It was interesting, visiting downtown Eugene last January, the most recent time I was there.

You can see and feel the new energy downtown, which has undergone an urban revitalization in recent years that has brought many news businesses to the central city.

Some of the newbies said Eugene was now like a Little Portland, while others wanted no part of that. Eugene is Eugene, they said, we don't want to be like Portland. Here's a link to my story from that trip: Eugene downtown revitalization adds welcome tourist amenities, walkable from train depot.

Those who claimed kinship to Portland mostly had settled in town recently from elsewhere. They had heard in their old state that Portland was a cool city, wanted to give Oregon a try and wound up in Eugene instead of Portland. If you had just moved from Lawrence, Kan., maybe you would feel that way, too.

(Lawrence, of course, is a hip, fun university town, so I'm not putting it down; it's just that Eugene has a lot more to do around and just outside town than Lawrence ever could have.)

I want to know what some of those best things are, in and around Eugene. Let me know by filling out the form below. Or tweet me at @trichardpdx, #EugBest. Eugene does Twitter, doesn't it? I still haven't seen anyone use the hashtag (except me) as I write this.

Corvallis will get its turn with a similar project in November, so get started on telling me the best of Beaver town by using the Twitter hashtag #CorvBest.

See you in Eugene this weekend. I'm in town Thursday to Sunday. And while you're at it, Travel Lane County at eugenecascadescoast.org.

-- Terry Richard

Fill out my

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