By EW Readers
Eugene Weekly can’t be the only ones calling out local dick moves, so we called upon you, the readers, to weigh in, too — and you did! (No surprise here, but a couple of you let us know that the Weekly was in fact the dick for asking for dick moves, but that’s par for the course — our Facebook page exists to inflame the MAGA right wing).
In rough order of the number of emails, comments, likes and posts on a given topic, and with only some light editing for clarity and style, here’s the readers’ poll version of some of the top local dick moves.
• The Lane County Poverty and Homelessness Board voting to not do any kind of official Point in Time count for the homeless in January 2026. Sure there’s some funding uncertainty already, and that the county has received approval from HUD to use their alternative data collection system alongside the official point in time count, but why add fuel to the fire by abandoning the official Point in Time count, which is still required by HUD to secure federal funding for homelessness and which Lane County did not yet receive a waiver for for 2026? Potentially penny-wise and pound-foolish decision in my opinion.
• Eugene Police Department and Eugene Parks and Open Spaces confiscating possessions of the unhoused. Removing critical survival gear like tarps, tents and blankets should be illegal. Throwing them away, instead of returning the possessions, should be a punishable offense against EPD and the city of Eugene. Homeless people arrested in the evenings are frequently released within two hours. Their possessions can’t be picked up again until 9 am Monday through Friday. And that’s only if a person’s possessions were retained. One unhoused person lost everything, including his kitten. It was sent to the dump — in spite of his panicked requests from the back of the squad car.
• Construction delays on the Chambers Bridge at Roosevelt Boulevard. The seismic retrofit began in early March, closing lanes and restricting turns at the intersection. There was a stop-work order in April, followed by a pause from summer and into fall over needing a permit from Union Pacific rail company to access the property under the bridge. Now completion is not expected until May 2026.
• Local politicians allowing outside money to come in and build “fair market housing” (ironic term) and exploit citizens for profit. Allowing them to work in collusion to skyrocket rents. Their claim is it provides jobs but the only jobs it really creates are temporary construction jobs. The long term cons are much more devastating than the short term pros. The buildings also look like garbage.
• The removal of the playground at 4J’s Arts and Technology Academy because “middle schoolers don’t need to play.”
• When now-former Springfield city councilor Victoria Doyle pulled a gun in a Walmart parking lot.
• Not only did Dutch Bros move their headquarters to Arizona but why do you have to nearly get sideswiped then cussed out, trying to order a coffee! They need to get their drive-thru lanes together.
• 4J promising to build a new location for Yujin Gakuen, the Japanese immersion grade school, but instead demolishing their building for the new high school then moving the entire program to the other side of Eugene, putting kids in a makeshift school and leaving north Eugene families in the lurch.
• Springfield School District’s administration not meeting its deadline for resolving the inadequate science/social studies/health, etc., curriculum complaint that was filed by current teachers and validated by the Oregon Department of Education, which was investigating the complaint. Instead, the administration decided, with some board members, to sanction other board members who continued to follow up on deadlines missed, promises unkept and lack of movement to provide Springfield students with adequate instruction/curriculum.
Instead of prioritizing the serious curriculum shortcomings affecting the primary clients of the school district, students themselves, the administration and some school board members avoided their responsibilities to students by prioritizing procedural and process questions as the main problems over dealing with establishing important corrections for students in a timely manner. The message the administration is sending is that solutions for students take a back seat to meaningless process irregularities.
• Lane Community College administration canceling the highly successful licensed practical nurse program for the 2025-26 year without a public meeting, Board of Education vote, or even notice to students, faculty, or the board prior to making the decision after students had invested time and money into prerequisites and applications. And LCC administration’s surveillance of faculty union emails and other union interference resulting in multiple unfair labor practice charges confirmed by Oregon’s Employment Relations Board panel of judges in its July 2025 decision.
• Eugene Weekly not endorsing using public money to fund a new Eugene Emeralds baseball stadium at the Lane Events Center. (Editor’s note: OK that was 2024 but people are still mad).
• Oakridge is still having to fight the building of the King-Estate-connected quarry mine right above town. Lane County commissioners have had many chances to vote it down.
• PacificSource pulling out of Lane County.
• Speed bumps.
• Rick Dancer talking 💩 about Oregon while living in another state.
• Porch Pirates.
• The director of the Oregon Coast Military Museum abusing a minor volunteer. No jail time, and he had to be forced from his nepotistic paid director position where his father was president of the board, and the disgusting comments these “men” made towards a minor child victim during a recorded board meeting.