As a fellow "graybeard," it's hard not to agree with you-- Yes, Eugene  with all the homeless and desperate renters needs more housing but it's hard to find a place to put it!  We don't want to sprawl into the farm fields nor do we want large infills or tall  buildings  disrupting stable neighborhoods.
So it's natural to look for new land to build on-- but ripping up a side of one of the three buttes that beautify  Eugene's  otherwise  flat valley  in order to build a handful of mansions for our elite??  Wasn't the "new" Jones/Seneca leadership trying to build a better image of itself  as stewards of the land?

Maybe it's fortunate that Ken Tollenaar, long time UO prof, Eugene City Councilor and leader of the Cal Young neighborhood isn't  around to see this development as he fought for years to prevent this damage to Gillespie Butte and would have been crushed by this outcome..
"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."