Downtown Eugene


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Thoughts about the next Eugene Celebration

First thought: It's quite sad that the Eugene Celebration charges $12 for the public to participate. It should be an open event ... the vendors would earn more, and this would in turn pay for talent at the event. People voted with their feet ... the free Saturday Market was packed beyond belief, one block away from the sparsely attended Eugene Celebration.

Second thought: The vendors in the street have been organized in such a way, that the back of the booths face the actual storefronts in the footprint. This means that there are four paths through the closed off street:



Amusingly, the Eugene Celebration planners tried to block off the sidewalk traffic flow in front of the permanent stores ! ... but, quite rightly, the stores would have none of that, and removed the impediments to the sidewalk traffic.

The simple solution: the stores and the booths should face each other, creating two lanes of traffic instead of four:



Note the positive effect this will have on the celebration visitor: