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Happy Sunday, Lookout Eugene-Springfield,
For more than two months now, readers have flooded our Community Voices section with their endorsements for candidates and ballot measures in the May 19 election. With more than 60 endorsement letters published so far, and a few dozen yet to publish, it’s been amazing to see so much local political engagement.
Now it’s our turn.
Over the next four days, the Lookout Eugene-Springfield Editorial Board (consisting of myself and Executive Editor Dann Miller) is announcing its endorsements. This morning, we published our choices for the three open seats on the Lane County Board of County Commissioners, and the lone contested Lane County Circuit Court judge race.
Tomorrow, we will publish endorsements for the four Eugene City Council races. On Tuesday, we’ll weigh in on the Lane County Watersheds Bill of Rights measure and the Eugene Public Library levy. And on Wednesday, we’ll wrap it up with endorsements for other county ballot measures.
Endorsement calls are tough to make, and I’m sure readers will have a lot to say about our picks. Depending on how many reader responses we get, I may publish them individually or as one big roundup.
A few other election-related notes:
If you’re reading this and wondering if there’s still time to submit an endorsement letter, unfortunately our deadline to submit was Friday. But the general election is just six months away!
Also, a reminder that all of Lookout’s election content is free to read for subscribers and non-subscribers alike, to help get Lane County voters up to speed on the candidates and issues.
Finally, if you’re just here for last week’s Community Voices content (election-related or otherwise), scroll down until you see the links to each of the 18 letters to the editor and five guest columns we published in the past week.
High schoolers have opinions
A few weeks ago, the signature on a letter to the editor got my attention: “Senior, North Eugene High School.” Then I got another one. And another one. And a couple more.
They’ve been compelling reads without exception.
There was incoming University of Oregon freshman Lee Sunderland, who has looked around at the state of student housing and concluded that “it appears as if we are appealing only to students that come from out of state with funds in their pockets, while we neglect our own population.”
Martha Cruz, a first-generation Mexican-American, weighed in on aggressive deportation tactics, arguing that ICE operations “have shown time and time again that they are not carried out with the intent to remove criminals.”
And Devon Finney-Gaitan, an incoming Oregon State University civil engineering student, offered some ideas for the city to improve traffic safety in the River Road area.
Uneven progress on sidewalk repairs
How often do you think about the sidewalk on your street?
Larry Craig thinks about them a lot. As a retired 911 systems coordinator and active “wheeler” who hand-cycles and rolls on Eugene’s sidewalks in his manual wheelchair, he has to.
Last year, he co-authored a guest column in Lookout calling Eugene’s sidewalk repair system – which places the onus on residents rather than the city to fix cracked or uneven sidewalks – “reactive, inefficient and inequitable.”
Now there’s some progress to report. Craig wrote in a guest column last week that 2025 was the most successful year for sidewalk projects since 2020. The city coordinated four times as many sidewalk repairs last year as it did the year before. But, as Craig writes, “it also illustrates how deep the backlog runs.”
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last week’s Letters TO THE EDITOR
Civic engagement and business experience makes one Eugene City Council candidate stand out | Letter to the editor
How much more dysfunction can Springfield take from its county commissioner? | Letter to the editor
How to improve Eugene’s poor air quality? Start by getting rid of this yard care menace. | Letter to the editor
David Loveall will fight for lower taxes. Sean VanGordon? Not so much. | Letter to the editor
The Oregon Legislature needs fighters like Ky Fireside | Letter to the editor
River Road’s speed limit reduction fails to address the real safety problem | Letter to the editor
Sean VanGordon would give Lane County a listener and collaborator, not a divider | Letter to the editor
Can Eugene School District’s finance team fix the mistakes it overlooked? | Letter to the editor
An otherwise great Ducks article overlooked the Big Ten’s academic might | Letter to the editor
Libraries foster belonging. The Springfield library can’t without community support. | Letter to the editor
Lane County needs hardworking commissioners – and a dose of sanity | Letter to the editor
Springfield’s city councilor appointment couldn’t have gone worse | Letter to the editor
I serve with Greg Evans on the City Council, and I want him back for four more years | Letter to the editor
Immigrants like my parents make America better. Our political leaders once knew that. | Letter to the editor
Sean VanGordon is the listener Lane County needs | Letter to the editor
As a judge and mentor, Amit Kapoor showed me what hard work looks like | Letter to the editor
Future Ducks need housing solutions, not luxury high-rises | Letter to the editor
A ‘blue wave’ this fall will give Val Hoyle a chance to shine | Letter to the editor
last week’s guest opinions
Better late than never, Oregon is acting on junk science in the courtroom
Eugene has supported its library for more than a century. Our next chance is approaching.
Eugene’s sidewalks are finally getting attention. Let’s make it last.
From planes to pickleball: The noisy history of Westmoreland Park
From a blackout-darkened Cuba, I saw pain, joy and resilience
Send us your Letter to the Editor — lte@lookoutlocal.com
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