CC Minutes - 02/22/99 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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Polly Nelson, PO Box 50426, Eugene, Southern District Coordinator of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that her organization continued to oppose the ordinances but supported extending the sunset for a two-year period as a meaningful and appropriate way to provide time for data gathering and a thoughtful evaluation. She said that there was other data the City might want to consider; for example, if someone was excluded from the mall and then violated the exclusion and was convicted of criminal trespassing, how does that person appear in the data? Information about racial or ethnic background and economic status would also be useful. Ms. Nelson noted the ACLU's opposition to the inclusion of the mall rules in the ordinance. Misha Seymour, 1313 Lincoln Street, #306, objected to the piping of classical music on the mall. He said that people liken downtown to a park, but people can sit down in a park. He related an anecdotal incident about harassment of a pregnant woman by the Downtown Guides, who he claimed refused to allow her to sit. He termed the ordinances a "slippery slope to fascism" and said people have a right to be on the mall and to sit on benches. He suggested that classism was involved in the issue and said that the mall was not just for businesses. David Hinkley, 1308 Jefferson Street, supported the council's proposed two-year sunset of the ordinances. He opposed both ordinances, suggesting that they were a start of a "slippery slope." Mr. Hinkley said that he did not support anti-social behavior, and when such behavior violated the law, people involved should not be excluded but should be arrested and jailed. He suggested that for $1 million the City could build a 80-bed tent jail to house miscreants. Mr. Hinkley said that the mall was a public thoroughfare and he did not support closing streets and public ways. Ali Emami, 941 Willamette Street, said he owned two businesses in downtown. He said he became a citizen to enjoy the civil rights of the United States. He did not think civil rights included people urinating in his doorway or the adjacent alley, or people etching $2,000 windows. Mr. Emami said the Broadway curfew did not improve things for the Willamette Street section of downtown but had shifted problems there. He supported the revised ordinances but said if the problem shifted around it would not be possible to impose martial law on the whole downtown. Mr. Emami said that while property owners monitored the inside of buildings with alarms, property owners needed police patrol and enforcement outside. He suggested that the police set up video cameras in the area to monitor problems, and that the City impose heavy fines on those found guilty of vandalism and crime downtown. Russ Brink, Downtown Eugene, Inc., 132 East Broadway, Suite 103, said that the problems on the mall were not the youth congregated there, but rather that people did not come downtown and did not recognize the importance of a healthy downtown. Mr. Brink said that Eeugene should have a vibrant downtown it could be proud of rather than a downtown that was largely avoided by its own residents. He urged the council to show leadership and bring change about in downtown. He said that the council should not spend a great deal of time on the ordinances, which he considered relatively minor to the overall picture. He said the ordinances were tools that appeared to be effective and should be passed, but they were just tools. Randy Prince, PO Box 927, opposed the ordinances. He said that they should not be a single agenda item as there were two issues involved; whether public access to public properties should be closed at certain hours, and whether people should be excluded from downtown based on their status as unconvicted criminals. He said that the only thing connecting the two ordinances were the area concerned and the people the ordinances were targeted at. Mr. Prince said the same unconstitutional motives were behind both ordinances. Regarding the exclusion MINUTES--Eugene City Council February 22, 1999 Page 7 7:30 p.m.