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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 1997)
▼ EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Steven Asbury MANAGING EDITOR: Thom Schoenbom NIGHT EDITOR: Jennifer Schmitt EDITORIAL EDITORS: Ashley Bach & Brian Diamond editorials, letters, commentary and perspective NEWSROOM: (541)346-5511 DISPLAY ADVERTISING: (541)346-3712 BUSINESS OFFICE: (541) 346-5512 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: (541) 346-4343 Big dreams for Eugene? ■ OUR OPINION: The City Council’s goals for Eugene leave more questions than answers What will Eugene look like in five years? That’s what the Eugene City Council tried to decide when it made its list of goals for the city last week. Led by May or Jim Torrey, the City Council outlined what it would try and focus on in the next five years. So here they are from top to bot tom, the nine goals for the Eugene of 2002. Goal One: Provide a community where people feel safe, secure and respected. Is this opposed to last year’s goal of a community where people feel endangered, uncertain and disrespected? Does a goal as obvious as this really need to be stated? Goal Two: Encourage a beautiful living environment with green spaces, and pre serve natural resources. This is probably the safest goal of the bunch. In a city where every weather fore cast shows a chance of rain, how ambitious is a goal that encourages green spaces? Let’s face it, Eugene will be green regard less of what the City Council does. Goal Three: Expand affordable housing opportunities. Probably the most specific of all the goals. This is definitely a goal worthy of support, but just how does the Council plan on achieving it? It sounds like a great goal, but Eugene could better use a great plan. Goal Four: Manage city growth and change. Because the City Council couldn’t de cide whether to encourage or discourage city growth, they decided to go with the all-purpose word “manage.” “Manage city growth” has a nice ring to it, but does it mean anything? Like many of these goals, it’s hard to tell. Goal Five: Maintain the financial capa bility to provide city services. Translation: Keep collecting taxes so the city doesn’t fall apart. Goal Six: Foster intergovernmental co operation. Does this mean no fist fights between Torrey and Gov. Kitzhaber? Goal Seven: Provide opportunities for educational, leisure, sports and cultural amenities for all citizens. And how are these opportunities going to be provided? More park benches and basketball courts? More time should be spent figuring out how to accomplish these goals and less time put into coming up with fancy words like “amenities.” Goal Eight: Develop an environmentally friendly alternative transportation system An environmentally friendly alternative transportation system could mean a light rail train. But with no current plans for construction this could be a little unrealis tic for 2002. Unless the City Council has secretly invented a solar powered car, LTD bus drivers needn’t worry about their jobs yet. Goal Nine: Foster a community of neigh borhoods. The Council seems pretty big on foster ing this year. Because you can’t really have a city without neighborhoods and neigh borhoods imply a community, fostering them should be within the council’s grasp. Goals are great, but plans are better. If the City Council really has plans to accom plish these goals, more power to them. We just hope there is more to the future of Eu gene than a bunch of goal statements that range from the ultra-vague to the super-ob vious. This editorial represents the opinion of the Emerald editorial board. Ill Drawing Board _i-A HUNDRED GRAND for a CUP of COFFEE. BUT AAAN, T TASTED GOOD/ vveu., gotta GO the Clinton VerS/on... LETTERS Keep fan perspective Many of you may have heard news about an incident reported by a member of the UCLA Bruins men’s basketball team following Thursday night’s game at Mac Arthur Court. The player reported that, in the excitement of the Duck’s win when fans converged upon the floor, racial epi thets were shouted at Bruin players. I hope this is not true. It is one thing to have enthusiastic and loyal fans who cele brate their team at a time of victory. It is quite another thing to have behavior that brings dishonor to the team, our institution and our community. There is no circumstance under which racist behavior is defensible, nor will it be excused or tolerated among those who are a part of the University community and among those who wish to associate with us. I call upon our fans to exercise self-dis cipline and peer scrutiny to ensure this be havior is never repeated. Dave Frohnmayer University President Cross should stay This is in response to your Jan. 21 article on the Skinner Butte cross. In many cases, the cross is a religious symbol, based on the Christian faith and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When this cross was erected, it was based on a reli gious commemoration to the founding fa ther of the Christian religion. In this specif ic instance, the cross was made a religious item on public land. Since that time, how ever, the situation changed. In the 1970s, a decision was made to use the cross as a war memorial. This “adop tion bridged a gap between church and state that should have made most people happy. The cross is no longer a religious monument; instead, it has been made to show our support to those who fought in wars. When the 1992 lawsuit was filed, it wasn’t against a monument that was ex claiming its religion. It was against a mon ument that supported our soldiers. The cross is only a symbol of religion; it is not a religion. When crosses are placed alongside of road ways for those who died, do we see this much of an uproar because of them? I don t agree with the decision to pull the cross down. In this day and age we are so unsure about political correctness that we wipe out things that added to our histo ry- The cross is a cross. Nothing more, nothing less. Stephanie Jacobs Eugene Winners Rodney Dangerfield After all but disap pearing from the acting scene, Rod ney is back in full force. From guest appearances on the Simpsons and Let terman to a new movie entitled “Meet Wally Sparks," Rodney’s career may be mounting a much-needed comeback. George Lucas The re-release of the Star Wars trilogy has put Lucas back in the spotlight. With crowds camping out to buy tickets for Star Wars, Lucas stands to gain both fame and fortune — again. Rich Brooks After the former Duck football coach was fired by the St. Louis Rams after only two seasons, his NFL career seemed to have hit a brick wall. But with the Atlanta Falcons hiring Brooks as defensive coor dinator, Brooks can look forward to an other chance at NFL glory. Lance Alstodt The investment banker won $1 million for kicking a 35-yard field goal at the NFL Pro Bowl on Sunday. Alstodt won a na tionwide contest sending him to Hawaii to try to win the $1 million. Boris Yeltsin Boris Yeltsin’ recovery from pneumonia and heart surgery may be quicker than many people think. French President Jacques Chirac claimed after talking with Yeltsin for three hours that the Russian president appeared to be in top shape. Losers PFC Senator Sari Wisch The constitution court put an injunction against Wisch from participating in the Multicultural Center budget hearing process. No ruling is expected on her removal from office for one week. The media The trial is over and the Juice was found liable in the wrongful death of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ron Goldman. Thousands of reporters will soon be out of work. Oh, the humanity! Bill Parcells Despite his desire to leave New England for another team, the Patriots head coach was told by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue that he can’t leave with out the permission of the Patriots orga nization . This a little over a week after the Patriots lost the Super Boal to the Green Bay Packers. University Computing Center As of Feb. 15, the University will stop selling computers at discount prices to students due to shrinking profits. In ad dition to making it harder for students to get good deals on computers, 18 em ployees at the Computing Center will be put out of work.
