Promoter not sure now on canceling 1,000-foot water slide event in west Lawrence; city gets report on its financial health

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

UPDATE 1:30 p.m.: Maybe there will be bubbles on this 1,000-foot water slide, because the idea of hosting The Urban Slide in a west Lawrence neighborhood quickly is turning into a soap opera.

Ryan Robinson, owner of Lawrence-based Silverback Productions, reached out to me today and said he’s now decided not to cancel the event — at least not yet. He said he’s rescinded his previous request to have the item pulled from tomorrow’s City Commission agenda.

Instead, he wants to have a hearing on his original proposal to temporarily close a portion of George Williams Way south of Sixth Street to accommodate the event. But he’s also put forward an alternative proposal that would close a portion of George Williams way north of Sixth Street to accommodate the event. If neither one of those proposals wins commission support, he said he would cancel the event.

“We want the neighbors to speak up and tell the commission what they want,” Robinson said. “We will be fine with whatever the commission tells us to do. We are in the community-building business. We don’t want to create any problems.”

As for the new proposal to place the slide north of Sixth Street on George Williams Way, Robinson said he thinks the idea has good potential. That section of road is a four-lane street. It leads into the Rock Chalk Park sports complex. Robinson said the western two lanes of the street could be closed, and the eastern two lanes could be open for two-way traffic. Participants could park in the large parking lot at Rock Chalk Park.

Robinson said he had proposed the idea of placing the slide on the southern side of George Williams Way because he thought that would make it more of a neighborhood event that people could walk to or bike to.

Robinson said the whole issue has been frustrating. He said The Urban Slide event is one of the simpler ones his company produces each year. The company specializes in marathons and other races that stretch over broad geographical areas.

The company has hosted several events in Lawrence — it produces The Color Run that brings thousands to downtown Lawrence. He stopped short of saying he would stop producing events in Lawrence, but did acknowledge that producing events in the community has become frustrating.

“The only reason we bring events to Lawrence is because we like to bring cool stuff to town,” Robinson said. “We generate less than 1 percent of our revenue off of the events we do in Lawrence.”

He said the reaction to The Urban Slide event probably will cause the company to re-evaluate what events it wants to host in Lawrence in the future.

“It does sour us some, but we’re a resilient bunch,” Robinson said. “We’re going to continue to call Lawrence home, and we’re going to continue to work out of here.”


ORIGINAL POST

If you want a 1,000-foot waterslide in your neighborhood it looks like we are going to have to go back to our original plan of a garden hose and a whole lot of trash bags duct-taped together. That’s right. The idea of The Urban Slide coming to a west Lawrence neighborhood next month appears to be dead.

Last week we told you that Lawrence-based Silverback Productions had filed for a city permit to temporarily set up a 1,000-foot water slide on the portion of George Williams Way between Sixth Street and Harvard Road. But I’ve now received an email from a Silverback official saying that the company is pulling its request for the permit and will cancel the Lawrence event, which was set for Aug. 8-9. Concerns from neighbors apparently did the event in, and Silverback owner Ryan Robinson sounded a bit frustrated about it in a letter he sent to city officials this weekend.

“I think anyone that knows myself and the work that Silverback does within this community knows that we only wish to bring goodness, happiness and prosperity to this city,” Robinson wrote in a letter asking the permit application to be withdrawn from Tuesday’s City Commission agenda. “However, for a variety of reasons we are finding it is harder and harder to do that within Lawrence, and quite frankly the trouble is not worth the gain.”

I had heard late Friday afternoon that City Hall was getting quite a few phone calls from people about the idea of closing down George Williams Way to accommodate the event. Questions about parking and other effects the event may have on the area also were asked.

Robinson said Silverback — which produces The Color Run and other similar large events — said in his letter that his company had a detailed plan for how to run the event. But Robinson indicated that the event was not receiving a warm reception, and specifically cited a letter from neighborhood resident Mike Kelly, who asked city officials a variety of questions about the event’s potential impact on the neighborhood.

Robinson wrote that his company does not do business by “forcing events into unwelcoming communities.”

“We would never do anything in Lawrence to jeopardize our reputation or the good that we have brought this city over the years,” Robinson said. “We will politely bow out into the open arms of one (of) the other 225 welcoming cities that we work with on an annual basis.”

No word yet on what the plan is for folks who have already bought tickets in advance for the event, which had been advertised online for months now. I assume, however, Silverback will provide details about some sort of refund program.


In other news and notes from around town:

• A 1,000-foot slide is one thing. A 10-year long slide is another. City commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday evening will be discussing a decade long slide.

Commissioners will receive an annual report from City Auditor Michael Eglinski, who takes a look at a host of financial indicators for the city. The city fares pretty well in many of the categories measured, but there is one category that serves as a reminder of the major issue facing city leaders: the measurement of job growth and tax base growth in the community.

As part of the report, Eglinski looked at 20 years worth of job growth and tax base growth data. The numbers show it definitely has been a tale of two decades for Lawrence. From 1995 to 2004, growth in nonfarm employment in the Lawrence metro area averaged 2 percent per year. From 2005 to 2014, it has averaged 0.1 percent per year.

Flip the page to assessed valuation — the community’s tax base — and the numbers are even more stark. From 1995 to 2004, the tax base grew by an average of 8.1 percent per year. From 2005 to 2014, the average growth rate dropped to 1.3 percent.

Of course, the decade of 2005 to 2014 included a major recession. But the numbers indicate that wasn’t the only issue at play in the slowdown. These two charts indicate that Lawrence was experiencing a flattening — especially in jobs — before the recession hit in late 2008 or 2009.

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

The future is more important than the past on this subject, though. Lawrence has seen some better job numbers of late. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out a monthly report of job totals for metro areas. The most recent data is for May. It shows Lawrence added about 800 jobs from May 2014 to May 2015. That’s an increase of about 1.5 percent, which is quite a bit better than the 0.1 percent average of the last decade. In fact, the 1.5 percent growth rate was the best in the state during that time period. Manhattan was next at 0.7 percent, then Topeka at 0.5 percent, and Wichita saw job losses of 0.4 percent. Kansas City is counted in Missouri, and it came in at 1.6 percent.

It seems like job growth should be a key metric for Lawrence leaders to track. As talk grows about Lawrence and Douglas County creating a new comprehensive plan or vision for the community, it will be interesting to see if leader set a specific goal for how much they want job numbers to grow during the next decade.

The city auditor’s report had several other findings. Here’s a look:

• Lawrence’s debt totals are on the rise, and are at a decade high by at least one measure. The amount of debt per person — adjusted for inflation — is at a 10-year high, Eglinski found. The amount of debt checks in at about $1,100 per person in 2014. That’s up from about $700 per person in 2013. Major projects like the library, Rock Chalk Park, and various street improvements have helped push those totals higher. It is worth noting that until 2014, Lawrence’s per capita debt totals had been on a decline since 2008. But the previous City Commission brought borrowing back in a big way, as the chart below shows.

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

• Governments borrow money to spend it, so it should be no surprise that the amount of city government spending per resident also is at a 10-year high. The inflation-adjusted amount in 2014 checks in at about $1,400 per person, but from about $1,300 per person in 2013. As the chart below indicates, city spending per resident has been on a steady increase since 2011.

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

• Eglinski compares Lawrence’s financial indicators to about 15 “benchmark communities” that include: Iowa City; Norman, Okla.; Bloomington, Ind.; Auburn, Ala.; State College, Pa., and several other college communities. The report found Lawrence was outperforming the benchmark communities in three areas: the city’s financial ability to maintain services; the city’s growth of financial resources; the average age of capital assets such as roads and buildings.

• The report found Lawrence compared less favorably to the benchmark communities in three areas: the city’s liquidity, which measures how quickly the city could have cash to meet immediate needs; the amount of long-term liabilities, such as debt; the amount of the city’s budget devoted to interest payments, which affects the city’s financial flexibility.

• The report also looked at the financial indicators for the city’s utilities department and other divisions of the city that are funded primarily by rates rather than taxes. It found those rate-based divisions — water, sewer and trash service are among the big departments — compared less favorably to benchmark cities in three categories and more favorably in one category. Where the city compared less favorable was in ability to maintain services; financial resource growth; and liquidity to meet immediate needs. The one area where the city compared more favorably is in the rate of aging of capital assets such as utility infrastructure.

You can see the entire report here. Commissioners will discuss it at their 5:45 p.m. meeting on Tuesday at City Hall.