[SEN-D] Please be sure to vote!

[Kevin Matthews]

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

There's only a little over a day left to get in your vote in our current election, which includes (among other things) two particularly important planning-related issues.

1)  In the City of Eugene, Measure 20-134 would authorize a large expansion and extension of capture time for Urban Renewal funding in downtown Eugene.  Once authorized, these diverted tax dollars could then be spent with little additional public process.  

Ironically, both sides in the debate over this measure want to see more redevelopment in downtown Eugene!  Fixing downtown is not the question here.  Few if any are satisfied with our downtown the way it is today, with big holes in the ground (thanks in part to our own city government!) and boarded up buildings.   

The real questions here are about how much more to tear down and rebuild all at once, how much to subsidize manipulative real estate tycoons downtown, and how much real bottom-line say to give the public in how redevelopment proceeds.  If you're concerned about these factors - if you put more faith in gradual, thoughtful, sustainable,  building-by-building, block-by-block, locally-controlled repair and improvement of downtown - if you share my skepticism of the blockbuster big-project mentality of too many planners and out-of-down developers - then please join me in voting No on City Measure Measure 20-134.

2)  At the state level, Measure 49 is desperately needed to block the most disastrous side-effects of the previous so-called property rights legislation, Measure 37.  49 isn't perfect, but it is truly our one big outstanding chance left for avoiding the worst inequities of 37.

Measure 49 needs our Yes votes to help preserve as much as we can of Oregon's beautiful, irreplaceable countryside.


Early returns show low voter turnout in this election.  If you've already voted, however you've voted, thanks, and congratulations!  Ironically, such low turnout means every vote counts higher in terms of its proportional impact.  In a sense, this election is likely to be decided by what groups of people get in their votes.

I hope the great citizens of south Eugene will be high among them!

So please, as they maybe used to say in Chicago, "vote early, and vote often..."  ;-)

with best wishes,

Kevin Matthews



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