Bow To Your Overlords

Christian Hill said in his September Register-Guard report that the city 2020 Town Square Project was estimated at $14 million. Now, it’s $25 million without a new City Hall. Wow!

So our city design planner tells Lane County Commissioners that the city has only half the cash on hand right now. But if they keep their fingers crossed, they might fill the cookie jar with “opportunities for private funds, state funds, federal funds, grants and things like that.”

Things like that. Not from a bond measure, for sure. All this just to impress the track-and-field visitors that we don’t live in the ’60s anymore.

So sure, go for it! What could go wrong? Design it and the money will come. A [City Manager Jon] Ruiz legacy moment, with the team still in place. Twenty-five million dollars. That’s locked in right? No bids yet, but “things like that” never change.

This will cost more than the first failed City Hall plan. City Hall No. 2 will follow the Town Square failure, I predict.

The continuing fantasy world of the City Manager’s office, a weak City Council and County overlords. 

Spencer Johnson

Eugene