Archives: Forums/Lectures
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
Gifts to the City 2021
December 17, 2021
At the end of every calendar year, City Club of Eugene hosts a program called “Gifts to the City.” An array of people whose community involvement gives them unique perspectives on Eugene are invited to reply to this prompt: “Imagine you have a magic wand. You can use it to …
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
Measure 11 Mandatory Sentences: Repeal, Revise, or Retain
December 10, 2021
Measure 11 is a state law that sets minimum mandatory sentences for certain crimes. It was approved by ballot referendum in 1994 by a nearly two-thirds majority of Oregon voters and went into effect on April 1, 1995. It was reaffirmed by the voters in 2000, but has also undergone …
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Understanding the Local Labor Shortage
December 3, 2021
“Help wanted” signs seem to be permanently affixed to the doors of local establishments. The nightly news headlines focus on the acute lack of skilled workers for good-paying jobs in the region. Hospitals offer top dollar to tempt traveling medical workers to relocate temporarily and beef up woefully short-staffed wards …
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
Hate Crimes: Facts and Fixes
November 19, 2021
No one is born with hate, but it seems more and more people are learning to hate. In the last two months, The Register-Guard, Eugene’s newspaper, had these headlines: “Eugene has spike in bias crimes and incidents;” “Eugene still leads state in reported hate crimes;” “Police arrest man suspected of …
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Finding Fairness in Wages
November 12, 2021
Mainstream and social media are full of critiques of wages. Prominent among them is the claim that wages are too low, especially in Lane County, and that the gap between what basic survival costs and what a person can earn grows ever larger. Furthermore, the distance between the incomes of …
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Seeking Solutions: The State of Our Homelessness Crisis
November 5, 2021
In August 2021, the number of homeless people in Lane County was counted as 3,115—but in that month, only 42 people were moved into housing. The local shelters could provide an additional 851 beds, but 2,222 people had nowhere to go. A circumstance in which 70% of a crisis goes …
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TrackTown Meets the World: What Oregon22 Can Mean for Eugene
October 29, 2021
There is no other place in sports quite like Hayward Field, and no city more in love with the human drama of track and field than Eugene…Every morning it seems this town awakens, puts on its running shoes and heads for the trails that wind through and past the city. …
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Responding to Fires in the Western Cascades
October 22, 2021
2020 was yet another incredible year for wildfires in Western Oregon, with over 1 million acres burned, at least 11 deaths, and the loss of most of the towns of Detroit, Blue River, and Vida. The fires of 2021 are still burning over hundreds of thousands of acres. What has …
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A State of Immigrants: A New Look at The Immigrant Experience in Oregon
October 15, 2021
Take another look at the immigrant experience in Oregon in this City Club of Eugene program.
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
The Aftermath of Great Loss: The Modoc People Persevere
October 8, 2021
The Modoc War, a conflict between the US government and the Modoc people, took place during 1872-73 in northern California near the Oregon border. The war was hard fought. The Modocs achieved initial victories despite being vastly outnumbered and outgunned, but in the end the US army won. The surviving …
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
Oregon’s “Excess Revenue”: Refund or Reinvest?
October 1, 2021
In Oregon, when the actual tax revenue for a biennium exceeds the forecasted revenue by 2% or more, individual and corporate taxpayers get a rebate, which Oregonians call a “kicker.” The kicker policy was adopted by voters first in 1980, and in 2000 it was placed in the state Constitution. …
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The Knight Campus: How the Growth of a Research Juggernaut Can Change the World…and Eugene
September 24, 2021
In 2016, Phil and Penny Knight donated $500 million – the largest gift ever given to a U.S. public flagship university at the time – to launch the Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon. As described by UO, the goal of the Campus is to “fast-track scientific …
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Flexible, Adaptable, Visible: The Future of Working from Home: The Next Normal Series
September 17, 2021
The abrupt closure of office workplaces was a visible and dramatic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, millions of people continue to work from home as our unexpected global experiment continues—and recent surveys show that neither the workforce nor company executives want to simply return to pre-pandemic routines. “The Next …
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Visions for Post-Pandemic Eugene: The Next Normal series
September 10, 2021
In recent months, thought leaders across the political spectrum and across industry/academia have begun to discuss the what some call “New Normal” of post-pandemic America, from public health and the impact of technology to the nature of the workforce and beyond. As Eugene and Lane County emerge from the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, City …
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Prescription: Nature. Can Time in the Great Outdoors Save Your Life?
July 30, 2021
Can an hour a day keep the doctor away? After a year in the great indoors, no one can deny the therapeutic benefits of nature and wide, open spaces. America’s national parks other public lands are reporting record numbers of visitors for a second year in a row—but what about …
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Who Cares for Kids? Lane County’s “Child Care Desert”
July 23, 2021
Recently, OSU published a new report titled, “Oregon Child Care Deserts 2020.” And as anyone looking for affordable care in Lane County knows: the news is not good. Lane County does not have enough child care spaces available for its infants and toddlers—qualifying our community as a “child care desert,” meaning …
Upcoming Forums: Online/Virtual
Defeating COVID: Vaccine Incentives from Coast to Coast
July 16, 2021
Free beer (or a glass of wine). Discounts on ice cream, donuts…or your favorite edibles. College scholarships for young people. Oh, and how about $1 million? These are just some of the incentives public and private sector actors are offering to encourage vaccination in Oregon and across the country. And …
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Oregon Legislative Wrap Up: What Got Done in the 2021 Long Session
July 9, 2021
At the end of June, the Oregon legislature adjourned after a productive session that began in January. Legislators survived more than the usual amount of drama while producing some remarkable outcomes for the people of Oregon. Choosing this year to stay and fight for their positions, two Republicans now face …
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What’s Being Done About Elder Abuse
June 25, 2021
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is recognized annually on June 15. How prevalent is elder abuse locally? And how is it addressed? Multiple surveys of seniors show that up to 15% experience abuse every year, yet the problem is vastly under reported. With an estimated 70,000 seniors in Lane County, …
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The New Jet Age? The Future of SW Oregon Airports
June 18, 2021
Oregon is home to nearly 100 public-use airports, ranging in size from Portland International Airport with over 13 million annual passengers, to small unattended airports like the McDermitt State Airport in Malheur County. These airports are critical to the economic vitality of communities throughout the state and act as key …
