We Have Got To Make It Here
March 8, 2006
Coalition for Health Options In Central Eugene-Springfield (CHOICES)
Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here.
-- "The Last Resort," The Eagles, 1976
Dear CHOICES members and supporters,
We led off our second to last column (December 11, 2005) with the lyrics above, raised some broad questions about planning and the future, and promised to suggest some possibilities in future columns. Alas, you might have noticed the absence of "Health Options Digest" since the winter holidays, a topic we'll return to below.
But first we want to assure you that, despite our recent silence, CHOICES is still paying close attention to hospital issues in our community.
Our settlement agreement with PeaceHealth last year calls for us to be involved in planning both for the "nodal development" second phase of the new RiverBend site and for what activities will occur at the existing Hilyard site. This work is ongoing.
As for McKenzie-Willamette/Triad, the Lane County Boundary Commission recently approved annexing part of the RiverRidge Golf Course into the Eugene city limits. Those of us who have been following the game of "musical hospitals" for years know that Triad is following the same playbook that was ultimately successful for PeaceHealth. Here's how the game is played:
Step 1: Get some land speculator just outside the city you are not currently in to sell you an option to purchase their land.
Step 2: Make sure that city is anxious to woo you away from your current city, no matter what your potential new neighbors might think.
Step 3: Get the land annexed into the city limits.
Step 4: Purchase the land from the current owner, possibly giving same a large profit.
Step 5: Get the land upzoned to allow for hospital development, making sure your current city has no real say in the matter. (Steps 4 and 5 can be interchanged.)
Step 6: Spend time fending off land use appeals, but ultimately prevail, as you have deep pockets and who would oppose endlessly people who save lives. (Optional.)
Step 7: Begin construction, trying to open your doors before the competition does.
Cynical? Perhaps. Ironic? Definitely. A sign that planning in Lane County isn't really working, at least when it comes to siting hospitals. Absolutely.
In particular, some have asked why CHOICES isn't working hard to "stop" Triad from siting a major hospital next to the river at the edge of the urban growth boundary in an area already plagued with traffic congestion and destined to get worse. The short answer is that there is as yet no land use application, and thus little actually to be done. The longer answer is that CHOICES has never wanted to "stop" either hospital. We have always tried to support both hospitals, but have strived to assist both hospitals in locating more centrally where they are closer to more people and there are more transportation options. Unfortunately, we -- CHOICES, the hospitals, our elected leaders and the whole community -- have collectively failed to plan for our health care future. To repeat, planning in Lane County isn't really working, at least when it comes to siting hospitals, and we are all worse off as a result.
For now, CHOICES is watching what develops. If and when there is something constructive for us to do, we will do so.
But if only our problems were as "small" as two hospitals! Consider two recent news items:
Interstate-5/Franklin Interchange: Springfield and Eugene disagree about how to go about upgrading the Interstate-5/Franklin interchange. Springfield wants a full new $100+ million interchange to provide direct access to Glenwood, even if it requires additional lanes across the Willamette River. Eugene is interested in upgrading the existing Glenwood interchange just to the south or in other options that don't impact the river.
Region 2050: Springfield decided to withdraw unilaterally from the Region 2050 project, which is trying to figure out how to make room for all the people who will likely come to central Lane County between now and the year 2050.
It is a bit ironic that Springfield is anxious for the Oregon Department of Transportation to cough up $100+ million not to solve any transportation problem but to support development in Glenwood while at the same time asserting that it will "go it alone." In part, "what we've got here is failure to communicate" (Strother Martin to Paul Newman in the 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke"). In part, Springfield is understandably anxious to raise the quality of life for its residents. And in part, there is a lack of appreciation that our destinies are tied together more than we might realize.
In any case, the truth is that Springfield has had vacant land and has been, in a sense, prospering by developing that land rapidly. But my late friend and former Springfield City Councilor Lyle Hatfield understood -- perhaps as current leaders don't -- that Springfield is going to run out of vacant land before too long. When that occurs, Springfield will recognize just how linked its destiny is to that of its sister cities. But our purpose here isn't to dwell on the challenges Springfield faces, or friction between Springfield and Eugene, or to bring Lane County into the mix. We trust that everyone involved has good intentions, and will leave it at that. We are all friends and have got to make it here.
You see, there are bigger issues at play, issues not just about the future of Lane County but about Oregon (and ultimately about the nation and our whole planet, but Oregon is about as much as we can tackle just now).
All of which gets us back to the recent absence of "Health Options Digest." Most of us with CHOICES are in part volunteers, citizens who care about our community. But most of us also have "day jobs." My full-time "day job" is working for 1000 Friends of Oregon, and my primary responsibility now is to engage in the "Big Look" at Oregon's land use planning program. If planning for the future isn't working that well in Lane County, how well is it working across Oregon? In the past couple months, my work around the "Big Look" has been even more than a full-time job and there just hasn't been time to collect and digest all the news stories related to health options -- at least not using the technologies immediately available. Moreover, the game of "musical hospitals" seems to have no end, and after over four years of tracking this soap opera in detail, we are frankly a bit burned out. We have sometimes looked to having improved technology that would make it easier to produce "Health Options Digest" faster and better, but there hasn't been time to figure that out.
But longtime readers understand that "Health Options Digest" has for a long time been only partly about health options and only partly a news digest. Our larger interest has always been in planning for a better future, and planning for hospitals is but a part of that. And the real value of "Health Options Digest" hasn't been in merely collecting news stories that you can read elsewhere but in "connecting the dots" between different stories -- something not found often in the mainstream media.
For now, we don't plan to continue publishing "Health Options Digest," at least not as a regular, weekly, comprehensive news digest. But we will continue to keep you informed about important events and decisions related to hospital siting and related issues. And we -- or perhaps I should say "I" -- will from time to time share reflections about the grand design, what is yours and what is mine, 'cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here.
Partly for CHOICES and partly for myself,
Rob Zako
343-5201
rzako@efn.org
P.S. We actually have one more issue of "Health Options Digest" almost in the can, but it is a bit off-topic, as it is focused on Christmas and the holiday season and "other stuff." But maybe we will wrap this up and share it as a late holiday gift sometime...