1,000-foot waterslide coming to west Lawrence; pair of restaurants win national wine honors; local ADA advocate profiled by Washington Post

Lawrence’s funkiness is spreading. West Lawrence probably won’t be honking for hemp or hosting zombie walks anytime soon, but a plan has been filed for a busy West Lawrence street to temporarily house a 1,000-foot long water slide.

I reported last month that a Lawrence-based company was looking for a spot to set up a massive water slide called The Urban Slide. Well, the company hopes it has found its spot: George Williams Way near Sixth Street.

Normally, this is the type of wild and crazy idea that would find its way into downtown Lawrence. But even downtown has its limits. A 1,000-foot slide would take up most of Massachusetts Street. Plus, there is a little slope to Mass. Street, but not much. So, Lawrence-based Silverback Productions — the company that works with The Color Run and other such events — went looking for a different location. Ryan Robinson, an owner of the company, told me last month he was looking for locations near the KU campus, but that apparently didn’t pan out.

The event is set for Aug. 8-9, and the slide would be set up on the portion of George Williams Way that is south of Sixth Street and north of Harvard Road. I guess they are not going to have the slide go through the roundabout at George Williams and Harvard. That seems like a lost opportunity for the city to do roundabout education . . . you do not have to use your turn signal when entering a roundabout, but you should always yield to a water slider. You know, that sort of common stuff.

In case you are confused, George Williams Way will be closed to traffic during the event. In fact, it will be closed for long periods of time to accommodate the slide. Plans call for the street to close at midnight on Aug. 8 and reopen at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 9. Organizers have arranged to use the parking lot at nearby Langston Hughes elementary for the event.

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City commissioners are scheduled to approve the permit for the project at their 5:45 p.m. meeting on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what west Lawrence’s reaction is to the event. Thus far, there has only been one letter of opposition filed to closing down the street. I don’t see George Williams Way becoming the next Massachusetts Street and hosting events on a regular basis. This seems like a fairly unique situation. But west Lawrence likely will become more an event venue with Rock Chalk Park. I’m still curious to see what type of events other than youth basketball and volleyball tournaments end up becoming the norm at Rock Chalk. I heard several people liked how the Sertoma BBQ cook-off functioned at the sports complex earlier this year. Whether the complex will become the site for more festival type of events in the future will be interesting to watch.

In other news and notes:

• I don’t know about you, but when I get done going down a 1,000-foot water slide, I find that I’ve worked up a thirst that can only be satisfied by a Buried Cane Cabernet Sauvignon, or perhaps a Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel or maybe even a Pago de Tharsys Brut Cava, which coincidentally is the same phrase I frantically yell while going down The Urban Slide. All those are actually fine wines served at the downtown restaurant Ten (or at least I think they are, although I’m not sure because they rarely let me enter wearing my Speedo.) Ten, which is the restaurant on the ground floor of The Eldridge Hotel, has been named to Wine Spectator’s 2015 Restaurant Awards. Ten was one of two Lawrence restaurants to be included in the prestigious rankings. Five 21, which is in The Oread hotel and operated by the same company that run Ten, also was selected. The rankings are in Wine Spectator’s Aug. 31 edition, which recently hit newsstands.

• Speaking of Lawrence getting some national publicity, a Kansas University professor who fought to win approval of the Americans with Disabilities Act, was profiled in The Washington Post earlier this week. Dot Nary, an assistant research professor at the Research and Training Center on Independent Living at KU, will be in Washington, D.C. to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. While preparing for her trip, Nary sought to make a reservation for a bus tour of Washington, D.C., but the tour operator told her he didn’t have a bus that could accommodate someone in a wheelchair. That’s despite advertisements that said it could accommodate folks in wheelchairs. That was probably not the best strategy on the part of the tour bus operator, but hey, he got his name in The Washington Post. Here’s a link to the article about Nary and her work with the ADA.