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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 2013)
gang, addiction and mental health problems, healing from trauma, homelessness, and to empower children, families and individuals to better their circumstances. I dream of Civic Stadium JENNIFER SPARKLEBRITCHES , comedian I want to see Civic Stadium turned into a beautiful space that serves families, teens and senior citizens in our community. This vision includes a gymnasium, used as an indoor park in the day and a teen center at night during the cold months. I want several classroom/meeting spaces and a small commercial kitchen for use by individuals and area nonprofi ts. The old ball fi eld would include a community garden — half veggies, half fl owers — designed by local landscape architects to accommodate weddings and other events that would provide an income stream to help maintain the facility. We need more community connections and Civic Stadium is the perfect place to make this happen! number of bicycle-friendly businesses and add to them! Why? Because I want our city to be the best it can be. All the fi nest cities to live and work in are also fun places to walk and bike; let’s create the infrastructure, policies and recognition to make it happen here! What should Eugene be like in fi ve years? Like Portland! With a “complete streets” policy, completed and expanded bike lanes and routes and recognition of our bike-friendly businesses. In 20 years? Like Copenhagen? Amsterdam? Eugene should be so bike-friendly that families, young professionals, happening employers and tourists want to come to Eugene to live and bike! We should institute a complete streets policy that helps ensure that our planners and engineers consistently design and operate the roadway with all users in mind. We should also complete and expand our existing bike lanes and routes, including the routes to downtown and the missing bike lanes on South Willamette Street from 24th to 29th. I’d love to see this kind of natural reconstruction in an urban area of Eugene. What did our valley look like before we covered it up with concrete? Let’s give a city block back to nature and see if we can attract a great blue heron or two of our own. CARY THOMPSON , Helios Network I would like to see our city value its history and have Civic Stadium revamped for athletic leagues and events, under the auspices of the “Save Civic Stadium” committee. Eugene’s 4J school district owns the property for this very purpose. It is on the National Registry of Historic Places and should be preserved. I would like to see the abandoned LCC building on Willamette and 11th remodeled into a center for youth services, a shelter for the homeless and single-room- occupancy housing. There are far too few social services in downtown Eugene. CONSTANCE VAN FLANDERN , old SLUG Queen Eugene takes pride in its sometime slogan “the world’s greatest city for arts and outdoors.” Sure, when you say it out loud at a party you might get a few snorts of disbelief — and maybe a few of those snorts have come from me in the past — but no more! I’ve come around. Why shouldn’t we have that slogan? It suits our style to dream big and fi ll the pits later. “The world’s greatest city for athletes” could have been a contender though. If you are a participant or spectator of football, basketball, track and fi eld, gymnastics, golf, soccer, BMX biking or even extreme skating, Eugene has you covered in style. But I have a vision to take that faux city slogan to the next level: Think big ice. I would love to see 4J sell the Civic Stadium property to private investors interested in building a visionary sports complex and ice rink. In my imagination this place is gorgeous, an architectural marvel attracting visitors from all over the Northwest. A world-class ice facility to replace the one limping along at the County Fairgrounds, and include the Eugene Generals, UO Ducks Hockey Team, The ICHL (Local Hockey League) and LAHA (Lane Amateur Youth Hockey Association), fi gure skating training and competitions, recreational skaters and, of course, ICE Shows! It could include a state-of-the-art rock climbing wall, indoor fl oating running track above the rink, weight and workout rooms for athletes, a pool, indoor basketball and volleyball court, indoor play park for toddlers, and viewing deck to the rink with a stunning fl oor to ceiling locally quarried stone fi replace, a coffee shop and juice bar, a few desk stations with USB ports and free Wi-Fi all around. I dream of a green city KELSEY MOORE , Arriving by Bike I would like to see the city of Eugene step into a national leadership role in bike policy and infrastructure creation. I would also love to see Eugene recognize our amazing BETTY TAYLOR PETE SORENSON , Lane County Commissioner Eugene has a lot of really talented bright people who aren’t being paid enough for the work they are doing or would like to be doing. This includes almost everyone. So, higher wages and benefi ts would help a lot of people. Our community needs to respond in a signifi cant way to the environmental crisis staring us in the face — the bees are dying, climate change is real and must be addressed, our forests should be valued to clean the air and mitigate the impacts of climate change, our fi sh (whether lake, stream, river or ocean) are the aquatic canaries that need protection, and unregulated genetically modifi ed food further threatens our environment. CAMILLA MORTENSEN , EW associate editor and reporter (staff pick) I would like to see Eugene fully embracing its need for clean water and protecting our rivers through town and out of town both in deed and in legal policy. I would like to see Eugene continue to improve in how we take care of those who are helpless, homeless or in need. I would like to see Lane County (because I’m going a little broader here) be more transparent and accountable in its governance — it would make my job a little easier and the environment and politics a lot better. Also a downtown water park that doubles as a skating rink in the winter would be awesome. AMY SCHNEIDER , EW calendar editor and reporter (staff pick) On a day trip to Portland earlier this year, I turned a corner and stumbled on Tanner Springs Park, a miniature wetlands about the size of a city block nestled in the Pearl District. An incredible pocket of nature plunked down amidst pavement and buildings, the park featured tasteful art made from old railroad tracks, a boardwalk and a small pathway that wound its way through native plants. To top it all off, a wild great blue heron had taken up residence there, gently preening as Portlanders snapped pictures from the boardwalk and admired the painted turtle that swam freely in the pond. , Eugene city councilor The Amazon Headwaters should be protected in its natural state — for recreation, for wildlife protection, for protection of our water and air, for its accessibility by foot, bicycle and bus. Kesey Square should have substantial, attractive tables, movable chairs, a small stage, one attractive kiosk (selling coffee, hot chocolate and hot cider) with school groups (and other local music groups) invited to perform in the evenings. Eugene should be a compact, attractive, friendly city, surrounded by a green belt — with protected forests and farms nearby. There should be pedestrian paths everywhere, off-street bike paths and secure parking places for bikes. Local businesses should be encouraged by government and patronized by residents. I hope for the elimination of tax exemptions and for a new, equitable source of revenue to support city services. SHANNON FINNELL , EW features editor and reporter (staff pick) Good infi ll: Sometimes it feels like nobody wants Eugene to change at all, but we’ve seen beautiful, dense urban areas in Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. Infi ll and densifi cation don’t have to mean destroying neighborhoods or creating a butt-ugly cityscape. Eugene can do it. Traffi c signals that feel your bike: Loop detectors embedded in the pavement know when cyclists interrupt the electromagnetic current, and the lights turn green. Cyclists don’t have to punch buttons in right turn lanes or, ideally, wait 100 years for a go-signal (we’re looking at you, 6th & Monroe). Check out the loop detector installed on Blair this summer and feel the dream coming alive. Light rail from LA to Seattle: Connecting Eugene to the whole West Coast via light rail may seem like a far-off fantasy, but the Oregon Passenger Rail project is already studying options between Portland and Eugene. Let’s dream big, and let’s dream far. Citywide Wi-Fi: Access to information is the closest thing we’ve got to a great equalizer. We dream of a Eugene that does its best to ensure the ability to communicate with loved ones, apply for jobs, learn about faraway places and educate ourselves enough to improve our lives. Isn’t the internet amazing? Random dreams RAFAEL ALDAVE , retired attorney, author of EW’s ‘Lighten Up’ The main thing I would like to see happen in Eugene in the future is to have my name still in the phone book. eugeneweekly.com • December 26, 2013 13
