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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1978)
Photo by Greg Gawtowski Jim Johnston: “Eugene will certainly end up looking like Los Angeles if we don't get together and cooperate with each other.’’ Eugene destined to look like LA? By DAN POSTREL Of the Emerald Eugene “will certainly end up looking like Los Angeles if we don’t get together and cooperate with each other,” Jim Johnston, city council candidate, told a Rubicon Society meeting Thurs day. Johnston, the estimator and design supervisor for the University's Physical Plant, is seeking the Ward 1 council seat. He said, "Adversary roles are emphasized and carried through" in hearings on too many public is sues.” Planning disputes, for example, are frequently handled by attor neys for special interest groups, and too often end up in court, he told the luncheon meeting. “It’s not going to work to have special interest groups or city hall implement changes people don't even want,” he asserted, referring to the city's current planning strategy. Reduction of lot size and front age requirements, and overuse of duplex and triplex housing all threaten to overcrowd Eugene. Johnston said. ' If one is not careful,' he warned, “use of these techniques without citizen knowledge could make this city look like some of the cities you've run away from." A better approach to growth management, Johnston said, is to develop workshops and forums to gather information on issues and to bring “people with a wide vari ety of views together." Johnston pointed to the city's Joint Housing Commission and to the neighborhood organizations as examples of his cooperative $ Feeling Shaggy? Visit Kampus Barber Shop and take a load off your mind! 851 E. 13th no appointment necessary -Ar ;> •essary | Oi egon Daily Emerald 4 approach to issues. Abandonment of “adversary” techniques and application of the collective approach can work to resolve issues other than growth, Johnston said. Eugene's unemployment prob lem, for example, could be eased by bringing together local re sources and technical knowledge to begin a plastics and electronics industry, he suggested. The local unemployment level — which is above the national av erage — will never drop if indus tries located here continue to bring in personnel from else where, he added. Education, energy conserva tion, and problems of the elderly also require attention, Johnston said in closing, "and we can start by creating a mayor's forum on the next major issue that bothers us." INTRODUCING THE RECEIVER YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T AFFORD. When you make a receiver with 40 watts of power per channel, minimum RMS, at 8 ohms, from 20 to 20,000 Hz, with no more than 0.1% total harmonic distortion, it's quite a feat When it costs less than $300,* it's unheard of. How did we do it? That's what Pioneer and Marantz would like to know. The new Kenwood KR-4070. Performance is now affordable. ‘Nationally advertised value. Actual prices are established by Kenwood dealers. Handles optional KENWOOD For more information, visit your local Kenwood dealer: Oregon Typewriter 30 East 11th Street Eugene Jafco 1149 Willamette Eugene Toad Hall Hi Fi 150 West Broadway Eugene Pace 13 Civic center complex may be on ballot By TOM JACKSON Of the Emerald The Eugene Civic Center Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the city council to place a bond measure on the June 27 ballot to fund an estimated $22 million downtown civic center complex. The project, if approved by the voters, will con tain a large concert hall, a large theatre, a small theatre, a convention center and meeting rooms. The plans also call for a large hotel to be built on the site, but the hotel would be built by private funds. The commission debated several funding al ternatives for the project, including two proposals to build the complex in three stages. The commis sion, however, decided the building would be best contructed as a complete project rather than in segments. Funding for the structures will be gathered from general obligation bonds. One item debated was the convention center. Commission member Brian Obie, who is also a city council member and Arlen Swearingen, Downtown Development Board member, urged the commission to include the convention center. Commission chairer Lester Anderson, former Eugene mayor, said he preferred a plan to build the concert hall and theatres first. The convention center, under that proposal, would be built after later bond measures. “If we build the performing arts center, it means we will eventually get the hotel and the convention facility,” Anderson said. “I think that scenario has the best chance for success.” Obie argued that without the convention center, the voters would not approve the bond measure. Citing the failure of two performing arts center bond measures in the past, Obie said the conven tion facility would give the voters an added incen tive to pass the measure. “We can sell this proposal to the voters on the basis of the community need for economic de velopment,” Obie said, explaining a convention center would attract business to the Eugene area. “That’s important to a good segment of our popu lation.” Obie added if the city builds a convention facil ity, a potential hotel builder will be more likely to move into the site because the demand for hotel rooms would be assured. Dean Baumgartner, the civic center project de velopment director, indicated both proposals would include all of the proposed facilities. ‘‘We re talking about different methods of financing the different parts of the package, not about eliminat ing part of it,” he said. Baumgartner estimated — or “guestimated” as he termed it — that the project would cost about $22 million. One reason the commission decided to re commend the complex be built as a complete unit — and that the issue be placed on the ballot as soon as possible — is that the cost of the project will increase an estimated $130,000 per month of delay because of the rate of inflation, according to Baumgartner. Baumgartner also noted that the cost figures are rough estimates and that more specific cost analyses would be available for the commission’s next meeting. However, he indicated the $22 mil lion estimate allows for inflation, architect's fees, consultant’s fees and the actual cost of placing the measure itself on the ballot. City Manager Charles Henry, who attended the meeting but was not a member of the commis sion, said the earliest time the measure could be placed on the ballot would be June 27. Another concern among the commission mem bers was the measure might be jeopardized by other bond and tax measures on the ballot. Among the tax issues expected to come before the voters soon are a levy for a new sewage treatment plant, an increasing school tax and the city’s 1978-79 budget. “How many bond measures will the voter’s ap prove?” queried Irving Fletcher, a Lane County Labor Council representative to the Commission. “We need to think about that.” The commission will review the cost estimates of the project proposal Monday and will likely pre sent its findings to the council early in March. The civic center, if approved by the voters, will occupy a two-block area between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The two sides of the civic center complex will be connected by a pedestrian bridge over Willamette St., and underground parking will be built under neath both of the blocks. If approved, the center will be constructed by the Eugene architecture firm of Unthank, Seder, Poticha and Associates. If built, the architect’s six percent fee for the structures could be as much as B1.34 million if the project costs $22 million.
