Juan Carlos Valle Founding president of The League of United Latin American Citizens of Lane County
My dream for Glenwood is to be an iconic area that connects both Eugene and Springfield cities.
A destination point where a beautiful riverfront public access and a convention center harmonize and complement each other.
I dream of a Glenwood to tell a story of an ugly duck turned into a beautiful swan where vibrant, multigenerational and diverse socioeconomic neighbors live, work and play — a place where starting and ending points are for an east-west marathon from city to city and where a mini-Olympics with a torch all starts and ends.
I dream of Glenwood with vast infrastructure where a natural park, an outdoor concert hall and a water park is weaved in the fabric of the community. A place known for bringing families together and where health and fitness mini-conferences take place every year.
I dream of Glenwood as a place where community leaders lend their support, their talent and invest in the future of young adults. Leaders would have multiple visits to the newly opened bilingual elementary school and enjoy a concert by young adults graduating from Glenwood’s academy of arts and music.
I dream of a courageous and visionary Glenwood to have opened the first-ever art and music museum for all.
Bob Keefer Writer, photographer and editor of EugeneArtTalk.com
I’d like to live in a community that takes full advantage of the fact we’re sitting astride one of the most beautiful rivers of North America. Neither Eugene nor Springfield seems to realize this, and in both cities you can be practically on top of the Willamette River before you have any sense of its bucolic presence.
Glenwood is the place to start. It’s an amazing stretch of land bordering the river, right smack between the two downtowns. Let’s turn Glenwood into something public, park-like and built — there’s room for all three things to happen there.
And, of course, Glenwood would be an excellent place for a new visual art center — something on the scale of the Hult Center, serving not just Eugene and Springfield but all of Lane County.
Ephraim Payne Development and Communications director, BRING
Imagine a Glenwood reborn, a vibrant hub connecting Eugene and Springfield to each other and the Willamette River. Centrally located, with BRT service and a riverfront bike path, Glenwood offers micro-commutes to the university district and downtown Springfield and a short commute to downtown Eugene. This unsung neighborhood has enormous potential as a model for the future of sustainable urban communities.
How do we build this dream? Let’s start with an environmentally sound waterfront for a centerpiece — an urban park with nature-walks and restored riparian zones. We’ll add in smart, mixed-use development, weaving together affordable multi-family housing and sustainable businesses. Walkability and cycling-friendly streets are part of the plan, as are renewable energy infrastructure and watershed-friendly landscaping.
Let’s get transformative — usher public art to center-stage in both civic and private spaces. We’ll add urban agriculture to turn a food desert into a center of local food production.
Glenwood is BRING’s home. We love it for what it is and what it will be. Glenwood’s makeover is a work in progress. Why not aspire to rethink it as a masterwork of sustainable living and commit to the hard work to realize our dream?
Mark Frohnmayer Founder and president of Arcimoto
Big vision idea: A Hyperloop terminal in Glenwood that transports people between Track Town and Portland in 10 minutes for $10 at a tiny fraction of the energy cost of any other form of powered transport.
Shannon Wilson Activist
I dream of being a part of a community and human culture where its inhabitants deliberately acknowledge as well as gives thanks for the daily necessities and luxuries of our modern every day lives, where and how these things are derived, and what measures it has taken to enable us to obtain them with such ease. This would include every component of one’s meal, clean water, beverage, shelter, labor saving appliance, traveling especially airline, material possessions especially the automobile and beauty of the natural community where we live.
I dream this daily acknowledgement, thankful thought, prayer or ritual can be done foregoing invocation of a religion or a deity, if one so chooses.
I dream of a day we as a species collectively and consciously acknowledge the daily showering of gifts that the living planet grants us, leading to a quantum leap of conscience creating the collective action to protect and preserve a functioning biosphere to which we as Homo sapiens cannot survive psychologically nor literally without.
I Dream of The Whit
I Dream of North Eugene
I Dream of the City
I Dream of Kesey Square
I Dream of Staff Picks
A Note From the Publisher
Dear Readers,
The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.
That’s because of you!
Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.
Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.
We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.
And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.
None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.
As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.
Thank you for standing with us!
Publisher
Eugene Weekly
P.S. If you’d like to talk about supporting EW, I’d love to hear from you!
jody@eugeneweekly.com
(541) 484-0519