Opinion: Page 392

Low Risk, High Gain

Keeping Civic Stadium in public hands makes sense

Viewpoint

The Eugene City Council has a decision to make about Civic Stadium and it will be made very soon. The question is: Will the city put in an offer, using the city parks bond funds, and allow Friends of Civic Stadium (FOCS) to refurbish and reopen it for use, or will it step back and allow Civic to be demolished? As a longtime citizen of Eugene, I consider demolition to be a mistake. Both the YMCA (which plans to build housing as well as a new facility) and Fred Meyer, the only current bidders, have plans in place that call for tearing down the 75-year-old building. Continue reading →

Ecological Growth

Expansion can be, and needs to be profitable

Viewpoint

It has become an a matter of widespread belief, as Giesen asserts, that economic contraction not economic growth is essential for an ecological future. I would like to offer another prospective based on the pursuit of sustainability and making economic growth mean ecological improvement. It is a fundamental error to conflate all economic growth with ecological pillage — for example, trading information in cyberspace on a renewably powered internet is a sustainable practice. Continue reading →

Letters to the Editor: 11-14-2013

Letters

SANE WILDLIFE POLICIES I want to set the record straight on Congressman Peter DeFazio’s efforts with regards to wildlife management. DeFazio has been a staunch supporter for sane wildlife policies for decades. In the early 1990s he fought against aerial gunning of wolves in Alaska.  Just this September DeFazio sent a letter to Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell opposing the delisting of wolves — for all the right reasons as well. Continue reading →

Slant 11-14-2013

Slant

• 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 →

DeFazio’s Devolution

Viewpoint

After I’d heard that a hedge fund manager was spending big bucks in 2010 to convince voters to toss out Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, I wrote a check for thousands of dollars to DeFazio for Congress. I was terrified that Republican candidate Art Robinson would pillage the public’s forests, waters and wildlife. It turns out I should have also feared the incumbent on that score. Continue reading →

The Civic Solution

Growing south Eugene needs more park facilities

Viewpoint

There seems to be an excellent option for the 10-acre Civic Stadium property: Use it to help expand the city of Eugene’s park system. We have witnessed unprecedented residential development in the greater south Eugene area with an astonishing number of new multifamily and student housing units springing up. This pace of construction is resulting in a rapidly expanding local population. Unfortunately, public facilities and services are failing to keep up. Continue reading →

Slant 11-7-2013

Slant

• 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 Is It Good For?

War and how to avoid it

Viewpoint

As I go around giving talks for Here on the Edge, my book about how a small group of World War II conscientious objectors on the Oregon Coast helped plow the ground for the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s, I sometimes encounter people who ask if I am a conscientious objector. Others ask if I believe that we should all refuse to fight any war under any circumstances. Continue reading →