(no subject)

[eve_prime]

A few days ago, I referred to our "new building debacle." Here's the story. There's a stretch of land alongside the river where my employer is all set to clean up a private hazardous waste dump, clear out the blackberry brambles, and build our new headquarters. Everything was in order until the university made a mistake on a permit or something, and then suddenly a landscape architecture professor and some of his students decided that what that space really needs instead is a beautiful riverfront park. Starting from their vision and working backwards, then, this guy roused the university senate with a rather histrionic speech: "It is a travesty! It is a tragedy! It is a sacred landscape!" The local media has picked up on this and can't decide whether to portray us as the hapless victims of manipulative developers, or bad guys ourselves. Meanwhile, we're stuck with having invested thousands of hours in our site plans, and there's a $5 million grant on the line, and it's very stressful to the people who have been working hard to make this plan a reality.

So I love this letter to the editor, in yesterday's local paper, from one of our IT staff, Josh Burt:

"Should we hold out for perfect?

"What to do with the old eyesore: Avoid greatness while shooting for perfect?

"As a lifetime resident of Eugene and a graduate of the University of Oregon I have seen many projects come and go, some nice, some not. What bothers me about current events regarding the Riverfront Research Park is that there is a chance to bring in a bundle of government money to develop something beautiful in place of what has long been an eyesore, and will continue to be so for years to come if the UO’s conditional use permit is successfully blocked.

"Let’s face it: No one else has anything lined up. The Eugene Water & Electric Board’s attention and money are focused elsewhere. After a long, fits-and-starts process the Oregon Research Institute and the Educational Policy Research Center have all their ducks in a row to build a very nice LEED silver- or gold-certified building and grounds, with minimal parking lot space, lots of trees and an upgrade to the bike path system. All this in place of a gravel and blackberry-filled dump with no lighting, an awful section of bike path and people sleeping in it. Maybe the ORI/EPIC project will even give EWEB a little push forward on cleaning up its dump.

"The plan espoused by Connecting Eugene looks OK on paper, if a bit grandiose, but where’s the funding? Shall we keep the existing eyesore for another 10 years while we fight it out? I don’t see Phil Knight* ponying up for any parks."

*Nike founder Phil Knight buys fancy new buildings for the university right and left, but of course, only for projects that interest him.