Maybe they could outlaw guns downtown! I’m sure that’ll help.
They might wish it, but they can't, thanks to state law.
I don't know what sort of "criminals" the leftists on the council wish to exclude, or what they perceive the problem to be, I just haven't followed it. But downtown Eugene has been in a state of decline since the late '60s & early '70s when all the streets were ripped out to turn it into one of the nation's first pedestrian malls.
In recent years the two main streets have been reopened with fancy colored brick style pavement and some silly looking sculptures standing at the street corners, but still is populated with merchants such as thrift stores, hippy type coffee shops, soup kitchens and the like. The old anchor merchants of downtown (Ward's, Sears, Tiffany, Bon Marche', JC Penney, and more) have been gone for decades. The buildings are rented out as government offices, small storefronts, and low rent storage, plus a nightclub here & there that would not survive but for their reputations as places underage drinkers can get in without difficulty. One of the largest old anchors, Sears, is a giant hole in the ground two or three stories deep that is usually full of water, and that is how it has been for perhaps ten years now.
The city council has fought over competing redevelopment plans for years, all of them involving buying the whole thing out with taxpayer money and reselling (giving away) to one or two favored developers who would then rebuild according to the council's vision, with trendy little shops downstairs, and residential units upstairs, sort of like a miniature version of Portland's Pearl district. The differences on the council seem to revolve around ways to keep the area "diverse and inclusive" with things like "affordable" (subsidized) housing, grocery stores, and such.
As I said, I don't know what sort of criminals they wish to exclude. But since the proposed ordinance would only apply to cases cited into Muni court, which only tries traffic and low level misdemeanors, it would certainly not exclude any violent criminals.
I think it's just "weed and seed" by another name - a form of gentrification aided by "community policing" where police target certain elements of a neighborhood, based largely on appearance, for special harassment. This would be the poor and the brown skinned, and any others who don't prefer to dress fashionably or drive nice cars. The idea is to drive these elements out of a neighborhood (weed), thus making it more attractive to the genteel (seed).