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4. COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA: <br />Collate existing formal community survey information that has been gathered within the last ten years <br />regarding expressed desires for recreational opportunities within Eugene and Amazon Park. Include the <br />methods used (e.g., survey questions, survey outreach/methods, rate of return) <br />Recent surveys are readily available on line. Past information such as the bond language is not <br />available on line. Focus groups such as "organized sports" do not include such major non - fields sport <br />groups such as swimmers, bicyclists, and runners, revealing large gaps in information from important <br />sources. <br />5. PLANNING PROPOSALS - AMAZON PARK: <br />Assemble all existing planning proposals prepared within Eugene during the past ten years for Amazon <br />Park, including both recreation and natural restoration plans. <br />None of these have been assembled for ready citizen review. Documents paid for by the City should be <br />available on -line and to citizens at city planning and citizen involvement meetings. By not providing <br />key information such as (1) the wetland delineation in Amazon Park, (2) 1998 bond language, (3) <br />amounts already spent on the park for organized, scheduled sports versus unscheduled, but active, <br />park use in the past years, and (4) plans such as the approved "Upper Amazon Creek Enhancement <br />Study 2000 ", the city reduplicates efforts, creates division amongst citizens, and misleads citizens on <br />legal issues, expenditures, and planning processes. <br />In summary, it is negligent to be making further development plans for Amazon Park without <br />information. It is negligent to favor land - intensive, seasonal, organized /scheduled sport usage over the <br />beauty and larger use of the whole park. It is short- sighted to ignore the concerns of citizens who represent <br />what the surveys and daily usage of this park indicate: people want to use the park as a haven from over- <br />development. These are the people who vote and pay for taxes or bonds to make our community more <br />beautiful. We hope that the City Council will demand that Amazon Park's planners, assemble essential data, <br />use existing survey data, provide all such data to the public, and employ transparent, public processes to <br />make decisions. The list of five items above are minimally prudent for determining whether further <br />development in this already intensively - developed Park is more desirable than retention/restoration of <br />undeveloped natural areas used for non - scheduled, non - organized recreation. <br />If the city creates a situation where citizens have to defend themselves against the staff who work for the <br />commonwealth, the city has truly lost sight of democracy and its place in the scheme of the community. The <br />eroding public trust and inability of the government to pass bonds and taxes needed for basic needs, should <br />be a wake -up call to civil servants to rise to the task of serving the community as a whole rather than an elite <br />few who will most certainly never fund community quality of life — parks, safety, and health —to the extent <br />that the general public will. <br />Citizens for Public Accountability, c/o Mary O'Brien P.O. Box 12056 Eugene OR 97440, 485 -6886 <br />