EDITORIAL Outlet plan makes good sense for city Who doesn't complain about the Eugene downtown mall? In recent years, the mall has lost almost all its ma}or businesses — including the Bon Marche. Sears and New berry’s. Walking by the lew remaining stores can be eeri ly depressing, reminiscent of plodding through a ghost town. These days, the public does its shopping at Valley Riv er Center or Gateway Mall. Why? Because both offer a semi-efficient, clean environment in which to shop. Peo ple don't worry about unsavory citizens hanging out by their favorite store. The area is polished; no stores are boarded up. Parking your car is convenient, with lots located right next to the two shopping centers. Eugene now has a chance to revitalize downtown, to give Valiev River and Gateway a run for their money. The community should jump at tho opportunity. Grog and Erika Baker of Visions Development Inc. want to buy the empty Bon Marche building and convert it intofi fartorv outlet cen ter. It would house national retail outlet stores and offer brand-name products at substantial discounts. Similar outlets are located in Lincoln City. Bend and Troutdale, and all draw customers from miles around. Factory outlets would bo beneficial for that reason alone. Lincoln City, for example, draws tourists from hundreds of miles away, primarily because of the outlets. More tourists load io more money, which benefits other busi nesses in the area, such as restaurants and shops. Downtown Eugene could desperately use that expo sure. Remaining businesses would have a reason to stay, while now businesses would bo enticed to move there. In addition, the project’s developer estimated the cen ter would create about 300 new jobs and an annual pay roll of about $*i million, further helping Eugene's econ omy. The main snag is the developers want the City Conn i il to pay for a parking garage at a cost of $5.1 million. Hut the city has the money in urban renewal funds — money that is supposed to be spent on the city center. Because nobody has suggested any viable alternative uses, the council should take a chance and go ahuad with the project. Eventually, the city will earn the money back from the shoppers who pay to park there. The main argument against the development has come from citizens worried that increased traffic at the mall will turn Eugene into a California city. This development should not be shunned for such irrational fears. One fac tory outlet center will not destroy the local environment, it will be housed in an already constructed building and will, frankly, make an ugly area more attractive. The City Council needs a vision for the mall’s future. It can no longer afford to stall its way through develop ment plans, as it has with the proposed library at the old Sears store. If Olive Street was allowed to open — a move that has of vet done very little for the mall — the council should definitely put its weight behind this plan. The City Council needs a vision for the mall’s future. „„.Emerald PO OO* 31M IUC4NI OftCGOM t»« i !U , ! ~er*d •» pu(».ah«d d*':> Monday thicHjgh I-day *mng the kMoi vita* and Tuesday and Thu/sdar du-ng me jummei by me Oiegon Oa/ly Emerald Pvtem.no Co UK at me Umveixty 01 Oegcn t ogene Oegon The f<*« PaMty Ff*v» Morrt c-uiii* iwaw Editorial Edit cm Sport* Editor Dm C**rt»'V'®au Supp4em«nts Editor Cato* Anck**on Night Editor: l.hostel Aloe Associate Editors 'ai"m> Batey S\/J6nt Gov#"*'*>eni Acf-v-nes. Da.-aiyn Trappe Como*' Porwg. Mgher f ouraOiyt Adow.jf/aoori News Sutt Scott Andre Chester Aston. Malt Bandar. Justm Brow Saiah Dark. Oytan, Coo#O' Meg Dedoiph. Amy Davenport. Amanda Feme Teresa Hunt*«nger. l.sa Kneetet I'Sa Maun Dem.ts McLean Redacts Merntt. Steve Mens T.ftm Tr.sta Noe Mathew Schuster tile* Shaw. M«haei SrwxAer trek Studenefca Menon So-ten Meheto Thompson-Ag.,,*. Amy Van Tuyt. Todd W-tkams General Manager Jody R*» Production Manager Meheto Ross Advertising: Tom leech Sharon Vai. Sates Managers Shawn Berber Otdce Ua-ogw Jarre Ireks Teresa lSAbe«e Phi® Johnson II Ova Kanof* Jersmy Mason. Van V OByren It. Gki.an Oh, Kachan Trull. Ange WirxPurm Bran yr.ndhn.ih Classified i’egjy McCann. Manager Barry t ogan. Sharon Saov* Distribution: Rebecca B Anthony A,-.r Business kathy Carttona Superv-sor Jody Conno«y Production ingna Whte P>odUtion Ceon»«ato' hnsme Granger Dee McCodb Stacy Mr.-r-n. Jenrhie Round Jenn-ier Smith, Anne Stephens-:— **#wvoom 34^5512 CJ «»»«*>•<* Advertising 346-4343 NEW im. ZOOLOGICAL SOOFTY Www wfla T»W Lux. V* (J& Utivfce,* \ U T* *f ~ I--' IT’S ftuTlCM. COKREONESS 6one mkd — The olp name now applies TO Tme rest of me City only/ ' COMMENTARY Conference embraced Middle East By Alon Tal It was an honor to be invited to participate in this year's Public Interest Environmen tal Law Conference to discuss th« Environmental Aspects of the Middle East Peace Talks. Indeed, the conference orga nirers went to extraordinary ends to include a session on the top ic among the past weekend's «* loctic and stimulating panels. Hence, the Emttrald's dm ision to feature a commentary titled ■'Conference Ignores Middle East'' in the Friday. March 5. edi tion was particularly inappro priate Beyond this fundamental inac curacy. the commentary is so rid dled with falsehoods that it is dif ficult to offer a reasonable rebuttal. Where does one start? Perhaps a few facts can set the record straight The underlying presumption of the article is that Palestinians in Israel constitute "indigenous people" exploited by Israelis who (it into some sort of "neo-colo nialist" role. Yet anyone who has rend the Bible knows the Jewish people lived in the Land of Israel thousands of years ago. Indeed, environmentalists know it was them they institutionalized sus tainable agriculture with the saU Iwtical fallowing of fields, issued religious prohibitions against environmental destruction dur ing wartime and lived a divine order to "Work and Protw t" the Garden ol Eden SuItJanlivoly.M. Hum Behnam's commentary suggests that in uti lizing water from the Mountain Aquifer recharged in the Judean hills. Israel is stealing the Pales tinian West Bank's water. It is a pity that before repeating such tired propaganda, he didn't Ugli er to check with any hydrologists. In fact the Mountain Aquifer, which provides a third of Israel's drinking water, represents a com plex situation. Although 80 per cent of the rainfall that recharges the Mountain Aquifer falls in the West Bank, the majority of the underground reservoir actually lies inside of Israel. There is a legitimate debate as to how to divide the water. Inter national law is not completely instructive on this subject, allied the Helsinki Convention suggests theories about surface water stream flow should apply to groundwater. In other words, just as Mexicans are not stealing U.S. water when they utilize the Col orado River, Israel is not stealing groundwater that flows from the West Bank. Indeed, the deep waters of the disputed Mountain Aquifer are ancient, evaluated hy geo-hydrologists to he roughly 3,000 years old. Hence, oven if recharge should he a dominant criteria for water rights, Israel cer tainly has claims to proprietor ship. It was when the rains fell during the days of king David that the West Bank was undeni ably under Jewish sovereignty The commentary featured numerous other inaccuracies. Israeli agriculture was assailed as wasteful, as it was allowed "unlimited water." The fact is Israeli agriculture is the most effi cient in the world, pioneering drip irrigation. Between 1970 and 1990. with no increase in water allocation, using the new drip technology, agricultural produc tivity doubled. Two years ago, after extensive drought, water quotas to agriculture were cut 40 percent across the board It was a painful hut necessary cut. As an environmentalist, I know there is ample reason to criticize Israeli agriculture. Use of the ozone depleting pesticide methyl bro mide. or overfertilization and inadequate soil testing are two that bother me But Hchnam would do well to learn a little about Israeli agriculture before disparaging it Behnam also attacks the fact that Israeli military government sets water policies in the West Bank Perhaps he needs to lie reminded that in this year's national elections, the Israeli pub lic threw out the old government because it wasn't moving expe ditiously enough to end the mil itarv occupation and move the peace process into high gear Recently, the Israeli Hebrew University and Palestinian Maqdes Institute of Jerusalem convened a conference for water scientists in Zurich. With equal Israeli and Palestinian delega tions. it was an apolitical attempt to talk about water in the region sensibly. It was discouraging for those of us attending from Israel to find that the Palestinian Liberation Organization representative from Tunisia decided to attend the conference. As a result, under his watchful eve almost all of the Palestinian speakers felt com pelled to begin their lectures with truculent lip service to the tradi tionally hostile Palestinian posi tion. Only in informal meetings in the corridors, away from the PLO big-brother presence, were more conciliatory positions offered. Israelis attending returned with a greater sense of the urgency that Palestinians feel toward their pre sent inadequate water allocation. The water bureaucracy that is perceived as an irritation to most Israelis is perceived by Pales tinians as an additional form of occupational oppression. Pales tinians, I lielieve, came away with the sense that limiting the dis cussion to allocation of existing water sources will not serve their national needs. Israeli and Palestinian envi ronmentalists are hopeful the peace process can be leveraged to invest in water pollution pre vention controls throughout the region. Despite the discomfort of the PLO leadership, discussions between local professionals are becoming more pragmatic and productive. We are going to work this thing out. Uninformed com mentaries on the subject and repeating inaccurate propaganda cliches make for shoddy schol arship and lousy journalism. I. for one, am grateful that the Public Interest Law Conference offered the opportunity to high light this issue and the potential of tlie environment to facilitate reconciliation in a part of the world that has suffered from acri mony for far too long I go to many law- conferences in Israel and Europe and tend to find them a little on the dry side. The approach of the Eugene Con ference came as a total surprise, as it was remarkably fresh, vital and passionate It reflects the ide alism of students and faculty who organize it each year and the resourcefulness of this year’s co directors. Kari Grabowski and David Evans. Thanks to the wis dom encountered here. I will cer tainly return to Israel a more thoughtful and creative advocate for protecting the environment in Israel and the Middle East. A Ion Tal loach os environ mental law at Tel Aviv Univer sity and is director of the Israel l ’man for Environmental Defense