Lazar Makyadath’s store in the downtown pedestrian mall has weathered the ups and downs of 26 years of business in a location that has seen many others fail.
His store, Lazar’s Bazar, is still doing fine. But others have not been so lucky.
“I have seen at least 25 businesses close here since I opened,” he said. “It’s like a graveyard.”
One of Maykadath’s biggest problems is that since the downtown mall was closed to vehicular traffic, his business has gone downhill while others have folded completely.
“A lot of things are wrong with the mall,” he said. “The streets are closed, which tells customers ‘don’t come in.’”
Makyadath ran for mayor in May, and one of his biggest campaign platforms was pushing for the reopening of the pedestrian mall.
“You have to remove obstacles in order to make this place work again,” he said. “I 100 percent support opening it back up again, and I think other owners do too.”
The problematic downtown mall is just a small piece of a bigger plan that the Eugene City Council is currently working on to resolve livability and growth management issues in the city’s downtown district.
The Downtown-Franklin-Willamette River Visioning Project, as it is officially known, concerns an area that stretches from the Willamette riverfront to 13th Avenue and Lawrence Street and will resolve a number of public planning issues that plague the downtown area.
The project, currently in the early planning stages, would tackle transportation, urban design and methods of increasing economic viability in downtown businesses.
Paul Farmer, planning director for the city manager’s office, said that currently Eugene has no downtown plan, but other large cities have implemented them successfully.
“We need to think about an achievable plan for downtown,” Farmer said.
Farmer also said that questions will be raised about future markets and uses of the downtown area.

One of the biggest decisions to be made by the Visioning Committee, charged with planning the project by the City Council, is what to do with the large, dormant Agripac riverfront property that will become vacant in two years.
The city will take control of the property and its development, and has already declared it an urban renewal area. The City Council voted earlier this year to set aside a portion of the site for a new Federal courthouse.
There are other uses that haven’t been explored yet, but committee members are already salivating over other uses for the property.
Mike Sullivan, Downtown Visioning Project Manager, said that the committee is trying to come up with ways to connect the rest of downtown with the river, and the Agripac site is a perfect place to continue the core of government buildings in the area while pursuing the possibility of a large cultural or recreational venue.
“It should be large in character and magnetic in destination, and even though it will be a difficult transition, if it works from a design or functional perspective we’ll make it happen,” he said.
As for the downtown pedestrian mall, Sullivan said that the committee is looking into the situation but it is only one small part of a very big picture.
Sullivan also said that the city has hired an outside urban design consulting firm to help with the project, and they have “great ideas” about how to fix the problems afflicting the mall.
“Broadway Street is what is known in design circles as a ‘great street,’” he said. “It has a high population density, and has a lot of cars and pedestrians.”
“We have three options for the area: one, we can totally open the street to both cars and pedestrians; two, we can keep it closed; and three, we can arrange a schedule where it is open some times and closed others,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan called for Eugene citizens to attend committee-sponsored community forums to share their visions for the downtown, Franklin Boulevard and riverfront areas.
The first forum will be held June 24 at the Eugene Conference Center at the Eugene Hilton and will begin at 9 a.m.