Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

Home Browse Search

Essential to our civic engagement are our neighborhood associations. I am impressed with the ever more active and successful role they are taking to bring forward community perspectives and expertise, whether it’s on mixed-use development, infill and neighborhood livability, safer parks, railroad pollution, response to traffic fatalities, or protecting headwaters. Civic engagement almost always comes with differences of opinion and the issues we face are often thorny. To me, the important thing is to work together - to find points of common agreement so that we can move forward as a community. Some recent examples of successful community cooperation are the Mayor’s Sustainable Business Initiative and the West Eugene Collaborative. The Sustainable Business Initiative brought together a very broad-based group of people with economic, social and environmental expertise, to make recommendations on how the City of Eugene could support and encourage the growth of businesses that produce sustainable products such as alternative energy, alternative fuel, green building, recycling, alternative transportation and health care, natural foods and products. The task force was also charged with making recommendations that would support and encourage all businesses to use sustainable practices that reflect the triple bottom line of protecting our natural resources, building social equity and ensuring economic well-being. Their 22 recommendations, supported by the entire task force and adopted by our City Council, included establishing an Office of Sustainability and a Sustainability Commission. Both the office and commission are now firmly in place. Then, there was the decades-long, acrimonious debate over the West Eugene Parkway. It was clear that the funding for this project was simply not there and that federal approval was likely never to occur. I asked business owners, environmentalists, neighbors, agencies, and elected officials to join together to start afresh and come up with do-able solutions for the vexing West Eugene traffic and transportation problems. They responded by forming the West Eugene Collaborative. We are working together to make recommendations on how local governing bodies can solve the longstanding traffic and transportation challenges in West Eugene while protecting our biologically rich wetlands. Another one of our city’s current issues is the reinvigoration of downtown. We’ve had differences of opinion on how best to accomplish this and an election on one proposed course of action is now behind us. It is time to bridge our differences and form a plan that the whole community will support. I urge all those involved and interested in the future of our downtown to work for common ground. We can take the energy and continued commitment of the Citizens for Public Accountability, Chamber of Commerce, and hundreds of other community members and, together, bring life to our downtown, the heart of our city. The valuable work of West Broadway Advisory Committee can help inform the discussion. It is within our reach. One of the reasons I am so optimistic about our downtown is that much of it is already doing well. Fifth Street, East Broadway and most of Oak, Charnelton, Pearl, Willamette and Olive are busy and full. The Beam redevelopment of Center Court and the Washburn Building is on the table. We have new businesses on Broadway and Enterprise is moving into the refurbished “Bon Marche” building. KLCC is moving in th just a block away on 8 Avenue and Oregon Research Institute has a renewed interest in establishing a presence in downtown. Yes, we do have those two pits and empty storefronts - and lots of visitors coming to town. In the short run, we can focus public safety efforts on our problem blocks, address rundown storefronts, tweak codes, increase cultural and recreational activities in the area, and look at parking restrictions. I intend to walk MINUTES—State of the City January 7, 2008 Page 5