Eugene mayoral candidate Douglas Barr. (Tarek Anthony/Emerald)
Listen to our interview with writer Tarek Anthony about his coverage of the mayoral campaigns:
Eugene mayoral candidate Douglas Barr, a FOOD for Lane County driver, has lived in the community for decades.
A resident of the Bethel district, Barr, 59, has been involved in various community organizations. In 2020, he ran for city council in Ward 7, where he lost to incumbent Claire Syrett.
Barr is also a convicted felon, he shared with the Daily Emerald. Upon further review, the Emerald found that in 1984 at age 19, Barr was involved in a self-described hate crime — referred to as “gay bashing” by the prosecution. Barr and three other men were charged of the beating and murder of John O’Connell, 41, a man who they believed to be bisexual.
Barr’s three co-conspirators were convicted of second-degree murder in the case; however, Barr was found not guilty in the murder, court records show.
Barr and his friends assaulted three other men in the same evening in San Francisco, a night prosecutors in the case referred to as a night of “homophobic rage.” Barr pled guilty to assault charges in the other beatings. He was sentenced to seven years in a California prison for his role in the attacks, but ultimately did not serve the full sentence.
After his release, Barr married his wife of 34 years, and said he has “educated” himself, though he did not elaborate on his education.
Barr said he has since “strived to be better,” citing that he has become an active member of the Eugene community. Until 2020, he was an executive board member for his neighborhood association, Active Bethel Community, and recently joined the board of directors at Burrito Brigade, a hunger relief organization.
“We have to give people a second chance, especially if they’re trying to do good. We have to reach back and include them. If they have ideas, we need to know that we need to participate,” Barr said. “[Despite their pasts] we want to uplift them anyway.”
He hopes to convince voters that reform is possible ahead of the upcoming election, but acknowledged that many Eugene residents may be hesitant to vote for him.
“Being mayor a lot of people want to frown upon [me] because I was a felon. [But] do we want to frown? Do we want to stop people who come out of prison, [from] helping our community?” Barr said. “I have a lot of good thoughts about how to cure the homeless. Should I just be on the sidelines and not step up?”
For years after being released from prison, Barr relied on federal disability income. As a result, he lived in Section 8 housing, a subsidized housing program, during which time Barr said he discovered a “little woven network of good-doers” in the Eugene-Springfield area.
Now living elsewhere, Barr has volunteered and worked for the non-profit FOOD for Lane County, in which he collects wasted food from UO dining halls and helps distribute it to Eugene’s homeless population.
If elected, Barr said his top priorities are bringing back a hospital to Eugene and working to solve the city’s extensive homelessness crisis.
Barr said that with Eugene’s city hall moving into the old EWEB building, he wants to rebuild the Riverfront District to be an inclusive community bonding space involving the Mims House, a historic landmark that is widely believed to have housed Eugene’s first Black homeowners.
With permission from the NAACP, Barr wants to rename the area surrounding the new City Hall to “Mims District.”
“I love to uplift people. I love to uplift Eugene. Eugene is in my soul… so what we need is we need to up the culture [where] everybody participates,” Barr said.
Barr is the third candidate to join the Eugene mayoral race after opponents Shanaè Joyce-Stringer and Kaarin Knudson, the latter of whom was endorsed by incumbent mayor Lucy Vinis after she announced she would not seek reelection.
Barr said Vinis’ endorsement for Knudson was premature, and something he attributed to partisanship in what is supposed to be a non-partisan position. If elected, Barr said he wants to remove the partisan bias he sees in Eugene’s government.
Overall, Barr says he has reformed from his past and hopes Eugene residents see beyond his felony conviction and give him a chance to apply his ideas to improve the city. Barr acknowledged the probable pushback he may receive.
“Is Eugene ready for a felon to be mayor? Do I even have a right to be in this field? That’s for the voters [to decide]. We’ll see what they say,” Barr said.
In a follow-up interview with the Emerald, Barr said he wants to be transparent about his past in order to be “the best mayor.”
“It’s a tough felony. It’s a hate crime. So how do we address that? We allow them [the voters] to have the knowledge of the crime,” Barr said. “So am I better? Of course I’m better. Am I doing better? Yes.”
Primary elections in Oregon, including the Eugene mayoral race, will take place on May 21. A runoff will occur on Nov. 5 between the top two candidates if no candidate receives a majority of the vote.
