Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

As doors slide open, the humidity hits like a brick wall, especially noticeable with the temperature being as low as it is. The next thing that hits is the unmistakable scent of woodchips and dry food. The atmosphere is chaotic, but the feeling in the air is refreshingly friendly. This is Pet World, a locally-owned pet store that has been a part of Lawrence for almost 30 years. Later this week, Pet World will be bringing in an exotic new snake breed, the Green Tree Python, to its store in east Lawrence to add to its large reptile collection.
“They’re exotic, but the neatest thing is the extreme color phases [the snakes] go through.” Shane, a manager at the store, said.
According to wikipedia, the snakes start out as an orangey red, changing to yellow as they age until they change to a final green, blue, yellow, or occasionally an orangey red color.
Not only is Pet World bringing in new animals, but the store also has multiple community-minded programs in place to distinguish them from the bigger corporate chains in the area and keep them a thriving business. Pet World has a special section of the store devoted especially to children, every first grade classroom in the Lawrence area has a 10-gallon fish container courtesy of Pet World and when the children get done with the “aquatic” unit in classes, they get a tour of all the fish that Pet World has.
“Our main goals are to educate, build relationships, and not just to make money… Because we’re locally owned, we can do great things that a corporate office won’t allow.” Shane said.
Pet World opened up in 1988, back when there were 4 pet stores in town. Eventually PETCO Animal Supplies Inc., a privately owned pet mega-store opened up and put three out of business.
“Don't get me wrong...PETCO has some great people working there that we know and like. But PETCO's presence is a big problem for independent pet stores. Our customers remain loyal because they like the freedom, selection and service Pet World offers, and they know without their support, independents would close up.”
Because Pet World is so well established locally and PETCO generally takes all runoff business, Emerson conceded that it is hard for independent pet stores to open up in Lawrence nowadays.
“Simply being in Target's parking lot guarantees PETCO a share of the market, and we take most of the rest. That makes it hard for new independents to get off the ground. However, there have been a couple new stores lately that look promising.” Emerson said.
Emerson also said that Pet World has the people of Lawrence to thank for its continued success and business. She especially attributed the success to the loyal and locally minded pet owners in the city.
“The advantage of owning an independent business in Lawrence lies with all the independent thinking in Lawrence. People in this town care about local businesses and regularly choose to shop local whenever they can.” Emerson said.
Because the store is local, Emerson said, they are able to do things that ordinary chain companies who have a board are unable to do, such as hold large sales or give discounts to loyal customers or customers who purchase pets and care products all at once.
According to hoovers.com, a website that tracks all companies who report finances, PETCO is a San Diego-based company that owns 780 stores in the contiguous 48 states. Last year it reported $1,996.1 million in profits, with a 10.2 percent growth rate. Pet World, located at 711 W 23rd St., does not report its financial earnings.

The Community Coalition on Homelessness is rushing to put together a package of ideas to help aid the homeless of Lawrence. The coalition plans to present the package to the Lawrence City Commission by June, as a response to the homeless census and what many of the members see as apathy to the poor of Lawrence.

“We’re going to probably recommend an emergency shelter to serve the chronically homeless and then look at emergency housing and transitional housing for families. Our goal in working with the chronically homeless is to get them a house so they can participate in the community as much as possible,” said Shirley Martin Smith, the head of the Community Coalition on Homelessness.

Some Homeless advocates are concerned that homelessness in Lawrence isn’t being given all the attention it deserves from the city. According to Hubbard Colinsworth, who heads the Pelathe Community Resource Center, there isn’t a homeless charity or advocacy group in the city who isn’t in need of money right now.

“If there are eight pieces of cheese and 10 agencies, how are you going to cut the cheese so everyone gets a piece?” Colinsworth said.

Steve Ozark, coordinator for Interfaith Initiative, a community- and religion-based homeless advocacy group, says that when the city focuses on emergency housing as it has been, people just get shuffled from the street to a shelter and then back on the street again.

“It’s never really been discussed clearly what the city’s responsibility is to poverty in Lawrence. It’s really about more than just poverty; it’s about gaps that can lead to homelessness… and trying to fill the gaps before more people fall through,” Ozark said.

Ozark also said that to confront the problem of homelessness in Lawrence, more has to be done than just emergency care. Ozark believes that getting money from the city for permanent supportive housing is the only way to solve the problem before it gets any worse than it already is.

“If we don’t make [rehabilitation] a priority, there will only be more gaps. We need more than just a park every quarter mile. Parks are important, but helping people is much more so,” Ozark said.

The difference between supportive housing and emergency housing is one that most citizens in Lawrence don’t quite understand, Ozark said. He believes that most people in Lawrence don’t care about homeless people because of preconceived notions towards them.

“We need the city to understand the face of homelessness. When I say the word homelessness or homeless person most people have a prejudged opinion.” Ozark said.
Interfaith Initiative is currently trying to build a rehabilitative housing program of its own.

After the homeless census was released by the Lawrence Journal-World a few weeks ago, the tone of the coalition has become much more urgent. The census counted 413 homeless, almost twice as many people as previously thought. The only relief of the census, Smith said, was that the number of chronic homeless, those defined as having a disability and being homeless for more than a year, was less than they had previously thought.

The commission knows that the going will be hard, but they still have high hopes that their plan can work to start reducing the number of people without a home in Lawrence.
“To say we’re going to erase homelessness is a little arrogant. We can do a lot to reduce chronic homelessness,” said Loring Henderson, who works with the Lawrence Community Shelter.

Ozark said he was getting considerably more optimistic considering where the city was with the homeless just a year ago.

“We’re just trying to be clear and loud as we can be. We need to get this on the table with all these other [city programs]. We’re in the ballpark but in the cheap seats. We need to be in the box seats with the other programs. We need to realize that our people are our most valuable resource,” Ozark said.

The coalition was formed by the Lawrence City Commission a little more than a year ago and is comprised of homeless advocacy programs around Lawrence, such as Interfaith Initiative, the Salvation Army, Pelathe Resource Center and concerned members of the community.

A University of Kansas doctor of psychology has recently finished a study that will be used as a model for future testing in the science of attachment theory, called the State Adult Attachment Measure.
Doctor Omri Gillath, a PhD who recently moved to KU from the University of California at Davis, had been working in conjunction with the University of California at Davis and Lawrence University on the development of a standard method of mapping attachment theory in adults so it could be more easily studied by his colleagues.
“We hope clinicians as well as researcher will be able to use the measure to evaluate changes in state of attachment security due to various treatments,” Gillath said.
Attachment theory, according to R. Chris Fraley, a researcher at the University of Illinois, is the idea that people will exhibit different forms of attachment to people they are close to. The theory was initially explored by John Bowlby in a series of papers he released in the 1950s and 1960s. Bowlby’s idea was that three different types of attachment define how a person acts and responds to people: anxiety attachment, or desiring someone to be close; avoidant attachment, or avoiding people; or secure attachment, or generally being unaffected by the comings and goings of people.
Initially Bowlby believed that people would always conform to these three categories, but research has proven that this is not true. New studies continue to show that at any given time a person can fall in any of the categories, but people tend to stay within their own attachment category. In light of these advances, Gillath and his colleagues began looking for a model that could be used as a standard for research in mapping adult attachment.
The model was based on a 52 questions given to 347 undergraduate students, 54% of whom were in a romantic relationship at the time. The students were instructed to respond to each question with a number one through seven. A rating of one meant disagree strongly and seven meant agree strongly. They were also instructed to only respond as they currently felt. After analyzing the results, the final version of the study is now being published, presented to national conventions, and used in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Gillath has also presented to KU researchers as well.
“I’ve presented the measure to a few of my colleagues from the clinical program here at KU, and these days we’re developing ways they will be able to use the [State Adult Attachment Measure] in their studies,” Gillath said.
Gillath also described what he said was an interesting trend in the data.
“Whereas the distribution for anxiety seems like a normal distribution, the ones for security and avoidance are both skewed, with one mirroring the other,” Gillath said.
Doctor Josh Hart, a PhD who helped with the study from Lawrence University in Wisconsin said that when the study began, all the researchers were much closer together.
“I think we originally expected to complete the project in a year or so, but it has now been several years… All the researchers on the project were at the same university for most of the project,” Hart said.
Hart also said he is excited for the future of the study, but does wish that some further work could have been done on the project.
“I would call it a success, with some qualifications. I wish we had been able to run more studies to validate the measure, and I also wish we could redo some of the steps of scale construction, to see what we would come up with having learned what we have about the process,” Hart said.