Viewpoint: Page 64

A Sense of Normalcy

Why people who are homeless have dogs

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Why do so many homeless people have dogs? This question comes up a lot in our town, where many people hang around downtown with their animals. The first answer is a simple one: Homeless people have animals for all the same reasons housed people have them. It’s a great feeling to be loved and accepted without judgment, to have a warm companion to hug when you are feeling sad, and a friend who is always ready to walk with you—no matter how far you have to go. Continue reading →

Vote Early, Vote Often

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The Oregon Legislature fizzled to a halt as expected. Now the real fun starts. You think paid sick leave for workers and carbon emission standards will not exact a price at the ballot box in 2016? The lack of compromise and the partisan fights over a transportation package and the minimum wage now spill over into the next initiative season, and it’s going to be an expensive ride.  Continue reading →

Onward Civic Stadium

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I submitted this column at 9 am Monday, July 6. I just got off the phone with Val Hoyle, who has not been recalled … yet. As of 9 am the Oregon Legislature has the capability, but not the will, to be done.  The last major roadblock was the bonding measure that passed on Friday, July 3. The Republicans threatened to skip work that weekend because, after all, they don’t really have to adjourn until July 11, and to work on the 4th of July would be unpatriotic. Republican legislators still get paid you see, not to work, but to work on the 4th of July is unpatriotic.  Continue reading →

Our Pressing Need

Workforce housing needs to be part of MUPTE

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Our city has a serious housing problem that the Eugene City Council cannot continue to ignore. When I got on the council in 2009, 40 percent of Eugene’s households were considered “rent-burdened” because they were paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Since then the situation has only worsened; yet during the same period, the council has granted millions in tax breaks for upscale student housing projects that did nothing to address our most pressing housing needs. Continue reading →

Pride and Joy

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June 26, 2015, 6:30 am. I drift into wakefulness, my darling Wifey asleep beside me, the window air conditioner whirring in its valiant effort to keep our bedroom cool overnight. The cats are still curled up, too early even for their breakfast yowling. Continue reading →

Orca Plot Fails

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The tension in Salem at the end of any legislative session is attractive if you’re an unrelenting sociopath who loves pain and heartbreak. With the preceding five months of plodding public process behind them, partisan legislators will finally cast their votes in stone in early July. The game will only finish when the budgets are decided. It’s one of the things I miss most about being out of the Legislature for the past 12 years. I loved counting votes. Continue reading →

Old-Growth Legal Wars

You can’t see the forest for the lawsuits

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Oregon’s 30-year “Ancient Forest War” has seen scores of lawsuits, big and small, yielding hundreds of court opinions and orders. From Judge Dwyer’s iconic 1991 spotted owl bombshell (“The argument that the mightiest economy on Earth cannot afford to preserve old growth forests for a short time, while it reaches an overdue decision on how to manage them, is not convincing today. Continue reading →

Take Me to the River

Learn about rivers, get away from it all

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In the heat of the day, we found relief standing in shallow water. Seven of us remained after a tour of the farm and the forested edge of the McKenzie River. Parent conversation roamed across trade-offs between herbicide use and the spread of invasive weeds, climate change and personal change, how to be a good father, how to be a good neighbor. Meanwhile the kids swished scoop nets in the ponded side channel, wowing over tadpoles, boatmen, mosquito fish and dragonfly larva. The air continued to warm, and with it the number of adult dragonflies zig-zagging around us increased as well. Continue reading →

Art Robinson Recalls Pope

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I’m a little nervous here, a little distracted. But don’t worry, I’ll cover the slug-like inactivity of the Oregon Legislature in a moment.  Frankly, a bigger issue looms at the moment. We may be headed for a global theological/scientific Mongolian clusterfluck — not to be confused with climate change or global warming or the Sixth Great Extinction. This is much seriouser! I can see the donnybrook coming. Continue reading →

Mourning Noah DeWitt

Eugene loses young change-maker, vision-holder

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Photo by Taylor Partee Johnston

Noah Michael DeWitt was a shining example of how to be. His sparkling brown eyes would absorb pain from yours when you were sad. He’d listen to you talk about what makes you happy with rapt attention. He always carried pen and paper around with him — in a fanny pack, in the red milk crate on his bicycle or behind his ear. He’d sway his head and shoulders side to side with swagger when he heard a slap-worthy song. Noah absorbed his experiences of this world and spread the happy vibes from them whole-heartedly.  Continue reading →