We've got issues.
• Eugene’s Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) was portrayed in a public forum this week as the salvation for downtown, both past and future, even though MUPTE has had a much bigger impact on the West University area than it has had on downtown. Continue reading
Over the weekend hundreds of participants along the Klamath River gathered in ceremony for the 2015 Great SalmonR un of the Klamath-Trinity Rivers. For the first time this year, the Klamath Tribes participated in the run, which has been extended to Chiloquin, Oregon. Members and descendants from all the Klamath Basin river tribes took part in the ceremonial event, beginning May 29 at at the Pacific Ocean and concluding in Chiloquin June 1. Continue reading
Recently there has been some confusion regarding proposals associated with “riverkeepers” and “river guardians” in Eugene. Willamette Riverkeeper (WR) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Willamette River. We accomplish this mission through four key initiatives: clean river, monitoring, river discovery education and habitat restoration. Continue reading
I strongly urge Eugene’s leaders to ban tobacco smoking in public areas. As a longtime resident of Eugene and outdoor enthusiast, I appreciate our many opportunities for recreation. As I cycle along the Willamette River bike trail, I also love to see how many other people enjoy our parks and public places. Having safe places for people to exercise or have family picnics while their children run and play are essential to our community’s well-being and liveability. Continue reading
ONLY ONE OF MANY I am writing to applaud Camilla Mortensen’s as always thorough, informed and situated story May 28 about sexual assault survivors and the UO. The article demonstrates how sadly typical it is for something truly terrible to happen before anything is done that could prevent future tragedies. The UO, caught between worries about perceptions of prospective students, their parents and, above everyone else, donors, hoped this would just go away. It did not. Continue reading
• This week marks a changing of the guard at The Register-Guard, and outgoing Editor and Publisher Tony Baker wrote a farewell column in the daily’s Sunday Commentary section May 31. The column was clearly intended to diminish fears that new Editor and Publisher N. Christian Anderson III will oversee the kinds of changes at the R-G that he and the Advance Publications chain implemented at The Oregonian, taking the venerable Oregon daily and turning it into a pitiful tabloid. Continue reading
Memorial Day has its roots in the aftermath of the Civil War when Americans searched for a way to honor and remember the three-quarters of a million people who died in that horrific conflict. The original declaration in 1868 called for “strewing of flowers or otherwise decorating the graves” of the war dead, hence its original name, Decoration Day. Continue reading
Politics have taken priority over tribal member’s inherent rights and the rights of Klamath River salmon. The controversial Klamath Basin Restoration Act (KBRA) claims to restore fish however KBRA mandates recently denied increased flows to Klamath River Chinook salmon. An article by Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard warned “A deadly salmon parasite is thriving in the drought, infecting nearly all the juvenile Chinook in the Klamath River in Northern California as they prepare to migrate to the ocean.” Continue reading
No, unfortunately for you, dear readers, it’s not “Last Writes.” Yes, sports fans, the geezer moment has come. If you open your May 28 EW and read this after 5 pm, I will officially be free at last! Continue reading
On April 26 The Register-Guard ran a story about efforts to re-invent the Lane Metro Partnership as the South Lane Economic Development Corp. The article claims the Lane Metro Partnership had to go away because its director, Jack Roberts, was “not producing meaningful results,” and his board of directors had become “disenchanted” with him because he was not “doing enough to bring new business to the region.” None of that is true. Job performance had nothing to do with why Roberts had to go or why Metro is being replaced. Continue reading