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• Want to help with the calamity in the Philippines? Climate activist and author Bill McKibben of 350.org recommends non-governmental organizations that do direct relief in the Philippines. He lists them and provides links at wkly.ws/1mf. Super Typhoon Haiyan, the most intense storm on record to hit land, has drawn more attention than usual to issues of climate change, in part due to the timing of the Warsaw Climate Change Conference. Continue reading
• Welcome to our annual Best of Eugene issue, sometimes affectionately called the “Beast of Eugene” since it is our biggest honking issue of the year and demands brain-numbing weeks of labor by our writers and photogs, and thousands of ballots submitted by our readers. This is our fattest Beast issue ever at 76 pages with near-record ad revenue, so we have to thank our loyal advertisers as well. They recognize that EW print ads provide the most bang for the buck. You simply have to be in EW to build a crowd for your business or event. Continue reading
• What do Eugeneans want to see happen at Civic Stadium? The public, as documented in a recent Lindholm Company phone survey, appears to favor selling it to the city and preserving the historic stadium as a soccer field and public park. The survey found that 60 percent of respondents supported selling Civic to the city and 28 percent opposed. We wager that more people will come around, especially as the prospect of swapping an important historic recreational site for a big-box store right in the middle of town looks worse and worse. Continue reading
• Wolves have endured a rocky reintroduction to Oregon, but with new legislation enacted this summer, wolves stand a better chance of surviving when they will disperse elsewhere into Oregon. OR-7, the famous Oregon wolf affectionately known as Journey for his 1,000-mile trek from the Wallowa Mountains to Northern California, was the first to do this, and more wolves could follow his example, eventually settling in the Crater Lake area or even the Willamette Valley. Continue reading
• The Eugene Budget Committee began a series of public outreach meetings this week, and we weren’t satisfied with the overly broad and simplistic exercise the city provided the audience. Most attendees wanted better information, clearer details and a more creative discussion. A city staffer says the city planned to repeat the exercise at the rest of its public outreach meetings, but changes are possible. Following the exercise, the audience moved to a more in-depth discussion. Continue reading
• Eugene’s Finance Investigative Team (FIT) is a new addition to the city budget process, adding a group of invited community members to join some Budget Committee members to talk about how to balance the FY 2015 budget. The meetings are supposedly open to the public, but they have been held in a third-floor room of the Eugene Public Library that does not have public access, and no public notice was given. Is this a violation of Oregon’s Open Meetings Law? Continue reading
• Lane County released the redacted investigation into Liane Richardson last week, and you can find the whole thing, for what it’s worth, on our blog. We appreciate that the county seems pretty pissed about what went on — the press release says several times that Richardson was “untruthful.” But what we don’t appreciate are the pages and pages of redactions — 30 or so pages are blacked out. Continue reading
• EWEB will be looking at smart meters at its next board meeting at 5:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 1, and the topic is likely to draw a large and vociferous crowd. It’s on the agenda as “AMI Project” for Advanced Metering Infrastructure. We hear three options are being considered: shelving AMI, continuing existing plans to do pilot programs over the next three years with the idea of deploying the meters later or doing an opt-in approach based on customer demand. Continue reading
• Winter is approaching and the homeless among us are in increasing danger. The city of Eugene has spent millions over the years on programs to assist the homeless, the City Council has wrestled with many less-than-perfect proposals, local churches and nonprofits have struggled to provide life-saving services and facilities, human rights activists have protested and been arrested. It’s not enough. Thousands in our community still have no warm place to sleep, no place to prepare meals, no place to try to rebuild their lives. Continue reading
• Lane County Commissioners behaving badly: Pat Farr has been sniping at fellow Commissioner Pete Sorenson on his ForumLane.org blog, calling Sorenson “high atop his self-built pedestal” for his stand on Free Speech Plaza and the homeless. Add to that Jay Bozievich’s snarktastic comments about Sorenson, city officials and local environmental groups in emails and on his Facebook page and the right-leaning side of the County Commission is looking like kids fighting in a social-media sandbox. We’re tired of the mess at the county. Continue reading