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consideration. She felt they had not been maintained or replaced in “a responsible manner” by the City of Eugene and because of this the “burden” would fall solely on the shoulders of the residents. She opined that this was “wrong and unfair.” She believed that the estimated cost of $180 to $200 per lineal foot was not within reality of what a citizen of the community should be reasonably expected to incur, especially given current economic conditions. She asserted that homeowners were facing a bill that ranged between $10,000 and $20,000. She added that residents were “losing sleep” over the assessments. Lynell Stokes , 763 Crest Drive, asserted that the deterioration of Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street had been an ongoing problem for 30 years. She credited the neighborhood association for helping to develop a plan to construct new roads. She approved of the design of the roads and she looked forward to having a safe street to drive, bicycle, walk, and run. She felt that the way the improvements were being assessed was “just not right.” She questioned why this “huge financial burden” would fall on the residents with street frontage given that many other vehicles traversed the roads. She averred that 75 percent of the people who would use the new roads would not have to pay for them. She asked the councilors to consider the activities in Wayne Morse Park, which caused many people to drive on Crest Drive who did not live there. She listed some of the other driving uses of Crest Drive, which included school buses. She asked the council to change the road project assessments. Bill Eddie , 830 Crest Drive, Ward 2, echoed concerns expressed about assessing the families that lived on Crest Drive and Storey Boulevard $10,000 to $20,000 during one of the “worst financial crises” in their lifetimes. He considered the assessments to be “unfair at every level.” He thought that the current economic situation created the perfect time to “fix an unsustainable and outdated assessment policy.” He related that councilors Brown and Taylor had indicated to him that they considered the policy to be unfair but difficult to change because of how long it had been implemented. He opined that “long-lasting bad policy” could not be an argument for its continuance. He asked the council to consider enacting a citywide or ward-wide assessment in order to spread the financial burden. He thought a small assessment on many tax lots would raise as much or more money for future projects. He believed that unfairness to one group of citizens was unfairness to all citizens. Michiel Frishert , 251 West Broadway, #207, noted that he had come to the United States eight years earlier from the Netherlands. He said he lived in an apartment across from the Tango Center. He had started coming to Eugene one year earlier as part of his job as a chief software architect for a videogame company and he had started taking tango lessons. He had liked it very much and ended up moving to Eugene six months ago, in part because of the Tango Center. He averred that the center had helped him to make friends and feel at home. He lauded the tango activities for bringing him out of his work mode. He had tried to find a similar facility in San Francisco and there was no such center. He related that he had looked in New York City and found two similar centers but they were not as inviting as the Tango Center in Eugene. He added that his back problems had improved as a result of tango dancing. Paul Moore , 2586 Potter Street, Ward 3, stated that bicycling reduced pollution and could be a solution to many of the problems in the world. He lauded Councilor Solomon, who was not present, for speaking out in favor of bicycle lanes for the Crest Drive area. He averred that allowing people to safely and conveniently use the transportation device of their choice was something that Eugene needed to follow in all cases. He agreed that the streets in the Crest Drive/Wayne Morse Family Farm area were the only way for hundreds of residents to leave and return to their homes and that traffic in and out of the area were added to by many factors, including the park and Crest Drive Elementary School. He related the story of a friend whose children wanted to ride their bicycles to school but could not because the road was too unsafe and, thus, had to be driven. He cited the Oregon Administrative Rule (OAR) and Lane County Transportation Rule, both legally enforceable rules, which required that bicycling be made available by local governments. He recalled the funding swap that the City of Eugene and Lane County had made, and that $2 million of the swap would be utilized to fix and rebuild the streets. He averred that the money had to be spent wisely and this meant that the streets should include a bicycle lane. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 23, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting