City planners, mayors, business leaders and transportation experts from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia came together Tuesday afternoon for the annual Cascadia conference and discussed the major economic and planning issues for the two states and province and how to best deal with them.
The Discovery Institute, a non-profit and non-partisan think tank based in Seattle, started the Cascadia Project in 1993 to coordinate efforts for the mutual benefit of the entire region.
The conference will continue through today at the Eugene Hilton and is open to the public for a registration fee of $35.
Mayor Jim Torrey participated in a panel discussion on the state of the Cascadia Project region. Torrey said Eugene owes much of its prosperity to being at the terminus of the vital Interstate 5 and rail corridors that link the Cascadia region.
“I’m a manager of a city that prides itself on retaining the quality of life,” he said. “The Cascadia group is one of the major reasons why we’ll retain the quality in the future.”
While acknowledging the benefits of being linked to the region by rail, Torrey said area leaders need to ensure that younger generations begin to look at railroads as a travel option.
“Young people do not have the connection to the heritage of railroads,” he said. “Think about my grandchildren, all four of them. Only one has been on a train.”
Not only did Torrey remark on the vital connection between north and south, he added that Oregon needs to ensure that its eastern and southern counties receive the benefits of the region as well. He said the best option for this would be to initiate stronger relations with Idaho.
“We should make an initial connection between Salem and Boise,” he said.
Railroads are an issue for the region. During the conference, many leaders said it’s hard for civic leaders to convince the region’s environmentally conscious voters of the need for new multi-lane highways.
Jim RePass, president of the National Corridor Initiative, a Washington, D.C., railroad lobbying group, said cities need to realize “highways may be a wonderful thing, but they’re not the only thing.”
He said the Cascadia areas have “helped pull together the greatest regional railroad success” he had seen in the nation, but needed to press harder for more railroad funds.
University President Dave Frohnmayer will give a talk about the High Speed Rail Act during the morning session of the conference Wednesday, which runs from 8:30 to 10:15 a.m. The act, currently before the U.S. House of Representatives, would give tax credits for the expansion of rail service.
Mike Burton, Metro executive officer for Portland, talked about transportation issues for major cities. He said that city planners and elected officials need to talk to residents like they were “sitting down to breakfast,” so the complex issues of city transportation models could be clearly conveyed to them. He used how city residents view traffic as an example.
“No one wakes up in the morning and says ‘we have a growth problem, we need to solve the growth problem,’ they say ‘How much time do I need to take the kids to soccer practice,’” Burton said.
He said that cities need to focus on “non-road improvements” like streetcars and light-rail systems to avoid congestion and auto pollution.
Participants spoke at length about environmental issues that affect the region. On Tuesday afternoon, speakers held a discussion on the “greening” of Eugene and Lane County that was moderated by John Baldwin of the University Institute for Sustainable Environment. Karyn Kaplan, recycling program manager for the University, gave a speech on adding sustainability to recycling efforts.