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Victoria Whitman, 1908 Oak Street, supported restoring Willamette Street to two-way traffic from 13th Avenue to 20th Avenue. She related that parking and traffic patterns impacted Oak Street and two-way traffic on Willamette Street would improve livability on Oak Street. She said noise was a large factor and her quality of life would be improved by this change. John Tronrude, 1408 Willamette Street, stated that he was president of the Rental Owners Association of Lane County. He said he had been a property manager for 30 years in the community. He felt the largest problem with the potential changes in housing standards enforcement was that they duplicated what was already in place. He believed that, should further enforcement truly be needed, it should be paid for by fines and not by a fee-per-rental-unit basis. He commented that the rental market was soft and getting a good tenant was desirable. Thus, he averred that supply and demand worked well to ensure that landlords provided good housing. He underscored that a tenant with a habitability issue need only to withhold rent and could not justifiably be evicted as a result of this action. Pam Perryman, 3025 Neslo Lane, said she owned rental property at 33 East 20th Avenue. She supported opening Willamette Street from 13th Avenue to 20th Avenue as it would substantially reduce noise. She asked the council not to place more value on the quality of life of a homeowner than the quality of life of a renter. She stated that leaving the portion between 18th Avenue and 20th Avenue one-way would create more havoc and would ultimately be changed. She thought changing it later would cost the City more money. Wayne Gadde, 1945 Oak Street, spoke in support of opening Willamette Street to two-way traffic as well. He related that he had his house appraised and the value had been reduced due to the heavy traffic load. He thought keeping only two blocks regulated as a one-way street was ~absurd." He felt this would inconven- ience far more people than the few who had united to request the two-block stretch of Willamette Street between 18th Avenue and 20th Avenue be left one-way. Bob Cassidy, 1401 East 27th Avenue, related that he had heard on the radio earlier in the day that there were 7,000 vacant Walmart Stores in the country at present because the space was too small to be made larger and too large for anyone else to want to purchase them. He expressed concern that such stores add to the blight in the downtown area, which he perceived to be only just rising from its blighted state. Mr. Cassidy shared that he had been a landlord for nine years. He stated that rents were not determined by anything but the marketplace. He would not mind paying 75 cents per month per unit to help improve the City. He said improving rentals helped the community. Charles Biggs, 540 Antelope Way, said he had attended a Civic Center Visioning workshop at which they chose an option to recommend. He felt there was not enough public input and the City had not worked hard enough to solicit such input. He thought placing the Civic Center on the November ballot would be wrong. He expressed disappointment that when speaking about partnerships, no partners had money to partner with. He felt the site selection involved in construction of a new police facility was ~pulling the wool over the eyes" of the public, who had voted against such a structure twice. Bob Suess, P.O. Box 456, Springfield, explained that he and his family had built and operated rental units in the area since 1958. He agreed that good landlords were needed, but thought landlords were already being hit with ~a lot of fees." He averred more laws would not make landlords more responsible to their renters. He thought that more regulation would %hase away good landlords." He suggested more education on standards was in order, though he admitted that some could not be educated. Nick Urhausen, 2858 Warren Street, conveyed his displeasure at the recent election results. He did not support the new mayoral candidate and hoped a write-in candidate would win in November.