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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1995)
EDITORIAL Open Willamette, vote yes on 20-43 The opening of Willamette Street c ould mean eco nomic rebirth for the downtown mall area. Eugene voters will dec ido whether to open the section of Willamette Street between 8th and 10th Avenues in a mail-in ballot oJck turn this month. The measure. 20-42, asks voters to approve a plan to allow vehicular traffic: back into the downtown mall If the measure passes the street would haver two lattes for two-way traffic and raised crosswalks outlined with bric ks at the intersections of Broadway and the alien s. This is a positive move for the city of Eugene In the mall now there arc* several buildings that have no ten ants, inc luding the largest buildings, which housed Newberry's and Wool worth's in the past. Without reopening the street, it is hard to believe that nesses are going to he interested in moving to these buildings Tile fountain, which hasn't worked in several years and is costly to repair, would he removed to accommo date the street. This eyesore serves no purpose other than providing sealing and being a tmb receptacle The days of thriving downtown malls have boon shad owed by strip mails in outlying areas of the city. The Bon Marche and Sears mover! to malls taking with them large groups of downtown shoppers. Othei areas of the downtown mall have positively responded to the ( ha ages, including Olive Street, which was reopened in 11)92 and has been thriving. Voters should pay attention to Olive Street and allow Willamette to thrive the same way. It the mall opened it would entice private businesses to renovate those largo buildings and make the space linin' user inenuiv Opponents of the measure say that once the new U S Bank building opens and several hundred people move in there will be more activity in the mall. But 750 pin* pie are not going to bring life back into the mall. Busi nesses like U.S. Bank ant only open Monday through Fri day during the day. Other businesses will not be able to survive on customers during hanking hours atone. After the renovation, businesses will have visibility. Shoppers will be able to see the store from the streets and want to go in them. Some say the design would take away one of the only places Fugeno has to hold i (immunity ac tivities, but the design of the street will allow it to be closed for civ ic activities so the plaza atmosphere would still be avail able. The existing situation in the downtown mall is not ot onomically responsible Many businesses could bene fit from the added traffic; on the reopened street. As cit izens of Fugeno we can no longer ignore the problems of that area. This solution can benefit thousands of people and should Ire approved. Vote yes on Measure 20-43. Oregon Daily » o »o« m» Htr.cxt om&on */«;i 'N* Otv'1* r.i'» f .•% putoAthed daMy Monday through \ nday 'ng th* k.?-<k*' »«*v »vxi I u*w*lay and Thu# *J*y during fN> w?«‘n« toy !N» Or agon Qo*y ( mo*a&J Pubfetlwng Co . ifx a? the Unwiify at Oregon. f ugrwvt Oregon TK* jf 0£*M#t#* •rKfctfHV^Jofltty of fh« UftnrtK *<ty *r4fl OtH'O* At $^>!e 300 0* 8»« f ft) w»al Ur ■>'■ and tft a m«rit») of fh# A.vxx V**' Piias The f •* pm alt* property The uWawfu* or uM of papers »* pQMCuUM) EdUor-in-Chiaf K.*y Sc.;*.) New* Editor Sport* Editor Managing Editor Editor UM Editor He*» Art Editor Freelance Editor Dttwd Thorn RottH* R##v«*s 3eh Patifty ton Su pplementl Editor Night Editor ftatoet v .t Merf.tt Own AM.’ T n%lA Hem M’-'ord AsKKilti Editor* Afr.f i rK> Sif 6-'h‘ -' “ 1’ '! “4, 1 v ' m M.v E<Jw«#d», Common.?),. Q;'I«r' PphUg, )tyh«v £dkK*t&'‘ <4&rt*f**tf»bon **'-*•■ '•• 1" .s *.*'K<Jy Conroy. Amy l Ogvenport Pnmo f omana. 4 i Wall« kiS'tor ■ v Hit yr . •! Km Mervy. !*#%•. ■4*> Stw #xvi KAJUfl Ail## ..t - ■■ * * M.v*1 Mart Wt firdr W.t-» VK tyre. Pgtttc* M---.4 *#d tkv MoK>u» r.y, Am# Moaer KornMd. Sherry Hiuney Natasha Shepard. Paul Van Sc*M. S«an " M.I*'*m ' ' *«nr W.y.i Stows J#r«my St nr*. • K m We»**. ftnar* Wom*di l a* /a*zm Genera* Manager Ady Rted Advertising Director Mar* Wata* Production Manager M*.hete Mow Advertising A « Am*Vw A.--t,« Ek M.t Ov;ng. Tony F'c-« N«. v*« Mer>»v K«By lyon ‘then's Mason Sarah Mfc Nt*, Tom fcfcttciisUMdl, Kelsey Wafcati Classified ttacfcy KArwtiw*! Ma#vag*r Ky4e Dow*, do*. SpApn Distribution >ohn Long, t erenc Ka*<x\?-. Graham S*mp*on Business Kathy Cartoon#. Supnrwspr Judy ConnoAy Production Oran's* McCototo, J*rodL*. ‘or* Coontnatov Sh*w*'4 Afcein. Titra G*..;?tney Brad Joss *A , McCantft. J*rwt«r Moiand. Clayton Yen Ntwvoom 346-3511 Display Advertising 346-3712 Butina** Office 346-5312 Classified Advertising 346-4343 2 Oti>gon Darty Emet&id Friday May S. 1996 _WOW MA.VY HURT? i 260 MILLION AMERICANS^ ( ■ OPINION White men not victims of discrimination "minority " makes up HO pen ent of the (amgress, 00 [>er< amt of the Senate, 02 pert cut of the Forbtts 400 and ho percent of oil tenured university fat ulty According to the Hirt Census, hint ks hold about 10 pert t<nt of all manage rial and professional jobs: His pnnit s hold less than H percent. Until these percentages reflect or at least come ( lose to reflect ing our society's make-up. affirmative action will be neces sary These programs help undo some of the inequalities in our society, and have successfully integrated under-represented people into the economic scheme. Hut the system isn't perfect, and critit s love to point out its imperfet lions as reason to abol ish it They often cite examples of w ealthy people, w ho are also minorities, taking advantage of their skin colors or their last names to prosper from federal programs that they don't really need Such occasions are not the much. Under affirmative action despite popular misperception qualifier) workers are not los ing their jabs to less-qualified people. It's pist that with these laws as safeguards, a qualified person who is black or Hispan ic or female will not be locked out of a job or a promotion on account of his or her race or gen der This may indeed be bad news for some white men. Their free ride is over. It s now time to play by the same rules as the rest of us. However, 1 do agree with the affirmative action critics on one point. The program is not sup posed to lie permanent or inflex ible Just as our society fins i hanged in the Inst (U years, so too should affirmative action. Programs need to evolve and cfiange with the times and maybe one day they will realize their goal. That hasn't happened yet. and from the looks of it. we have a while to go Still, there are those who will carry on whinnying about the process of affirmative action taking too long and crying for its destruction Hut this coun try is 219 years old For a good part of our history we have svs (J\Hi Forman (iff 30 years of affirmative action. foes have sudden -X Jk.lv df-i idt«d (hat tin- legis lation has made them an unliko ly minority. From the ranks of tin* angry white malt* has cornu a nuw rallying cry for freedom and oquality “Save the white male! We re an endangered spur.ins! Affirmative action is reverse dis i riminationf White men are the new minority!" Oh, please The fragile rat e of supposedly Udeaguered white males is not going anywhere And affirmative at lion has vet to take our sot letv where it needs to tie For while critics of the pro gram claim that it s not working or no! net essary, the truth is that we still have a long way to go Hut if the present political cli mate prevails anti the scores of paranoid and disenfranchised folks have their way, we'll never got there Affirmative action, which was not even an issue dur ing the 1094 elections, has Us ome the newest symbolit tar get for conservatives who am des poratoly trying to hang on to an ruin anti !o advertise thorn ns commonplace ts bogus. Others cry that affirmative action favors racial minoritros arui women. Programs, thc\ say. should bo based on need, not rat <> Why should the [tour white guy lose out over a comfortable Korean woman? That's a good point. Perhaps we need more pro grams that provide help based upon need. That is still no reason to abolish a program that brings people into realms that have been exclusively white and male for too long That is the point of affirmative action — not just to help poor minorities become wealthier, but to make the American workplace representative of American soci ety And maybe that is what sr ares the angry white guys so tematii ally exploited, derided and discriminated against blacks, native Americans, women and any other group that didn't qual ify as white male Perhaps in another 170 years, when affir mative action's tenure rivals that of our history of institutionalized and legislated racism, mavis’ then we will be ready to dismantle it In the mean time, I have some advice for the angry white male deal with it Gayle 'Pvrninazi" Forman is a columnist for the Kmerald via ji'uni* The r S House wants to ahol ish il GOP presidential hopefuls Sen. Phil Gtamm and Sen. Bob Dole an* opposing it. making affir mative action a kec issue in the upc oming politic ,il frenzy. Cali fornia governor and presidential hopeful Pete Wilson told a group of men that "white men are the new, silent vic tims of disc rimi nation in this country " tialifor nia citizens are trying to get a ref erendum question on the t99fi ballot that would in effect ban affirmative action. Why is it that white men are suddenly sweating, worry ing that their once-socred grip on the higher echelons of American society may be starting to slip' They needn’t worry too much, for despite the general panic:, white men are still very much in charge. As Jesse Jac kson puts it. this new ■ LETTERS & COMMENTARY POLICY f he Oregon Daily Emerald wtlcometi letters and commen taries from the public concerning topics of interest to the Uni versity community Letters to the editor must be limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the identification of the writer must ho verified when the letter is submitted Commentaries should be between (>ot) and 800 words, legi ble. signed and the identification of the writer must be verified when the commentary is submitted The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style.
