▼ EDITORIAL
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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.