Make Eugene Walkable Again
We already know that car drivers are not willing to share the road with pedestrians and bicyclists. Sidewalks in Eugene are an unsightly patchwork of broken, cracked and uneven concrete that is difficult to navigate even with the help of a walker. Homeowners have not taken responsibility for improvements. It’s time for the city to take over the sidewalks. Let’s make Eugene a safe place to walk instead of making cars the priority.
Margaret Moore
Eugene
Citing Destructiveness of Violent Protest
Emotions can run high when people gather in response to controversial events. While millions have acted peacefully over the past year as national issues have led people to publicly express their thoughts and feelings, a much smaller number have reacted with violence. A violent protest is typically a reaction provoked by the immediate situation or is actually a calculated move. Neither yields a positive outcome.
Some protesters believe violent actions will create pressure for faster change, disrupting complacency while empowering marginalized communities.
Those who argue for restraint cite a variety of reasons:
People can be hurt or die. Injuries often result from physical confrontations and interventions involving tear gas, rubber bullets and other means used to quell such actions. Violent action draws unwanted attention and thereby actually puts immigrants in more danger.
Destruction of property often occurs, leading to unnecessary expense for individuals and small businesses and for public infrastructure. Economic consequence can be widespread and significant.
Public support can be influenced and even lost. The most long-lasting consequence of protesters engaging in violent action is the production of fear and resentment on the part of the majority who favor peaceful actions to achieve change. Such alienation diverts attention from the cause and weakens the movement by undermining the positive efforts made by the majority. The level of support for positive change we find here and across the country is enormous. We must all help maintain the momentum by discouraging actions that undermine a consistently peaceful response.
Marjorie DeBuse, Roscoe Caron, John O’Donoghue, Sharon Hawks and Bob Marquis
Eugene
DeFazio on 2026 Primaries
I fought many difficult fights in representing the people of Oregon’s 4th District in my 36 years in Congress. But I never faced such a grave threat to our nation and our constitutional government as the one posed by the Trump administration. This includes: the unprecedented corruption and partisan legislation to benefit the one percent by slashing healthcare and other essential programs that have served tens of millions of Americans. The abuse of our proud military into a war with no authority from Congress; the brazen attempt through illegal “executive orders” or legislation passed by a lapdog Republican House to steal the 2026 election.
This election could not be more critical. We need a strong, tested fighter like Val Hoyle representing us in Congress. Vote for Val Hoyle for Congress this May.
Peter DeFazio
Retired U.S. congressman
Springfield
Beer is More than a Bar Crawl
I get it: Beer, especially from independent producers, isn’t cheap anymore. Beyond its factual error — Plank Town brews its beers on site, not in Portland — and awkward, AI-esque cribbing from beer menus, “Balling on a Budget” missed multiple opportunities to add depth to the “more bang for your buck” approach to supporting local breweries and taphouses. Even one quote from a brewer or bartender would have been nice.
I, and others in the beer community, are disappointed in the Weekly’s choice to forego a deeper dive in favor of listing convenience store beer prices. The craft beer industry is past the honeymoon phase and genuinely needs community support. In turn, we provide welcoming spaces, event venues and local jobs ranging from service to marketing and skilled trades.
You don’t even have to like beer or drink alcohol to patronize a brewery; many also run restaurants or host food trucks, and serve ciders, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages. There are also places like The Bier Stein, A Beer Club and PLAY, where you can go for impeccable selections of beer and knowledgeable staff who can provide something that money alone cannot: the delight of a new sensory experience.
Aaron Brussat
Eugene
Editor’s note: Thanks for the correction! We have updated the article. Eugene Weeklydoes not use AI. However, Eugene Weekly does sometimes buy beer at convenience stores in addition to patronizing all our wonderful breweries!
Change Quietly Happened
Oregon’s quiet rollback of transportation support for minors in Developmental Disabilities Services deserves far more public scrutiny.
As a direct support professional (DSP), I have watched this policy immediately reduce the quality and effectiveness of the care I’m able to provide. I am no longer allowed to transport the children I support, despite transportation previously being a critical part of helping them access therapy, community activities and essential services. Instead, large portions of support time are now spent navigating buses, walking unsafe routes or waiting on parent availability — time that should be spent on skill-building, regulation and meaningful engagement.
This change doesn’t just impact logistics; it impacts people. The individuals I support are confused by sudden shifts in expectations. The presence of a parent during services, when it was not previously required, changes behavior, increases dysregulation and disrupts established routines. I have seen increased emotional distress as children struggle to understand why they can no longer access familiar places or why services no longer look the same.
It has also reduced available work hours for DSPs as families try to adapt, creating instability for both workers and those we support.
This policy may be framed as compliance, but in practice, it is limiting access, disrupting care and placing additional burden on families and providers alike.
Suzanna Beers
Eugene
For the Library
Libraries help defend free speech, education and are one of the only community spaces that are free and open.
The Eugene Public Library provides so many free services for every age, income level and interest.
It is particularly impressive in all it offers our community’s children.
When my kids were preschoolers, we went to the library story hours every week — story hours start children’s love of books.
Every public school student in the Eugene and 4J district receives a free library card.
Youth and young adults have groups and a safe place to belong after school.
Digital resources, which are frequently unavailable or unaffordable to the average child, are all available at the library.
The branch libraries in the Bethel and Sheldon neighborhoods are close enough for kids to walk to after school, offering
a safe environment and free homework help.
Our library relies on a small property tax levy for 23 percent of its budget. We must vote on the library levy every five years, and it is up for a vote this May.
The levy will allow us to maintain the hours at all three branches and to keep digital access to books and resources.
The levy will support the early literacy programs for young children.
Visit YesforEugeneLibrary.com for more info.
Our library gives our kids and our community so much — vote yes for the Library!
Joy Marshall
Eugene
Standing up for the Young
It was so good to see that No Kings Day three (March 28) in Springfield brought out the young, the middle aged and the boomers to object to this regime: its immigration policies, its purging of social and educational programs and the war in Iran. For those of us who are in the boomer group, we were instrumental in the protests of the Vietnam War and helped it end. We also fought for all social and civil rights we have enjoyed in our lifetime. Now this regime will set us back 50 years.
For those in the younger generations who haven’t joined us, we are not demonstrating any longer for ourselves, but for all of you, the next generation, so your lives will be better and more importantly, so democracy will continue. Stand up, get up, and join us in the next one and the next one and further ones — and be sure to register and vote in November.
Cindee Robertson
Eugene
ONLINE EXTRA LETTERS
The Playbook
President Trump has taken a page out of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza playbook for use in his own ICE detention centers.
Netanyahu killed or starved civilians, deprived the injured and ill and pregnant mothers of medical care and children of schooling and displaced folks within their own country. His hope was that families would want to leave the country and never come back.
Now comes testimony from Leqaa Koria, a Columbia University student recently released from ICE detention after a year. ICE told her lawyer she was going to be taken to upstate New York, but she was taken to Texas instead. She was refused any communication with her family or her lawyer and felt essentially “kidnapped.”
Conditions in the Texas detention center were like a “dungeon.” She slept on the floor. There was no sunlight in the room. No health care was made available to the sick, injured or pregnant. Showers stopped working for two weeks. Her room was frequently filled to double its capacity. The food was “worse than dog food.”
She summarized her experience in terms a Gazan would understand very well, saying the detention center was “designed to make you beg for deportation.”
Kimball Shinkoskey
Woods Cross, Utah
Mail-in Ballot
The problem with the mail-in-postage-paid ballot is that it is not returned. In the May 2024 primary in Eugene, only 29 percent voted.
The minority is deciding what is best for the majority.
When it first was used, you paid the postage; people did not like that, it is now postage paid and the same results: voters don’t vote.
With what is happening from the federal government to the local government, there must be a change.
Complain all you want, but if you do not vote, which is your voice, then who cares what you think, you have chosen not to be heard.
What is so hard to fill out this ballot and place in your mail box or voting box?
I could care less how you vote, but vote.
One hundred seventy-eight thousand Lane County mail-in ballots were not returned in the May 2024 primary.
The government is not of the people, for the people, by the people, if the people don’t vote.
If you don’t want to vote, remove your name from being a registered voter, save money on mailing out ballots that will never be returned.
Steven E. Hunnicutt
Eugene
King of the Gods
Years ago, I worked in what was then the state assistance office in downtown Eugene. The place featured many a colorful character. One fellow called himself Zeus, King of the gods. His real name was Jeffrey, but he bristled at that. A senior caseworker described Zeus as “crazy as a hoot owl,” and this stuck, becoming “Hoo-Hoo” for short.
It fit Zeus, who spent his days on the streets between the office and the University of Oregon in scanty costume, carrying a wooden staff with a nude Barbie doll rubber-banded to it, proclaiming his greatness. Most everybody avoided him, especially children, whom he terrified.
But Zeus had a following who gave him spare change, which he spent on Marlboros or amphetamine cross tabs. Nights Zeus crashed in a halfway house, and was daisy-fresh in daytime. Our chore with Zeus was to get him in and out of the office with as little friction as possible. It wasn’t easy, although Zeus did vanish for one blessed stretch when a UO coed resembling Margot Robbie pressed battery charges against Zeus to the hilt.
I’d already taken another job when news of Zeus’s demise spread, from peritonitis triggered by his habit of inserting the heads of decapitated Barbie dolls in his rectum. If any tears were shed at Zeus’s return to Mount Olympus, they were few.
While Zeus/Jeffrey did in fact exist back then, this story is intentionally allegorical, and everybody knows who I’m really talking about.
Hoo-Hoo.