Letters to the Editor: 10-30-2014
DESPICABLE TACTICS Continue reading
Letters Editor
Author: Letters Editor
Letters to the Editor: 10-23-2014
Eve McConnaughey REMEMBERING EVE Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 10-16-2014
NO BASIS FOR DECISION I attended a work session of the Eugene City Council dealing with options for a new or remodeled City Hall. I had a career in construction, and owned and ran a consulting construction cost-estimating business in Eugene from 1980 to 2003. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 10-9-2014
TOXIC TRAIN HORNS Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 10-2-2014
RED INK LEGACY During a work session, the Eugene City Council — with strong support from Mayor Kitty Piercy — voted 6-2 to demolish City Hall and to construct a new one. In making this truly momentous decision, councilors studied a cost approximation prepared from “conceptual” data provided by the city’s hired architectural firm. How long did the council deliberate over these numbers? Months? Weeks? No. Mere minutes. Would a private citizen so conduct his affairs? Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 9-25-2014
A ONE-TIME GIFT Regarding City Hall, it’s important to understand that steel and concrete are inevitably desirable building materials because they are so structural. Unfortunately, they are also very energy intensive to produce. Therefore, from a standpoint of green building (to say nothing of climate change), concrete and steel should only be used as a last resort and only in the context of extreme building longevity during which the embodied energy costs can “amortize out” over time. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 9-18-2014
NEW LIFE FOR CITY HALL To the mayor and councilors: Most of us who have lived and worked in Eugene since the 1960s remember the “urban renewal” that took the lives of historic structures that should have been updated — no longer “viable,” they said. Let’s build what so-and-so city has built, they lauded. Buildings have come and gone in Eugene — the city is not know for its sympathy to commercial and civic structures (e.g., its history). Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 9-11-2014
MISTAKEN IMPRESSION To the Eugene mayor and council: I’m very much in favor of Eugene building a new City Hall, but I don’t believe you have to waste the present building’s combined economic and historical worth in the process to do it. I also don’t think Eugeneans presently understand or would approve of the total cost commitment of your two-phase, headquarters-hindquarters concept if they did. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 9-4-2014
A NEW CIVIC CENTER As the city has scattered its departments, plans for what is called City Hall have dwindled to an executive suite and council chamber. Such a City Hall might be pretty but it’s hard to think of it as significant, and it occurs to me that the city’s space needs could be satisfied in any typical commercial building. Continue reading
Letters to the Editor: 8-28-2014
NO PLACE FOR INDUSTRY I often disagree with Bob Emmons’ editorial opinions; however, his Viewpoint in the Aug. 21 issue concerning Seavey Loop is right on the money. Based on my years as business development officer for Business Oregon as well as over a decade working on a variety of natural resource and land use issues, I believe Seavey Loop is no place to put industry. The Seavey Loop area is just fine the way it is and it should be left alone. Continue reading