HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/28/16 - City Council Newsletter
City of Eugene
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thnd
Eugene, Oregon 97401
(541) 682-5010
(541) 682-5414 (FAX)
www.eugene-or.gov
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER
January 28, 2016
IN THIS EDITION
EUGENE ENGINEER AWARDED INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP TO STUDY VISION ZERO
COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS SEEK TO BUILD UNITY IN COMMUNITY
AROUND THE CITY
Eugene Engineer Awarded International Fellowship to Study Vision Zero
Matt Rodrigues, who assumes acting-in-capacity Eugene Traffic Engineer duties on February 1, was awarded the American
Public Works Association’s Jennings Randolph International Fellowship to study implementation of Vision Zero. The
award, one of only two to be handed out in 2016, reimburses Rodrigues $2,000 for his international
public works study tour set for September.
Rodrigues will attend and present at the Swedish Association of Municipal Engineers Annual
Conference in Sweden and perform a study tour relating to Sweden’s implementation of the Vision
Zero Initiative. The initiative aims to eliminate transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries.
While overseas, Rodrigues will also travel to nearby Denmark, where he will learn about Denmark’s
Road Safety Action Plan. It’s similar in goals and successes to Sweden’s Vision Zero Initiative. The
trip will give Rodrigues a first-person perspective and valuable insight into how other countries are
implementing life-saving techniques and how they may translate to Eugene.
For more information, contact Principal Civil Engineer Matt Rodrigues at 541-682-6036 or
matt.j.rodrigues@ci.eugene.or.us.
Community Conversations Seek to Build Unity in Community
The room felt full of energy as over 85 people from all over the community joined together to discuss the Complexity of
Culture and Identity on the evening of Jan. 14 at the first session of Community Conversations. The evening opened with a
showing of the TEDtalk, “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie (Click
here to watch it.) Adichie paints a picture of the ways that stereotypes negatively
impact communities through the stories people tell about each other. When the lights
came up, small groups participated in facilitated discussions - reflecting on the video
and thinking of ways they can make the community stronger by interrupting single
stories in Eugene.
At one point a participant stood up stating, “We can only address these single stories if
we truly know our history.” This was a great moment to share that the next Community
Conversation scheduled for Feb. 11 will be titled, “Oregon’s Cracked Foundations: Our
History of Racial Exclusion.”
Three additional conversations are planned and will take place in the Eugene Water &
Electric Board’s (EWEB) Community Room (500 East 4 Avenue) at 5:30 p.m. on the
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second Thursdays of March, April and May. A light meal will be provided along with
child care and translation or interpretive services upon request. With leadership from
the Eugene-Springfield NAACP, the Community Conversations initiative is a
partnership with City of Eugene, 4J and Bethel school districts, EWEB, League of United
Latin American CitizensLULAC) and Lane County with the goal of building unity in the community through shared
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understanding and meaningful dialogue.
For more information, please contact Jennifer Lleras Van Der Haeghen, Human Rights and Neighborhood Involvement, at
541-682-5619 or Jennifer.E.VanDerHaeghen@ci.eugene.or.us.
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL NEWSLETTER PAGE 1
January 28, 2016