Editing Eugene, Oregon (section)

===Community===
Eugene is noted for its "community inventiveness." Many U.S. trends in community development originated in Eugene. The University of Oregon's participatory [[planning]] process, known as [[The Oregon Experiment]], was the result of student protests in the early 1970s. The book of the same name is a major document in modern enlightenment thinking in planning and architectural circles. The process, still used by the university in modified form, was created by [[Christopher Alexander]], whose works also directly inspired the creation of the [[Wiki]]. Some research for the book ''[[A Pattern Language]]'', which inspired the [[Design Patterns]] movement and [[Extreme Programming]], was done by Alexander in Eugene. Not coincidentally, those engineering movements also had origins here. Decades after its publication, ''A Pattern Language'' is still one of the best-selling books on urban design.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Levinson |first1=David M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WWuTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 |title=Place and Plexus: Metropolitan Land Use and Transport |last2=Krizek |first2=Kevin J. |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2008 |isbn=9781135974565 |page=232 |access-date=November 10, 2014}}</ref>

In the 1970s, Eugene was packed with cooperative and community projects. It still has small natural food stores in many neighborhoods, some of the oldest student cooperatives in the country, and alternative schools have been part of the school district since 1971. The old Grower's Market, downtown near the [[Amtrak]] depot, is the only food cooperative in the U.S. with no employees. It is possible to see Eugene's trend-setting non-profit tendencies in much newer projects, such as Square One Villages and the [[Center for Appropriate Transport]]. In 2006, an initiative began to create a tenant-run development process for downtown Eugene.

In the fall of 2003, neighbors noticed "an unassuming two-acre remnant orchard tucked into the Friendly Area Neighborhood"<ref name="Saved">{{Cite news |last=Hirst |first=Jessica |date=December 18, 2008 |title=Madison Meadow Saved |work=Eugene Weekly |url=http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/12/18/news.html |url-status=dead |access-date=September 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170306033812/http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2008/12/18/news.html |archive-date=March 6, 2017}}</ref> had been put up for sale by its owner, a resident of New York City.<ref name="RG07">{{Cite news |last=Russo |first=Edward |date=April 5, 2007 |title=Clock ticking on Madison Meadow |page=C1 |work=The Register-Guard |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/registerguard/access/1250950201.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Apr+5%2C+2007&author=Edward+Russo+The+Register-Guard&pub=The+Register+-+Guard&edition=&startpage=C.1&desc=Clock+ticking+on+Madison+Meadow |access-date=August 1, 2009 |archive-date=November 7, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107103500/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/registerguard/access/1250950201.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Apr+5,+2007&author=Edward+Russo+The+Register-Guard&pub=The+Register+-+Guard&edition=&startpage=C.1&desc=Clock+ticking+on+Madison+Meadow |url-status=dead}}</ref> Learning a prospective buyer had plans to build several houses on the property, they formed a nonprofit organization called Madison Meadow<ref name="MM">{{cite web |date=April 17, 2008 |title=Madison Meadow |url=http://www.madisonmeadow.org/ |access-date=November 13, 2012 |publisher=Madison Meadow |archive-date=June 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605012120/http://madisonmeadow.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=August 21, 2012 |title=Eugene OR 97405- Tax Exempt Organizations and 97405 Eugene Oregon Non Profit Organizations |url=http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/eugene_or_97405.asp |access-date=November 13, 2012 |publisher=Taxexemptworld.com |archive-date=February 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217023823/http://www.taxexemptworld.com/organizations/eugene_or_97405.asp |url-status=live }}</ref> in June 2004 in order to buy the property and "preserve it as undeveloped space in perpetuity."<ref name="MM" /> In 2007 their effort was named Third Best Community Effort by the ''Eugene Weekly'',<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 25, 2007 |title=BEST OF EUGENE 2007: Tightrope Walkers and Trapeze Artists |work=Eugene Weekly |url=http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/10/25/coverstory1.html |url-status=dead |access-date=September 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160122095753/http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/10/25/coverstory1.html |archive-date=January 22, 2016}}</ref> and by the end of 2008 they had raised enough money to purchase the property.<ref name="Saved" />

The City of Eugene has an active Neighborhood Program. Several neighborhoods are known for their green activism. Friendly Neighborhood has a highly popular neighborhood garden established on the right of way of a street never built. There are a number of community gardens on public property. Amazon Neighborhood has a former church turned into a community center. Whiteaker hosts a housing co-op that dates from the early 1970s that has re-purposed both their parking lots into food production and play space. An unusual eco-village with natural building techniques and large shared garden can be found in Jefferson Westside neighborhood. A several block area in the River Road Neighborhood is known as a [[permaculture]] hotspot with an increasing number of suburban homes trading grass for garden, installing rain water catchment systems, food producing landscapes and solar retrofits. Several sites have planted gardens by removing driveways. Citizen volunteers are working with the City of Eugene to restore a 65-tree [[hazelnut|filbert]] grove on public property. There are deepening social and economic networks in the neighborhood.