To the editor:

I have just read Riggs Skepnek’s piece regarding replacing the greenhouse building at 1501 Learnard with a parking lot. I am stunned that this idea could be taken seriously by city planners. Yet, why am I surprised?

I lived in Lawrence for over 40 years and watched as developers proposed construction ideas opposed by residents who came to city meetings to voice their concerns and who were ignored, time and again, by commissioners whose focus on expansion disregarded the needs and wants of the people. This approach to governing is simply quite wrong.

For those of you who know, and/or haven’t read Skepnek’s piece, I urge you to do so. I’ve been a Topeka resident for over 10 years now and have found that when it comes to preservation of historic properties here, the efforts to preserve them evoke a sense of pride in the city’s past that Lawrence seems to have forgotten. Skepnek’s piece very succinctly describes the same old approach to governing that has plagued Lawrence for far too long. No matter that the town pays homage to its history of Freedom Fighters and the founding of its university. Lawrence’s uniqueness is rooted in its neighborhoods and the businesses that once were located in them, including the greenhouse.

Thank you, Riggs Skepnek, for reminding readers that “people care about places that give them something to care about.” Tearing down a building that is so much a part of Lawrence’s history doesn’t fit that reminder.

Marilyn Roy,

Topeka