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CLEAR Temp: 70 °F Wind: NW at 3 mph Monday, June 10, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend May 28, 2002 On a wish list of possible improvements to the Bear Creek corridor is creekside dining on what is now a parking lot outside Deli Down on Main Street. Residents envision creek as downtown hub A wish list for Medford’s Bear Creek includes plazas, creekside dining, art, wildlife watching By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune Shopping next to the creek, dining near water’s edge and planting trees along urban banks were among the top items on a wish list residents created for Medford’s downtown waterway. People want banners hanging near Bear Creek to give Medford a festive look like Ashland’s Plaza. They want frescoes painted on the concrete pillars supporting the freeway over Hawthorne Park. And they want to hear and see whitewater when they dine downtown. "We should look at the viaduct as a great opportunity for art because it isn’t going away," said Don Burt, director of the Medford Urban Renewal Agency. "We want to give it a sculptural taste instead of an industrial one." Hired by the city of Medford and the urban renewal agency, Design Studios West Inc. recently collected 464 ideas from people who live, work, bicycle or drive along the seven miles of Bear Creek winding through Medford. The Denver architects created before-and-after pictures for downtown Medford by blending local ideas with designs of waterway projects they completed in San Antonio, Texas, and Pueblo, Colo. At Deli Down, on Main Street near Riverside Avenue, a sketch shows creekside dining on what is now a parking lot. "It sounds fabulous," said Dan La Fond, one of the owners of Deli Down. "It will be nice to have the creek be developed, and I hope it comes to pass." Artists turned the steep, eroded creek banks behind the Red Lion Hotel into cantilevered plazas, or elevated patios built over the water’s edge. At the Rogue Valley Mall, artists drew a waterfront restaurant on a usually vacant portion of the parking lot. Other sketches show an observation deck to watch ducks and spawning salmon behind Taco Bell, signs describing Medford’s history placed along the Bear Creek Greenway and decorative carvings or paintings sprucing up downtown bridges. "People want to get down to the water or have places to sit and watch the wildlife," Burt told the Medford City Council last week. The city and MURA spent $70,500 to create a master plan for Bear Creek. But they haven’t yet decided how to pay for the improvements. An urban renewal agency in Estes Park, Colo., went through a similar process in 1984 and spent nearly $10 million in tax increment financing to implement improvements over a period of about 10 years, said Don Brandes, Design Studios president. "The next step is an action plan, picking projects that we can accomplish and bringing the action plan back to the City Council," Burt said. There may be projects that won’t cost much money to implement, such as clearing blackberry bushes from the Bear Creek Greenway and decorating the concrete retaining wall near the North Medford Interstate 5 interchange. "Some people are intimidated by the wall and feel uncomfortable with the overgrown bushes," Burt said. "We’d like to put artwork on the wall, build observation decks to encourage more people to use that part of the trail and place mileage markers on the trail so joggers and bicyclists know how far they are on the system." The city is also considering contracting with a concession company to encourage recreation and tourism downtown, said Greg Jones, Medford parks and recreation director. "I think we should find someone who would rent bikes or inline skates and sell hamburgers for people who want to use the Greenway," said Medford City Councilman Bill Moore. Design Studios West held two open houses recently at the Red Lion Hotel. Residents could write their ideas on yellow notes and stick them to aerial maps of Bear Creek that architects hung on the wall. The architects divided the creek into a north zone near the Rogue Valley Mall, a central zone winding between downtown buildings and beneath a busy freeway, and a south zone, the more natural stretch from the city’s proposed new sports park at South Stage Road through Medford’s popular Bear Creek Park. Other ideas submitted by residents included enhancing fish habitat, building pedestrian creek crossings, adding benches, creating bark trails that loop through wetland areas, building overlook decks, creating riffles for kids to play in and placing sculptures along the pathways. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S