dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle's blog

Organically, a vibe has begun to take hold. Like baserunners distracting a pitcher to give the hitter a better chance, each success gave the next batter up a boost of confidence. Now we have a vibrant downtown with only a few strategic vacancies. Looking ahead, there are more bases to be loaded.

Removing those vehicles waiting to turn left eliminates most of the “luck” we currently rely on when we navigate Willamette Street. Bad luck is experienced as stress, and that stress is not divided equally among the drivers affected.

If we declare as a community that we will no longer support or subsidize surface parking lots in our city center, we’ll get there that much quicker. We’re already close.

When citizens see value in what’s been built with their tax dollars, everyone wins. The challenge now moves to the designers. Teach a dime to sing like a dollar.

“Perception does not make fact,” said Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy. Except when it does. Mayor Piercy wrestled aloud whether she would support extending the Downtown Exclusion Zone for another two years, as requested by Chief of Police Pete Kerns. The complete quotation, as recorded by Register-Guard reporter Edward Russo, shows the complexity of the mayor’s […]

Let’s make a bus that looks all the world like a train and see if it will attract private development capital. If “bus rapid transit” can attract even one quarter the investments we see with light rail, we’ve more than doubled our leverage of public monies.

It wasn’t exactly “American Idol.” If anything, our goal was to make one Oregonian less idle.

Attainable is the new sustainable. Economic development has shifted its focus from attracting merchants to cultivating employers and entrepreneurs.

For four hours, a downtown street will be open to traffic but closed to cars. The commons will be taken back from automobiles and reclaimed by the people who drive them.

The recipe that drives franchised restaurant growth has very little to do with the food they serve. Their first formula has everything to do with real estate negotiations.