On Monday July 16th at 7:30, this Monday, the city council will discuss the BEDI grant application and amendment to the “1968 renewal plan.”

As discussed on this blog earlier in the year, the City has several million in Federal grants to draw from in order to secure funding for downtown development. This amendment would use some of those funds, as well as increase the cap on public indebtedness to finance the urban renewal plan to $73M from $33M.

This link shows the latest changes to the draft plan.

The challenge will be in how we ensure that the funds are well spent. To estimate costs, I went back to last year’s Parks and Rec bond measure and did some rough math. That measure costs the “median” homeowner about $60/year. That measure totaled $25.3M, mostly for park acquisition. Any measure designed to raise funds for downtown would need to mimic this, or at least prove in advance to the voters that the city will execute the plan effectively.

It’s one thing to raise money for parks, when the original parks bill was able to prove itself through tangible improvements in quality of life as well as a fancy new library. It’s another to raise money for a downtown that is caught between various interest groups, land owners, and developers. Somebody in the city needs to take charge of the situation in a way that brings everyone to the table, forcing them each to compromise without giving up too much. Strong leadership is needed here.

If the leadership exists to bring these groups to some sort of compromise, and people complain because they have been forced to compromise, so be it. People will always complain, especially in Eugene where there seem to be hordes of professional complainers (like this blogger? :). What’s important is that ten years from now, after floundering about w/o a real plan since 1968, we can look back and say that Eugene did something new and great with downtown. If a few people in City government can take credit for bullying the public and interest groups into compromising for something wise, they should jump at the chance. Even if they look like villains to the Eugene Weekly or any other politically powerful interest group.

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