Also, what is the pork barrel you’re referring to? The City is sitting on millions of dollars in grants and guaranteed loans to develop downtown away from being the “brownfield” it is now. My understanding of this proposal is that the cost to the City is negotiable. And really, the City is merely committing to the open option to buy land back from those underprivileged small merchants that own that land not, merchants that are willing to sell for a profit far outweighing the true market value of the land if there weren’t such a proposal being discussed. More power to them, but who’s really being fleeced there? You won’t hear the Eugene Weekly bring up that point. They’re all just homemade businesses suffering under the duress of a big bad developer…Nonsense. Those leasing, maybe. Those that own, hardly.

My suggestion to the landowners there now is to sell while you can, at these inflated prices.

If the KWG commitment falls through, that land will drop to the fair price being demanded by the street urchins, drug users, and transients that make it such a compelling place to live and work. Enjoy it now while you can.

Eugene isn’t known for taking risks so I will go all-in and bet that another deal will fall through!

It is a testament to how abysmally poor planning works in this town that this thing is even beign considered.

Firs of all, the word “with,” as in “create an intense “West End” retail/entertainment district with” is categorically false. The fine print revealed that the developers will only start to look around for many of these uses after the pork barrel is opened.

Furthermore, many of tehse uses are incompatible - housing and nightclubs, for example. If this were Eugene’s entertainment hot spot, it would be a disastrously bad place to live … unless you actually think for some reason entertainment in a rural college town will mean a string of martini bars and jazz clubs.

Most damning, KWG themselves said they need both sides of both blocks for synergy. Connor and Wooley are keeping the Bon building. Game over.

The idea is to get the huge cash payout, evict the thriving, healthy businesses already there, then just put up whatever. Most likely, yet another supermarket.

There is no chance Restoration Hardware is moving into this thing, or Anthropologie or any of the rest of them. There is no space for a retail development of that scope. If KWG idly waves an Ikea in front of your nose, don’t buy that either.

To be honest, the city’s endorsement of this particular nonplan smells fishy. I am dumbfounded that so many levelheaded, pro-growth peopel are willing to look the other way as they pay for this out of their own pocket. BAD business.