Sustainable designer asks city to consider reuse

A sustainable designer urges the city to consider reuse when addressing the housing crisis. With public comment to the Eugene City Council in September and October:

Curtis Blankinship (Sept. 9, 2024): Hi, I’m Curtis Blankenship, Springfield, Oregon. I’ve paid taxes here since 1985 in Lane County and I’d like to see my tax dollars better used, especially with these zombie properties that we have around town, especially commercial properties.

[00:00:25] There’s less zombie properties since the 2008 housing crisis, but there’s still a lot of them around and it lowers all our property values and lowers our tax revenue here.

[00:00:35] And so, what I’d like to see is a tax break given to zombie property owners, commercial and homeowners, the private owners of those properties, to let them be temporary shelters for the homeless.

[00:00:48] I have a degree in sustainable design and I can tell you, you can put incinerating toilets in these properties for temporary shelters and on-demand water heaters. And those can be used in conjunction with an urban forest. You can use the ashes from the incinerating toilets for an urban forest.

[00:01:03] It’s very expensive, I know, to make work-live units in the downtown area, it would be expensive to convert those. But here’s a way to do this temporarily while we come up with the money to convert those to work-live units.

[00:01:15] Some of them are owned by banks and private equity firms, and this amounts to a subsidy to banks and private equity firms. And Walmart, too. You guys you voted to put three Walmarts in this town, and that has sucked the business out of the downtown area. I don’t want my tax dollars used to subsidize multinational corporations, private equity firms, and banks.

[00:01:37] What I’ve heard is a judge can appoint a receiver for these bank-owned properties that they just let go into disrepair. So, that can be done, and I went to the Planning Commission open house, and they’re saying that you could appoint a third-party nonprofit to run these things.

[00:01:52] And, furthermore, one more thing is, you can go to your mayor’s councils and your city council groups and go to the governor and urge that our tax dollars be used instead of for war, be used for homeless issues. And that’s what I’d like to see done with my tax dollars: Less money given to war, and more for the homeless and social justice issues.

[00:02:12] Councilor Matt Keating: The zombie properties piece: Curtis, you’re still here, thank you for bringing that up. I find it intriguing. However, I’ve been champing at the bit to see a vacancy tax, that, if there’s a property that is a derelict or vacant property that is a blight or being misued, becomes a danger in the neighborhood, whether its commercial or residential, I would actually like, rather than you’re advocating for a tax break, I would like to see a tax increase, especially if those property owners are out of state, I’d like to see a tax increase and have those funds go toward the affordable housing trust fund.

[00:02:53] But. I think we’re speaking the same language, though we’re coming at it a little differently. I appreciate the opportunity to share with you my point of view tonight.

[00:03:05] Curtis Blankinship (Oct. 14, 2024): Hi Curtis Blankenship, Springfield, Oregon.

[00:03:08] I just want to talk about the boulders that we’ve put under the freeway overpasses. You know, in Los Angeles for years, since I grew up in Los Angeles, I’ve lived here off and on since 1994, but in Los Angeles, since I was a kid, under the freeway overpasses have been used, they rent them out temporarily to RV storage and they’ll have plant nurseries there under the freeway overpasses. Have you thought of, could you please use those for some, maybe put some homeless people’s RVs to live in temporarily underneath the freeway overpasses.

[00:03:42] Instead of just putting boulders under there because to me I have nothing against the—I’ve heard good things about the city manager, but to me it looks to me like you have some kind of relationship with the quarry contractor or the cement contractor because, and you know, we have tourism in this town.

[00:03:56] What does that say to people, ‘Oh, Eugene has a novel solution to people living under the freeways.’ You know, people aren’t stupid, they know what those boulders are for and they’re not even landscaped, although clever idea.

[00:04:11] The other thing is, and again, I have nothing against the city manager, but the other thing is, you know, I’ve paid taxes up here since 1985 and like I say, I’ve been up and down up here, off and on, since then. And you know, the Wells Fargo building, it used to be the First Interstate Building downtown. I’ve always looked at that thing.

[00:04:28] Can we put the parking, just the parking structure under there, can we use it for a Warming Center? The parking structure underneath the Wells Fargo building, you have the bathrooms down there in downtown for the Saturday Market. I noticed you just moved them off, but there’s already a homeless presence down there.

[00:04:44] Let’s get people out of the cold this winter under the Wells Fargo, the former Wells Fargo building.

[00:04:49] It’s always been some issue with that building. As long as I’ve been here, there’s always some weird issue with the Wells Fargo / First Interstate Bank building. All right, I’ll give up my time, thanks.

[00:04:58] John Q: With questions for the city manager:

[00:05:02] Councilor Randy Groves: City Manager, just confirming that under the overpasses, that’s ODOT property with the major highways? And that’s ODOT that’s put the rocks in there?

[00:05:12] City Manager Sarah Medary: On many of them, correct.

[00:05:15] Councilor Randy Groves: Thank you.

[00:05:18] Councilor Alan Zelenka: Have we put any rocks under overpasses?

[00:05:21] City Manager Sarah Medary: Yeah… and I would have to check with staff to see which ones, but I think there are some locations that in the past we have done that.

[00:05:30] John Q: Recommendations from sustainable designer Curtis Blankinship to remove the boulders, and convert vacant commercial space to housing, starting with the underground parking at the old Wells Fargo building.