Candidates vying to represent Ward 6 in northwestern Eugene both say the area’s residents would benefit from both commercial and residential development, as would all in the city.
At a recent City Club of Eugene forum, challenger Tai Pruce-Zimmerman called the ward deeply residential, which can be to its detriment when it comes to others familiarity with it.
“If you don’t live out in Ward 6, who turns left off of Highway 99 or right off of West 11th and actually comes into our neighborhood? What for?” he said. “We don’t have any particular commercial amenities.”
Incumbent Greg Evans agreed that commercial development is key in building a thriving community.
“That we have places where people can shop and feel comfortable with going to get dinner or just go out and buy something in your neighborhood, in your community, and not have to drive across town to do it,” he said.
Evans, a 40-year Eugene resident and 12-year city council member said the city and the neighborhood are in need of a new economic driver.
“Before it was the wood products industry, the forestry industry, which was a backbone,” he said. “Now we need other forms of commerce to improve our standing here. Now we need other forms of commerce to improve our standing. Here we are in competition, not just with our friends up north in Portland or Seattle, but we're in competition with people all over the country.”
Pruce-Zimmerman said he moved to Eugene a decade ago, and has chaired the city’s Budget Committee and reactivated his neighborhood association. He told the City Club audience that commercial growth would help ensure future budgets don’t have a shortfall, as the last budget did.
“So what we need is that property growth, that development. And it comes with not only an increase in the tax base, but also the new jobs that our community needs,” he said.
He added that growth is needed because cuts are not an option.
“We have already cut everything that is vaguely comfortable to cut,” said Pruce-Zimmerman. "We are at a place where every single time we talk about what to cut next, the conversations are going to be really, really hard. Are we cutting into our public safety net even further when fire hasn't increased its [full time equivalent staffing] since 1981? That's not an acceptable option to me. Are we cutting our cultural services and our library budgets that are what makes Eugene such a great place to be.”
Evans said there are also some places where services can be delivered differently, moving them out of the city’s budget and saving money by sharing costs with other municipalities.
“There should be a Lane County library, that makes sense,” he said. “We can reduce the cost of administrative overhead, and we're trying to do the same thing with the merger of the fire departments.”
On housing, Pruce-Zimmerman said Eugene’s problems are an issue of supply and demand, pointing to a city that was known for its high housing prices during a recent boom.
“If you can build enough housing, prices do come down,” he said. "Some communities like Austin [Texas] have shown that there's a couple tools in their toolbox we could borrow that we haven't used yet.”
Evans said the country as a whole is not subsidizing affordable housing as much as it should, which is causing a problem for lower-income residents.
“Everything right now is market driven, and what we have to do is we have to make sure that the market and the playing field is more level than it is,” he said.
Evans said Eugene’s tools to get affordable housing built aren’t enough to do the job, and more tools may be needed.
