Eugene Weekly

• Civic Education in Oregon was the topic at the City Club of Eugene Sept. 11, but important as civic education is, the elephant in the room that day was funding for public schools in Oregon. Superintendent Jodi O’Mara of the Mapleton School District spoke of her desire to return the kids to a five-day week; they only go four days this fall. Superintendent Colt Gill of the Bethel District said 60 percent of his kids are in poverty. What additional demand does that put on his schools? Continue reading →

• Mayor Kitty Piercy is concerned about the dozens of unkempt “travelers” sprawling on our sidewalks downtown with their dogs, guitars and harmonicas. We prefer to call them low-budget tourists, but regardless, they can be intimidating and offensive to some, and an irritation to storefront business owners who wish they would go away. Most will go away when the rain and cold returns; Eugene will be left with its regular population of 2,000 or so houseless folks. Continue reading →

• Another week, more shootings, more senseless death — and not in some unfamiliar city across the country, but in our in our own neighborhoods. We have heavy hearts over the deaths of John Ramsey Tainton-Platts, 33, and Justin Gardner, 17, who were both shot and killed this past week (Aug. 28 and Aug. 30 respectively) in Eugene. Continue reading →

• We keep wondering when the major media and leadership of this state are going to call for significantly more money for public education. Just ask a good teacher. It’s all about more teacher time per student and that costs money. The leadership to get us there is more than political. It’s business, arts, sports — every aspect of the state. Continue reading →

• Before Fred Taylor became one of the owners of Eugene Weekly, he was the managing editor and later executive editor of the Wall Street Journal. Earlier as a reporter, he wrote many of the long, front-page features that made the WSJ famous, and his thoughts on writing news stories and the use of photography are quoted again and again in books and articles. Over the years EW staff has reaped the benefit of his influence on this scrappy paper and its mission to make the world a better place. This week we mourn his passing Aug. Continue reading →

• Attorneys for the 18-year-old woman who filed a civil suit against the UO and basketball coach Dana Altman in regard to allegations of gang rape by three basketball players announced the cases were dismissed pursuant to a settlement this week. We have some questions: First, how far has the UO really progressed in both preventing sexual assaults on campus and also in dealing with them — we profiled the case of former student Laura Hanson earlier this year, in which the UO spent $30,000 plus attorney costs to settle her suit alleging it mishandled her case. Continue reading →

 • As we go to press this week, we don’t know who Gov. Kate Brown will appoint by Aug. 1 to be Lane County’s first female district attorney. We do know that an election for the tough job will be held in May 2016 and the incumbent, either Patty Perlow or Kamala Shugar, will have a whopping advantage. Hopefully, the unfair political attacks against Perlow for her very subordinate role in the taping of a Catholic confessional decades ago was not a factor in the governor’s choice. Continue reading →

• Looks like Eugene’s urban growth boundary will be expanding onto farmland in order to accommodate future industrial growth, along with some parkland and school land. The majority on the City Council this week gave a nod to the expansion, and it goes now to city and county planning commissions and public hearings. Why do we continue to develop and pave over prime farmland when such lands will become more valuable, even critically so, in the future? Continue reading →

• As we predicted, the Eugene City Council this week revived the Multi-Unit Property Tax Exemption program, aka “tax breaks for the rich,” but at least it has some redeeming qualities. The council was under threat from Brian Obie and other developers that they would abandon their downtown housing plans without the tax breaks, but we’re not convinced they wouldn’t build anyway. Think about it. If you were a developer, wouldn’t you try to leverage every advantage possible to maximize your return on investment? Continue reading →