State can't walk away.Byline: The Register-Guard The West Eugene Parkway The West Eugene Parkway was a proposed re-alignment of Oregon Route 126 through the western parts of Eugene, Oregon and its suburbs. Highway 126 through western Eugene currently runs along several surface streets (including West 11th Avenue); this route is well-known in the Eugene is a state project, so the effects of the Eugene City Council's vote on Wednesday to withdraw support are unclear. Eugene can't unilaterally strip the parkway from the regional transportation plan's list of priorities, and concurrence CONCURRENCE, French law. The equality of rights, or privilege which several persons-have over the same thing; as, for example, the right which two judgment creditors, Whose judgments were rendered at the same time, have to be paid out of the proceeds of real estate bound by them. Dict. de Jur. h.t. by other local governments in Wednesday's decision seems unlikely. Yet the vote spells trouble for the parkway - and the council is not alone in creating it. The West Eugene Parkway has been on the drawing boards for nearly three decades. It would be a 5.8-mile, freeway-style road to relieve congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. on West 11th Avenue, and, on a larger scale, improve connections between Interstate in·ter·state adj. Involving, existing between, or connecting two or more states. n. One of a system of highways extending between the major cities of the 48 contiguous United States. Noun 1. 5, Highway 126 and Highway 101. State funds to build the first phase of the parkway have been allocated; construction is set to begin in about a year. Or so it's said. The start of parkway construction has long been just around the corner. Voters in Eugene understand the need to improve traffic flows, and have twice supported the parkway at the polls - first in 1986 and again in 2001. The project had the Eugene City Council's support until Wednesday, and other local governments have been on board consistently. Yet the timeline keeps slipping, with resultant increases in cost and an erosion of political support. The Eugene council, with Mayor Kitty Piercy "Kitty" Piercy is the current mayor of Eugene, Oregon, sworn in January of 2005. The press dubbed Piercy's election part of a "shift to the left" for the Eugene City Council. providing the tie-breaking vote, can be faulted for attempting to pull the plug on the parkway. Gary Wildish, whose involvement in parkway planning began more than 20 years ago, makes the case against Piercy's position on the opposite page. The council vote disregards the voters' expressions of support for the parkway, neither of which came with an expiration date Expiration Date The day on which an options or futures contract is no longer valid and, therefore, ceases to exist. Notes: The expiration date for all listed stock options in the U.S. . Yet voters knew they were getting a parkway opponent when they elected Piercy mayor last year. The mayor and her like-minded council colleagues can fairly claim to have kept faith with the wishes of people who elected them. The worst that could happen now is that the Oregon Department of Transportation will interpret the council vote as evidence of an unwillingness to address traffic problems in west Eugene, and will reallocate Verb 1. reallocate - allocate, distribute, or apportion anew; "Congressional seats are reapportioned on the basis of census data" reapportion allocate, apportion - distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose; "I am allocating a loaf of parkway funds to projects elsewhere in the state. State officials, and their partners in federal agencies, must acknowledge their role in allowing frustration over the parkway to fester fester /fes·ter/ (fes´ter) to suppurate superficially. fes·ter v. 1. To ulcerate. 2. To form pus; putrefy. n. An ulcer. . It has taken so long for this pro- ject to get off the ground that shifts in political, economic and environmental conditions were bound to occur. The glacial gla·cial adj. 1. a. Of, relating to, or derived from a glacier. b. Suggesting the extreme slowness of a glacier: Work proceeded at a glacial pace. 2. a. pace of the process invites second-guessing and reconsideration of decisions made long ago. The voters gave the parkway a green light, but any project that remains stalled at the intersection this long runs the risk that the signal will turn yellow. What hasn't changed is the fact that traffic congestion in west Eugene is bad and getting worse. What shouldn't change is a commitment by governments at all levels to do something about it. The West Eugene Parkway should continue to be regarded as the preferred solution, as indicated in regional and state transportation plans. But if for any reason the state can't move forward with the preferred solution - and the council's vote is not the only threat to the parkway - the need for transportation improvements in west Eugene won't go away, and the state's responsibility for those improvements won't be diminished. Indeed, complaints about the Eugene council's obstructionism ob·struc·tion·ist n. One who systematically blocks or interrupts a process, especially one who attempts to impede passage of legislation by the use of delaying tactics, such as a filibuster. could be turned around: The mayor and council, weary of waiting for a parkway that never comes, are demanding real solutions to congestion. The state's willingness to pay Willingness to pay (WTP) generally refers to the value of a good to a person as what they are willing to pay, sacrifice or exchange for it. See also
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