While upward of 3,000 people are homeless and many thousands are housing insecure in Lane County, the city of Springfield and Lane County commissioners are salivating over big developers’ proposals to build 350 condominiums, a 375-room luxury hotel and perhaps a brand new baseball stadium along the Willamette River in Glenwood. This is not to mention the climate footprint of the concrete for buildings and parking structures.

Glenwood is likely Lane County’s largest frontline community, but Eugene, Springfield and Lane County in practice just want to ignore this fact and drive the poorest of Lane County out of sight for the benefit of wealthy transplants to Oregon.

Several years ago Springfield enacted an ordinance to prevent entities like St. Vincent De Paul from buying any of the many trailer parks in Glenwood to renovate and manage in hopes these parks will deteriorate and be forced to sell. These trailer parks house upward of 1,000 people.

Is catering and providing millions in subsidies to good old boy developers to accommodate wealthy consumers and sports tourists while ignoring those most in need of housing the best Eugene, Springfield and Lane County can do? Have local and state governments given up attempting to alleviate the suffering of the poorest who can’t adapt to a collapsing economic system?

I also ask local organizations who advocate for the poor, the homeless, real climate mitigation and local community resilience, will you step up to advocate for Lane County’s largest frontline community?

Shannon Wilson

Eugene