QuickTake:

Eugene on Monday issued a right-of-way use permit to the General Services Administration for the closure of one lane on Pearl Street and one on Seventh Avenue, including sidewalks on both streets. At a meeting that evening, the mayor touched on the news.

Eugene’s mayor on Monday, April 27, addressed the federal government’s plan to install temporary fencing around the downtown federal building.

The city Monday issued a right-of-way use permit to the General Services Administration for the closure of one lane on Pearl Street and one on Seventh Avenue, including sidewalks on both streets. The permit allows the temporarily closure of public streets and sidewalks for construction as the GSA installs a “temporary security barrier” along the perimeter of the building, a frequent site of local demonstrations.

Mayor Kaarin Knudson said at a City Council meeting that the roughly $20,000 temporary pedestrian walkway installed near the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and Pearl Street earlier that day was part of the city’s “unexpected efforts” to mitigate the “physical imposition” of the installation. The pedestrian detour was needed because the GSA has said a stretch of the fence will be installed along the Pearl Street sidewalk, which is federal property.

“It is an effort to buffer our local community from the consequences that are unaddressed by the GSA in Eugene,” Knudson said. “We remain committed to public safety and de-escalation in any situation where community members may be at risk.”

Knudson said the city does not have the legal grounds to deny the permit application, as the area is federal property, but that doesn’t mean the community supports the agency’s actions. Eugene is seeking “connection and stronger relationships, not hard edges,” she continued. 

“My confidence in our community’s ability and our capacity to affirm and lift up our values that contrast significantly with this fence has not changed,” she said.

Several of the 14 people who spoke during public comment urged councilors to reverse course on the permit.

“To claim you have no power over our city while simultaneously giving away property for this fence is to continue to treat the situation as normal,” said resident Ember Morgan-Wigmore.

Grace Chinowsky graduated from The George Washington University with a degree in journalism. She served as metro editor, senior news editor and editor in chief of the university’s independent student newspaper, The GW Hatchet, and interned at CNN and MSNBC. Grace covers Eugene’s city government and the University of Oregon.