Biz Beat 3-31-2016

 • Saturday Market and Farmers Market will open their seasons Saturday, April 2, at the Park Blocks downtown. This hub of community activity will feature artisans, chefs, musicians and community members gathering to celebrate art, life and veggies in the southern Willamette Valley. Saturday Market will be open 33 Saturdays, more than 400 artisans will sell more than $1.5 million worth of handcrafted wares, nearly 500 local musicians will play on the stage and around the market, and 15 food booths will draw hungry crowds. Continue reading 

Activist Alert 3-31-2016

• The Cottage Grove Blackberry Pie Society will host Lane County Sheriff Byron Trapp and Cottage Grove Interim Police Chief Scott Shepherd from 6:30 to 8 pm Thursday, March 31, in the Reception Room at the Cottage Grove Community Center, 700 E. Gibbs, Cottage Grove. Free and open to the public. Email blackberrypie@gmail.com for more information.  Continue reading 

Slant 3-31-2016

 The growing cost of building a new City Hall is no surprise; we reported on the seismic and cost changes back in January and the lack of offices for city councilors in February, but the issue goes back even further. When the city manager and his hired architects argued in 2014 that we could tear down the old City Hall and build a high-tech, energy efficient new City Hall for $12.5 million (plus demolition and design costs), we were skeptical. The cost per square foot did not pencil out for such high-quality construction. Continue reading 

Lane County Area Spray Schedule 3-31-16

• ODOT will soon be spraying roadsides. Call Jim Gamble at ODOT District 5 at 744-8080 or call (888) 996-8080 for herbicide application information. Hwy. 101 north of Dunes City and Florence was recently sprayed.  • Rosboro LLC, 736-2100, plans to spray their roadsides in Lane County with triclopyr, aminopyralid, glyphosate, metsulfuron methyl, Dyne-Amic, Induce, Syl-Tac and/or R-11, See ODF notification 2016-781-03793, call Dan Menk at 935-2283 with questions. Continue reading 

Slant 3-24-2016

• Bus tickets to ship off homeless people? We hear the city of Portland is looking at allocating $30,000 to buy one-way bus fares for indigent residents who are stuck in Portland and want to go home, or at least to a place where they have the support of family or friends. San Francisco has a similar program called Homeward Bound. At first glance, this seems like a cynical way to get rid of “problem” people and pass them along to other cities. Continue reading 

Activist Alert 3-24-2016

• A weekly “Food Not Fences” community lunch series will begin at noon Thursday, March 24, at the newly constructed fences at Washington Jefferson Park on 1st and Jefferson. Organized by Badass Freedom Fighters and Humanity First, the gatherings are in solidarity with “our unhoused community members and in search for solutions.” Email ourhumanityfirst@gmail.com or cryswebb1975@gmail.com. Continue reading 

Biz Beat 3-24-2016

• The Jazz Station at 124 W. Broadway has a jazzy new neon marquee that makes the all-ages music venue easier to find downtown. The sign was built by Neal Conner of Neon Latitudes with funding by a Lane County Cultural Coalition grant with matching funds from the nonprofit Willamette Jazz Society. Rich and Marilyn Linton, the current WJS president and his spouse, contributed financially to the project as well as providing oversight. The Jazz Station, a project of WJS, promotes touring musicians and bands, local talent and youth performers and provides rehearsal space. Continue reading 

The Mayor’s Race

The Republican race for the presidential nomination has been compared to a clown car with its circus of candidates. No one expected Donald Trump to be more than a joke. Now he might seriously get the nomination.  The Eugene mayoral race might also lend itself to clown car comparisons, with its plethora of candidates. Thus far two candidates have stood out the most: Lucy Vinis, because she reflects Eugene’s concern for social issues and the environment, and Mike Clark, because his votes show he does not.  Continue reading 

Slant 3-17-2016

• As online comments, personal conversations and the letters in this issue tell us, some of the leaders and residents of Springfield are upset with our illustrated tour of Springfield nightlife in the back of the Swizzle section March 10. We like the suggestion from Fey Egan to send an EW staffer to “hang with the cool kids in Springfield, don’t be an ass, and we’ll show you the city, the real city. The one that is creative, alive and unpretentious.” Good idea! Continue reading