KO Kevin
Eugene/Springfield is the second largest metropolitan area in Oregon.
Yes, it's larger than Salem/Keizer. And because the only thing that
separates the two cities is the width of I-5, it makes a hell of a lot
more sense to say Eugene/Springfield than Seattle/Tacoma or
Portland/Salem. We are, indeed, joined at the hip. Yes, there has been
talk at the grassroots level about building a velodrome in our area.
And you are correct that it really comes down to a matter of dollars and
cents.
I don't doubt that the population of our area can support a velodrome.
I do have concerns whether we can generate the public funding support
for such an undertaking. A private/public partnership is more likely to
yield results. A reasonable scenario is if the public sector put up the
land and provide management/maintenance services through a parks
district, and funding for design and construction be raised through
private donors.
I would love to see something like this gain momentum in
Eugene/Springfield. And yes, I would donate my time to help it happen.
Kevin Ko
________________________________
From: obra-bounces@list.obra.org [mailto:obra-bounces@list.obra.org] On
Behalf Of Kevin Van Dyke
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 4:25 PM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: [OBRA Chat] velodrome
No offense intended, but Eugene is not the second largest city, Salem
is. Eugene is the third largest in Oregon. Saying Eugene-Springfield
is almost as irritating as saying Seattle-Tacoma. You might as well say
Portland-Salem. Sorry, I digress.
Eugene is centrally located? Tell that to Bend (or Prineville!) If by
centrally located you mean the center of population, it's not that
either. There is a comparitively large population in the Portland metro
area that skews your claim.
Regardless of size of a city, or geographic location, it boils down to
dollars and cents. There must be a large enough population close enough
to your proposed venue that are willing to foot the bill, either through
tax support, or admissions and sponsorships, or combination of all
three.
Has anyone ever talked about building a velodrome in Eugene? Probably.
Talk however is cheap........... facilities are built with dollars.
Like I said, no offense intended whatsoever. I just want to help
clarify some reasons why it hasn't happened.
Kevin
>
>Doug Turnbull wrote:
> After reading all these excited emails about building two new
>velodromes in Portland and southern Oregon, I am curious as to
why
>Eugene is not one of the proposed sites. Eugene/Springfield is
the
>second largest city in the state, we have a large cycling
community,
>and we are centrally located geographically. I certainly think
the
>proposal to build more velodromes is fantastic, but I am just
>wondering (with a bit of jealousy) why Portland and southern
Oregon
>were picked instead of my town. Has there ever been talk of
building
>one here?
>
>-Doug
>
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