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Consultation has concluded
Mayor Vinis reveals new Downtown Riverfront street names
Thank you again to everyone who participated in the Downtown Riverfront street naming project!
After an engaging process that generated more than 1,100 ideas from community members, Mayor Vinis revealed the final street names:
Annie Mims Lane
Nak-nak Avenue
Wiley Griffon Way
About the street names
Annie Mims and her husband were one of the first African American families to own a home in Eugene. At a time when African Americans were excluded from living in the city limits and redlining was rampant, the Mims’ opened their doors to others in need of a place to stay when hotels and businesses refused service to African American people. A historical marker, "the Mims Houses Memorial Monument", sits between E. 3rd Avenue and E. 4th Avenue at 330/336 High St. Prior to purchasing their home, the Mims lived outside the city limits in a settlement "Across the Bridge" (now Alton Baker Park and MLK Blvd) with other African American families who came seeking post WWII jobs. Their homes "across the bridge" were bulldozed and families displaced for the reconstruction of the Ferry Street Bridge in 1950.
Nak-nak (pronounced knawk-knawk) is the indigenous Kalapuya word for “duck.” Indigenous Kalapuya occupied much of our area until the 1830s, when many died of infectious diseases brought to the area by white explorers and traders. In 1855 the Kalapuya Treaty was signed handing over much of the Willamette Valley to the United States. At the time of the treaty, it’s estimated that only 400 Kalapuya remained.
Wiley Griffon was among Eugene’s earliest documented African American residents. He drove Eugene’s first horse drawn streetcar system and later worked as a janitor at the University of Oregon. He remarkably owned a home near the Riverfront at what is presently E. 4th and Mill during a time when African American people were excluded by law from living not only in the city limits, but in the state of Oregon.
Thank you again for participating in this process to name our new streets!
Notice (10/4/19):
This website experienced a system-wide glitch between 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct.3, and 12:3 0 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4. Unfortunately, any votes submitted during this period were not counted. Each and every vote is important to us! If you tried voting during this period, please view all ideas again to confirm your votes have been counted. If you see the hearts highlighted next to your favorites, your votes have been tallied. The tool will not let you select the same idea twice. You should see the number next to the heart change in real time. Thank you for your understanding and for helping ensure your votes have been counted.
Mayor Vinis reveals new Downtown Riverfront street names
Thank you again to everyone who participated in the Downtown Riverfront street naming project!
After an engaging process that generated more than 1,100 ideas from community members, Mayor Vinis revealed the final street names:
Annie Mims Lane
Nak-nak Avenue
Wiley Griffon Way
About the street names
Annie Mims and her husband were one of the first African American families to own a home in Eugene. At a time when African Americans were excluded from living in the city limits and redlining was rampant, the Mims’ opened their doors to others in need of a place to stay when hotels and businesses refused service to African American people. A historical marker, "the Mims Houses Memorial Monument", sits between E. 3rd Avenue and E. 4th Avenue at 330/336 High St. Prior to purchasing their home, the Mims lived outside the city limits in a settlement "Across the Bridge" (now Alton Baker Park and MLK Blvd) with other African American families who came seeking post WWII jobs. Their homes "across the bridge" were bulldozed and families displaced for the reconstruction of the Ferry Street Bridge in 1950.
Nak-nak (pronounced knawk-knawk) is the indigenous Kalapuya word for “duck.” Indigenous Kalapuya occupied much of our area until the 1830s, when many died of infectious diseases brought to the area by white explorers and traders. In 1855 the Kalapuya Treaty was signed handing over much of the Willamette Valley to the United States. At the time of the treaty, it’s estimated that only 400 Kalapuya remained.
Wiley Griffon was among Eugene’s earliest documented African American residents. He drove Eugene’s first horse drawn streetcar system and later worked as a janitor at the University of Oregon. He remarkably owned a home near the Riverfront at what is presently E. 4th and Mill during a time when African American people were excluded by law from living not only in the city limits, but in the state of Oregon.
Thank you again for participating in this process to name our new streets!
Notice (10/4/19):
This website experienced a system-wide glitch between 5:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct.3, and 12:3 0 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 4. Unfortunately, any votes submitted during this period were not counted. Each and every vote is important to us! If you tried voting during this period, please view all ideas again to confirm your votes have been counted. If you see the hearts highlighted next to your favorites, your votes have been tallied. The tool will not let you select the same idea twice. You should see the number next to the heart change in real time. Thank you for your understanding and for helping ensure your votes have been counted.
We put out the call for street name ideas for the Downtown Riverfront redevelopment and the community responded!
More than 600 people contributed about 1,100 ideas. It took us a little longer than expected because of the overwhelming response, but we’ve narrowed the list down to 12.
Get engaged by checking out the finalists below and their descriptions.
Please note that Andíp is pronounced Awn-deep and Naknak is pronounced NawkNawk.
Please click "View All Ideas" to see all 12 and then simply click on the hearts to select your favorite suggestions. You should see your vote count in real time. Voting will conclude at the end of the day on October 18 and then the results will be given to the Mayor, who will help make the final decision.
Thanks to all those who contributed ideas and voted! This is a great opportunity to ensure the new Downtown Riverfront reflects Eugene and its residents. This area has been part of the community’s vision for decades and it’s now starting to take shape.
To see the criteria the committee used to narrow the list to 12, check out the criteria and guidelines.
Thanks to everyone who submitted street name ideas!
Our internal team is currently screening all submissions against policy
guidelines and criteria and narrowing the list for a public vote.
Return to this site to vote for your favorites. The top
6 choices will be given to Mayor Vinis for final selection later this fall.
Share your street name for one of three potential streets on the new downtown riverfront project.
Criteria
To ensure that street names are relevant to Eugene and the new Downtown Riverfront neighborhood, suggestions must fall into one of three categories:
Community/Culture - From Kalapuyans to Bill Bowerman, choose a person, place, or thing that embodies Eugene.
Ecology/River - From our rivers to surrounding mountains and the valley we live in, ideas representing the ecology of Eugene are as abundant as our native plants.
Industry/Energy - There are major industries that are important to Eugene’s history and the energy of steam and water have played an important role on the riverfront site. While timber has historically been a large driver of our economy, agriculture and education have also played major roles and the technology community is steadily growing.
Guidelines For practical reasons, the following guidelines apply to all new streets in Lane County. Suggested street names must follow these guidelines.
Road names must include
Street names cannot include/be
Valid road type, i.e. - Alley, Ave, Blvd, Lane, Place, Road, Street or Terrace
Punctuation (ex: St. Ives Pl, Be-ell Pl, or Hooton's Corners Rd)
Numbers (ex: Bonners lane 1)
More than 20 characters
Road type within the road name (ex: Woodway Pl)
Identical to an existing mailing or incorporated city
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
We want your ideas for street names! Submit your idea using the ideas tool on this page. We're excited to see what you come up with! The names can be submitted through September 13.
Contribute your street name ideas
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
We want your ideas for street names! Submit your idea using the ideas tool on this page. We're excited to see what you come up with! The names can be submitted through September 13.
Narrowing the List of Street Names
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
Internal screening against policy guidelines and narrowing of list.
Narrowing the List of Street Names
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
Internal screening against policy guidelines and narrowing of list.
Public Vote on Narrowed List
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
Community selects its top six options on the Engage Eugene website.
Public Vote on Narrowed List
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
Community selects its top six options on the Engage Eugene website.
Selecting Street Names
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! is currently at this stage
Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis will choose the final street names from the narrowed list this fall.
Selecting Street Names
Downtown Riverfront - Name Our Streets! has finished this stage
Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis will choose the final street names from the narrowed list this fall.
Photo Gallery
Annie Mims Lane, Nak-nak Avenue and Wiley Griffon Way will be located on the redeveloped Downtown Riverfront property.
Mayor Lucy Vinis unveiled the final names for three new Downtown Riverfront streets: Annie Mims Lane, Nak-nak Avenue and Wiley Griffon Way.