CC Minutes - 09/14/09 Regular Meeting

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“aggressively” by young men when exiting the Kiva if she did not have change for them. She noted that there was one man with a damaged hand that regularly panhandled, ostensibly for medical care and commented that “this stuff scares people.” She was used to it, but for a lot of people it was off-putting. She underscored the need for foot traffic in the downtown area for it to be viable. People needed to come downtown to shop. She declared that Eugene was a beautiful town that “just needed some TLC” and the downtown had been neglected for too long. She added her feeling that the downtown should be its own council ward. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum. She asked the City Manager to direct someone from the Planning Division to speak with Mr. Wilcox about his proposal. She thanked all of the people representing the NCS for coming and speaking. She also thanked the members of the public who spoke about the EmX Corridor. She remarked that it was a “long journey,” the ultimate goal of which would be to have a fully developed transit system that would make it easy to choose to use it instead of driving. She said it would help growth and development and would be good for neighborhoods and businesses. She felt the first route had been successful, and they would soon understand how the second route would be. Because the third route was planned for a very built-out area, she found it hard to imagine that “somebody’s ox would not be gored” in the process. She assured them that they would try to get the best route possible. She noted that when her family was young, they had bought a lot of furniture from Cole’s. Regarding the downtown area, she stressed that there were issues to work on and they continued to struggle to get developments underway. She commented that the financial crisis had not helped things move along. Councilor Pryor expressed appreciation to everyone who spoke, especially those who spoke about the EmX. He underscored that it was his principle interest to find the best route possible. He thought he could provide reasonable and passionate arguments for and against all three routes. He was interested in gaining as much input as possible and had strongly recommended to LTD that it increase opportunities for input. This was one of the reasons he had held the meeting during the previous week. He reiterated that he was not interested in disrupting businesses on West th 11 Avenue; whatever solution they arrived at needed to be undertaken in the way that would least damage the businesses that were there. He observed that figuring out a way to put another transit route through West Eugene would be challenging. He stressed the importance of understanding that the process was not at a point of making a final decision; there were a lot of opportunities still to provide input and to shape the ultimate result. He hoped that LTD and the City would hold more public forums. He planned to help in as many ways as he could to help LTD have more forums and collect more information. He underscored that the participation of the people who were concerned about it was very important. Councilor Ortiz thanked everyone for their input. She expressed appreciation to Councilor Pryor for helping to make sure the conversation “stayed broad.” She had thought LTD had done a pretty good job of presenting the thoughts they had, though there was always room for improvement. She had asked LTD to make sure they had contacted businesses and was glad that they had done so. She said she planned to hold a meeting with her constituents in the thth 6/7 Avenue corridor. She noted her support for the NCS and said it would be a good match for the Pearl Street building. She thought the NCS provided a “natural pathway” to education for those young people. Additionally, she commented that Ms. Gladen was very brave. She appreciated her commitment to the downtown area. She remarked that the 2010 census could demonstrate that the downtown could be its own ward. Councilor Poling said Councilor Pryor had made his points about the EmX corridor proposals. He wanted to reiterate that nothing had been “chiseled in stone.” He expressed resentment toward the comment made about Councilor Pryor regarding misinformation. He related that as far back as four or five months ago he had received calls from business owners saying that someone was coming into their shops and claiming that LTD would be placing the EmX route there. He stated that there were lies and misinformation being passed around regarding the West Eugene EmX corridor and he did not know where it was coming from. For someone to claim that Councilor Pryor’s comment was aimed specifically at one group was “just bad” and wrong. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 14, 2009 Page 5 Regular Meeting