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traffic. West l I th Avenue property owners were in opposition to the extension of the route down West I I 1 Avenue because EmX was the wrong type of transportation for West l Ith Avenue. Mr. Weiner said he had first heard of the project in an article in The Register -Guard that spoke of a "European - style" boulevard running down West 11 Avenue. He next heard from two LTD employees who visited his business and told him LTD intended to appropriate his property, even though no plan had been accepted. He described his commercial neighbors, many of which were auto - oriented, and said none of them were reached by their customers on bus. Mr. Weiner said West 11 Avenue property owners had no input into the system design. He hoped the council reconsidered the plan and did something reasonable that provided transportation but did not ruin the West 11 Avenue business district. Jack Radey, 2230 Garfield Street, acknowledged that EmX appeared to be a good opportunity for Eugene to get some free federal money to do a project. However, he thought that West 11 Avenue was a poor choice for the EmX extension. Mr. Radey said he first became aware of the project when LTD was contemplating running the route down Amazon Creek and staff presented that option to his neighborhood association. He said that at that time, it struck him that LTD was trying to "sell" the association something. He had wondered who would pay for the service at a time when LTD was cutting back on bus service. LTD seemed not to have factored that into its considerations. Mr. Radey acknowledged the potential benefits of such a project to some people but said the rest of the community would have less actual bus service as a result of EmX. He believed a bus system worked well when there were lots of small buses going lots of places frequently as opposed to a few buses going a few places. Such a plan looked good on someone's resume but did not serve most residents. He did not think the plan was sufficiently thought -out. Mr. Radey said that statistics were waved in front of the neighbor- hood but the ridership numbers seemed to move all over the place and the statistics appeared to have been watered. He termed the information a "sell job." Bob Macherione, 288 West 6 th Avenue, said he had hired someone that day, which was good news. He attempted to provide the living wage jobs that the council liked to talk about and had been doing so for 28 years. Mr. Macherione believed the private sector had given a great deal to Eugene and had not received much in return. He had invested a lot in the community in his 28 years in business and so had the other business owners present, who took risks daily, invested in jobs, and helped provide a better future for the community. Mr. Macherione suggested that councilors talk at each council meeting about what it could do for the private sector and small employers living in Eugene today. He thought that the interests of small business owners outweighed the interests of larger companies that came to the community and only stayed a short while. He did not think local business owners were asking for much. They were not asking for money. They were willing to support most of Eugene's causes and asked only that the council not give their property away to LTD. Kim Sawyer, 2170 Greenview Street, owned a business on West 11 Avenue. He said West 11 Avenue already had good bus service. Several of his employees used the bus service and on occasion a customer took the bus. However, he believed if the EmX project went forward the two years of construction necessary to complete the route would force many companies out of business, and many would have to lay off employees. He anticipated he would lose three or four more employees and would likely close when the construction reached the front of his business. Mr. Sawyer anticipated the EmX service that replaced the current service would not be as good as the current service. It would not be an express bus because of MINUTES— Eugene City Council September 27, 2010 Page 2 Regular Meeting