From Cascade...
... to Women’s Press
all know about the biggies — the
Guard. Eugene Magazine, the Willamette
Valley Observer. But they’re certainly not the
only periodicals coming out of Eugene, and
for some people not the most important.
For example, how many people are aware
that there are some 15 neighborhood news
papers in Eugene?
How about a journal for worker-controlled
businesses?
Or a publication for radical sociologists?
The following is a list of Eugene periodi
cals. It tries, on the one hand, to avoid being
random, but on the other hand makes no
claim to being comprehensive. If we miss
anyone, let us know, and we ll try to correct
the oversight.
This list does not include the literary publi
cations, which will be covered next week.
Neither does it include Edcentric, which will
also be featured in the next issue.
CASCA^
lowrnai ot the Norftw»rsl
FORESTRY
MANAGEMENT
A Growing Probtero
Cascade
454 Willamette St., Box 1492, 485-0366.
Over the Grower’s Market.
P
M. ublished ten times a year by Casca
dian Regional Library (CAREL), “a non-profit
information clearinghouse for networking ac
tivities."
This is one of the more interesting new
publications around. Started last fall, it circu
lates to ‘‘groups in the Pacific Northwest
which are involved in publishing and other
activities which inform and change their
communities. ”•
The most recent issue, 28 8V2XIOV4 news
print pages with a heavier cover, includes
articles on a northwest computer fair, nuclear
coalitions, Sun Day, managing co-op growth,
bulk food inspections, and community gar
dens.
One particularly unique feature of
Cascade is a Reader Service system. Items
in the magazine are numbered, and readers
can receive more information on the subject
by circling a corresponding number on a ser
vice card on the back page.
For anyone interested in so-called new
age or alternative activities going on in the
Northwest — co-ops, holistic health, appro
priate technology, and the like — this
magazine is a must. It's free to public lib
raries, bookstores, and private non-profit
community action organizations; $10 for a
general membership.
Community newspapers
T^he city helps fund some 15 (there
might be more or less; it’s hard to tell from the
library’s collection) neighborhood newspap
ers, usually affiliated with the officially recog
nized community groups. Among them are
the ABC (Active Bethel Citizens) News, The
Amazon Messenger, the Crest Drive
Citizen's Association Ridges and Vales, the
Fairmount Echo, the Far West Neighborhood
Association Window, the Hawkins Highland
Newsletter, the Jefferson Area Neighbors
News, the South University Neighbors SUN
Times, the Southeast Firs Neighborhood As
sociation Newsletter, the Whiteaker Neigh
borhood News, the West University Neigh
bors, and the Willakenzie Watch.
Most of them are pretty ragged, publishing
sporadically, announcing neighborhood
events and association meetings.
The exception is the Westside News,
which proudly announces on its front page
that it is “Eugene's only independent neigh
borhood newspaper.’’ The half-tabloid is pub
lished monthly, and disributed free to
everyone bounded by Seventh and 13th av
enues and Charnelton and Chambers
streets.
According to an editorial in the April, 1977,
issue, the paper “Decided to stop accepting
City funding because editorial pressure was
attached to the money and because copy
had to be submitted long before publication
date, making information obsolete.’’
The paper includes information about the
Westside Neighborhood Quality Project,
classified ads, a calendar with an astrological
guide, and traffic planning articles (a big
issue over there). One recent issue even in
cluded a review of The Place, an establish
ment in which the writer claimed “Nazism is
still rampant." Blunt.
Cooperative Times
No address for this one, but their last meeting
was upstairs in the Grower’s Market.
T
M his is billed as the Journal of the Lane
County Federation of Worker Controlled
Businesses, and is designed to facilitate
"greater communication among local worker
controlled groups.” The first and only issue,
dated "Spring,” was put together by mem
bers of Board Foot, Cascade Shelter,
Hoedads, Starflower, and ZooZoos.
This is a very tidy job, 16 pages, 8V2X11. It
includes an introduction to the FWCB —
"Who we are and what we have done so far”
_ and hard information on such subjects as
democratic organization and chairing meet
ings.
Price on this one is 25 cents.
Freedom’s Cry
Published by Freedom’s Organization,
1127V2 Ferry St., Apt. 3, 484-1734.
T
A. he latest issue of this mimeographed
Eugene paper caters to 55 and over
PHOENIX (fe/niks) 1. a mythical bird of great
beauty, the only one of its kind, fabled to live 500
or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to bum
itself on a funeral pile, and to rise from its ashes in
the freshness of youth and live through another
cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality
- The Random House Dictionary
of the English Language
first glance, it doesn’t look like a
newspaper office at all.
On Friday afternoons there aren’t any
clacking typewriters, or ringing telephones
or chattering teletypes; only four small
rooms with cluttered desks and tables,
calenders and animal posters hanging from
the walls — and two elderly women quietly
working.
It isn’t until you walk into the composing
room, a rectangular shaped affair wih slop
ing work tables lining the walls, and see the
piles of newspapers stacked on one
another, the battered cardboard filing
cabinet containing copies of past editions,
and the current work in progress — layout
sheets for the next week’s issue — that you
are fully convinced that this is the office of
The Phoenix, a Eugene-based publica
tion that prints “Features for Lively People
55 and over.”
Jackie Akin, 65, is the paper’s ad man
ager. Although she is at the age that used to
call for mandatory retirement (before Con
gress recently raised it to 70), she could
easily pass as 10 years younger. With her
carefully combed, dark-rust-colored hair,
and stylish pant suit, whe exudes the pro
fessionalism acquired through years of
owning her own ad agency.
Ruby Lund, 71, is general manager. In
contrast to Akin, she appears the ar
chetypal grandmother figure. A chain
smoker who customarily lights a cigarette
and then leaves it unattended in one of
three butt-filled ashtrays that litter her desk,
she answers questions unhesitatingly, oc
casionally tugging at the shock of white hair
that shoots straight back from her forehead
while searching for the right words. She,
too, is a professional, having worked as a
reporter, feature writer and ad salesperson
on three different Oregon newspapers—all
after spending years traveling around the
world with her late husband, a foreign con
struction worker for Morrison-Knutsen.
Tfhese women are the guiding force
behind The Phoenix, the popularity of which
has grown so much within the past few
years that, what was started as just a local
publication for senior citizens, now has
subscribers as far away as Massachusetts
and Florida. And Lund estimates that over
5,000 persons read the paper monthly, al
though not nearly that many copies are
printed.
The reason for the paper s popularity is
simple: it has a well-defined audience
that is all too used to being ignored. It’s no
revelation to say that senior citizens in the
United States are perhaps the most forgot
ten minority. Until Congress recently raised
the mandatory retirement age, the only
overtures perpetually made to the elderly
came in the form of campaign promises to
increase social security, health care and
provide low-cost housing. And after the
elections, these have usually been the first
promises to be tabled. Lund and Akin want
to change all that.
“We’re trying to win respect for the el
ders,” Lund says. "We feel they're being
put out to pasture. When they’re on a limited
income, especially when they’re living
alone, they want to be independent. And we
want to help them be that way.
“We’re offering them a voice. They’re
being ripped off in a lot of ways, so we're
asking them to come forward and tell us the
circumstances. Then we investigate and go
to bat for them”
One way The Phoenix tries to help is by
good old muckraking. In a three-part series,
co-authored by Lund and reporter Paul Fat
tig, that ran last February thru April, the
paper exposed the plight of Eugene and
Springfield seniors living in mobile home
parks.
Lund and Fattig interviewed dozens of
seniors and discovered that they were
being subjected to rate increases that, in
some cases, doubled their rent payments
And this, combined with loan (for the mobile
homes) and utility payments, made their
monthly expenditures, ironically, more than
if they had been living in apartments. Which
is exactly what they were trying to get away
from.
“They’re gouging the old people,' Lund
says, “and we re fighting that, and we re
going to fight some more in the future.
Unlike more traditional news publicatons,
The Phoenix doesn’t hesitate to become in
volved in legal battles for what it feels is a
just cause. In April, 1977, for example, rep
resentatives for the paper presented tes
timony before the Senate Committee on
Agriculture and Natural Resources on be
half of a Eugene senior resident whose
health prevented him from personally tes
tifying.
But Lund and Akin feel the major role for
the paper is in presenting an alternative
view that helps publicize the problems
faced by seniors that the general public
may not be aware of.
“We try to stress legislation,” Akin says,
“that deals with the senior citizen that the
daily papers don't cover.”
And to do this in a way that speaks best
to the elderly, both Lund and Akin feel that
the paper should always remain in the
hands of seniors.
Not long ago the paper’s board of di
rectors (a nine-person group, including
three seniors, that decides the non-profit
publication’s guidelines) hired an editor
who was in his mid-twenties. And it caused
problems.
“He kept wanting to write stories about
death,” Lund says, “and our readers cer
tainly didn’t want to read about that.
“It’s a paper run by senior citizens,” she
says, “and the readers complained when it
was run by young people. We understand
their problems.”
He was soon let go, and since then Lund
has been deciding what stories should be
covered. And with Lund providing the direc
tion, and Akin selling the advertising, the
paper has been more successful than ever.
Which is the way it should be. After all, the
Phoenix rises again and again and ...
By Dan Webster
periodical is labeled "No. 3.,” which, come
think of it, could refer to the apartment
number. But an article on the Gay Rights
ordinance indicates that it is a recent issue.
According to the editorial page, "Things
printed here in Freedom’s Cry will be about
the issue of freedom, either directly or indi
rectly.” Number Three’s eight pages include
a couple of poems, a piece on humanism vs.
naturalism, something on the Trojan De
commissioning Alliance, and an article called
"The Future and Marxism.”
An issue of Freedom's Cry is yours for 20
cents.
Healing Arts: Journal for Holis
tic Health
Put out by Steve Hitchcock and the Center for
Holistic Health Education, 1680 Pearl St.
N
X ^ow in its second year, the Journal
publishes articles on holistic health and in
cludes the class schedule for the Great Oaks
School of Health in Creswell. It’s a little half
tab, small type and not very easy to read, but
covers such topics as acupressure,
homeopathy, reflexology, polarity, and iridol
ogy. The periodical, which comes out every
two months, also includes ads for many of the
holistic health practicioners in the Eugene
area.
Insurgent Sociologist
Department of Sociology, University of
Oregon.
T
JL his is a dense one, unless you’re really
into the subject. Typical topics are “Capitalist
Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist
Feminism” and “Left-Wing Communism: an
Infantile Disorder in Theory and Method.”
Insurgent is “committed to the liberation of
social science from bourgeois hegemony,
and to advancing the contribution of social
scientists to the transformation of capitalist
society and the building of socialism.” Most
of its readership, says one staff member, is in
Boston, New York, and San Francisco, and
consists of young radical sociology instruc
tors and academics.
You get your money’s worth — the last
=THh riVSU^pENT
issue was 88 pages of solid copy for $2.50.
Subscriptions are $10 sustaining, and $6 low
income.
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Northwest Artisans Network
News
15531/2 Charnelton, 343-2403.
P
published by the Northwest Artisans
Network, this is yet another neat little
cooperative venture. It’s a monthly
magazine, “Two bits a hit,” and the last issue
of the 7x10 publication contained 16 pages.
The April issue has a special piece on
Saturday markets, giving the histories, fees,
dates, entry requirements, and sundry infor
mation about the markets in Bend, Eugene,
Kent, Wash., and Portland. It also has an
interesting piece on a new law that
threatened to put quitters out of business,
and an article on mining.
Subscriptions are $3 a year, “$5 if you’re
feeling flush and want to help the network
grow.”
Northwest Bulletin
P.O. Box 3708, 686-5125.
A
J, According to the blurb, the Northwest
Bulletin “is intended to fill the gap in informa
tion about the strategies and activities of the
corporations and governmental organiza
tions operating in the Northwest.”
It’s another half-tab, about 16 pages, and
is a project of the Northwest Research
Center, which investigates power structures
in the Northwest and the nation. Recent arti
cles have included “Carter’s new defense
budget: Boeing’s Buck Bonanza,” “Corpo
rate profiles: N.W. Food Processors,” and a
list of U.S. agribusiness corporations in the
Northwest. The articles are concise, well
researched, and well-written, and give sig
nificant statistics about the role of big busi
ness in shaping this part of the country.
Subscriptions are $5 for one year, $10 for
institutions, and 60 cents per issue.
Old Oregon
Room 211, Susan Campbell Hall, University
of Oregon.
W
hat would a university be without an
alumni magazine? This one, published quar
terly and in its 57th year, contains the usual
alumni news and university-related briefs.
But it also includes general feature articles of
interest. The current issue includes an article
on author Barry Lopez, author of Desert
Notes; a piece on a dying glacier and a story
on Mitch Hider, champion whistler.
Old Oregon is, of course, free to alumni, so
most readers of this article will probably be
getting it sometime soon.
Oregon Week
Also in Susan Campbell Hall.
A
weekly four-page tabloid designed for
the faculty and staff. It consists largely of
re-written news bureau releases, plus info on
who’s publishing what, speaking where, and
getting their name in print enough to make it
look like they’re doing something.
Women’s Press
P.O. Box 562.
A
collectively operated newspaper,
published six times a year.
“We use news, reviews of books, movies,
plays, records, and cultural events. Not to
mention poetry, letters and opinions, or just
about anything. We always need graphics
and photos.”
This non-profit publication has a decided
militant lesbian edge to it, but puts forth its
ideas without a whole lot of offensive rhetoric.
There are articles in here that anyone can
read and learn from. The February/March
issue included stories on FBI surveillance in
Eugene, infant malnutrition, J.P. Stevens
boycott, queer politics, storyteller Cynthia
Orr, and an interview with Chicana lesbian
Naomi Littlebear.
It’s a non-profit journal, and costs $5 per
year, $15 for institutions, or 35 cents a copy.
By Eric Maloney
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