Pushing Back on Cars

Posted on November 19, 2019 by Gary Haliski

Pushing Back on Cars
Presentation by Jan Spencer
Tuesday, Dec 3, 6:30
River Road Recreation Center, 1400 Lake Drive

A growing number of cities and towns all over the world are pushing back on cars. Parklets, Intersection Repair, community plazas, congestion pricing, redesign of streets and limiting cars and trucks from city centers are only a few push back approaches. Nijmegen and Groningen, Holland; Copenhagen, Oslo and Madrid can boast of impressive strategies – and results – for encouraging bike, walking or transit trips rather than cars.  Barcelona, Spain’s Super Blocks is perhaps the world’s most ambitious effort at car push back to reclaim streets for people, public health and livability.  Even New York City is active in pushing back on cars.

The slide show/presentation will touch on the history of pushing back on cars in the US, describing highways in the US that have been removed such as the Embarcadero Freeway in San Francisco and highways prevented such as the Southwest Corridor in Boston.  Critical Mass bike rides and Parking Day are grass roots examples of pushing back on cars.  Eugene’s Sunday Streets is a mild push back on cars.

Times Square in NYC is only the most well know example of dozens of Community Plazas in New York City.  The Vauban Neighborhood in Freiberg, Germany is a vacated, repurposed, redeveloped French military base that was purposefully designed to dramatically reduce the presence and use of cars.  In Eugene, turning River Road into an EmX corridor would also include new bike lane design that would give bike riders much greater protection from car traffic.

Jan will also show a new proposed bike map of Eugene that would take lanes of traffic from various streets and turn them into a city wide network of protected bike ways.

Please join us for a fascinating presentation and please forward this message.

More info at suburbanpermaculture.org  and podcasts with related content  https://player.whooshkaa.com/shows/creating-a-resilient-future

Posted in Transportation | Leave a comment

Emergency Preparedness – 2 Weeks Ready

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Gary Haliski

The earthquake is coming! The earthquake is coming!  We hear it all the time. 

Picture of freeway collapse after Los Angeles earthquake.
1994, Los Angeles, California, USA — Original caption: Los Angeles, California: Earthquake Aftermath. — Image by © David Butow/Corbis
Creative Commons – “AAFG001347” by kellyb.flanagan is licensed under CC PDM 1.0

According to the experts the Cascadia earthquake, a potential 9.0 earthquake, is likely anytime in the next 30 to 50 years. Whether it is an earthquake, storms, floods, fires, or other type of emergency each requires differing levels of preparation. As seen in places where disasters have taken place, it can take weeks to restore homes, neighborhoods, and cities. Will you be ready to be on your own for 2 weeks without power? Most importantly, being prepared to take care of ourselves allows responders to spend more time addressing major damage such as bridge collapse, fires, and utility disruption. Helping your neighbors prepare, especially the elderly and medically fragile, will reduce the impact of disasters to you and your neighbors.

There are a great number of resources available to assist us in preparing for an emergency. The 2 Weeks Ready information is available at the following sites: https://www.facebook.com/2WeeksReady/ and https://www.oregon.gov/oem/hazardsprep/Pages/2-Weeks-Ready.aspx

An additional site is: https://www.ready.gov/  Searching the internet will provide many additional sites to help you prepare.

The Santa Clara Community Organization (SCCO) will be providing additional information via email, the SCCO website and Facebook pages. To receive the emails, open the SCCO web page at https://santaclaracommunity.org/scco/ enter your email address and click Subscribe.

Posted in Emergency Preparedness | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Still time to take the Planning Survey – survey closes Nov 24

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Gary Haliski

We had a great Planning Meeting last Wednesday with over 150 people attending. Neighborhood leaders presented overviews of the five topic areas:

  • Land Use
  • Economic Development
  • Parks & Natural Resources
  • Transportation
  • Community

You can still provide input by completing a survey. You can complete the survey for all five topics or you can pick an individual topic for which you want to provide feedback. Below are examples of the kind of information you can comment on in the survey.

The above image of the LTD property can be found in the Transportation portion of the survey. There is also a section on what types of street standards we should have in our community. Click on image to go to survey.
The above image can be found in the Land Use section of the survey. You can provide input on building heights, setbacks and other land use issues. Click on image to go to survey.

Please take the time to complete a portion or all of the survey. Remember, the survey closes November 24.

Posted in Beaver-Hunsaker & Multi Use Path, General Interest, Land Use Planning, LTD Transit Station, Parks - Dog Parks, RR-SC Neighborhood Plan, Santa Clara Community Garden, Transportation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Quick Glance Chart for Wednesday’s Planning Meeting

Posted on November 10, 2019 by Gary Haliski

Pumpkin Pie & Planning Meeting
This Wednesday, Nov 13
5:30-8PM
North Eugene High School, 200 Silver Lane

We apologize for the small font size, but the above highlights will be reviewed at the planning meeting. Please attend. You’ll get a lot of detail about the above highlights and you’ll be able to provide your input.

Posted in General Interest | Leave a comment

Posted on November 9, 2019 by Gary Haliski

Today’s Register-Guard has a guest opinion column co-authored by one of our board members, Ann Vaughn.

Here’s an excerpt form the article:

“For the past two years, residents of River Road and Santa Clara neighborhoods have been working together to protect what we love most about our neighborhoods while preparing for growth and inevitable change. Going back even further, the two neighborhood associations have spent the last 15-plus years gathering input about our neighborhoods, what we should protect and where we can improve.

In 2017, River Road and Santa Clara community organizations partnered with the City of Eugene and Lane County to launch the Neighborhood Plan process. Over 400 people came to the kickoff meeting at North Eugene High School. Our neighbors care deeply about their community and have been at the center of the planning process every step of the way.

We began with a “reaching out” phase, where teams of volunteers knocked on doors, convened home meetings, visited every local business, met our neighbors at grocery stores, food pantries, schools and events in our parks. Using this information, we began to see a structure for organizing the ideas — five distinct topic areas with a vision, goals, policies and a unique set of challenges and opportunities.

Together, we built a draft action plan that, implemented over time, will manifest our vision for our neighborhoods:”

For the rest of the editorial, please visit the Register-Guard editorial page. The column continues with short overviews of the five key areas we have been focusing on: Community, Land Use, Park & Rec, Transportation and Economic Development.

Please attend our Planning Event November 13. We will be reviewing proposed action steps that have been developed by incorporating input from citizen volunteers. The action plan is the last major step in creating this neighborhood plan, so we want to hear from as many people as possible to make sure we get it right. Come connect with neighbors while learning about what’s happening in your neighborhood!

Enjoy free refreshments, harvest-themed activities and a chance to win raffle prizes from local stores and farmers. This event is an opportunity for anyone who lives, works, and plays in River Road and Santa Clara to join in the planning process, meet new friends, and enjoy the bounty of the season.

Posted in General Interest | Leave a comment