Will the way the Deciphera situation was handled hinder future business or industrial investment in Lawrence?
We were judged locally, because both the brainchild of Deciphera and the major investors are all local and Lawrence has, kind of, a slanted profile to people in Johnson County because we are the “hippies and granola crunchers.” Had the groups been national or internationally based, I think we would have been more fairly judged. But since the each side was local, the heat was turned up and the situation looked worse than it was. I think we all learned a lesson and learned ways to avoid those mistakes in the future. People will now say, or see, that we’re open for business from out of state and a lot of our tax abatements and investment at the local level is waning. We’re not dumping a ton of money into private partnerships. Other than the homeless issue, what divides Lawrence? The SLT is one, obviously. Although it’s not on the front page of the newspaper, there are clearly people on one side or the other. A couple years ago, when I first got involved with the commission, I thought ther
