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4It We have a huge task, but we still have a choice. Just as homelessness needs to be job one socially, I believe that downtown is job one economically. Downtown needs to be job one economically for 1990. No question about it, it is going to cost us money. It costs money to pump life into a downtown, but we can invest a manageable amount right now, or a future council will be required to invest an extremely large amount later on. And there are really three ways we can pay for development downtown: we can continue to use tax increment financing which takes the growth of the devel- opment downtown, ploughs it into downtown so that we can have less of a burden on each individual taxpayer to have a vital downtown. Or, two, we can get rid of tax increment financing and finance the needs downtown through general funds or raising taxes, which puts a greater burden on a fewer number of people. Or we can do as some say, "Do nothing, just let it happen as it happens." Now folks, that's a mistaken notion, that we can have a downtown and do nothing and it will develop and grow, because the evidence says that is not correct. If we do nothing, if we refuse to pay a manageable price now, our downtown will die. And I don't believe you want that to happen. I know this council doesn't want it to happen, and I don't want that to happen. Therefore I am calling on you to affirm the council's plan for downtown by voting yes on this spring's election on the Eugene renewal plan update. This council did good work on the downtown update--the downtown plan is a good plan. You need to read it to see what it says. The referendum is consistent with this plan. All it is saying is, "Let's build major office buildings downtown." And isn't that a good idea? "Let's have housing downtown." Isn't that a good idea? "Let's have more specialized shops downtown." Isn't that a good idea? "Let's have a possibility, the possibility of a library downtown." We don't have to do it, we could keep it where it is, but let's at least open it up to have a possibility of a library being downtown. Or a transit station being downtown, or good open spaces being downtown. That's all the council did in their update, was allow those things to happen down- town, consistent with the plan. The Planning Commission, the Downtown Com- mission, the council, and hundreds of volunteers have worked on it to accom- plish it, and believe me, folks, this deserves your support. e But I have another vision for downtown that I believe needs to occur in 1990. That is the opening of the streets downtown. And I want to call on you and the community to support the opening of Willamette Street in 1990. To open Willamette Street this year. Now I'm going to talk about opening Willamette Street and what it could look like. I asked for a rendering from the Miles study that we had a few years ago, and I have that, which is the smaller rectangle that is over to my left. If you look at what that downtown looks like, you find that it is strongly oriented toward the pedestrian: two narrow lanes for traffic, U-turnouts, a lot of trees, a center area that is broad and that could be used for all kinds of activities, a design that is designed in such a way that we can close the street off for the Eugene Cele- bration, and have a downtown in the heart of the city. A design that is put together in such a way that if opening the street doesn't work, we could merely put planters up and the mall is recreated. ~ People, the evidence is overwhelming that opening the street will allow the private sector to come in and revitalize our downtown. The evidence is STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS: MAYOR JEFF MILLER January 8, 1990 Page 7