• How do we keep public spaces like the Park Blocks and Kesey Square active, vital places where everyone wants to be any day of the year? The city of Eugene has started a Places for People project, in partnership with Project for Public Spaces, and will be asking the community for input at upcoming events and workshops in October. Events include: “Transforming Public Spaces: Talk and Open House with Fred Kent,” 7:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 13, at the LCC Downtown Campus. At 10 am Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Atrium Lobby, 99 W. 10th Avenue there will be a “placemaking” workshop and tour that the city says will take participants to downtown public spaces and collect feedback. Registration is needed at the website below. There will be “pop-up placemaking stations” 11 am to 1 pm Thursday, Oct. 13, at Kesey Square (Broadway Plaza) and 2 to 4 pm at Bi-Mart, 1680 W. 18th Avenue; Friday, Oct. 14, 8:30 to 10:30 am at Market of Choice, 2580 Willakenzie Road and 5:30 to 8 pm at the Pueblo a Pueblo Festival at Petersen Barn, 870 Berntzen Road. And Saturday, Oct. 15, 8:30 to 11 am, at the Lane County Farmers Market, 8th Avenue and Oak Street, 7 to 8 pm in the Hult Center Lobby, 1 Eugene Center. Finally, you can participate in an online survey at eugene-or.gov/placesforpeople. The city says the public engagement effort will focus on existing public spaces downtown including the Park Blocks, the Plaza at the Hult, Kesey Square and the Library Plaza, as well as the pedestrian paths that link them.
• Latinx Vote 2016 will feature the Latinx community addressing local representatives of this nation’s political parties, according to Phil Carrasco of Grupo Latino de Acción Directa. The event is 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 13, at 145 Straub Hall on the UO campus and will feature Associate Professor Julie Weiss of the Department of History, Lane GOP, Democratic Party of Lane County and the Green Party of Lane County. For more info email gladoflanecounty@gmail.com.
• Starting Oct. 11, the Lane County Circuit Court will implement a Mental Health Court to divert eligible participants from the traditional criminal justice system and provide them support and rehabilitation through comprehensive mental health and co-occurring disorder treatment, education and vocational programs that include resource referrals for housing, childcare, transportation and health care, according to the Lane County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Patty Perlow says in a press release that “Mental Health Court is intended for those people who have a severe and persistent mental illness and have come to the attention of the criminal justice system. We are elated that we finally have the resources in Lane County to make Mental Health Court available.”