Kansas secretary of commerce: ‘We need to crow loudly about why Kansas is a great place to live’

Secretary of Commerce David Toland, speaking at the University of Kansas, following a lecture some called “a funeral of rural Kansas,” touted Lawrence as a model community for the state.

Kansas State University professor Matthew Sanderson began Thursday’s Kansas Economic Policy Conference with the lecture titled “Kansas Population Trends: Where Are We Going?,” in which he highlighted rural population loss and the aging population in Kansas.

But Toland, who just started his term in April, is hopeful that the Department of Commerce’s developing strategic plan, as well as its efforts to brand the state in a way that will attract businesses, families and workers, will bolster Kansas’ economy in both the urban and rural sectors. And in an interview after his lecture, Toland said Lawrence was a model community for the state.