Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	Mayor and City Commission
FROM:	Jonathan Douglass, Management Analyst
CC:	David L. Corliss, City Manager
DATE:	June 13, 2007
RE:	Report on All-America City Competition

In March 2007 the City submitted an application for the All-America City Award for the first time since the early 1970’s. The All-America City Award is given by the National Civic League to honor collaborative community problem solving. As was noted several times during the competition, the award is not to recognize perfect communities, but communities that have faced difficult issues with courage and conviction. 

Our application highlighted three projects that address challenges in our community – strengthening Downtown, the Lawrence Community Land and Housing Trust and Douglas County Success By 6. City staffed prepared the award application and managed the application and presentation process, but the purpose of the award application was to bring recognition to the Lawrence community, not just the City organization.

Over sixty communities applied for the award in 2007. Twenty, including Lawrence, were named as finalists and invited to send a delegation to the award competition in Anaheim. At the competition each community gave a ten minute presentation then answered questions from the All-America City jury for another ten minutes. The jury was made up of business, non-profit and government leaders from across the country.

Our delegation, though one of the smallest groups at the competition, did an exemplary job of representing Lawrence. Delegation members were the following: Dave Corliss, City Manager; Lavern Squier, President and CEO of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce; Jonathan Douglass, Management Analyst with the City of Lawrence; Bonnie Lowe, President of Lawrence Landmark National Bank; Rebecca Buford, Executive Director of Tenants to Homeowners; Elaine McCullough, member of the Success By 6 Board of Directors; and Lora Wiley, owner of Au Marche European Grocery.

While Lawrence was not selected as an All-America City at this year’s competition, our recognition as a finalist is a testament to the positive things happening in the community. The competition gave us an opportunity to talk about Lawrence with hundreds of people from all across the United States, and we learned many things that will be helpful if we apply for the award again in future years. An exciting part of the competition was the Civic Action Fair, where each community had a booth in a trade show type setting. The Fair gave us an opportunity to speak personally with many individuals about what makes Lawrence such a great place to live. Wheatfields Bakery and Café donated a number of loaves of fresh bread which they shipped overnight and we shared at our booth.  

The photos below are from the 2007 All-America City Award competition.

The Lawrence delegation rehearses for the All-America City presentation

Lawrence’s booth at the Civic Action Fair

Crowds visiting community booths at the Civic Action Fair

City Manager Dave Corliss shares information on Lawrence with visitors from across the country