ORI building

1/20/2010: I really don’t know anything about local land use decisions. I wish someone who does would start a blog. From the outside, the local decision process seems to involve a few passionate citizens obstructing OK projects because they are not perfect, combined with secrecy, brinksmanship and apocalyptic warnings from developers claiming they will leave town if they don’t get their way. Next iteration everyone takes it up a notch. It’s a broken process that is slowly destroying Eugene. My own ignorant sentiment is that the ORI building should have gone downtown. I still haven’t heard a good explanation for why they can’t use their $5 million in NIH stimulus funding for that, and today’s RG editorial ignores the issue. But now that we are at the brink – if that’s really where we are at – of course good is better than a perfect nothing. UO and Eugene should do everything possible to encourage employers like ORI. Otherwise we hear Sid Leiken has a nice spot available in Springfield. But I do wish the ORI people would stop claiming that we should support this because they will build a bike rack, throw up a few solar cells, and get LEED certification.