I am amazed that history continues to repeat itself. 435 River Road is prime real estate for low-impact use. It’s in a floodplain, next to a neighborhood and a park. If all goes as currently planned it will have cheap overdense apartments built upon it, destroying it forever, and then be resold to the highest bidder because of its amazing location. How can we allow this to happen again?
For recent history I refer to the Ecco Apartments. They were designed in a way that encroaches upon and angers everyone through a lack of consideration. This simply makes for unhappiness for the residents as well as the surrounding neighbors. It is short-sighted inconsideration that has no place in a society on the verge of environmental, economic, moral and mental collapse. And it’s happening again at 435 River Road.
Could it be that the City Council, which has control over ordinances and code, has no clear plan or strategy for increasing local jobs, not building in flood plains, maintaining visual privacy, preserving green space along the river or codifying designs that provide space for the type of thoughtful developments that help people coexist with nature? We need these values to be respected as much as the rights of a “low income housing” developer who has made a bad decision for this community.
Many have tried to make the case in rational and reasoned terms to no avail. I encourage us to do something besides watch this go down again. This is not the history that should be repeated.
Juliet A Thompson
Eugene
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.
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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.
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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
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