Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy delivered her final State of the City Address Wednesday night to a large crowd at the Hult Center. She promised to focus on affordable housing and other solutions for the city’s homelessness crisis in her last year in office.
Piercy: “It is not possible to ignore this issue or refuse to change. This is hard and challenging work. It’s easy to react with fear of loss. We have to pull together in a concerted effort to meet everyone’s needs while continuing to pursue our community goals and aspirations. This is about our entire community and the leadership role we must all take together.”
Piercy also promised to continue work on sustainability and combating climate change. The Eugene City Council last year passed a climate recovery ordinance with the goal for the city to be climate neutral by 2020. Piercy will not run again for Mayor of Eugene. She has led the city for 11 years.
At the State of the City event Mayor Piercy awarded Essex General Construction with the 2015 Bold Steps Award. The two finalists were Mountain Rose Herbs and PIVOT Architecture.
Community awards were given to Erik and Fay de Buhr of Community Supported Shelters, Friends of the Eugene Public Library and the Eugene Public Library Foundation.
