With election day just one day away, the Daily Emerald has profiled each city council candidate running in the 2024 election in Ward 1 election. 
Ward 2 profiles can be found here. 

Ethan Clevenger

Hometown: Quincy, Ill. 

Educational background: B.S. Drake University 

Occupation: 

• Founder of web design company, Sterner Stuff

• Founder of men’s clothing store, Porterhouse Clothing and Supply 

Current position: None 
Clevenger said he hopes to use his business experience to foster a more business-friendly downtown Eugene.

Ted Coopman

Hometown: Santa Cruz, Calif. 

Educational background: B.A. Fresno State University, M.S. San José State University, Ph.D University of Washington 

Occupation: Emeritus faculty, San José State University

Current position: None 
Coopman has lived in Eugene since 2016 after moving from California. He has served as chair of the Jefferson Westside Neighbors Association. He said his main priorities include improving economic development and public safety in Ward 1.  

Eliza Kashinsky 

Hometown: Washington, D.C area 

Educational background: B.A. State University of New York at Albany 

Occupation: Senior Management Analyst 

Current position: Eugene Budget Commission/Lane County Planning Commission 
Kashinsky said she is looking to win election in Ward 1 after losing to current council member Emily Semple in the 2020 elections. Kashinsky currently serves on the Eugene Budget Commission and is a strong advocate for  affordable housing. 
The Daily Emerald presented all candidates with the same list of questions during interviews. In randomized order, here is how the candidates responded to questions concerning a few of Eugene’s pressing issues:

How big of a priority is bringing a hospital back to Eugene? Does Riverbend hospital in Springfield suffice? 

Clevenger:
Clevenger acknowledged that bringing a hospital back to Eugene could be a long process. In the meantime, Clevenger said he hopes to bring what he describes as “small-box” medicine to Eugene. This would include more urgent care and primary care, Clevenger said. 
Clevenger described the PeaceHealth system as having a monopoly on the Eugene-Springfield area and said he hopes “small-box” providers could help with easing the burden of the University District hospital closure. 
“I do think that ‘small-box’ healthcare is going to be part of that moving forward. I hear that from folks in the nonprofit space who work in healthcare, that sort of like boots on the ground level. They also see that as being part of the future of healthcare in our community,” Clevenger said. 
Coopman:
“Even though PeaceHealth is a nonprofit, it’s still a business, and they’re gonna make their calculation based on what they think is going to advantage them as far as business is concerned,” Coopman said. 
Coopman also suggested a shift toward more urgent care-based healthcare, citing what he said will be hundreds of millions of dollars to repair University District.
“This might be an opportunity to really kind of look at that as far as making more and better facilities instead of centralization,” Coopman said.
Kashinsky:
“I was very upset when I heard the hospital was leaving. I think that it’s going to take a lot of collaboration and a lot of work to help make sure that the health needs [of] Eugene are being met,” Kashinsky said.
Kashinsky said that the city council needs to take both a long-term approach toward finding permanent solutions as well as a short-term solution to bringing accessible healthcare to Eugene. 

What are your top priorities for Ward 1?

Kashinksy: 
Kashinsky said her top priority is to decrease the housing shortages in Eugene, and her other priorities include addressing homelessness in Eugene.  
“I spent about five years working on [accessory dwelling units], and getting barriers to adu’s out of our zoning code [ . . . ]they’re a good way to create small-scale housing or a community that provides a home for people,” she said.
Kashinksy said she also helped to make more housing in Eugene via “middle-housing,” which refers to the concept of having multi-occupant housing modes as opposed to single-family homes. Kashinsky said that more middle-housing in the forms of duplexes and triplexes could help to create more housing opportunities throughout Eugene. 
“The housing costs are sort of a longer term solution; we also need to be working very closely with our partners at the county to really address because they’re our mental health provider for the community. They do a lot of the social service and mental health work,” Kashinsky said.
Kashinsky further said that connecting people to mental health and substance abuse treatment is crucial to “preventing homelessness in the first place”.
Clevenger:
Clevenger said his top priority is to revitalize downtown Eugene.
Clevenger said downtown Eugene has struggled after the Covid-19 pandemic with fewer people working and living downtown. He said he hopes to improve downtown Eugene by adding more housing to make downtown Eugene a “dense residential” space. 
He also said that he wants to make more “welcoming” spaces downtown, too. 
“You can go to the park blocks downtown in an afternoon and the crowd that’s there is not a crowd that makes that space welcoming for other people; they’re not held to the expectations we have for people in a public space,” Clevenger said. 
Coopman: 
Coopman said his top priority is “dealing” with homelessness, mental health and drug addiction. He said his other priority is working on how crime is handled in Eugene. 

“As far as homelessness is concerned, we have a massive shortage of housing, and that’s tough for the city to deal with because it’s really not within our purview,” Coopman said.  “The county is tasked with creating affordable housing as well as dealing with homelessness and mental health and drug addiction.”
Coopman said he hopes to further collaborate with Lane County to use both county and city resources to create more housing and shelter opportunities for unhoused individuals.  With an increased amount of housing, Coopman said, the city will then be able to disallow camping including in tents, cars and RVs, which he described as “unsafe” and “unsanitary” conditions. 
Coopman said that there is a “lack of incentive” for people to not commit crimes in Eugene. He said he hopes that a local jail will help deter quality of life crimes by providing “incentive” for criminals “to not do things they shouldn’t do.” 
“Quality of life” crimes typically refer to non-violent, petty crimes such as theft, burglary, trespassing and vandalism.  
“The biggest problem we have right now is the inability to really prosecute quality of life crimes,” Coopman said. “These are some issues that we need to try to grasp as a community because right now, there are very few consequences for people who are actually engaged in that behavior, and part of that goes down to the fact that Eugene does not have a jail.”

What makes you best fit to address the complex challenges you priorly mentioned? 

Coopman:

“I just think that we need to, as a city, [ . . . ]do fewer things better,” Coopman said. 
Coopman went on to highlight the differences between himself and his opponents. 

 Coopman, who moved to Ward 1 in 2016 from California, said that he was better fit than his opponent, Ethan Clevenger, who Coopman alleges moved to Ward 1 in December 2023 for the purpose of running for office. 
“Could he [Clevenger] be a good city councilor? Maybe, I don’t know. Seems like a nice guy. I don’t know him. But I know he doesn’t know the neighborhood very well,” Coopman said.
Coopman said that his other opponent, Eliza Kashinsky, is too focused on housing. 
“For [Kashinsky], housing is like tax cuts for Republicans; it’s the answer to everything,” Coopman said. 
Clevenger:

As a small business owner in Eugene, Clevenger said he feels he would best connect with the Eugene business community, which will help improve Ward 1. 
“As the candidates for this race solidified, I see things that I get excited about. But what I didn’t see was a candidate that I felt was going to be able to kind of reach across to some of these partners we’re gonna need in our community, and that’s something that I think I bring to the table,” Clevenger said. 
Kashinsky: 
Kashinsky cited her prior experience working on the Eugene Budget Committee when describing why she is best fit for Ward 1. 
“I think that my background and my experience of just sort of my personality is one that allows me to do that work in a way  that would be very beneficial to the world and to the city,” she said. 
Primary elections for the state of Oregon occur tomorrow, May 21. There will be a runoff election in November if no candidate secures 50% of the vote. 
Editor’s Note: The Emerald did not receive a courtesy photo from Coopman, which the the reason why he is not seen pictured in this article. Candidates for Ward 7, Lyndsie Leech and Barbie Walker, did not respond to the Emerald’s requests for an interview. Ward 8 council member Randy Groves is running for re-election unopposed.