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Eugene Weekly : 12.24.03 Page 3 of 7 <br /> along the ridgeline trail, at Spencer Butte and Delta Ponds and in the West Eugene <br /> Wetlands property owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management. <br /> "There're 140,000 people that want 140,000 different things," Riner says. Citizens should <br /> realize, "maybe I don't get to have what I want at park X,but within the parks and open <br /> space system there's something for everyone." <br /> Riner questions whether the "balance" citizens call for in the surveys between sports and <br /> nature parks means that city funding for the competing needs should be more equal. "Is <br /> balance 50-50?" <br /> Riner says in deciding how to spend public money,parks staff are following the direction <br /> of the 1988 Mayor's Parks and Open Space Committee which recommended the$25 <br /> million bond measure. "It's a pretty good indicator of the balance this community has <br /> asked for." <br /> The committee recommended more than 80 percent of the$25 million should be spent on <br /> sports and other active recreation rather than natural areas. The city has spent$19 million <br /> of the money so far. But natural area proponents point out the committee recommendations <br /> weren't what citizens overwhelmingly passed in 1998. The question on the ballot asked <br /> only whether the city should issue the bonds "to purchase parkland,build parks and youth <br /> sports fields and replace Amazon Pool" and didn't go into details. <br /> In fact,the city has spent money from the measure on sports facilities never even <br /> recommended by the committee. About$1.7 million went to help local high schools build <br /> four new football stadiums with artificial turf, for example. <br /> The 1998 committee's recommendations for spending the money were sent out in a flier <br /> received by about a third of city residents before the vote. But the flier noted that the <br /> spending allocations were recommendations only and"fund allocations, land acquisitions, <br /> locations, and improvements may change based on a public review process." <br /> Members of the 1998 committee were appointed by Mayor Jim Torrey,himself a long- <br /> time former Kidsports coach, and natural parks proponents say the committee was heavily <br /> biased towards sports over natural areas. <br /> "It was a really ball field-oriented group of people," says Marcy Cauthorn of Citizens for a <br /> Natural Amazon. <br /> While the 1998 vote may not be a good measure of how citizens prioritize natural versus <br /> sports parks, a 1992 vote dealt more directly with the issue. In a countywide initiative, <br /> citizens voted by a wide margin to dedicate East Alton Baker Park as a natural area rather <br /> than building a golf course or soccer field complex. <br /> BALL FIELD BIAS <br /> Natural parks proponentsacknowledge that the ridgeline parks and wetlands are valuable <br /> g <br /> natural areas but say people also need neighborhood natural areas close to their homes. <br /> http://www.eugeneweekly.com/archive/12_24_03/coverstory.html 1/6/04 <br />