The following is part of a series of reposted journal entries made for a reporting class I am taking right now. They aren't particularly edited, or necessarily even interesting (though hopefully they are), but they do a pretty good job of expressing what I am doing right now. And, of course, they are pre-made content. Reader beware.
Journal Entry 4: Neighborhood Meetings II
Continuing from my previous entries, I wanted to talk about the meetings themselves. The first meeting was the city-wide Neighborhood Leader’s Council meeting, mentioned earlier. Assuming the neighborhood reps were a good demographic stereotype, it was a valuable comparison between the neighborhoods. Cal Young reminded me of my Hewlett-Packard neighbors from Corvallis, with the liberal values of the valley but the money (and glasses) of an engineer.
The next meeting was the quarterly Cal Young meeting with everyday citizens. It had about 30 people there, and I took copious notes of all the minutia that was covered there. Primarily they were focused on land-usage issues, like the building of the Delta Highway pedestrian bridge or the new Eugene-Springfield hospital (a real sore spot for them). Also of concern was the growing expansion of the neighborhood, where high-density housing was sprouting up around the Coburg road area and threatening the established neighborhood values.
While there was a showing of elderly citizens, most of the members appeared to be in their late 40s to early 50s, with a smattering of those above and below. Most were women, through there was a good showing of men in the positions of authority. Almost all were white and straight, though there was one trans-sexual who seemed to be meshing well with the community (they all seemed familiar with her and used her chosen pronouns, for example).
Altogether, the neighborhood meeting gave me a better perception of the community.
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