Viewpoint: Page 75

The Third City Hall Redux

Move the Council Chamber building to Oak Street?

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Rhymes with aw-shucks, but since many of you have asked me what a new City Hall on the North Park Block might look like and what would happen to the existing council chamber and mural, I propose something like this. The Council Chamber building, as it turns out, has its own separate structure and is movable. It would need to be moved nearby anyway under the present 8th Avenue scheme, and I think it would have a much more striking, important and symbolic public presence if located on Oak Street (see map) across from the County Courthouse.  Continue reading →

Revenue Solutions

Looking for fair ways to close the budget gap

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As Eugene looks for ways to avoid serious service cuts, the Revenue Committee struggles to identify timely, equitable and politically acceptable taxes to generate the necessary revenue. We have ample representation from the business community, but we lack vocal representation from disadvantaged segments of our community. This opens us to the risk that our recommendations will fall heavily on those least able to afford it. While business is the ox that pulls the cart of government, it is working families that keep that ox fed. Continue reading →

We Can Do Both

Large companies are important part of the mix

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Comments by EW in the Feb. 6 issue about the “new economy” criticize Lane County and local communities for spending time and money to lure large companies to create jobs and tax revenues. EW goes on to reinforce the commonly held myth that these companies are only here to get the cash and tax breaks and leave as soon as they are exhausted. Once again, Sony and Hynix are used as examples to perpetuate the myth. In neither case is it true.  Continue reading →

A Reverie in Black and White

The color and form of giving matters not

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Part of my Eugene Experience is mentioning observances of famous birthdays, like Martin and Malcolm, and getting the response: “Martin who?” or “Malcolm who?” Even mentioning Angela’s work on the prison-industrial complex, and the school-to-prison pipeline, and people saying “Angela who?” Black History Month grew from Carter Woodson’s Negro History Week, which was situated to encompass two birthdays, Lincoln and Douglass, so we would always remember the contradictions of America, who actually freed us and wanted us free, and who took the credi Continue reading →

Building in a Battered Country

Small-scale initiatives may be the best bet

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Kabul residents protest the bombing of the Lebanese Taverna last week

At the beginning of this series, I planned a final column for May with the revelation that in all my work with Afghanistan, my proudest service has not been in uniform but as a civilian, working with the American University in Afghanistan (AUAF). The message was to be something like “No one hates war more than those who have lived it. As this war ends for the U.S. military, we can all seek ways to assist a country that remains so badly in need of peace, in the interest of Afghans as well as our own.”  Continue reading →