The intersection of Willamette and Broadway is a focal point for a downtown Eugene that is slowly beginning to bounce back from an economic and cultural decline that began back in the 1960s. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)
Todd Patopea is just trying to enjoy his hamburger. But instead, the newly-minted food cart owner is nearly Tased by Eugene police officers — he’s about to be part of a high speed pursuit.
“This bike comes racing down the street and bike cops are chasing him,” Patopea said.
The cops disappear down a side street and Patopea relaxes for a second but the next thing he knows, they’re heading right through Ken Kesey Memorial Square and straight for his new food cart — but stop just short.
“He dumps his bike right in front of me. I thought he was going to jump in my lap,” he said. Officers pull their stun guns but never pull the triggers.
It was one of Patopea’s first experiences at the corner of Willamette Street and Broadway — one that would set the tone for his two years there.
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For decades, the same blight that has marked many of downtown Eugene’s buildings — and this particular intersection — has also marked the patrons.
The city of Eugene continues to invest into and revitalize the Willamette and Broadway area but has to deal with the ever-present crime and homelessness. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)
The lack of redevelopment, combined with a large transient population, which has grown to between 1,700 and 2,400 people in the last decade, are leading factors in the decline of urbanization that downtowns across America are fighting to counteract.
“Downtown had been in a sort of slump for a number of years,” said Nan Laurence, a senior planner with the City of Eugene. “There were two high profile vacant properties, known as the pits, which in addition to the vacant Centre Court building were glaring examples of downtown’s distress.”
After 50 years of decay — a decline that began when people across the country began to choose the mall over Main Street in the 1960s — Eugene’s downtown has struggled to bounce back.
Over the past year, developers, business owners and the city have tried to resuscitate the block by revamping two similarly dilapidated buildings separated by Broadway. The city provided loans to businesses with hope of injecting activity in its dying former main street.
“These are old buildings that we tried to breathe new life into and dress up for a pretty limited budget,” said Laurence speaking to the industrial chic aesthetic — a look that seems to aspire to make the block a little brother to Portland’s Pearl District. “It looks old. It harkens back to a different era and it feels more authentic.
The new buildings and businesses — like Sizzle Pie, Bijou Metro and Townshend’s Tea — are changing the DNA of the intersection.
The city of Eugene continues to invest into and revitalize the Willamette and Broadway area but has to deal with the ever-present crime and homelessness. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)
“There’s a lot more people who are working class who are interested in patronizing the carts,” Patopea said.
Anyone who spends a day near Kesey Square can feel the tumult of that culture change.
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By 10 a.m. on a recent Thursday, Willamette and Broadway is buzzing. Business owners are opening their doors. Professionals are meeting for coffee. And the homeless are congregating in a group on the northeastern corner of the intersection.
Richard Salyer and his wife, up from Downey, Calif. to visit their son who is a law student at University of Oregon, are trying Voodoo Doughnut. In the Sayler’s suburb of Los Angeles, when the sun goes down, the town shuts down.
“You’re very fortunate that you have a lot of people on your streets,” he said. “I would feel completely safe.”
By 10:50 a.m., the police arrive at the intersection. Two officers on bike and one in a car pull up. They cuff and search one of the men in the homeless group — they find a pill bottle in one of his pockets.
“It has some marijuana flakes in the bottom,” one officer says to another. They’re gone by 11 a.m.
A Eugene police officer points to a sign that reads “This area is within 1000 feet of a school. Penalties for selling or possessing illegal drugs are more severe.” while confronting a woman sitting in the back corner of Ken Kesey Memorial Square. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)
But marijuana isn’t why they busted 29-year-old Jessie Joe Perkins, Jr. He was taken to the Lane County Jail and charged with second degree criminal trespassing and violation of park rules, according to Melinda McLaughlin, spokesperson for Eugene Police Department. Perkins, whose last city of residence is unknown, is banned from downtown through a law that’s set to expire on Nov. 30.
Police return twice more today and arrest another man — this one on a wheelchair — by 3 p.m.
The lunchtime crowd has burgers and snacks flying out of Taylor’s Chuck Wagon, Patopea’s food cart. A woman, who passed out on the Kesey statue after police told her to move along, wakes up angry.
“There she goes,” one of the cart’s regular patrons says. “Yelling. Screeching. For no reason.”
Two other men nearby smoke a cigarette that smells like marijuana.
“We’ve really been encouraging them to move along. It’s detrimental to having a nice atmosphere down here,” Patopea said. “Ninety-nine percent of the people are good. Even the street people.”
Eugene’s homelessness problem — one fueled by alcohol, drugs and mental illness — has become so pervasive and persistent that law enforcers bemoan the lack of resources to handle the city’s 13,000 annual property crimes.
One particular offender was arrested 106 times last year. Each time, the man was turned away because of a lack of space to house petty criminals at the jail.
That’s just one case. Another man was arrested 94 times. Another 66.
“Those people still aren’t the people getting held at the jail because they’re not the ones out killing each other,” Lane County Sheriff Tom Turner said at last month’s annual Eugene State of Public Safety Forum.
By 1:40 p.m., the lunch chaos calms. Some of the transients clinging to the statue move on. About six remain, holding up a large cardboard sign that’s almost as tall as they are. Someone sets off a firecracker and the transients burst into laughter.
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“Now, compared to two years ago, the public safety aspect made it really uncomfortable for folks to come downtown,” said Patopea, who opened the food cart after losing his job as a machinist. “It’s really perking up compared to what it was.”
But with more businesses opening and the controversial Capstone Student Housing project expected to bring 1,200 students downtown, there’s still not enough being done to solve the homelessness problem and improve policing, he said.
“If people don’t feel comfortable coming down, they’re not coming,” he said.
Willamette and Broadway seen in a six-image panorama. Click to enlarge. (Nate Barrett/Emerald)