CITIZENS
STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS
Below is the text from the fourth annual Citizens State of the City Address given Jan. 10 at the Eugene Public Library.
This version has been edited for length and the complete text is online at www.eugeneweekly.com
The event traditionally serves as a counterpoint to the Mayor’s State of the City Address and highlights issues of pressing
importance to Eugene, as viewed by citizen groups in the community. Speakers this year were Lisa Arkin of Oregon Toxics
Alliance, Rob Handy of River Road Community Organization, Gary Gillespie of Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network,
Kevin Matthews of Friends of Eugene, and Hope Marston of the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
Eugene as a
Sustainable
Community
By Lisa Arkin
A few days before the
end of 2004, I awoke to
the patter of voices from
a local radio station. I lis-
tened to a public-service
Lisa Arkin
Rob Handy
spot where the announcer
ability mandate and identify a timeline for
urged listeners to rush out and buy new
its implementation.
SUVs before Dec. 31 so they could take
An extremely valuable consensus-
advantage of the administration’s tremen-
building tool is the principle of fore-car-
dous tax credits and other economic incen-
ing. That is “fore” with an ‘e,’ as in fore-
tives.
thought, beforehand, and foresight. Fore-
The message defied common sense.
caring includes identifying those things
Remember last summer’s astronomical
we all value and acting together to protect
gas prices? Those low-mileage SUVs
and maintain them. Fore-caring would
would only add to more dependence on an
embed shared community goals and val-
increasingly erratic international oil sup-
ues into all city policies and practices.
ply. And what about Eugene’s own chal-
An excellent example is the Lane
lenges surrounding land use, pollution,
County Food Coalition’s project at
and transportation? More SUVs would
Sheldon High School that brings local
pump yet more pollutants and climate-
organic produce to our school children.
changing carbon dioxide into the atmos-
The coalition also is forming a permanent
phere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas
council that will advocate for local farmers
that contributes to global warming.
and food processors.
Fourteen of the past 20 years have had
Working at a grassroots level, the
lower than average rainfall, a situation that
United Methodist Church is leading an
prompted EWEB’s recent rate increase.
interfaith movement to support local farm-
And 2004 will go down in the books as
ers called “That’s My Farmer!” In the
Eugene’s second-driest year on record.
words of Pastor John Pitney, this program
Now, imagine an entirely different
“puts a neighborly face on our food.” The
morning broadcast, a public-service mes-
congregation is recruiting 500 families to
sage that really paid the community a serv-
join Community Supported Agriculture, a
ice: “The city of Eugene has committed to
program where people buy weekly food
purchasing 100 percent wind and geother-
boxes directly from local farmers.
mal power by the year 2010. Eugene resi-
Another example of fore-caring is the
dents can take advantage of tax credits and
preservation in the Whiteaker neighbor-
no-interest loans for investing in home and
hood of two local grocery stores, the Red
business energy conservation.”
Apple and the Red Barn Natural Grocery.
Eugene can join dozens of other com-
The
Neighborhood
Economic
munities acting with conviction at the
Development Corporation (NEDCO) pre-
local level to create forward-looking civic
vented the closure of these two businesses
policies that respond to a changing world.
because they are convenient and neighbor-
Simply put, we are obligated to act not
hood-sized, and they help define the char-
only on our own behalf, but also to meet
acter of the neighborhood.
the needs of generations to follow.
The city of Eugene has a unique chance
To its credit, Eugene already has a vari-
to practice fore-caring by teaming up with
ety of policies, goals, and resolutions relat-
River Road and Santa Clara residents to
ing to sustainability. The recently released
preserve their neighborhood’s character as
brochure titled “The City of Eugene and
each one makes the “transition” from
Sustainability” refers to habitat, energy,
semi-rural to urban.
water, economy and more. The city now
We applaud Mayor Piercy’s plan to set
needs to develop a comprehensive sustain-
12 JANUARY 13, 2005
Gary Gillespie
Kevin Matthews
up a Sustainability Advisory Commission
and recommend that the commission first
turn its attention to developing a Eugene
Sustainable-Community Code. The code
should be comprehensive, covering sever-
al basic areas: community health, neigh-
borhoods, labor, energy use, the environ-
ment — as well as, but not limited to, our
economy.
Moving toward a sustainable code
means leadership from the city but also
participation from “green” businesses, tra-
ditional businesses, neighborhoods, non-
profits, and the interfaith-religious com-
munity.
We can learn from several nearby cities
that are living by their sustainable-com-
munity codes and are reaping the econom-
ic and social benefits. Portland recently
applied the concept of fore-caring to its
municipal weed-management system. Just
last month, the city announced the estab-
lishment of several pesticide-free parks
along with a pilot program using chemical
alternatives such as vinegar.
Both Portland and Seattle have
approved sustainable-paper policies
requiring that all paper products be chlo-
rine-free and made from post-consumer,
recycled content by 2006. The city of
Eugene could purchase tree-free paper for
stationery from our local company, Living
Tree Paper.
It is time for our business community
to practice fore-caring and acknowledge
that our land and our air are common
spaces, shared by plants, animals, and
humans alike.
Neighborhoods
By Rob Handy
What makes a neighborhood a desir-
able, livable place to call home? What
makes a neighborhood more than simply
Hope Marston
geographical boundaries on a map, but a
living, breathing community of people
with common values and interests?
At the inception of American cities,
neighborhoods grew up around industry.
Generally, the people who lived in these
neighborhoods either worked nearby or
provided services to the same neighbor-
hoods. These communities were very sta-
ble and their populations shared similar
values and concerns. Neighborhood public
schools were the pride of a community,
often doubling as social and educational
centers.
Today it is more challenging to identify
interconnected community within a city
and its neighborhoods. Increasingly, resi-
dents choose to work, shop, play, and
school their children in different parts of
the town than where they live. As our
lifestyle choices increase, what is the glue
that holds together neighborhood residents
and businesses with a sense of place?
Oregon was a pioneer in codifying pub-
lic involvement as Goal 1 of our trail-blaz-
ing state land-use guidelines. The vision-
aries of that bipartisan effort understood
that involving the public at the beginning
phase of planning was vital to the success
of any plan, and a foundation for our
democracy.
For many Eugene planners and deci-
sion makers today, engaging energetic
public involvement seems to have become
an afterthought. It may be seductive to
believe that policy creation and implemen-
tation can skip over community involve-
ment, yet still find success and support as
a top-down exercise.
Are residents really just reactive and
ignorant? Or are there flaws in what pass-
es for our current public-involvement
processes? Are Crest Drive-area residents
just against street widenings? Or maybe
we are hearing them voice their shared