Last night the Eugene City Council adopted an ordinance to move forward with amending the urban renewal plan. The changes will allow the city to use funds from the BEDI and brownfield grant and loan guarantee program to purchase properties for future development.

As usual, the Bettman-Taylor bureaucracy attempted to put a stop to any sort of progress when it comes to attacking the problems facing the urban renewal district downtown. Instead of debating the issue of what happens to the BEDI funds if the City DOESN’T allocate them to a project that purchases the pits downtown (use it or lose it?), this hearing became a debate about whether the KWG-Beam development is good for Eugene.

The term “obstructionist” came up a lot, moreso from both Bettman and Taylor in defending their positions that little development and no bold investment is better than a KWG-Beam plan.

Another complaint levied by Bettman and Taylor; that the debate is being stymied and manipulated by the City Manager’s office. Bettman implied this several times without actually saying it in a way that the City Manager could assertively challenge it.

Counselor Clark helped bring to light what should have been obvious to many who attended - that while tens of thousands of postcards were sent out by the planning and development office, only 22 citizens arrived at the hearing to debate the future of downtown. The public debate wasn’t being squelched by the City Manager’s office, on the contrary, it was being squelched by a great many people in Eugene who could care less about the future of downtown Eugene.

Bettman, to her credit, is very effective about holding the purse strings tight and staff accountable. I believe though that for her style of politics to work there needs to be stronger leadership from either the Mayor or other counselors to ensure that people who get things done for this city aren’t constantly put on the defensive. These are the only people who seem to want to accomplish big things for downtown Eugene. Also, somebody or some group needs to hold the counsel to the same standards of communication and leadership that Bettman demands of the city departments and manager.

The best part of the evening was when “Trix” did his usual standup routine about jumping into the pits and coming together for a great downtown. If he’s lucky he might become our next mayor..he sets his sites high every time he shows up, and delivers!

To see Trix in action, along the rest of the comments, you can watch the video here.

If you are a Eugene resident or involved in Eugene real estate I highly encourage you to get involved in this process. Downtown real estate may change forever in the coming 2-3 years.

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