Streets, garbage
children’s playground
A city is many things to many people. To a businessman it is
: the center of business activity. To a housewife it is a maze of
: shopping centers and congested traffic. To a child, however, it is
: a vast and varied playground filled with things needing ex
: pkratkn. imaginary playmates, or back-alley football games.
At least that is the view presented by Charles Zerner,
graduate student in architecture, Tuesday evening at his public
lecture “On the Indignity at Being a Child in the City: Field
Notes an Finding Moon Walkers in the Alleys of Chinatown and
Empty Playgroinds.”
Zerner, a recipient at a grant from the National Endowment
: for the Humanities, said, “The city is an island—a man-made
: thing with its own ecological niches.” Zerner spent several
months studying children’s playing in the city, “looking at
niches that children find. Not the ones that are made for them,
like playgrounds and parks, but the ones they discover for
themselves.”
The word “play” has two different connotations, said
Zerner The traditional “playing around” definition of play is
not a legitimate one, be said Rather, “play should be looked at
as something that is crucially important to the development of a
child," he said.
Through his study of children’s play, Zerner developed what
be called a “through the looking glass” theory on play behavior.'
He said children’s play does not mirror the surrounding adult
world, but instead, revolves amend the various objects that a
: child sees before him.
“The child is an alchemist—a human being at a stage in life
; who is able to transform trash in an alley and abandoned
: apartment buildings into his own world,” Zerner said.
Further, Zerner said the ultra-modern playgnumds that
i architects design today are not conducive to children’s playing
: behavior. “Play flows around, about, in and out of the en
; vironment and it relies on the spontaneous feeling of the child.
'■ It’s hard to design something to accommodate these things,” he
said.
During Zerner’s lecture, he presented various movie slides
of children at play in the Chinatown andFflhnoredistrictsof San
Francisco. He said the children in these districts play in the
parking lots, the alleys, the streets and an die sidewalks, rather
than at playgrounds The reason for this, he said, ‘is because
these areas are more receptive to the child’s needs.”
Although Zerner didn’t fully define what a child’s needs are,
and although be said be had no set solution for dwrigning
facilities that will accommodate children’s play, be did suggest
a few things that would be more receptive to children’splay.
He said having different levels and surfaces on the various
structures within a city would help. Perches that children could
sit on and different contours of streets would also be more
conducive to children’s play, he said.
Petition circulated to maintain
First Avenue freeway ramps
The Whiteaker Community
Action Group (WCAG), a
recently formed organization of
West Eugene citizens, is
presently circulating a petition in
an effort to see thal the existing
First Avenue entrance and exit
ramps onto Interstate 105 are not
dosed upon completion of the
Washington-Jefferson ramps.
As it now stands, the First
Avenue ramps are scheduled to
be closed after the new ramp6 are
completed.
Margaret Rossoff, a member of
WCAG, said the group’s initial
goal “is to show the tity council
that a lot of people want the
ramps kept open” and from there
to getting a public bearing on the
issue.
Four engineers who addressed
the WCAG last November “said a
curve in the highway, the grade
of the ramps and a lack of proper
storage space for cars waiting for
traffic lights were the reasons for
the closure,” Rossoff said.
WCAG feels that these
problems are not sufficient to
warrant the closure of the ramp.
“We feel the ramps could be
rebuilt with lower grades and a
lower speed limit could be
posted,” she said.
A1 Williams, Eugene city
traffic engineer, told the
Emerald Thursday that the
ramps would be dosed “because
for safety reasons the Federal
Highway Commission would not
OSPIRG needs
volunteers
The Oregon Student Public
Interest Research Group
(OSPIRG) is calling for volun
teers to help conduct studies
dealing with various en
vironmental and social concerns.
Sixty-six such projects are
currently underway, ranging
from noise pollution and
reforestation to sex
discrimination in credit.
According to Steve Park,
OSPIRG treasurer, a current list
of projects is available to in
terested students in the OSPIRG
office, Mill EMU.
off regular price
Hiram arc stock in* me
Johnson line of
"ULTRA SHEEN" and
"AFRO SHEEN".
Nomeroos requests at
Mirons prompted us to
stock this line of
approve the extension with those
ramps in there.”
Williams gave the major
reason for the closure as being a
weaving motion created when
ramps are set closely together.
“It would be almost impossible to
explain in a written article,” be
said. “When you say you have a
weaving problem, most people
who have lived in Los Angeles,
San Francisco or Seattle pretty
much understand, especially if
they’ve experienced it during a
peak hour. This was explained to
them at that meeting (in
November) and those that chose
not to have an open mind, didn"
understand. It takes an
engineering mind to un
derstand.” Williams went on to
say that Los Angeles at one time
had ramps that created a weaving
problem, but they were closed by
the state for safety reasons.
Rossoff said, however, that
WCAG has “a letter written in
1970 by a highway engineer
stating that the only reason for
closing the ramps is so that the
Roosevelt and Skinner’s Butte
freeways could be built.” When
asked about the letter, Williams
declined to comment.
In addition to only insufficient
reasons for closing the ramps,
the petition states:
—traffic now using First Avenue
will be forced to go down sixth,
seventh and Blair, clogging
already crowded streets,
—traffic to the River Road
district and Whiteaker neigh
borhood would be routed across
railroad tracks, causing delays
and traffic hazards.
—closing the ramps would make
access to Skinner’s Butte Park
more difficult for people living
north of the river.
—despite statements by the
Highway Department, the weave
is not an insurmountable
problem. The main problem in
keeping the ramps open seems to
be the proposed Roosevelt
freeway.
According iu i\u»»un, me
amount of signatures acquired
“has been good.”
At this time there is no
projected date for presenting the
petitions to the city cowdl.
“We’ll probably determine at the
next meeting how it is going and
might be able to tell then,” she
said.
WCAG will have a table on the
EMU terrace Tuesday and
Wednesday from 11:30 to 1:30.
The next meeting is scheduled
for January 30, 7:30 p.m. at the
Whiteaker Elementary school, 21
North Grand.
Crisis Center Committee
searches for funding
Tlie Crisis Center Advisory Committee is faced with a problem
that many advisory committees to student services run into this Him.
of year. Where is their ftaxiing far the next fiscal year going to come
from’
The meeting that transpired Monday was called in order that the
committee as a group could draw up a letter respondix* to Robert
Bowlin’s request that the committee make a recommendation to him
on continuation (and direction) of the Crisis Center.
Bowlin is head of student personnel at the University.
According to Deak vanArsdei. director of the Center and a doc
toral candidate in counseling psychology, the center, «nc*» its in
ception three years ago, has faced a “financial crisis” every year.
The committee must look for alternatives for finding the center,
but the general consensus agreed upon by the committee is that the
center should get guaranteed funds from the state, as many other
student services do on campus, in order to make it a more viable
program.
In the past, the center has received funds from the ASUO Senate,
health services, and the Counseling Center combined. As it
now, none of these groups are willing to oversee the program by
themselves with their own individual monies.
The Center is staffed by three and is described by vanArsdei as,
“something like a fire department, we’re there when needed We’re
more student oriented than White Bird and deal mostly with problems
of anxiety and depression.”
If anyone has a problem of any type and they need help they can
get this help by dialing 686-448B between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m
day today, Jan- __
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