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Let the water flow: City should seize chance to 'daylight' millrace -The Register-Guard, E... Page 1 of 2 <br /> www.registerguard.com I ©The Register-Guard,Eugene,Oregon <br /> November 12, 2003 <br /> Let the water flow: City should seize <br /> chance to 'daylight' millrace <br /> A Register-Guard Editorial <br /> You can already hear the protesters shouting: "Free the <br /> millrace!" "Let the water flow!" "Give us a canal or give us <br /> death!" <br /> OK, the slogans leave something to be desired. And it's <br /> doubtful that the cause of uncovering the long-buried millrace <br /> in the new federal courthouse neighborhood will draw many <br /> protesters or inspire acts of civil disobedience. (How do you <br /> chain yourself to an underground pipe?) But the opportunity to <br /> revive the millrace is nonetheless one that the city should <br /> seize, even if the cost is substantial and the logistics difficult. <br /> Picture for a moment the elegant, flowing lines of the new <br /> courthouse just east of downtown, and next to it, a vibrant <br /> new neighborhood through the heart of which flows the historic <br /> millrace. The waterway might start at Broadway and Mill <br /> streets and wind past Ferry Street, both figuratively and <br /> physically linking the courthouse district - and the downtown - <br /> to the nearby river. <br /> Now, picture the same development with concrete in place of <br /> an open millrace, and the luster, uniqueness and character of <br /> the project are substantially diminished. <br /> The Eugene City Council took a step in the right direction <br /> Monday by directing staff to explore options for designing and <br /> financing the surfacing of a quarter-mile section of the old <br /> waterway, which has been buried for more than a half century <br /> in an underground pipe. <br /> The council also was right to toss out the bargain-basement <br /> option of leaving the millrace buried and erecting four <br /> "symbolic fountains and pools" along its path. Symbolic, <br /> shmybolic - this is Oregon. Give us the real thing. No fountains <br /> on the cheap, please. <br /> At the same time, city planners should avoid millrace overkill. <br /> One early conceptual design for the courthouse called for an <br /> overly broad water corridor that included large walkways and <br /> plantings - and that chewed up a disproportionate amount of <br /> the 4.1 acre triangle of city-owned land that makes up the <br /> courthouse district. <br /> While it's important to bring the millrace to the surface, <br /> http://www.registerguard.com/cgi-bin/printStory.py?name=ed.edit.mi llrace.phn.l 112&date=... 11/12/03 <br />