Join BEST in a walk along Franklin July 27

from Claire Roth, Better Eugene Springfield Transportation

BEST is inviting people and businesses to share their perspectives on how well Franklin Boulevard is functioning for everyone today.

BEST will be taking a firsthand look Thursday, July 27 with a walk along Franklin, starting from UO Transportation Services, 1401 Walnut St., at 9:30 a.m.

BEST invites the public to join us as we walk, observe, and share with each other what we see.

Before reaching conclusions on what makes sense on Franklin Boulevard, BEST wants to hear all points of view. A short poll is available online at best-oregon.org/Franklin. A listening session in August will allow people to drop in and voice their views.

Executive Director Rob Zako said BEST’s goal is to understand the full range of public opinion. He quoted Abraham Lincoln: “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.”

The City of Eugene is planning to transform Franklin Boulevard from an auto-focused state highway to a pleasant, multi-modal urban street that is safe for people walking, biking, riding the bus, and driving.

To encourage greater participation, people who respond to the poll will be entered to win a $25 or $50 gift card to Market of Choice.

BEST is an independently-funded 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization. Its mission is to build a successful community by bringing people together to promote transportation options, safe streets, and walkable neighborhoods. Learn more at best-oregon.org.

Abraham Lincoln at Ottowa, Aug. 31, 1858: “…Then what is necessary for the nationalization of slavery? It is simply the next Dred Scott decision. It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under the constitution can exclude it; just as they have already decided that under the Constitution neither Congress nor Territorial Legislature can do it. When that is decided and acquiesced in; the whole thing is done. This being true, and this being the way, as I think, that slavery is to be made national, let us consider what Judge Douglas is doing every day to that end. In the first place, let us see what influence he is exerting on the public sentiment. In this and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. Consequently he who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes possible or impossible to be executed.”