Downtown Lawrence Inc. Seeks Bold New Leader

0:00It's April 15th. This is Kansas News today, AI-powered stories from your city. I'm Cory with the story. Downtown Lawrence Inc. The nonprofit boosting the downtown area has been running without a director since July. The board held off on hiring because they are still hashing out exactly what the new leaders should focus on, gathering input from their roughly one, 130 member businesses and others downtown. At their annual meeting this week, board president Mike Logan admitted the group has stayed too neutral over the past decade, like Switzerland on big, issues such as development. Now they want to get louder and take clearer stands to shape the district's future. A big push is toward denser development, like taller buildings and more housing. They partner with Urban 3, a firm that crunches numbers showing Lawrence lags way behind other cities and European spots and density, even doubling in. Would still leave us low. Businesses there rely heavily on events and University of Kansas crowds for traffic, but

1:00board members stress the need for everyday customers, especially on quiet Tuesdays to keep things steady with more locals living downtown. The board plans to define a sharp job description over the busy summer, including World Cup Soccer Hosting, then kick off the director's search in late. Summer, to guide this fresh, bolder vision forward.