Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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thth Corridor option. She hoped that the council would choose the 6 and 7 Avenue option. th Hannah Torres , 2123 West 12 Avenue, #1, stated that she lived in the Fernwood Apartments. She did not want a bus route ten feet from her bedroom. She said she and her daughter grew peas along the fence at the edge of the property and did not want a bus driving through there. She added that many of her neighbors had not known about the Amazon Corridor EmX option until the previous week and, though they wanted to weigh in on the issue, they were unable to come because of work obligations. Kenneth Glenn , 1340 Arthur Street, Ward 1, Councilor Brown’s ward, commented that he walked by Ms. Torres yard every day and could smell the peas. He considered it a pretty place, commenting that the people who lived in the apartments were “struggling” to make an environment for themselves. He had tried to imagine having a bus come through that area and for him it was unfathomable. He had bought his house 14 years earlier and, because of the “greener Eugene concept,” he had begun planting more trees and other things. He said there was a lot of wildlife in the area that he would not want to be affected, noting that he had recently seen river otters. He had canvassed neighbors and most had no idea that LTD was considering an EmX route through that area. Kimberly Gladen , 361 West Broadway, #4, stated that she lived and worked in the downtown core. She did not own a car and walked everywhere she needed to go. She averred that her safety downtown was everyone’s safety. She did not feel that the City and the Eugene Police Department (EPD) had listened to the public. She opined that the problem was systemic and the reason things escalated, resulting in lawsuits, was because the police were not listening to the public. She believed that the downtown needed community policing, which meant the police should be talking to the people. She said it was nice that efforts to clear the area in front of the library and Kesey Square had worked, but unfortunately that traffic had moved into the parking lots. Additionally, she had noticed a lot of feces in the downtown area lately. She had also noticed people by the tree by the WOW Hall and an increase in men bringing young girls behind the building she resided in. She felt like the problems were just getting pushed around, which did not “get to the core issue.” She asserted that part of the reason for this was that the City kept getting like-minded people on their task forces instead of listening to people who were different. She believed that the women, the poor, the homeless, and people who appeared a little different were not being listened to. She felt like it was “easy to blow off” someone like her and it was easy to “blow off” someone who was homeless. She added that the sidewalk between the tavern, John Henry’s, and the corner of Charnelton Street had a rancid oil smell that needed to be attended to. She did not think Ward 7 served the downtown area; the downtown needed to be its own ward, represented by its own councilor. She declared that most democracies fail when some of the people are forgotten. Mayor Piercy closed the Public Forum. She thanked the AFSCME employees for coming and talking with the council. In response to Mr. Vishanoff’s concerns, she said they were challenged by the need for more dormitories in the campus area so that the student population did not impact neighborhoods, but trying to balance having those buildings in the neighborhood also presented challenges. Regarding the potential EmX route in west Eugene, she stressed that three options were being examined and one had not been chosen at this point. She underscored that they would try to determine the best option. She believed that having a successful transit system throughout the entire city was a citywide goal. She wanted to find the transit route that had the most positive impacts and the least negative impacts. She thanked Ms. Torres for speaking on behalf of her neighbors and also thanked Ms. Gladen for coming before the council. She noted that she was not in the downtown area late at night. She appreciated Ms. Gladen’s suggestions. She intended to pass them along. Councilor Taylor declared that everyone was important. She thought there should be a way to have some of the people who soil the downtown area clean it up. She suggested that people who committed infractions could be made to do the cleaning. She was glad many people from the Amazon Creek area had testified regarding the EmX corridor option. She believed both that area of the Amazon Creek and the Amazon headwaters were important and noted that the acquisition of the headwaters had not been completed. She thanked everyone for coming. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 12, 2009 Page 3 Regular Meeting