Multimedia Reporting (Noland-Volek)

It’s only September, and one of Kelsey Cline’s roommates has already moved out. Luckily, neither Cline nor her other roommate will be economically affected by his departure – Cline’s parents own the house where they live.

Cline’s parents bought the house to save money on living expenses when Kelsey’s sister, Kendall, was attending the University of Kansas. When Kendall graduated last semester and she and her fiancée moved out of the house, Kelsey, her boyfriend and a roommate moved in.

“My dad is a real estate agent and he saw this house for sale diagonal to Naismith hall,” she said. “They wanted to buy it because it was a good deal.”

Kelsey Cline, Lawrence junior, is one of many people, and students in general, in Lawrence who wants to live in or own property with-in walking distance of the University.

“Lots of people have a kid going to school and want to buy a one,” said Jeff Arensberg, broker-owner of Remax Professionals, 545 Columbia Dr. “Parents buy a house for their kid in college, the kid has a couple of roommates, and they charge $200 to $300 a room.”

Because of his profession, Cline’s father saw beyond the short-term benefits the investment opportunity presented.

“Even after I move out they are going to keep it,” she said. “If it wasn’t by campus and it didn’t have the price point that it did, they wouldn’t have bought it. My dad has always wanted to get something close to campus because the resale value is so high.”

Despite the University students’ reputation for being disruptive at night, houses within walking distance of campus tend to sell for 10 percent higher than comparable houses at other places in town.

“It’s all about location,” said Steve Jones, sales-associate at Coldwell Banker, 4100 W. 6th St. “Any time you get within walking distance or close to campus, the houses are more desirable because of convenience to the University.”

Jones also said that houses near campus spend less time on the market than other houses in Lawrence.

“It’s so dependant on the condition and what you have,” he said, “but houses around campus are usually on the market 90 days or less, while houses elsewhere in Lawrence are on the market anywhere from 90 to 120 days or more.”

Jerry Bailey, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University, bought his house, 1638 Mississippi St., because of its location near campus.

“It’s a wonderful house and it’s close to work,” Bailey said. “My wife really liked it, and it was in a good location. We’ve lived there since the Halloween of 1981.”

Arensberg agreed that many faculty at the University buy houses near campus for convenience.

“I remodeled a house that sold for $850,000, and you know who bought it?” Arensburg said. “[Richard] Lariviere, the new provost. We were worried it wouldn’t sell, but it didn’t even make it to the market. He bought it because he wanted to be near campus.”

The house that Lariviere bought from Arensberg is located west of campus, which Arensberg said is a popular location.

“West Campus and North Oread neighborhood sell the best,” he said. “Oread and South campus sell well because the owner is an investor. West campus is for the most part owner occupied. The east side is mostly rentals.”

Students, faculty, and staff at the University are not the only people who want to live with-in walking distance of campus.

“Its just the character of those neighborhoods,” Arensberg said. “More people want a house that has character, whether it’s by campus or not. New construction houses are a dime a dozen – and most people don’t want that.”

It’s basic, junior-high science. Carbon Dioxide (CO2)+Water+ Light= happy, healthy plants. So theoretically, increased amounts of CO2 in the air will yield super plants. But Joy Ward, an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas, said sometimes too much of a good thing isn’t good.

Ward and Clint Springer, a post doctoral researcher who works in her lab, have found that despite convention, increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere could cause plants to flower later versus earlier.

“There does not seem to be any particular pattern,” Springer said. “What we found in this study is there is a lot of variability in the responses. And to generalize those, there is no single factor that dictates whether a plant will have accelerated or delayed flowering. We uncovered a big question.”

Ward and Springer recently published a literature review, “Flowering time and elevated atmospheric CO2,” on this phenomenon in the botany journal the “New Phytologist.” Although the review was mostly a synthesis of other researchers’ work, which Springer and Ward said is the most comprehensive synthesis of this subject to date, the two contributed work of their own to the paper as well. Editors at the “New Phytologist” are also reviewing a new article on the topic by Ward and Springer. If “New Phytologist” selects their paper for publication, it will appear in the journal early next year.

In their papers, Ward and Springer looked mostly at how elevated levels of atmospheric CO2 affect the genetic and molecular mechanisms that control plant flowering. Ward and Springer also acknowledged the implications their work could have on agricultural crops. They hope to incorporate their work into crop breeding in the future. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring gas however additional CO2 is created through the burning of petroleum based fossil fuels and coal.

Ward said people need to be more aware of the effects rising levels of CO2 emissions are having on the environment.

“People are well aware that global warming is affecting plant development timing,” Ward said. “We’ve ignored the factor of carbon dioxide.”

"Flowering Time and elevated atmospheric CO₂"
Joy Ward and Clint Springer

Consistent with other researchers’ studies, Springer and Ward found that carbohydrates, sugars and starches, play a role in plants’ development. Ward said sugars sometimes act as a signaling molecule for plants to flower. Springer said that inconsistency in the flowering times of the plants suggests that plants of the same species across the world are evolving differently.

In the future, Ward said she will focus on the evolutionary factors affecting plant development in her lab and Springer will focus on the molecular mechanisms in his new lab at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pa., where he recently accepted a professorship. Springer said they hope to pinpoint why and how plants are reacting to CO2 and apply their research to other plants that have a commonality in their make-up.

According to Ward and Springer’s paper, few studies have examined crop flowering-time responses to elevated levels of CO2. In the existing studies, 80 percent of those crops showed accelerated flowering times.

“That’s down the road a ways,” Springer said. “Once we understand how genetics play a role in this, that will be more for people who are interested in how it affects crops.”

But researchers in the department of geography are concerned now. Nate Brunsell, assistant professor of geography, said that plants would have to take in more water to counter the increased amounts of CO2. He said this could present a problem because plants return moisture to the air when they photosynthesize, or grow.

“This might increase rainfall in other places with so much water in the air,” he said. “You might have more of an impact from the water. A little bit of warming but cutting off all of the rainfall?”

Brunsell said the Gulf of Mexico creates most of Kansas’s moisture, so researchers are unsure of Kansas’s agricultural future. Johannes Feddema, professor of geography, agreed.

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the water component,” Feddema said. “Although generally as you warm up, it gets drier––especially for Kansas.”

Brunsell said he expects these environmental issues to begin affecting students’ lives in the near future. He said Georgia has already put restrictions on how much water its citizens can use every day.

“You also have a food security issue, if we heat things up and lose more water what are farmers going to do?” he said. “Change crops? Use more water? When you use more water for agriculture, then there is less for municipal and recreation uses.”

Kees van der Veen, an associate professor in the department of geography, said he expects another Dust Bowl in Kansas like the one in the 1930s, only a lot longer.

“The level of agriculture will have to be scaled back significantly because of less water availability,” he said.

He was also worried that increased levels of water and CO2 in plants will cause plants to grow more in the areas we don’t use.

“ If we take a potato and it gets more productive in the leaves, that is not going to do us any good because we don’t eat the leaves,” he said.

Brunsell said even though it seems like the effects of increased CO2 and temperatures have not affected Kansas, people need to realize that they have.

“Everything in global warming starts on a small scale. It’s all happening very locally, how we impact our environment.”

Van der Veen agreed with Brunsell and said a lot of environmental stress factors are going to become apparent in this generation’s lifetime.

“It’s sort of gone beyond the academic ivory tower,” he said. “Look at the news, CNN and whatnot. We see the signs all around us.”

In their synthesis, Ward and Springer already found that sorghum showed a delayed development time. Beers such as Guinness and Anheuser-Busch’s “Redbridge” contain sorghum in its syrup form––but more importantly, according to the National Sweet Sorghum Producers and Processors Association’s Web site, sorghum is a key ingredient in cattle feed and is a major crop in Kansas.

Currently, CO2 emissions are not regulated in the U.S. This could change in the future, though, as scientists like Ward and Springer uncover research suggesting a need for caps on CO2 emissions.

The State of Kansas has already taken a controversial step in this direction by refusing to allow Westar Energy to build a coal plant in Holcomb. Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, first rejected the plan and Governor Kathleen Sebelius upheld his decision.

But Springer said his and Ward’s work is not only important to the future of Kansas, but also to the future world.

“Only a handful of people will go to a database and pull this article out,” Springer said. “In the developing nations of the world, this will have major impacts. The U.S. is more buffered because of our wealth.”

BY FRANCESCA CHAMBERS
fchambers@kansan.com

It has been no easy task for the University of Kansas Ice Hockey Club to find a place to practice and play games. Kansas’ warm climate makes it nearly impossible to play the sport outdoors on natural ice, even in the winter, and hockey’s popularity in Lawrence has not yet reached a level that warrants building an ice or skating rink.

For several years the team has had to commute more than 30 minutes to the nearest ice hockey rink to play. But The Student Recreation and Fitness Center plans to add a synthetic rubber surface surrounded by a dasher board to its facility this spring that could provide an alternative place for the team to practice at home.

“The fact that there’s not ice limits our abilities, but we could do beginning of the season practices and walk-throughs there the first three weeks of school,” said Nick Hantge, Hutchison, Minn., senior and captain of the Hockey Club.

Currently, the club practices and holds games at Ice Midwest, 135th St. and Quivera rd. in Overland Park. Ice Midwest charges the Club $270 per hour to use the rink.
The club practices for an hour and a half, two times a week. It will also have games twice a week beginning September 21. A game lasts around three hours, and the club and its opponent split the ice rental cost. In all, the club pays more than $6,500 a month to use the rink during their game season, which lasts until February.

The Hockey Club is in the first tier, the highest tier, of the University’s club sports budget, meaning it receives more money from the University than most club sports, but that does not mean the club doesn’t need more money.

“Every penny of the money we receive from the University goes towards ice time,” Hantge said. “We all grew up playing, so most of the players use their own equipment.”

Not only would the synthetic surface provide the Hockey Club with the money to buy new, matching equipment, the club would be able to practice more often.

“Right now we do conditioning called dry lands–plyometrics and sprints–on the days when we don’t practice,” Hantge said. “Actually doing hockey drills would really help out.”

Ryne Tusten, Olathe senior and former president of the club, who now works at the Recreation Center, said though the team could practice on the new surface, it would be more ideal for roller hockey.

“The Recreation Center is hoping to get roller hockey intramurals, but the more people playing the sport and liking it, the better for us,” Tusten said.

Hantge has similar hopes that the new surface would give the club a greater awareness on campus and eventually lead to the addition of an ice surface in the future, which the club needs to become a Division I team.

Unfortunately, the team will not be able to use the surface until the end of the hockey season Mary Chappell, recreation services director, said.

“The synthetic surface will be one of the last surfaces to go down,” Chappell said. “Other structural things have to come first. Benchmark wise, the surface probably will not be available for use until January.”

Chappell said that the new synthetic surface would be similar to the surface of the center’s track.

“When we built the wooden floor we knew we couldn’t use it for these types of sports,” she said. “We want to give the students another type of play surface.”

The Hockey Club’s first game is against the University of Iowa on September 21 and the time is TBA. For more information about the club visit www.kuhockey.com.

By Francesca Chambers
Kansan writer Francesca Chambers can be reached at fchambers@kansan.com

The members of the Scenic RiverWay Community Association, or the SRCA, have only one goal: opposing development that would destroy the safe, peaceful and beautiful environment surrounding their homes, which are near the intersection of Interstate 70 and K-10.

Until recently, the association’s members had enjoyed a three-year relief from their duties. That is, until Lawrence developer Duane Schwada requested to have his 154-acre agricultural property near their homes included in the industrial chapter of Horizon 2020, Lawrence’s comprehensive growth plan.

The group only learned of Schwada’s request a few days before the city commission was set to approve Horizon 2020. However Janette Funk, who is the organizer of the SRCA, was able to quickly rally her neighbors and fellow SRCA members, and at the commission meeting, the group requested that Schwada’s property be left out of Horizon 2020 for several reasons, including the lack of time the public was had for input.

The group suggested that a separate plan for their area be developed, and the commission agreed. The commission voted 3-2 to accept the version of Horizon 2020 that did not include Schwada’s property in the industrial district. Commissioners Mike Amyx and Mike Dever rejected the plan as a whole.

“The concern that the majority had was that this was adding a rather large parcel of land to the industrial chapter of Horizon 2020 without an actual plan, and it is not in our urban growth area,” Mayor Sue Hack said.

The commissioners gave their staff 60 days to develop an area plan for Schwada’s property and the properties adjacent to it. Once the commissioners’ staff has developed the plan, the Lawrence-Douglas Planning Commission will review it before it is sent to the city commission for approval. The city commission then plans to add the plan as a text amendment to Horizon 2020.

“This is a logical place for industrial/commercial development,” Hack said. “We just need to make sure that we do this in the right order and having it planned and then included in the Comprehensive Plan, Horizon 2020, is the best way to go.”

This is not the only time the SRCA has had to battle Schwada. In 2004, Schwada asked the county commission to reclassify the same piece of property as an industrial district.

The county commission denied Schwada’s request, which needed unanimous approval, on a 2-1 vote with Bob Johnson in the negative, because the area is outside Lawrence’s city limits and growth areas. But the members of the SRCA, knew that eventually, Schwada would attempt to have his property reclassified again, and at some point his request would be granted.

“A lot of gentlemen on the commissions are developers,” said Loren Funk, a member of the SRCA. “Its all about creating jobs and money. They don’t care about the environment or homes.”

In a recent letter to Mayor Hack, Schwada’s attorney, Jane M. Eldredge, explained why her client has continued to pursue industrializing said property and why the city commission should allow him to do so.

“The site’s size, single ownership, topography, location out of the flood of the plain, adjacency to the Urban Growth Area, and its outstanding access to the transportation network all make it ideal for certain industrial and employment-related potential employees.”

Marguerite Ermeling, a member of the SRCA and a former planning commissioner, said the association members do not necessarily oppose development in the area; they just want their voices heard.

“If they had accepted this letter and added him onto the map, it would have disallowed public input,” she said. “Nobody has an argument about it not being a good place to develop, but it’s not the right time. We are looking for a procedure by which the public can be a part of the decision.”

Ermeling also said that it is hard to counter classifications of properties once they are on the map and that is why the group members think a comprehensive plan for their area is better than prematurely adding it to the Industrial Chapter of Horizon 2020.

“There are many ways to grow, but growing by design is the best way, which comes with public input,” she said. “Honestly, if we grew by design, we would have a lot less of these fights.”

Ermeling also cited other problems with the area, such as lack of infrastructure to cross Interstate 70 and jump K-10 and the amount of money it would cost to lay water pipes so far away from the city. Tom Allen, another member of the SRCA, voiced similar concerns. He said that currently, the rural water district has an excess of water, but it would run of water if their area were developed.

Allen also said depending on what Schwada wants to build, Schwada would have to install put in a cesspool, which could face Allen’s land and lower his property value.
Janette Funk was also concerned about the possibility of Schwada installing a cesspool on his land.

“Who’s going to monitor that?” she said. “It would be privately owned. Who would monitor what chemicals are put in that? If you look at the land by K-10, there’s a lot of chemicals in the ground that have to be cleaned up. Do we really want another spot like that?”

Funk said that vigorously opposing Schwada’s development requests in their area is important to preserving her and her neighbor’s lifestyles.

“It only takes one,” she said. “Its beautiful where we live, and he could ruin it.”

Francesca Chambers

When he was a little boy, Richard Osburn never imagined he would one day own an adult novelty store. He assumed after he graduated, he would work at the munitions plant in what used to be Sunflower Village, east of Lawrence, between DeSoto and Eudora. Just like his father, and all of his friends’ fathers.

But now, more that 36 years later, he is the owner of Naughty But Nice, 1741 Massachusetts St., an adult novelty store that sells everything from sexy Halloween costumes and platform shoes, to fake penises and vending machine pornography.

Before he opened Naughty But Nice, Osburn was the manager of The Flamingo Club, 501 N. 9th St., which is a gentlemen’s club. His wife worked as an exotic dancer at the club. Osburn said his wife and the other exotic dancers used to complain about the high prices at Priscilla’s, 1206 W 23rd St. He said the dancers inspired him to open his own adult novelty store as an alternative location to shop.

“”Having been in the sex business for so long gave us an insight into what kind of things entertainers needed, especially because its kind of a niche market,” he said.

So, Osburn and his wife opened Naughty But Nice, which he said was he and his wife’s plan to get away from working in the entertainment business. But 13 months after the couple began work on the store, his wife decided owning an adult novelty store was not the kind of life she was interested in either. She filed for a divorce and moved back to Minnesota where her parents lived. At the same time, Osburn found himself in an extremely costly legal battle with the city, a battle that is still taking place today and could force him to close down his store within the coming months.

Richard’s brother, Robert, who works at Naughty But Nice part-time, had nothing but good things to say about his brother.

“You’d have a problem finding someone in this town who doesn’t like my brother,” Robert said. “He’s well-known and well-liked. He’s my brother, but I’d like him even if he wasn’t.”

Jacey, an exotic dancer at The Pink Flamingo Club and a Lawrence junior, said she has shopped at Naughty But Nice since she began dancing six years ago.

“It has more of a hometown feel,” she said. “I know this sounds weird coming from someone in my position, but sometimes you go into a sex shop and it’s weird. But he talks to you and makes you feel more comfortable.”

When Richard Osburn was 12, the munitions plant began scaling back its operation. His family was forced to relocate to Lawrence. When he graduated high school in 1978, Osburn went to work full time. For the next 14 years he worked at various place in town, mostly as a bartender, before landing the manager position at The Flamingo Club.

“Money wise, I capped out,” Osburn said. “And my wife and I had a daughter and I knew we were likely to have other children. We could accommodate that only by starting this business.”

Osburn was right. A few years later, Osburn and his wife had their second child, a son, who is now 6. Osburn’s daughter is now 10. Osburn said he used to see them seven or eight times a year, but now he sees them three to four times a year for a only couple weeks at a time. As for his children’s knowledge of the store’s products, Osburn said they had none.

“They are completely unaffected by it,” he said. “They have no curiosity to what it is. They know it’s a store for grown ups, and that’s about it.”

In the past, when business was good, Osburn said he worked only about 20-28 hours a week in the store. Now, he works 70 hours.

“I’m in an expendable cash position,” he said. “When business is bad, I’m one of the first to get cut out.”

Osburn said he began playing online poker to pass the increased time at work.

“You can only watch so much TV, and then it gets old,” he said. “Except for football Sundays and Saturday, when college football is on. I’m a homer. A homer all the way. The Chiefs and Kansas.”

Osburn said he makes about $100 a week playing Texas hold’em online, but that he plays only in low-buying tournaments. That way if he gets busy, he can walk away from the game without losing a large amount of money.

Robert’s girlfriend of eight years, Vicki Topolewski, said Richard is also a good cook.

“Cooking is my hobby and we have to share” she said. “We have to split between Thanksgiving and Christmas because we both want to cook.”

Vicki has known Richard for more than 11 years. She said when he first decided to open the store, she was concerned and even embarrassed, but after having worked in the store herself on multiple occasions, she has realized that most of the people who shop there are not perverts, they are couples looking to spice up their love life.
After working in an adult novelty store for eight years, Osburn has had several comical experiences with customers.

A couple times of year, Richard and his brother host “toy parties” in peoples’ homes. Osburn said most of his clients don’t mind the men hosting their parties, but sometimes they receive special requests.

“There was a rather large group of African American women one time who wanted my brother, and they had a ball,” he said. “They didn’t want a woman. In fact, we even did a second party for them.”

Despite certain citizens’ beliefs that Osburn’s business, and others like it, corrupt the minds of children and encourage crime, Osburn said he considers himself a good neighbor to the other businesses around his store and a good citizen as well.

“If they [adult stores] did not succeed, then they would not exist,” he said. “ So learn to live with them.”

Osburn will face the city in court again next week. The city has told Osburn that he has to relocate his business to a highway in town, or they will shut down his business. He said the city commission has already decided he is guilty, but that he hopes to appeal his case at the trial.

It did not surprise Naughty But Nice owner Richard Osburn when his landlord presented him with an eviction notice-––at this point nothing surprises him. The city has been threatening to shut down Osburn’s adult novelty store for the past seven years, so Osburn has learned to be thankful for each day his business is open and to take each day as it comes.

“Its funny because people who I do business with and customers seem to be more worried about this than me,” Osburn said. “I’m like a duck on a pond––I let it all roll off my back.”

Richard Osburn, owner of Naughty But Nice,1741 Massachusetts St., faces his landlord in court today. Osburn's landlord served Osburn with an eviction notice last month

Osburn opened Naughty But Nice, 1741 Massachusetts St., in December of 1999. After several of Osburn’s neighbors complained to the city about the nature and the location of Osburn’s store, the city commission passed an ordinance in July of 2000 that said adult novelty stores must be located along a highway, among other restrictions. The only other adult novelty store in town, Priscilla’s, 1206 W 23rd St., was allowed to remain in its location because 23rd St. is also Kansas Highway 10. Naughty But Nice was given five years to relocate. After an unsuccessful search for a relocation spot, Osburn decided to fight the city in court.

Osburn’s five-year grandfather clause expired in July of 2005, and Osburn has been to court with the city several times since. His trial has been extended beyond its original date to give Osburn time to retain a lawyer and is set to go to trial on Feb. 14.

Osburn said his landlord has been looking for a new tenant for the building since October of 2006. He said few businesses had been interested in the space until a month ago when the owners of Beat the Bookstore, 622 W. 12th St., and Big Burrito, 620 W. 12th St., visited the space several times. The stores are currently located at what could be the future site of the Oread Inn.

Osburn said his landlord asked him on Nov. 7 to vacate the premises by Nov. 30. When Osburn asked for at least a 30 days notice, his landlord served him with an eviction notice on Nov. 17. Osburn will face his landlord in court on Thursday in an eviction trial where Osburn hopes to receive a 60 days or 90 days eviction notice.

Osburn's landlord, Bruce Banning, put a for-lease-sign on the building last year in October. Banning gave Osburn the choice of having multiple signs on the building and paying a reduced rent or limited signs on the building and paying full rent.

Osburn's landlord, Bruce Banning, said he served Osburn an eviction notice more than a year ago. Banning said at that time, Osburn was given the option to either pay a reduced rent with multiple for-lease-signs on the building or pay full rent with limited signs on the building until he found a place to relocate his business. Osburn chose to pay full rent.

Banning said other leasing companies were interested in the building, but they did not want to take the building as a client because of the nature of Osburn's business. Bannnings said Osburn had been a good tenant up until recently. He said when it came time for Osburn to do what he had promised to do, Osburn did not follow through and that is why Osburn was being evicted.

Jerry Little, city prosecutor, said the city would probably drop all charges against Osburn if Osburn were evicted.

“Basically our only intention is to get him out of the premises,” Little said.

If Osburn is not evicted, Little said the city would either seek a fine or request jail time. Little said the fine would be about $10,000. He said he was unsure what the maximum amount of jail time was for this type of case, but it was probably less than a year.

If the city seeks jail time, Little said Osburn would be given 30 days to relocate or close down his business. If Osburn complies, he will not have to serve his sentence. Little also said Osburn could request a trial by jury at the district court level if the city requests jail time.

But Osburn said that his legal battle with the city is a case of elimination, not relocation.

“If there is a chance for me to move somewhere and still make money, they won’t approve it,” he said.

Osburn said his only rental option is 10 Marketplace, 1800 23rd St., a strip mall immediately east of the last stoplight in Lawrence. Osburn said he did not want to rent the space in 10 Marketplace because it would cost $4000 a month to rent, which is a 40 percent increase above his current rent, $2,400.

The owners of the strip mall 10 Marketplace,1800 23rd St., have offered to lease Osburn this space. This space complies with the ordinance that Osburn is violating.

Osburn said tried to rent at other strip malls in Lawrence, however his application was either rejected by the owners of the buildings or by the city.

“There was a bait shop, liquor store and a laundry mat there, but they did not think my business was the kind they wanted over there?” Osburn said of one location. “It’s not like they were serving the cream of the crop to Lawrence."

Osburn said every other available location would make it impossible to meet the ordinance’s other clauses, which require adult novelty stores to be 600 ft from homes, the length of two football fields, 1000 from churches and schools and 1,500 from daycares or other sexually oriented business.

Osburn said he even tried to contest his case to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Osburn asked the board for a variance from the zoning requirements of the ordinance. However David Corliss, who was the assistant city manager at the time, told the board it did not have the authority to grant Osburn a variance.

Less Hannon, a former board member, said he was the only member to question the fairness of the ordinance and the extent of the board’s power. Hannon said Corliss told the board that the ordinance was passed by the city commission, so it was the law and the Board of Zoning Appeals had to abide by it.

Osburn said he believes the ordinance was the work of that one individual––David Corliss, who is now the city manager.

“This is his pet project,” Osburn said.

Osburn said that before the law was even made, Corliss told him, “It’s my job to get you out of there by any legal means.”

Robert Osburn, Richard’s brother, who works in the store part-time, agreed with his brother about the Corliss’ intentions.

“We spent 12,000 in remodeling and then they said we don’t care,” Robert said. “It showed the callousness of David Corliss.”

But Corliss disagreed with the Osburnses’ statements about his dislike of Richard.
“I wouldn’t know him if he walked down the street,” Corliss said.

Corliss said the city commission adopted the ordinance because the city wanted adult novelty stores to be along highways because of traffic volume and to get them away from a neighborhood setting. He also said that at this point, he is just seeking to enforce the law.

Former city commissioner Erv Hodges said because the city commission meeting took place so long ago, it was hard to remember what was specifically said. But he agreed with Corliss that the city’s intent was to eliminate the possibility of stores of Naughty But Nice’s nature from being placed in residential areas where there were young children.

Osburn said he did not understand why the city did not pass the ordinance before his store opened. He said he went to city hall on two occasions before he opened his store to make sure he met all the requirements, and he was told at that time that he did.

Vicki Topolewski, Robert’s girlfriend, said Richard and Robert first approached the city of Ottawa about opening the store there. She said the city passed an ordinance that said they could not open their business there, and that is what Lawrence should have done if it did not want Naughty But Nice either.

Gene Shaughnessy, who was the chief building inspector in Lawrence at the time, confirmed that Osburn was well within the city’s requirements, as far as going through the proper channeling. Shaughnessy also said that when Priscilla’s opened in 1989, the residents who lived near the store were more vocal about their discontent with its location than the residents who lived near Naughty But Nice were when it opened. The owner of Priscilla’s was unavailable for comment.

Hodges said the commission did not make an ordinance when Osburn applied for his permits because at the time, the commission was not concerned with Naughty But Nice’s location. He said the commission only made the ordinance at the request of Osburn’s neighbors, people, he said, who are normally very quiet.

“Unfortunately, in this day and age, it was not bothering us, so why worry about it,” Hodges said.

Osburn said he is not bothering anybody. Osburn said cities usually cite three reasons for disliking adult novelty stores: the stores drive down property values, increase crime and bring blight to the neighborhood, all of which Osburn said are untrue.
In fact, Osburn said he thinks he is a good neighbor. Before Osburn rented out the building Naughty But Nice is housed in, it was a vacant lot, which Osburn said was worse than having his business in the building.

“Blight is created by neglect,” he said. “An active tenant isn’t likely to be neglectful.”

Osburn’s current neighbors agreed. Kate Gonzales, a Lawrence resident who has lived on Vermont St. behind Naughty But Nice for two and a half years and has a daughter, said she would be more concerned if a strip club or a bar were located where Naughty But Nice is.

“Right against our back fence is the Dairy Queen drive-thru,” Gonzales said, “and having that against our backyard, for me, is more of a concern than Naughty But Nice.”

Gonzales also said that Family Video, 1818 Massachusetts St., rents pornography as well, and she did not see what the difference was between that and Osburn’s store.
Melissa Rempfer, who lives directly behind Naughty But Nice and has a son, agreed with Gonzales and said she is more concerned about the property value of her home decreasing because there is there is a Shell gas station on the block.

Rempfer did point out, though, that the neighbors who were concerned about Naughty But Nice’s location had since moved away. She also agreed with Osburn’s claim that a business that is run-down creates more blight than one like Osburn’s that is visually kept-up.

Sam Sangam, who owns Speedway Shell, which is next door to Naughty But Nice, said he has never had a problem with Osburn or his customers. He said Osburn’s business is much quieter than the other businesses downtown on Mass. St. Sangam has owned Speedway Shell, 1733 Massachusetts St., for five years.

Katie Brown, who has lived in the apartment complex next to Speedway Shell for five years and has two children, said she is not worried about the store affecting her children because she and her husband will teach their children it is an inappropriate store.

“I don’t agree with the business, but its like any other store I don’t go to,” Brown said. “We don’t eat at Dairy Queen, and that is down the street.”

Brown also pointed out that Osburn has his widows blacked out, so his products cannot be seen from the street. She said people can see more in the Victoria’s Secrets’ display windows at malls.

Osburn made a similar argument about television and the Internet.

“If you have cable TV with premium channels or the Internet, there are far more disturbing images on there than here because we don’t let children in,” he said.
Robert said they chose to make the customer base 18 and older–– by law they can let people in who are younger. He also said the city should encourage local business, especially their type of store, because Lawrence is supposed to be liberal. He also said not everyone involved with city government has a problem with his product.

“There’s a lot of important people who shop in that store, that want my product, but I’ll never give names,” Robert said.

Robert also said he was personally affected by the ordinance. Before the lawsuit, he worked at Naughty But Nice full-time. Now he works there only part-time.

“We had to spend thousands of dollars on legal fees. I wouldn’t be here [working as a janitor at the University of Kansas] if we didn’t spend all that money, because the store is out of money,” Osburn said. “I had to take a $10,000 pay cut because of the city. That is why I have three jobs now and today, I’m going to look for a fourth.”

Richard Osburn said even if people disagree with his business or have never stepped foot in it, they should be worried about how the city has unfairly treated him.

“People should be concerned with these kinds of grandfather clauses,” Osburn said. “Priscilla’s got one and it’s in town and there is a house behind it. At the same city commission meeting they gave Pricilla’s a grandfather clause, but not me.”

Osburn said that other business should be concerned with his situation. He said as silly as it may sound, the city could make a law in the future that places similar restrictions on fast-food restaurants because of the growing problem of child obesity in the U.S.

By Francesca Chambers