With Eugene’s new mayor, Kaarin Knudson—a card-carrying architect—eager to engage with the community, we were thrilled to welcome her into the PIVOT office. Her visit was not only insightful but enlightening.
The way she sees it, being an architect has been an advantage as she gets used to the new job. Her professional training helps her navigate the technical complexity and interconnected systems that come with civic leadership. Being invested in the built environment and building culture is a collective effort and reflects how many in the design profession think about progression.
“With concentrations of positive energy, we can make an impact,” she said, urging PIVOT employees to make their voices heard in the community.
“It’s important that you stay engaged in public conversation enabling insights with professional opinions,” she said. “Let’s get energy moving in a productive way.”
Downtown Eugene: A Work in Progress
The potential of downtown Eugene and its role in the community has been a struggle for decades, she said. There are multi-layered reasons to how it’s gotten to its current state and one contributor is the lack of useful concentrations of housing downtown.
Having spent a decade deeply engaged in housing in our community, bringing a concentration of residential presence downtown is a priority for her.
“We could have a new trajectory of housing in downtown with rezoning and other efforts,” Mayor Kaarin said.
Mayor Kaarin pointed out that Eugene doesn’t have neighborhoods like those in other mid-sized cities. The large city block sizes in Eugene’s city center with designated uses impacts activation of the street edge.
“There are so many broken teeth in the downtown area,” she said referring to the abundance of inactive space. “There are no eyes on certain pockets.”
“We have some bright spots, but we are really struggling. We need to bring more people downtown,” she said. “There is a lot of work to do with public realm,” she said.
Public Safety: Shifting the Experience
Mayor Kaarin pointed out that the public safety metrics downtown are improving but the experience and the narrative have not shifted. “Public vs. private controlled spaces and civil rights are components contributing to the public safety issue,” she said.
“We have a lot of issues that compound the pushing people to the margins,” she said. Addiction, behavioral health, mental issues, and repeat offenders challenge resource allocation and are all contributors. “We need a compassionate but effective response,” she said.
City Government: Many Irons in the Fire
The issues the City of Eugene is dealing with are challenging and with multiple systems struggling it is creating huge crises. The City needs to work on more than one thing at a time with many irons in the fire creating policy decisions that affect multiple fronts.
“The City of Eugene should be an active partner to development of all sorts,” she said.
City-level budget conversations in coming months will be key with incredibly challenging budget and funding situations. “Tariffs and executive actions at the federal level are not insignificant for the City of Eugene,” she said.
Looking Ahead
While Eugene faces challenges, Mayor Kaarin still feels optimist about the future. “We need sustaining levels of positive energy,” she said.
Four months into her administration, the 40th mayor of Eugene is still getting her feet under her. But she insists she isn’t overloaded and “drinking from the firehose.”
“It’s more like drinking from a beautifully designed water feature,” she said with a smile.