• “How dare you continue to look away!” If you haven’t listened to Greta Thunberg’s stirring speech to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York on Sept. 23, stop what you’re doing right now and find it online. The 16-year-old Swedish activist was unsparing in her condemnation of delusional business as usual from world politicians and their corporate masters as the world careens toward climate calamity. “Right here, right now is where we draw the line,” she said, her voice quavering. “The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
• We were delighted to see at least 500 people turn out in downtown Eugene for our part in the Global Climate Strike (you can catch a story and photos online at EugeneWeekly.com). The strike continues with a Know Your Rights training with Civil Liberties Defense Center, at First United Methodist Church, Fellowship Hall, 1376 Olive Street, 6 pm Thursday, Sept. 26. At noon Friday, Sept. 27, there will be a die-in at Chase Bank. Meet at the Eugene Federal Building, 405 E. 8th Avenue. Check out more climate events at World.350.org/Eugene/global-climate-strike-team.
• University of Oregon women’s soccer team wrapped up their non-conference series on Sept. 22 with a 2-1 overtime win over Buffalo. The Ducks’ Pac-12 Conference games begin Friday, Sept. 27, as they hit the road, playing University of Washington, then Oct. 3 in Boulder and Oct. 6 in Salt Lake City. Follow EW online as the Ducks take on the Pac.
• After more than 15 months of contract negotiations between labor and management, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 is asking the public to boycott Fred Meyer. The boycott is the first step to address Fred Meyer’s unfair labor practices and refusal to pay a living wage for its workers. Until workers get a fair contract and wage, we stand with UFCW.
• Eugene City Councilor Emily Semple is under fire right now for comments she made at a Sept. 17 Human Rights Commission meeting. Referring to Eric Jackson’s homeless protest camp, Semple called the protest the face of homelessness and adds that the camp is now becoming “terrorism.” Asked for comment, Semple says she’s tired of talking about the matter. She says she issued an apology three times and hopes that’s enough. Since she made the comment, she says, two people have reached out to talk to her but the rest “went off on me.”
• Tom Steyer, the California jillionaire who literally bought his way into the Democratic presidential debates, is calling for a Climate Conservation Corps similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps established by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Another echo of FDR is the Green New Deal proposed by some Democratic members of Congress. Next we need a Frances Perkins, Roosevelt’s secretary of labor, to implement these proposals. This is hard to imagine in the age of Trump, but that age will end.
• Architect Kaarin Knudson and workforce analyst Henry Fields spelled out the local and statewide housing crisis Sept. 20 to the City Club of Eugene. Recent estimates suggest that more than 60 percent of Eugene renters and 30 percent of homebuyers are “housing cost burdened,” meaning they spend 30 percent or more of their income on housing. Median home price is now $310,500 and median rent is $1,595, but median household income is just $44,800. So how do we raise wages? That was one of the many questions Knudson and Fields posed. In 2018, the city appointed a 34-person working group to study and recommend options for the City Council to consider. This week another proposal has come from the Oregon Center for Public Policy, a progressive think tank in Portland. Their report calls for a statewide rent assistance program to improve housing stability and affordability. The full report is on OCPP’s website.
• A memorial service for Annette Montero will be held at noon Friday, Sept. 27, at First Christian Church, 1166 Oak Street. Montero, who had been homeless for a number of years, died Aug. 26 when she was run over by a garbage truck as she lay asleep in a Eugene alley.
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