Citizens State of the City OpEd Column

by Kevin Matthews and Kitty Piercy

AS WE START 2003 among the many pleasures of the special place that is Eugene, Oregon, we also face increasing economic challenges to government, business, schools, and citizens alike.

In times like these we confront anew the age-old question of whether to set aside our fundamental values as an expedient for the sake of survival, or to focus on those values ever more thoughtfully, digging for that deep efficiency that comes from doing things right.

Quick fixes to Eugene's challenges have predictably failed. We should focus closely on the positive, practical visions already established by our community to craft successful, sustainable solutions to the challenges of 2003 and beyond.

Our community is rich in social services for the young, the old and other vulnerable citizens. Many are rooted in the private non-profit sector, funded by donations and state allocations, staffed by dedicated volunteers and often modestly compensated professionals. Our community's strength in caring for our most vulnerable citizens demonstrates the best of our spirit.

But this is changing. As our social services suffer enormous cuts, how will our grandparents and our neighbors with disabilities maintain their independence? How many of our loved ones who suffer from mental illness will find no refuge short of jail?

Our schools are stressed severely. We have passed short-term local measures to limit the crisis. Yet we're still chasing deep challenges with superficial solutions, such as closing neighborhood schools. Our children face still more crowded classrooms and fewer course opportunities.

Working with children is worthwhile, but perhaps our community leaders should be working more for children. Our elected leaders must build support for long-term solutions, not in every Oregon county as Major Jim Torrey has suggested, but here and in Salem. The health and decency of education and social services affects costs and livability for us all.

While Oregon's unemployment is among the highest in the country, Hynix, a supposedly large high-tech employer attracted with tens of millions of dollars of public funding, continues on the skids while absorbing further tax benefits. Should our representatives be working to attract more of the same?

Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce supporters express disappointment at these poor results. But failures like Hynix are the standard outcome of bringing in carpet-bagging industries that shop the world for the cheapest facilities. Whether it's a cut-rate chip producer or a cut-rate big-box retailer, paying low wages locally while building up profits far away, these big outside businesses tend to drain the local economy, not build it up.

Our City Council has given initial symbolic support to a local living wage ordinance. It should enact it firmly, as one measure against city participation in further exploitation of the kind we've invited before.

The current economy should also prompt our city leaders to clarify their vision regarding the costs of growth. Unlike other cities, which have sprawled to blot out their own once-green surroundings beyond recognition - driving thousands of lifestyle refugees to less-spoiled places like ours - we can still make fundamental choices about our future.

There's a limit to how many hundreds of millions of dollars our community can spend on new highways and intersections. Attempting to fund the West Eugene Parkway, local officials have canceled and postponed important projects for safety and current traffic, while adding fees to cover some of the unmet maintenance budget for our existing roads. We should back away from the parkway now that its immense unfunded cost is becoming clear, and we should also back away from paving Sixth Avenue across the Willamette riverfront.

The really big profits in real estate speculation come from opening up wide virgin areas -- as contemplated, for instance, by John Musumeci's recent trial balloons on building out wooded reserve areas southeast of town. But there's still plenty of profit available in more cost-effective approaches such as properly sited nodal development.

Strong steps to encourage gradual remodeling and redevelopment of buildings in downtown Eugene for mixed use would benefit our community broadly. Residents of the core area use cars about half as much as residents out near the urban growth boundary, so housing downtown means less congestion, less road maintenance, less pollution, and less taxpayer cost. Let's give central growth like the St. Vincent de Paul's project at 11th Avenue and Oak Street a higher priority than costly growth at the edges.

Meanwhile, it is essential to finally approve an accurate natural resources inventory, after 15 of years of good staff work and avoidable delays by elected officials. Meeting the state's minimum protection requirements is a matter of saving our collective inheritance.

Eugene's strength is in our people and the natural beauty around us. We invite the Chamber of Commerce not to sue the city over resource protections, but to join us in partnerships to plant more trees and to restore protections already taken away. We invite the Lane County Homebuilders Association to move beyond redundant reviews of the land supply, to join us in helping to envision and construct real nodal development.

Listening to citizens, the Eugene City Council has already passed important policies encouraging smart growth management and sustainable business. We call upon the new council majority to put these intelligent policies into action.

The quality of life in Eugene is our primary asset. You can't balance a budget continually spending more than you take in, and you can't protect our community's quality capital by continually running it down. You can't build a stable, sustainable economy by selling out fast and cheap. We need to support, protect and reinforce employment through our most positive local enterprises.

Economic prosperity is not magic. In 2003 we should focus on well-planned local sustainable solutions to our pressing needs. The real economic strength of our community is in the honesty and integrity of the work we can accomplish here together.

Produced by Jan Spencer, Kevin Matthews, and Cary Thompson

Contact:
Kevin Matthews, FoE
541-345-7421