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As fiddles play in the background, children play cards with their parents, dogs run to catch tennis balls and couples set up their blankets.  These Lawrence residents are preparing for another night of the Downtown Film Festival.

Each summer, Downtown Lawrence hosts a variety of free events to draw residents outside and together as a community.  The Downtown Film Festival offers everything from live music to massages, free popcorn and prize giveaways.

"It's kind of the next best thing to a drive-in movie and the dynamic of watching a movie outside with a bunch of people is a lot different than sitting at home watching a DVD," says Jane Pennington, director of Downtown Lawrence, Inc.

For six Thursday nights each summer, hundreds of Lawrence residents gather on the lawn beside the parking garage at 9th and New Hampshire Streets to enjoy a classic black and white film.  Downtown Lawrence, Inc. has hosted this free film festival for the past three years and has seen a steady increase in attendance, which is attributed to a variety of factors.

While Pennington likes to think that the increase in attendance is a result of Downtown having a great program and a fun event, she admits that the free admission is another attraction.  With the economy in the state it is, some residents are unwilling to spend big bucks on tickets at the movie theater.  According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, the total number of U.S. and Canada theater admissions dropped from 1.4 billion in 2007 to 1.3 billion in 2008.  The average U.S. movie ticket price in 2008 was $7.18.

"Maybe not for some people, but I'm a single mom and movie tickets are way too expensive for me," says Jacque Funk, film festival attendee.

Funk brings her 2 year-old son Narayan out to enjoy the movies Downtown has to offer. Though Narayan gets more enjoyment out of running around his mother's blanket and playing with dogs other onlookers have brought, Funk takes comfort in the fact that she can sit back and watch a movie without having to worry about it being age-appropriate.  The mass appeal of the genre of films shown this summer is one of the main things that attracts so many people.

"This was originally developed as a film noir festival but when we partnered with the Parks and Recreation Department we wanted it to be more family friendly, so we parted with film noir and changed to more classic black and white movies," Pennington says.

This summer, those who attend the festival will watch a variety of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy classics.  Attendees begin gathering around 8 p.m. and are greeted with live music from a different band every week.  Warm popcorn sits free for the taking while children and adults alike line up to partake.  While waiting for it to get dark enough for the movie to start, attendees read books, catch up with old friends and some even bring picnic dinners.  Eden Detrixhe, Lawrence resident, attends the festival each week with her friend Liz Crickerd.  The women bring lawn chairs and listen to the live music as they take some time off from their busy schedules.

"I like just seeing different parts of the community coming together for something very creative," Dietrixhe says.

Wide arrays of people attend the festival each week.  According to Pennington, organizers see quite a few families with young kids, college-age kids and a lot of older residents as well.   It is easy to tell that the children in attendance enjoy themselves.  8 year-old Kaelyn Weiss runs around doing cartwheels as she waits for the film to begin.  

"I like seeing everybody out here, listening to music and bringing my friends to play with," Weiss says.


There are several events like this held in the Kansas City metro area, but Pennington feels the Lawrence festival keeps attendance high by setting itself apart from similar activities.  

"We're working with a new theme each summer, this year we focused on Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy films, but next year we're thinking of doing classic screwball comedies.  Each year we get to pick a new focus," Pennington says.

It is widely known that several downtown businesses have recently closed.  There have been rumors that downtown Lawrence will soon consist mainly of just bars and restaurants.  However, Pennington insists that this is not the case. 


"I think what people don't recognize is that businesses aren't closing because downtown is a bad location or anything like that.  It's just that people are retiring and they're moving on, it's just part of the whole life cycle that an area like this goes through," Pennington says.

Downtown Lawrence, Inc. continues to offer an assortment of free entertainment each year.  Organizers feel that these types of family-friendly events will help make residents realize just how much downtown has to offer.

"Don't count downtown dead--it's far from it," Pennington says.

As the July sun shines in through the picture windows behind his desk, Rick Doll sits in his office as the new superintendent of the Lawrence Public School District.  Sparsely decorated walls surround him as he flips through his full agenda for the coming weeks.  While he is very focused on the work ahead, Doll revels in the opportunity to reminisce about some of his favorite things.

In addition to education, Doll has two main passions in life: Family and travel.  He has had the opportunity to travel all over the world to spend time with his family and he cherishes every memory.

"It is such an awesome thing to get to experience so many different cultures and places and learn something along the way," Doll says.

Doll uses his life experiences to constantly find new ways to facilitate the best education for every child. Doll is extremely dedicated to his career in education and has high hopes for the future of the Lawrence district.  He plans to draw on lessons learned from his upbringing, the close relationships he harbors with his family members and the adventures he has made around the world.

Doll was the sixth of seven children born to his father, an eighth grade dropout, and mother in Wamego, Kan.  He grew up in poverty but says that at the time he and his siblings didn't realize how poor they were.  This rough beginning inspired Doll to dedicate himself to his education so that he could help others do the same someday.  He attended McPherson College and earned his MS and EdD from Kansas State University.  From a young age, he knew he wanted to have a career in education.  He worked as a teacher for many years, but he had no clue just how far his career would take him.

"I honestly don't think any kid dreams of being a superintendent when he grows up! All I knew was that I wanted to be a teacher," Doll says.



Having a family with such limited resources growing up caused Doll to make education a focal point in his family's lives.  Not only is he an educator, his wife Gayle is a professor at Kansas State University and is the director of the Center on Aging.  Doll and his wife wanted to ensure that each of their three sons could get a quality education and pursue their goals in life.

Doll's face lights up with pride as he talks about his sons. Jake just graduated from Columbia Medical School, Caleb is pursuing a PhD at Vanderbilt and Jesse recently graduated from the University of Denver.  They have all made their Dad very proud.  His boys have also helped Doll transition from Kansas State fan to KU fan.  The boys are all huge KU fans.  Doll was born and raised near Manhattan, Kan., and has always been a fan of the Wildcats.  His previous job as superintendent in Louisburg, Kan., reinforced this even more considering their use of the purple and white Powercat as a mascot.

"When people ask me the K-State question I just respond with 'I'm flexible,'" Doll says. "I will however say that my sons are thrilled that I'm working in Lawrence now."

Doll's wife Gayle is also happy that the family will soon be calling Lawrence home.   Doll shares a love of education with his wife.  Gayle's career success as a professor at Kansas State University takes her to Manhattan during the week.  Doll only gets to see his wife on the weekends and he takes full advantage of the time they get to spend together.  Weekends are reserved for what Doll refers to as "date time."  Maybe now that the couple will be nearly an hour closer to each other during the week they'll be able to squeeze in more of this bonding time.

Doll especially treasures the opportunities he gets to travel with Gayle.  Over the years the couple has traveled to a variety of countries.  Their oldest son Jake spent some time in the Peace Corps and his parents visited him at some of the exotic destinations where he worked.  

"We went to Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Victoria Falls.  For the first time in my life I was the minority and it was truly an incredible experience," Doll says.

Before coming to Lawrence, Doll worked as an educator in a variety of central and eastern Kansas communities including: Herington, Wamego, McPherson, Rock Creek and Louisburg.  

Rick Doll's career in education has taken him to a variety of communities over the
years before ending up in Lawrence.

"Rick is always interested in expanding his knowledge in efforts of education and understands the needs of students," says Scot Rogers, Louisburg School Board member.

No matter what his title, Doll tries to always work in time to do some teaching.  Though he is qualified to teach at a college level, Doll's favorite field to work in is primary education.  He loves to work one on one with students and is described by his peers as being very student-centered.  Doll hopes to be able to do some form of teaching in Lawrence, whether it be at the high school level, KU or even Haskell.

Those who have worked with Doll only have good things to say about him and his education techniques.  The Lawrence Public School District faced a major cut in state aid this year and in response Doll confronts this issue head on.  He has organized a goal setting session for the school board to take place in August to determine ways to make the district's budget stretch as far as it can.  

"Rick's perspectives on what needs to be accomplished may be different from past superintendents but I believe he will listen and then challenge those in the system to move forward," says Sharon Zoellner, Louisburg superintendent.

According to Doll, Lawrence is about five times larger than Louisburg, based on the number of students and the budget.  Doll feels that Lawrence has many characteristics of a small town and he is eager to sell his home in Louisburg so he can move here.  He welcomes the opportunity to get to know as many members of the Lawrence community as he can and is confident he will enjoy his time here.

"The Lawrence community has been very welcoming," Doll says. "I feel right at home already."

As she sips her morning coffee, JoAnn Farb sits at her kitchen table and watches the blue jays perch on the bird feeder in her backyard.  In the distance are miles of her neighbors' farmland and an open countryside.  Farb fears she may not have such a view to look forward to in the future.

Farb and her neighbors have become increasingly concerned over the years with what the future holds for the rural land surrounding their homes.  Their concerns stem from the comprehensive development plan for Lawrence and unincorporated Douglas County, called HORIZON 2020.

"I think that too many people are still asleep with regards to the choices we are collectively making and that not until a great many more people are suffering, will the masses wake up," Farb says.

Residents like Farb are most concerned with the prospect of rezoning the rural land which surrounds them, opening it up to be used for a wide variety of commercial uses.  A recent amendment was proposed to HORIZON 2020 to change the existing Agricultural District zoning to General Business District zoning.  If the amendment is adopted, the County Zoning Regulations could also eventually be revised to permit conditional zoning in order to accommodate the future tourist and conferences uses of the area.  While currently the only major rural development in the works is a corporate retreat, residents worry that if conditional zoning is permitted the land will be used for a variety of other development projects.

Basics of HORIZON 2020

HORIZON 2020 is a long-range comprehensive plan, which was developed to provide a framework for making physical growth and policy decisions in the future of the Lawrence and Douglas County community.  A team of city and county planners has been working on developing and revising the plan since it was first discussed by the Planning Commission in 1992.  The mission statement of HORIZON 2020 states "HORIZON 2020 is the citizen-driven process of creating a plan to provide policy and strategic direction to guide Lawrence/Douglas County to the year 2020." 

HORIZON 2020 has many goals but one of the most important is to strive to sustain the health of the economy, the efficient functioning of the community, and preserve both the natural and built physical environment of the area.  Another important goal of this plan is to conserve the rural character of Douglas County while promoting the maintenance of a strong distinction between the urban and rural characters of the area.

According to the US Census Bureau and the Lawrence/Douglas County Planning Department, by the year 2020 Lawrence is projected to increase its population by 38% from the year 2000.  Planners use this statistic as reasoning to increase development of industries like agritourism in the unincorporated areas of Douglas County.  Amy Brown Miller, long-range city planner working with Horizon 2020, explains that this rural development is meant to help stimulate the local economy and create employment opportunities as the population increases.

"Not only do industries provide local job opportunities, but they also strengthen the vitality of a community by making it more attractive and fiscally stable," Brown Miller says.

A Changing Landscape

Douglas County had a population of 113,488 in July 2007 and approximately 13% of that population consisted of rural residents.  Though they are the minority, many of these residents choose to live where they do because they enjoy the rural environment away from the highly developed urban areas.  Farb and her neighbors collectively feel that the county's development plans don't focus enough on their concerns and instead are only interested in making a profit off of the land.

"For the time being, a few very moneyed and privileged will continue to distort the playing field in their favor and scare the uninformed masses to oppose any meaningful 'change,'" Farb says.

HORIZON 2020 planners claim that a lot of consideration is taken into what residents think about the development plans.  One of their defenses is that any proposed rezoning or development plan for a commercial use must be approved by planning staff that evaluate it against location criteria outlined in the plan. In order to meet these requirements, a commercial area must be separated from an existing facility by 3 miles, have public water supply access, and have direct access to an improved arterial roadway.  Planners also ensure citizens that all new commercial development will include a mandatory 200 foot natural buffer area and there will be a site-specific plan to ensure the use meets the County Commission's criteria in order to rezone.

City planner Mary Miller thinks that residents in opposition to the plan are worried about hypothetical issues.  The most recent commercial rezoning was done in order to build a corporate retreat on rural land.  Originally the retreat's plans included a hunting and shooting facility.  The proposal of this type of facility was a great concern to neighbors because of the safety issues and the noise that would be associated with it.  However, since this type of facility requires approval through a Conditional Use Permit (something Douglas County does not yet allow), the retreat planners decided against including this facility on their property. 

Residents have also expressed concerns that other commercial uses might be possible if for some reason the corporate retreat isn't developed.  Miller says residents shouldn't worry about their area becoming densely developed with urban growth.  

"Though rural areas are expected to receive some level of urban development, the main purpose is to promote agritourism in Douglas County while still preserving the rural environment," Miller says.

As changes continue to be made to the HORIZON 2020 plan and development of the area gets underway, JoAnn Farb will savor her view of the Douglas County countryside while it lasts.  Change is on the horizon.

Scissors snipping, colors processing, blow dryers drying. Local hair stylists are keeping up with business as usual despite the changing economy.

According to local salon owners, Lawrence women are not letting the difficult economic times affect their beauty routines. Lawrence area salons are as busy as ever and have yet to see business affected by the recent economic recession.  Some salons have even noticed an increase in customers over the past few months.

"The majority of our clientele has not changed their spending when it comes to hair," says Ryan Crowell, owner of Salon Lucca, 3727 W. 6th St Suite E.  "We stay as an affordable luxury."

Several factors are contributing to the steady stream of business local salons are experiencing.  One factor is something economists call the "lipstick factor," according to www.lipstickfactor.net, this refers to the historical rise in lipstick sales during tough economic times as women look for an affordable way to cheer themselves up.  Many local salons have noticed the lipstick factor in action.


According to Madison Husman, guest services manager at Color Studio hair salon, 2330 Yale Rd., the salon has noticed an approximate $2.00 decrease in the average ticket sale per client.  However, since the recession started, they have seen an increase in the numbers of customers coming into the salon for services.

Another reason for the consistent business in Lawrence is the type of women living here.  According to www.citytowninfo.com, Lawrence women are ranked in the top 10% of well-paid single women compared to the rest of Kansas. Since area women are on the high end of the income spectrum, they have more funds to devote to things like salon services.  Also, according to www.muninetguide.com, the median age for residents in Lawrence is 27.1, younger than the national average.  Younger residents may frequent hair salons more often in an attempt to keep up with trends.


Lawrence is also ranked in the top 4% of college-educated adults in Kansas.  Many women in the community are college students who are taking into consideration the things future employers will look for in an employee.

"Getting your hair done is one way to reinvent yourself and look desirable to employers, therefore a necessity if you will," says Valerie Pederson, salon coordinator of Static Hair Salon, 12 E. 8th St.


The idea of using hair as means to appear more appealing to future employers ties in to the concept of the lipstick factor.  Many women feel that if they look good they will stand out from other job candidates.  This is used as reasoning for continuing to spend on salon services.

Many women harbor a close bond with their hairdresser and have kept up with their beauty routines in an effort to support local stylists.

"One thing that many women will fight for is their hairdresser.  This is a responsibility we take very seriously," Crowell says.

According to Crowell, though many women are tightening their budgets, they don't want to risk the relationships they have with their stylists by going somewhere cheaper.  This stylist friendship theory is also demonstrated in the fact that Salon Lucca has seen its clients cut back on spa services and focus on haircuts and colors.

Salon Hawk is less expensive than some of the high-end salons in Lawrence and is marketed more towards students.  Salon owner Emily Willis hasn't seen a noticeable change in business and thinks that the salon's lower prices and convenient location inside the University of Kansas Union have kept customers coming back for more.  Also, since many students are using government loan money, Willis believes these students keep the economy in Lawrence more stable.

"These students are expected to use their loan money to get through school, as a result of this I don't think Lawrence has been severely affected if at all by the recession," Willis says.

If the economy continues to worsen, there is always a risk that Lawrence hair salons will see a downturn in business. However, salon owners currently don't see much of a serious threat in the future.  

"Hair is a permanent accessory--one thing people don't feel the need to cut back on," Pederson says.