City Council Newsletter - 01/11/07

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and assessment of physical constraints and opportunities. The project pace will continue to increase with the CDCT goal of concluding the design process and forwarding a recommendation to the City Council in August 2007. For more information, contact Project Manager Lisa Gardner at 682-5208. Library, Parks, Arts Rate High in Community Survey City residents gave high marks to the community’s libraries, parks and support for the arts in the newest edition of the annual Eugene Community Survey. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of a range of community outcomes and their perception of the community’s performance in achieving those outcomes. The outcome that respondents perceived the community did the best job of achieving was providing access to reading materials, which received a 4.2 rating on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent, followed by providing parks and open space with 4.0 and supporting the arts with 3.9. Minimizing loss of life and property due to emergencies, protecting the environment, providing safe buildings and infrastructure, providing an efficient transportation system, and providing recreation opportunities all rated 3.8. Preventing crime, minimizing loss of life and property due to emergencies, and providing good value for tax dollars spent were the outcomes respondents found most important, each rating 4.6 on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is not important and 5 is very important. Following closely was supporting youth and child development with a 4.5 rating, and protecting the environment, developing job opportunities, and providing safe buildings and infrastructure with 4.4. The greatest gaps between perceived importance and performance were providing good value for tax dollars spent and developing job opportunities, with a difference of 1.5, followed by preventing crime with a gap of 1.4. One-quarter (25%) of respondents felt their economic opportunity in Eugene had improved in the past five years, up from 18% last year and up substantially from a low of 9% in 2003. Respondents support the concept of the City taking an active role in fostering job growth, though the level of support varies significantly depending on the type of assistance the City should offer and whether that help is offered to local businesses or outside companies. Nearly four-out-of-five (79%) of respondents said the City should help local business create and retain jobs and provide problem-solving assistance to businesses for siting, permit, and development issues, while 69% felt the City should take an active role in helping outside companies come to Eugene in order to increase economic opportunities. Fewer than half (49%) felt the City should provide financial support to businesses in targeted areas such as downtown. People reported feeling much more comfortable walking at night in their neighborhoods than in business areas. While 91% felt very or somewhat safe walking alone at night in their neighborhoods, two-thirds (67%) felt that way in business areas. Education issues were cited by 13% of respondents as the most important problem facing Eugene, followed by crime, growth, police issues and traffic; all but police issues are repeats from last year’s top five most important problems. The telephone survey, conducted in December of 2006 by Advanced Marketing Research, asked a randomly-selected sample of 401 Eugene residents to share their perceptions about the community and the City of Eugene. Survey results are tracked over time to measure significant shifts in those perceptions and to help inform the development of policy and programs. The survey report will be posted to the City’s website (http://www.ci.eugene.or.us) and copies will be available in the Eugene Public Library. For more information, please contact Terrie Monroe at 682-5412 or terrie.e.monroe@ci.eugene.or.us. Baseball, Fathers and Sons in One-Man Show at Eugene Public Library On Tuesday, January 16, at 7:00 p.m., popular spoken-word artist Jeff DeMark returns to Eugene as the Windfall Reading Series presents a free performance of his show “Hard as a Diamond, Soft as the Dirt.” EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 3 January 11, 2007