News of a Mexican restaurant for 31st Street; city commissioners struggle with idea of ad hoc committee for police headquarters issue

I know you felt it. Lawrence’s world was a little bit out of balance, especially near the 31st and Iowa area. A Mexican restaurant –El Potro — had moved from its location along 31st Street to a new location near 33rd Street. And get this, no Mexican restaurant had taken its place. Fear not, the world is set to be right again. I’ve got news of a new Mexican restaurant going into the spot that used to house El Potro.

Charritos Taqueria is coming to the location at 2351 W. 31st St., which some of you may remember as the former Backyard Burger location, which failed because it did not serve tacos. Commercial broker Allison Vance Moore of Lawrence’ Colliers office signed Charritos Taqueria to the 31st Street spot, and all indications are that it will be authentic Mexican food.

In fact, it is so authentic that my 16 hours of Spanish classes at KU still left me with a bit of a communication problem as I talked with one of the principals of the business, Francisco Cortez. (My Spanish vocabulary sometimes gets me in trouble, which I’m assuming is the reason the Mexican consulate recently requested that the U.S. revoke my passport.) Regardless, you don’t have to travel to Mexico to test the cuisine of Charritos Taqueria. You can go to Independence Avenue in Kansas City, Mo. The company operates a true taqueria style restaurant in that neighborhood.

Francisco and I had too much difficulty in communicating for me to get a good understanding of the business’ menu. (At one point I think I inadvertently promised to bring a very large donkey to his home. I swear, I was just trying to ask about the grande burrito.) But I did find some information online about the KCMO restaurant. At one point The Pitch had Charritos on its Top 10 list for the best cheap tacos in the KC metro. It described its Tacos Aztecas as having “skirt steak and roasted cactus” served with a spicy salsa made of poblano peppers.

Another Kansas City food blogger talked about a steak taco that was slow cooked in pineapple sauce, and a Mexican drink called horchata, which somehow involves rice and cinnamon flavors.

Francisco said he hopes to have the Lawrence restaurant open sometime in June. As for other Mexican restaurant news, I want to be clear that the popular Mexican restaurant El Potro didn’t go out of business. As we previously reported, it moved to 3333 Iowa St., which indeed did house another Mexican restaurant previously.

Back in January I reported that a site plan had been filed at City Hall for a Mexican restaurant to go into the building at 1606 W. 23rd St., which formerly housed the taco-less Pizza Hut. According to the plans on file, Panchos Restaurant, a drive-thru style Mexican restaurant, was slated for the spot. Moore at Colliers International was the broker on that deal as well. She told me recently she believes that project is still moving ahead. Some work has taken place at the site, but it does not appear that an opening is imminent.

As we’ve previously reported both in Town Talk and on the food page, Taco Zone has opened its downtown restaurant at 13th E. Eighth St. It is billing itself as Lawrence’s first “Southern California style taqueria” with a menu featuring tacos, tortas sandwiches and burritos. (Please, be careful ordering those if you insist doing so in Spanish.)

And then there is Port Fonda. Construction work is well underway on about $500,000 worth of renovations on the ground floor of the Marriott hotel at Ninth and New Hampshire. The last word we had is that the highly successful Mexican restaurant in Kansas City is expected to open its Lawrence location in “late summer.”


In other news and notes from around town:


• A big bowl of chips and salsa probably would solve whatever differences Lawrence city commissioners have about how to move forward with a new police headquarters plan. I know when I’m struggling with an issue, my dry cleaner tells me to put on a nice white dress shirt and sit down with a big bowl of chips and salsa. (My dry cleaner is a great guy, and somehow has managed to buy a lavishly expensive house.)

City officials aren’t likely to take that approach, but they are trying to figure out whether to create a new ad hoc committee to provide some recommendations on how to move forward with a multimillion dollar police headquarters facility. As we reported earlier this week, the ad hoc committee is the idea of Commissioner Stuart Boley.

Some of his fellow commissioners, though, said they wanted to have a better idea of what this committee would actually study. So, Boley has created a draft resolution that spells out seven topics. They are:

• Review the consultant reports and documents that have been prepared related to a new police facility;

• Consider assumptions made related to staffing and needs that were taken into consideration in the development of those reports/plans.

• Review facility plans for possible efficiencies with other law enforcement agencies or functions. Specifically, the resolution mentions Municipal Court. Has the city studied whether now is the time to move its Municipal Court functions into the same building that houses police officers? There’s an argument that a move would cut down on the amount of time officers spend traveling to court dates.

• Review how plans for a new facility would help the department in providing services to the community;

• Review any other appropriate topic that relates to the group’s report and recommendations on this subject;

• Consider funding options for improving police facilities;

• Deliver a report that provides recommendations related to police facilities, taking into account the information reviewed and considered during its discussions. Recommendations should specifically relate to how the City Commission should proceed with next steps related to the police facilities issue.

Boley is recommending that the committee complete its report by Nov. 17. That puts the report well past the city’s budget process for 2016. That process wraps up in August.

A big question facing the City Commission is whether 2016 is a year that is going to include any significant funding for a new police headquarters, or whether 2016 is going to be a year where the groundwork is laid for a new proposal that would be funded in 2017.

At Tuesday’s City Commission study session, there definitely was some skepticism from some commissioners about the need for an ad hoc committee. Commissioner Matthew Herbert said he’s not sure how ordinary residents are going to be much help in making recommendations on an issue such as a how a police department is best structured.

“I don’t pretend to have any idea of how to run a police facility, and I don’t think my neighbors do either,” Herbert said at Tuesday’s meeting.

Herbert talked about showing the proper amount of respect for the police chief’s professional credentials and judgment. Boley said an ad hoc committee wouldn’t be a sign of a lack of respect toward the police department, but rather would be an effort to have another set of eyes review a large number of documents prepared on the subject. He’s recommending several skilled executives serve on the committee. He’s suggested former Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, former Kansas Board of Regents president and CEO Reggie Robinson, and Charles Epp, a professor in KU’s School of Public Affairs and Administration, among others.

If commissioners reject the ad hoc committee idea based on Herbert’s concerns, it will be interesting to see if that marks a change in direction in how the city uses advisory boards. The city has about 40 advisory boards or task forces that advise the City Commission. Many of those boards exist despite the city having skilled professionals in those positions. For example, the city has a Traffic Safety Commission, despite having a city traffic engineer. It has a Public Transit Advisory Board, despite having a public transit administrator. When it comes to planning items, the City Commission routinely receives two sets of recommendations: one from the city’s professional planning staff and one from the ordinary residents who serve on the Planning Commission.

I think there is also concern among some that an ad hoc committee may become focused on issues less about facilities and more about operations and police conduct, given the national news in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore. That already has struck a nerve with one of the leaders of the group that led the Vote Yes campaign for the failed sales tax in November. She wrote a letter to commissioners offering a pre-emptive defense of any such allegations against Lawrence police.

There’s a lot to sort out with the police headquarters issue right now. I plan to talk with commissioners in more depth soon. I’ll report back what I hear.