I found last week’s column in the Emerald to be quite entertaining (“Let’s have a ‘COW’ about downtown redevelopment, ODE, Feb. 1), though the future of our downtown is no laughing matter. It is understandable that someone would come up with an acronym like “COW” for the development group Connor, Woolley and Opus. After all, they are big developers, and they have been sitting on empty buildings downtown for quite sometime now. Has COW earned the trust of the public? I don’t think so. Also, the basic, blocky computer-generated model presented to the public is not the best of tools to provide us with an accurate sense of what the development would look (or feel) like. But the author only preaches to the choir with this opinion piece about protecting the “local charm” of downtown Eugene.
Most would agree that downtown Eugene needs help. It is true the COW wants to “graze up” the only existing businesses that are actually doing well downtown. These include mainly bars, which are open at night. By day, most of Broadway looks like a ghost town. It sits void of foot traffic, with only empty shops, vomit and trash on the sidewalks from the previous night’s debaucheries. Sure, we should keep these bars (and nightlife) going – it’s part of Eugene. But let’s balance them out with businesses that will bring people downtown during the day. I agree that way to do this may not be the way of the COW. I don’t think Eugene necessarily wants its core identity to be based on the tenants that would come with the proposed project.
The author argues that Luckey’s is the home of $1 Jack Daniels, and goes on to ask, “What money can the COW pull in for Eugene that we can’t?” The answer is: a lot more. Eugene has proven that it can’t survive on dollar whiskey, hence the large unemployment rate and homeless population.
Given these factors, what do we do now? You can’t just hate the COW, you have to get creative. Maybe the public shows up at city council meetings in large numbers. Maybe the city negotiates incentives with the Opus group to do more piecemeal redevelopment, involving the empty buildings they own.
Perhaps the COW gets built around the corner, if ORI doesn’t get its building by the library. That would leave our main strip for other local, unique businesses, and we would still have the revenue generated by the larger stores.
Sure, construction isn’t fun, and the city will have to shell out some cash, but the stitching back together of Eugene will take time, inconvenience and money. We should pay attention to Portland: They’ve accomplished what people thought wouldn’t be possible in the past three decades. The city of Eugene needs to come up with a cohesive, holistic vision and not let the COW step on its toes. The city has great resources to call upon – such as the University planning and architecture departments – in discovering the possibilities for future development.
 

Kelly Shifflett lives in Eugene