We've got issues.
STABILITY FIRST Donating $400,000 to help unhoused people in the Eugene area is a very positive step in a humane direction, but so much more needs to happen. For example, Utah has moved 2,000 people off the streets and reduced chronic homelessness by 78 percent in the last eight years by simply providing people with apartments. Continue reading
HOMELESS ANSWERS Seldom does anyone get up in the morning and say, “I think I am going to sleep on the sidewalk, lose all my possessions over and over again, beg for money and listen to people shout obscene things at me.” Here are some answers given to me when I interviewed some of our homeless population. With the exception of the few mentally ill homeless I talked with, all that would talk with me have had past or current drug and alcohol problems. Continue reading
THE COUNCIL’S INTENT It has not been a longstanding intention of the City Council to close Whoville before April 15 or even by April 15. The following statements were made on Feb. 18: “Our intent is not to just to go in and shut down the site, our intent is to provide time for people to transition to whatever site that Council chooses, and so that is what our intent is as we go forward.” — Jon Ruiz, city manager. Continue reading
GOODBYE, WHOVILLE As I came to your location on my daily visit to you and the trains, you were pretty much gone. The big machines were doing their job of scooping up everything in their path and slamming it in the waiting Dumpster. The police were gathered out front, their numbers indicating a “point” was being made. The “jail” van was still there, blocking Hilyard (it was sealed off from both directions). Continue reading
LNG HAZARD Exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) will lead to more drilling [see news story last week]. And more drilling means more fracking, more air and water pollution and more climate-fueled weather disasters like last year’s record fires, droughts and superstorms. The proposed Jordan Cove Coos Bay LNG is an environmental disaster of hazardous proportions. Continue reading
JUST PASSING THROUGH Thank you, Kevin Sullivan, for writing the article (“Increase in Cougar Killing is Preventable,” 3/20) and for your compassion. Mountain lions who find their way into urban or residential areas such as Hendricks Park are typically just passing through. If left alone and given time, they will leave town on their own. Continue reading
DEFORESTATION LOOMS Continue reading
OUR FINE CITY HALL Though unintentional, Jerry Diethelm’s history of city governance’s relationship with its constituents is misleading [“Design Matters,” 3/6]. Twice, in May 1994 and then in November 1994, voters rejected the new library measure. Did City Hall give voters a chance for final approval? Similarly, Eugeneans twice voted and twice voted down a new police facility. Again, was it funded with voter approval? Continue reading
HOLLOW PREACHINGS I grew up a broke, male WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) who regularly attended a fairly conservative church. Many of my friends in church, as it happened, were gay and subsequently pushed from our congregation via informal excommunication, to borrow a Catholic phrase, and were no longer welcome. Continue reading
COUNCIL MISLED Concerned citizens following recent Eugene City Council discussion around preservation of the Amazon Headwaters are wondering about the role of city management. At the Feb. 19 work session, staff repeatedly stated that the Deerbrook PUD has been approved. This is false. The application received a tentative approval. The property owners have chosen to delay applying for other approvals needed before any development can begin. Why was council misled on this point? Continue reading