UO – Page 2

Join us for the start of another great LiveMove Speaker Series. They will be kicking off the year with a social hour and presentation on “Creating a Balanced Transportation System” from Ronald Tamse of the Netherlands.

Tamse is an engineer and city planner for the City of Utrecht. He specializes in traffic education and safety and will focus on discussing three forms of a balanced transportation system:

1) Balance between engineering, education and enforcement.
2) Engineering balance between the use of commercial and residential streets within a bike system.
3) Balance between bikes, walking, transit and driving to give people travel options.

The event will be at the UO Knight Library in “The Browsing Room” (Rm 106) on Thursday, Oct. 20th. Social Hour is from 5:30-6:30pm and his presentation is 6:30-7:30pm. Light hors d’oeuvres will be provided. See you there!

via Allen Hancock and Connecting Eugene

Taken from the South Bank path near the originally-proposed ORI site

After more than two years of hard work we have succeeded in keeping a large private office building and parking lot off the banks of the Willamette River! The Board of Higher Education recently approved a lease for an alternate site–a crucial decision virtually ensuring that the ORI building won’t be constructed on the riverfront. See recent articles in the Register Guard from July 2, July 7, and July 9 for details.

Connecting Eugene had been recommending this site for the ORI building for a long time because it not only protects the riverfront but it will also maximize collaboration between other tenants in the the Research Park and save taxpayer money because utilities and infrastructure won’t have to be extended. This is a win for everyone in Eugene!

As a community, we now have the opportunity to create a safe and convenient connection from the river bike path to the UO by way of the new Alder Street bicycle boulevard, protect the riparian zone, remediate polluted soils, and we can design a landscape that integrates with the neighboring EWEB redevelopment.

We couldn’t have done it without you! A big thank you to everyone who attended meetings, wrote e-mails or letters to the editor, chalked messages on the bike path, generously gave money, testified at city hall, helped proofread press releases, or simply gave us encouragement. And let’s give thanks to all the people who worked to protect this land in the 80s and 90s as well.

As wonderful as this news is, the future of the riverfront is still uncertain. The plan that guides riverfront development will expire in 2012 and UO President Lariviere has pledged to initiate a community-wide conversation on how this land should be used. When the time comes, we will need to make sure that the concerns of bicyclists and pedestrians be heard.

Until then, the student government (ASUO) has generously provided funds to bring speakers to Eugene who can offer examples of innovative riverfront design and engage the campus and wider community in imagining how the Willamette riverfront might best serve the University and residents of Eugene for many years to come.

We’ll keep you posted.