taken care of.
I agree!
when can we start charging each student a $1500/semester impact fee on our infrastructure? They use our streets, firefighters, stoplights, snow removal, police (alot) court system, kiddie pool...........wuzzup?
autie (anonymous) says…
Prometheus? To quote the raven, "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Again and again and again."
prospector (anonymous) says…
Smoked Gouda rules.
I thing a dusk to dawn curfew would be safer.
R-I, is Edison the anti-christ?
BABBOY (anonymous) says…
No, but I might if I went to KU.
indiana_friend (anonymous) says…
I teach at Indiana University in Bloomington and we had similar issues about 10 years ago. Our campus responded by installing lighted posts with automatic 911 phones. If a passerby experiences an emergency, he or she simply presses a button and 911 is called to bring emergency support to that location. Not only did sexual assaults and muggings stop in those areas of campus and between town and campus, but also people experiencing medical emergencies received help quickly (including a man from town who had a heart attack while walking on campus for leisure with his wife who lived because of the rapid EMS response). Critics feared prank 911 calls, but video surveillance systems included in the lighted posts prevent that issue. The increased perception of safety brings the best economic benefit by attracting full-tuition and out-of-state students with high quality educational opportunities and a safe campus. Lighting combined with an emergency phone system would benefit the Lawrence community, too.
autie (anonymous) says…
But..but, R_I, if there was no artificial light, how could we fish at night? We'd have treble hooks stuck in our thumbs and the beer would get lost in the tall grass....oh!!! the humanity of it all.
pace (anonymous) says…
I would love it. That is the route home for my pedestrian, often dark in the morning and dark when he comes home. Safer for walking, not just safer from crime. He walks it m-f. It might encourage and enable more pedestrians.
prospector (anonymous) says…
Indiana friend, I believe KU placed a similar system on campus several years back.
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
Cheese loves us and wants us to be happy.
Come on now, everybody sing!
"What a friend we have in cheeses...."
RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Ronaldo Ignacio) says…
autie,
Stick to noodling if you can't tie a clinch knot in the dark.
RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Ronaldo Ignacio) says…
prospector,
Electric lights cast long shadows, so you tell me...
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
I'm down for eating cheese in the dark while not getting raped.
consumer1 (anonymous) says…
CLearly, this is a case for "Nick Danger, third eye".
mjwgoku (anonymous) says…
Dang, thanks alot Autie... I can't decide. I like my sharp cheddar, but give me bleu on my salads. Choices, choices, choices.
We walked in the dark when I was at KU and we liked it...
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
"We walked in the dark when I was at KU and we liked it…"
Damn straight.
RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Ronaldo Ignacio) says…
Evil does not lurk in the darkness, evil lurks in the heart of mankind.
Don't be a hater, don't blame the dark.
autie (anonymous) says…
mjwgoku, the obvious answer to that dilemma is to simply eat both.
H_Lecter (anonymous) says…
night skiing!!!
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
I would use it with my fox.
I would use it in my sox.
jenng (anonymous) says…
I think the slippery slide is a great idea! I admit, I didn't read any comments after that. I would love to see more people going Downtown. My second choice would be a trolley.
14th St is lit okay. As a 20-something woman I never felt unsafe walking it regularly @ nite (getting to/from campus/home), EXCEPT the crazy driving & ice in winter. Lighting would not effect either of those.
I would like to see the money put towards making the intersections between KU & Downtown, Tennessee St, & 13th & Mass walkable/bikeable, (like actually enforcing traffic laws & putting in speed bumps). After that I would like to see public transportation getting from KU, Haskell, & Downtown much more convenient & reliable in the *evening* (not just Safe Ride for late nite).
I lived in East Lawrence for several years, & always felt much, much more safe walking/biking there. The roads *are* completely neglected, but personal safety isn't a real issue there.
prospector (anonymous) says…
Do you think it is time for a cool and refreshing Popsicle treat Snap?
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
Any time is okay for a cool and fruity Popsicle!
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
It is Friday on the short end of the clock and I'm ready for cool beer.
autie (anonymous) says…
scotch. rocks. straight up. Go start the charcoal. Someone chop up a little salad and garlic me up some bread.
AreUNorml (anonymous) says…
some of you act like the kids that attend KU don't have any impact on our city except to use our stuff. Without KU this town would be a spec on a flies ass, if it existed at all. The thousands of students bring out of town and out of state money which they spend here and they rent homes from people who live here.
Why shouldn't we make a logical pathway (or two) for these kids to feel safer in our town? If the students don't come here because they feel unsafe, then we will experience a massive shift in tax revenue. You think the downtown sucks now, wait until half the bars & all the KU type clothing stores shutter their windows.
prospector (anonymous) says…
Snap, we just can't get enough of those fruity treats that just keep coming.
Bob, I said yesterday I was buying naughty folks beer? You qualify.
svenway_park (anonymous) says…
Cold has made only six posts and all but two have been removed. Is that Cool or what?
snap_pop_no_crackle (anonymous) says…
A deleted rate over 60 % has to be a record of some sort.
autie (anonymous) says…
snap, that number gets highly skewed when you add in all the previous activity with assorted nome de plumes.
kimberk12 (anonymous) says…
What is wrong with you people? Do you realize what Lawrence wouldn't be if it not for the students and KU? I appreciate the culture and diversity that Lawrence has, but people so stuck in the past will be what prevents this city from moving forward.
igby (anonymous) says…
Put the lights on the students so you can see the drunk idiots running into the street.
None of the robberies happened on 13th or 14th, 12th or 11th. They happened on Ohio, Tenn. and Kentucky along the alleys.
Sounds like this whole lighted sidewalk chatter started on 11th to enhance the new Hill-Top hotel. But that was just too obvious of a spin for anyone to buy as a student need, but rather another, Fritzel welfare program to make the Hotel have better thorough fares for it's pot-belled, bed and breakfast crowd, to stroll too down town and back. Now that the crime rate in the Oread Hotels district is higher than "Hell's Kitchen's"; who would want to risk staying there. Those old farts need the sidewalk lit up so they can see the thugs that are going to rob and roll there fat rich butts. Remember "pocket full of shells".Lol.
Then someone shouted, "wait a minute, the students use 14th; where it's already lit up like a red light district from the Hawk and the Wheel and Bull-Tinkles, frat-farted on beer garden, Yuk! 14th does not need any more lights.
So there's 13th or 11th. Which will it be?
11th!
Yes, 11th!
Because Marci, and the people next door to her, did not like the city ordinance that kept them from putting lights on their fancy crooked steps that where on the cities right-of-way. So, now they want the city to light up the sidewalk so they can rebut the ordinance about their fancy steps lights being acceptable and not a distraction to motorist.
That's right! That's what all this chatter is about. The depths of their twisted plot to light their crooked stoops is beyond normal human rational thinking and closer to manic, lighted stoop mongering.
So, I wrote this little poem.
Hope you like it!
"Piss on it"!
Done!
Three words, the shortest poem in history.
Stoop lighted dreams! What's the world coming to?
They started a diversion complaining about all the port-a-potties.
But yet they would rather have the drunks pissing in the streets. Go figure!
jadedonreality (anonymous) says…
put in a stop at 19th around tennessee and kentucky (or louisiana) for all the bus routes (especially KU routes). geez. and! lighted sidewalks, despite all the valid comments on the extent of the problem and love of darkness, may help some of the jacked up stuff the media is aggrandizing on now (i.e., robberies, rapes, accidents, and other life threatening events).
BigPrune (anonymous) says…
They put beautiful lighting on Kasold after they rebuilt it. Then some well connected old guy protested and the City either yanked half of them down, or put in some kind of extra expensive light defusers. I guess the guy didn't want to close his blinds. Has the City asked the neighbors if they would be in protest? After all, it wouldn't be "historic" to put in lights in a neighborhood built in the 1800's.
thebcman (anonymous) says…
I really dig Jeff's glasses. The current eyeware fad that Kelly is sporting really is disturbing to me. They look like alien-implanted devices.
yes, build the pathway, and build the damn trafficway !
and eat more biscuits!
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
in protest? After all, it wouldn't be “historic” to put in lights in a neighborhood built in the 1800's.
---okay, you want period: gas lamps, and a lamplighter walks along...lamplighter, not a bad job unless the weather'sbad.
14th, sidewalk s waaaay better than 11th, 12th, 13th!
besides, if we build the lighted yellow brick road, what about the outer darkness beyond the light. most walking this will live one or more blocks off of the yellow brick road.
seriously, I think most of the trouble is preventable: people: don't walk alone; walk *without your cellphone/blackberry in your hand! employ situational awareness. if you're too drunk to walk and be aware, then order a d---d taxi/saferide! if somebody looks like they might be of dubious morals or ethics, don't be PC! judge them as you run!
take some personal responsibility! not every inch of path can be lit! finally, if you can't get taxi or saferide at the end of your night for whatever reason and can't arrange a ride with a good driver, *then don't go!
oh yes, at your home, lock your windows and your doors. maybe keep on one or more outside lights.
if you have a yard, but you don't have a dog...get some of the turds from your frend's yard to decorate yours...that way a potential perp has to woner if you've got a dog in there. yes, this is serious. learn self-defense for both home and walking betwixt campus and downtown.
if we build this path, then what about students who live along tenth and 9th north of campus?
when KU put in the trouble phones, they did do some video, but the phones/lights/cameras aren't in a very high number.
parrothead8 (anonymous) says…
I wouldn't use the walkway because a) I'm not usually on campus late at night and 2) I don't live near downtown so even when I am on campus at night I don't need to go downtown afterwards.
Some people on this thread sure do have a big problem with KU students. I'm pretty sure KU has been here longer than any of you, so you all knew there was a University (and students) here when you came. Not to mention, KU's 30,000 students and 5000 faculty and staff members contribute an awful lot to the economy and community of Lawrence.
For all the complaining I hear about the lack of business downtown, think of how much worse it would be without those 35,000 people in Lawrence. A lighted walkway between the downtown commerce district and the city's largest (by far) employer isn't only a safety issue. It seems to make good business sense, and I'm surprised nobody thought of it sooner.