Talk:Lawrence, Kansas

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[edit] Quantrill

By doing some research, I found that Quantrill didn't raid Lawrence on May 21, 1856. He did it on August 21, 1863. May 21, 1856 was a different raid by a different pro-slavery group. My sources are the external links I added to the page. Rmeier 21:48, 19 Sep 2004 (UTC)rmeier

[edit] Bishop Seabury

"Off of Clinton Parkway, is also a lesser known Episcopalian school. This high-end private school-- Bishop Searbury Academy-- has a population of 136 students and great academics. It is also conviently located near Raintree, which is the local middle school. Both schools have stellar sports teams and prestigious academics."

Bishop Seabury is already mentioned in the paragraph preceeding this one. This entire paragraph also sounds like an advertisement. The student enrollment figure is going to fluctuate year to year and will be inaccurate very quickly. No figures are provided for the public high schools or the Univeristy of Kansas. Mention of St John's School (Catholic affiliation) would be a good addition.

Also, Raintree is not the "local middle school". It's a Montessori school.

I'm removing this paragraph. -SeaFox

[edit] "anarchist bookstore" link

Outside link keeps getting removed; user marks the reason for this removalas "spam" or vandalism". This is an external link to the official home page of the "anarchist bookstore" referenced in the article. It seems inconsistent to mark this as spam as other organizations in the article have outside links to official homepages as well. patrel

  • The difference, in my mind, is that every other external link is to information about an aspect of Lawrence as a whole - the Chamber of Commerce, University of Kansas, Clinton Lake, etc. None of these are commercial links like the one you continue to insert into the article. See WP:NOT, most notably #3 under Propaganda and #3 under Indiscriminate Collection. I don't think the link belongs in the article for these reasons. ESkog | Talk 14:02, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
    • Propaganda and Indiscriminate Collection claims do not apply to this link. The article already mentioned an "anarchist bookstore"; I am providing an outside link relevant to the article. It's an expansion. This article contains other commercial links as well. Lawrence.com and the Lawrence Journal-World are both private, commercial businesses. Downtownlawrence.com is a website devoted to an index of private, commercial businesses.
      • There have been two distinct users reverting your additions, and an admin can confirm that I am not the anonymous user who has reverted the same way. Lawrence.com, the LJ-World, and DowntownLawrence.com are all sources for further information about Lawrence, which is the subject of the article. The link to the anarchist bookstore adds nothing to that, and is equivalent to saying:
The town also has a Borders www.borders.com
Do you see the difference? ESkog | Talk 23:26, 7 November 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Request for comment

I have solicited a request for comment at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/History and geography, as I don't think the two of us are likely to come to any consensus anytime soon. The question at hand, and I know it's pretty trivial, is whether the link to lawrencesolidarity.net is useful in the article or constitutes advertising/spam. ESkog | Talk 23:35, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Saw the RfC, looked at the article and find I agree with ESkog. BTW, I'm surprised this article doesn't mention The Day After, which should certainly rank as one of Lawrence's main claims to fame, at least among non-Kansans--FRS 23:44, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Is this bookstore a key fixture in Lawrence? Has it influenced the town's history or political scene? Is it the kind of place an outsider might have heard of, and would be sure to visit when in town? If yes to these, maybe the bookstore deserves an article of its own, with a wikilink (not an external link) from here. (I was going to give Powell's City of Books as an example of a bookstore that should definitely be in the city's article, but now I go look and it's not in the Portland, Oregon article...). CDC (talk) 23:55, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

RfC User -- CDC has a very good point, and I would agree with him. If the bookstore in question has been a part of the town's history, then give the bookstore a Wiki entry. If you're going to link a webpage at all, link a webpage that talks about the bookstore -- not necessarily the bookstore's page itself since that could be considered commercialization. --Martin Osterman 14:55, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

I concede ESkog's point about commercialization. CDC makes a good point about creating a Wiki entry. Any objections? Patrel

  • That seems like a great solution to this. Thanks for being flexible. ESkog | Talk 05:29, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

I don't remember hearing about the anarchist bookstore (I thought it was supposed to be a library!) until a few years ago, probably because it has only been in existance for the last four years. So it's not exactly a town fixture. It does however seem to be an important contribution to the city's political makeup. As for the idea of posting "that Lawrence also has a Border's" above; Borders is a generic national bookstore chain, whereas Solidarity is a local business/organization unique to the city. So it is not a valid comparison. SeaFox 21:25, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Politics and culture

That first sentence really bugs me. Does anyone else feel the same, or am I just delusional? Isopropyl 07:31, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

In fact, the whole section makes me wince. Isopropyl 07:33, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

Why? It's true and its a big part of what makes Lawrence unique from the rest of Kansas.
Second the above question. I lived there from 1974 to 1990, and I moved to Wichita, KS. It was a culture shock for me to see the religious underpinning of the rest of Kansas compared to the very 'open' culture of the city of Lawrence. --Trekkie 16:53, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

While I agree that Lawrence is distinctly influenced by these places and ideas, the phrase "Lawrence also features the customary staples of college-town liberalism" is irritating to me as well. I would suggest something more in line with NPOV, such as "Lawrence also features many characteristics of a college town" with stops short of potential pejorative. Sisyphe42 20:47, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notable natives and residents

  • If this is in some sort of order, please, let me know. If it is not, perhaps a standard of organization could be established? --Wyrlss 06:28, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
Alphabetical would probably be best. SeaFox 21:31, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
  • Another comment: listing people whose connection to Lawrence is merely by attending KU goes too far. I would suggest a paring-back of the list. But this is just one man's opinion. Kgwo1972 21:33, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] James Naismith interred in Pioneer Cemetery?

I see a recent edit asserts that James Naismith is interred in Pioneer Cemetery. I distinctly recall Mr. Naismith's mammoth gravestone at Memorial Park Cemetery in East Lawrence. (Roy Williams used to jog out to it during his residency in Lawrence.) Now, before I revert this edit, I must feel assured that Mr. Naismith is NOT interred, or otherwise memorialized at Pioneer Cemetery. I believe this is the case, but I am not 100% sure.

Can Mr. Naismith be interred in two separate cemeteries? Seems a bit ghoulish, if you ask me.--Subwoofer 06:20, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Where is Pioneer Cemetery located?

When reading the history of Lawrence and coming across this historical importance, my curiousity and thirst for more information, came to a dead halt! There is no link to the Pioneer Cemetery and I have no idea where it is located and if I could visit this cemetery. Nothing at all!! Why is that? Has it vanished?

Pioneer Cemetery is a very small, fixed cemetery on the West Campus of the University of Kansas. It is located across Iowa Street from Ellsworth Hall. There should be a more obvious marker than in years past. The cemetery contains the graves of early settlers.--Therobz 03:45, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sites Section

This whole section ought to be removed or rewritten. The first half is just worthless for an encyclopedia, and the second half is trivia. Highnumber (talk) 17:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Langston and Ride With the Devil

I added a section under Notable Natives and Residents about Langston Hughes spending his childhood in Lawrence. I think this is a very interesting historical fact and says something about Lawrence's roots in racial history and the arts. I also added a section about the scene from Ride With the Devil about Quantrill's raid. This is actually a pretty good movie and does a descent job of representing the historical event. Lawnwrangler (talk) 16:43, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Courthouse Picture

I was wondering if the picture of the courthouse could be moved to Douglas County, Kansas since it is a county building. A better picture would pobably be the Lawrence City Hall.Bhall87 (talk) 20:31, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Is there any reason it can't be on both pages? I'll add it to the Douglas County, Kansas page.-Grey Wanderer | Talk 19:02, 26 March 2008 (UTC)
Fair EnoughBhall87 (talk) 19:08, 26 March 2008 (UTC)