Compared to five other cities, Eugene has fewer children, fewer people of working age, more renters, more homeless persons, and is not creating as many jobs, yet offers more in-house services.
Presenter: How does the city of Eugene compare to similar cities in the region? The City Council heard on March 11 from consultant Sarah Emmons:
Sarah Emmons: The city was benchmarked against a handful of cities that are similar and different—as we’ll talk about. These are Salem and Bend in Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Fort Collins, Colorado, which is home to Colorado State University; and Spokane, Washington. All of these cities were selected because they are either located in Oregon or they’re in the Northwest or the Mountain West.
And a few of them have either a large university just like Eugene does, or at least a major employer that really drives a portion of the economy. For Salem, that’s obviously the state government and for Bend, that’s obviously the recreation economy…