Mayor’s Update July 5, 2010 Much is happening in Eugene. Here are updates on some of our current issues. Budget After a lot of hard work, on June 28 the Eugene City Council adopted a very tight budget for 2010/2011. We had a $6 million gap to fill in the general fund, which, after last year’s $12 million reduction, did not give us much flexibility. The budget is spartan, with departments across the city doing with less staff and shaving off some of the services they provide. Parks won’t be as well-kept and the Library won’t be purchasing as many new books and other publications. However, the budget is based on our core values: keep people employed and provide the services that make Eugene such a great place to live and work. Still, in this recession we’ve kept moving on downtown revitalization. We’ll use urban renewal funds to assist with the new LCC learning/energy center across from the Library; improve the farmer’s market; and increase public safety downtown. We anticipate that LCC will bring hundreds of jobs (long- and short-term) and will train thousands of students for the new green job sectors. I’m excited about this. Downtown In addition to the new LCC campus and other improvements downtown, Beam has gutted Centre Court in preparation for the renovations that begin now! It’s good to see. Voodoo Doughnuts has drawn crowds downtown. The food carts on the Broadway Plaza draw even more, and Summer in the City events have begun. Cowfish and Lord Leebrick Theatre are great additions to our downtown. We can feel the momentum. To see the vast array of exciting events that will be happening this summer in our downtown and throughout the community, go to http://www.eugene-or.gov/summerinthecity. Police The new police facility on Country Club Road has been purchased. Well, okay, it’s not new. It’s 25 years old, but it’s in good shape and is easily updated to meet the seismic standards that ensure that our first responders can be there in an emergency. It has flexible office space, good technical underpinnings, parking, and is close to transit and the freeway. Overall it will serve us well on both sides of the river. It’s half the cost of a new facility. Envision Eugene (A community plan for 2030) Left, right and all points in between, Eugeneans are participating in helping plan for our future and how we deal with our urban growth boundary. It’s a careful and cautious walk together, listening hard and bridging our differences. You are invited to join in as we move to figure out how we will accommodate anticipated growth while remaining true to our growth management goals and state mandates to reduce greenhouse gases. It’s not easy, but, honestly, it feels good to be working on it. Find out more about Envision Eugene at http://www.EnvisionEugene.org.    Selling Water The Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) needs to secure water for the future of Eugene. To do that, EWEB is required to use water or lose the City of Eugene’s rights to it. EWEB wants to sell water to the City of Veneta. EWEB, which is established by the Eugene City Charter, doesn’t believe it needs the City of Eugene’s approval to sell water that is a part of the city’s water rights. We think the City Charter requires it. It will be settled in court. The merits of sale or no sale are rightfully part of the Envision Eugene discussion. Stay tuned. Mass Transit We’ve long agreed to develop an innovative mass transit system in the Eugene/Springfield area, (north, south, east and west) to move people more efficiently and with less environmental impact. This would be the EmX system. Part 1 between Eugene and Springfield has been a huge success. Part 2 out to Gateway and RiverBend is almost complete. We are working with LTD to plan Part 3 in west Eugene. It’s a built-up area and not easy. Still, we cannot respond to climate change and peak oil, all our state mandates, and our future livability without finding the right way to make this work. It’s complicated, but it is important. I am going to need you all. Rail Eugene is at one end of the Cascadia Rail Corridor to Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C. We’re offering leadership in the state discussion on how to move to higher speed passenger rail, develop our freight system, and connect to all our other transit systems. This is where the country is going and we want Oregon to be ready. We’re lucky to have high interest in our state and locally. Both State Representatives Nancy Nathanson and Terry Beyer are positioned to offer legislative leadership. I will head up a state committee to make recommendations regarding the corridor between Eugene and Portland to the Oregon Transportation Commission. Bike and Ped No conversation about transportation is complete without recognizing that we continue to want Eugene to be a place where bikes and pedestrian travel is easy and desirable. We moved up to Gold in national recognition and now we need to go for Platinum. The new bike and pedestrian bridge over the Delta Highway is almost complete and we are working hard to integrate bike planning into state and local transportation plans. Economic Development We’ve done our best to bring in federal recovery (ARRA) funds and to make it easier for local business to survive. Now we are hard at work on coming out of the recession. We’re working with private and public partners to support entrepreneurs. Electric vehicle plug-in stations are coming our way. The University of Oregon is producing many new exciting off-shoots. We’re building on what we’ve got in this great community, including our cultural assets (Yeah, Bach!) and our outdoors (Yeah, Tracktown USA!). The county has some very good plans for turning our waste into fuel and we want to support all its good efforts toward a more sustainable Lane County. Despite the national picture, we’re working hard to move us into the future and to enable our own local families who are struggling to have jobs that support them. We have big challenges with homelessness and high unemployment. We continue to work on affordable housing and to help our county partners with their budget woes. I look forward to hearing from you. You can also join me on Facebook where I regularly make observations about what is happening in Eugene.