Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 31, 1978)
Public voices criticism of T-2000 plan By ANN TRENEMAN Of the Emerald Transportation jargon filled Har ris Hall Wednesday night when Eugene and Springfield officials listened to three hours of public support and criticism of the Eugene-Springfield Area Trans portation Plan (T-2000). After hearing 24 testimonials re ferring to various T-2000 policies and projects, Jerry Rust, Lane County Commissioner, sug gested the Eugene and Spring field City Council members and county commissioners take a bus ride around Eugene to "actually see what these people are talking about." Major criticism reiterated during the joint hearing centered on the 30 percent alternate transporta tion goal, the proposal to turn 6th and 7th Avenues into super free ways; the lack of high density housing development or plans and pleas to save the Community Center for the Performing Arts, or WOW Hall which is scheduled to be demolished to build highway ramps. The controversial T-2000 plan has taken more than two years of study by planners and is in its final stages before approval. The Eugene City Council, Springfield City Council and Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) can vote its final approval. Planners hope to have the plan approved before July 1, which is the 1978 federal funding cut-off date. The funding is essential for the plan’s implementation. “One thing is for sure,” Rust said, “we aren’t ready to adopt the plan yet. There are too many questions." He urged computer analysis of suggested alternative proposals and voiced his support of preserving the WOW Hall. The individual councils will hold separate hearings later on the plan. The Community Meet, an or ganization formed out of neigh borhood and citizen activists to analyze T-2000, presented their Citizens Transportation Plan, which includes their own propos als to replace certain T-2000 proposals they felt should be de leted. “We urge you to take our plan seriously,” Meet member Brian Livingston said. “We’ve been studying the plan and alterna tives for over a year now." Livingston criticized the planner’s reluctance to run com puterized analysis on the Meet’s various proposals. When asked what he thought the chances for computer analysis were now with both city councils and the com missioners urging for such an analysis, Livingston said, “Offi cials will have to make sure that happens to get accurate informa tion.” When asked what he thought the chances were of having some of the Meet’s proposals adopted into the final plan, Livingston re plied “Good — if the officials con sider the cost of our proposals compared io the T-2000.” The plan requires $161 million to implement its projects, money that is not available at the present time. Livingston said the Meet's proposals could “save ten’s of millions of dollars by having alter native plans’’ and mentioned specifically the deletion of the $74 Photo by Patrick Sullivan Members of the Eugene and Springfield City Councils and Lane County Commissioners listen to Gary Spivak spell out some alternate proposals to the T-2000 plan during a joint hearing in Harris Hall. million 6th and 7th freeway pro posal and the 30-30 connector, a highway connecting Main Street in Springfield with the McVay Highway. Betty Niven, chairer of the joint housing commission, noted that the 30 percent alternate transpor tation goal in the plan would re quire 20,000 housing units in Eugene. She said even if there was the highest possible level of housing construction in the downtown level, the result would be "less than 10,000 units." “If you want your transit goal, you’ll practically have to create a new high density urban center out West 11th Avenue with perhaps 10,000 households,” she said. “It must be decided soon, be cause the system is being de signed now,” she added. “We have to get our act together and make plans.” Several testimonials asked for the lowering of the 30 percent goal, calling it ridiculously imprac tical and unattainable, and urged for the goal to be lowered to 10 percent. Several supporters of the 30 percent goal proposed measures to increase bus ridership, bicycl ing and walking. "What you do if you want people on buses is you make it easier for them to get on them...not harder,” Niven said, commenting on the Lane Planning Commissions proposed deletion of a plan policy dealing with encouraging goods delivery to homes. Profs' book used widely A book organization development in schools by four University faculty members has been adopted for classroom use by 30 colleges and universities in the first four months of publication. The “Second Handbook of Organization Development in Schools” has sold 1,800 copies in that time, far beyond the expectation of author Richard Schmuck. Schmuck and co-authors Philip Runkel and Jane and Richard Arends have drawn on 10 years of research and experience to compile this second edition. The first appeared in 1972. Schuck, Rankel and Jane Arends are with the University Center for Educational Policy and Management. Arends is in teacher education. Both books were designed for teachers, administrators and or ganizational specialists interested in establishing educational climates that encourage personal freedom, responsibility and social equity. The book is published by the Mayfield Publishing Co., Palo Alto, Calif. CLASSICAL RECORD SALE Special Prices 825 East 13th Avenue (on campus) Thursday - Friday, March 30-31, & Saturday, April 1 a SA1>£ 10% OFF EVERYTHING IN TPE STORE! balloons, refreshments & models drawing for a — $5000 GIFT CERTIFICATE
