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Chasing
justice
Two local apartment complexes care more about
money than fair and complete service to tenants
My friend’s cat is missing.
It really shouldn’t be a
big deal. Cats disappear
all of the time. But my
friend lives at Chase Village, an
apartment complex by Autzen Stadi
um. Why should this make a differ
ence? Funny you should ask.
At both Chase Village and Duck’s
Village, a number of residents re
vealed to me some of the bizarre and
unfair circumstances involved in
their living environments.
The rumor I heard before I pursued
OPINION
jqfc
Kristal
this story was that
Chase Village was
capturing cats in
“cat traps” and tak
ing them to the
Greenhill Humane
Society to be exter
minated. Fortu
nately, this is not
altogether true.
Chase Village
has a policy that
all residents’ cats be indoor cats. The
management requires that the resi
dents who have cats report them so
they can be charged the pet clean-up
fee. Despite this policy, a number of
residents have unregistered, tagless
cats — my friend being one of these
people. Because she was too afraid of
management punishing her for hav
ing an illegal cat, she never went to
management to find what had hap
pened to her cat.
When I spoke with management, I
discovered that live cat traps have
been a reality at Chase Village for the
last two weeks. So far, three tagless
cats have been captured. The first cat
was taken to the Greenhill Humane
Society. Chase Village manager Stan
Efferding took a picture of the cat,
documented it with a number and
left it there. Because the Humane So
ciety receives so many stray cats in
the spring and summer (about 60 per
day), the 12-year veteran employee
handling the cat failed to notice that
the cat was declawed. Therefore, she
exterminated the pet the same day it
was brought in. When this employee
discovered her error, she left work
crying.
The owner of the cat went to the
Humane Society two days later and
asked whether the people there had
seen her cat. They told her they had
not.
After this incident, the two other
captured cats were taken to Lane
County Animal Regulatory.
Efferding said he set the traps be
cause he received letters and calls
from many residents that birds and
squirrels were being killed. Cat refuse
was found in sandboxes, and cat
fights were preventing tenants from
sleeping. He said in the past, resi
dents who don’t comply with the in
door cat rule have moved out, leaving
their unspayed cats behind. Efferd
ing, a cat owner himself, greatly re
grets the error and called the Green
hill Humane Society to find out why
the resident’s cat was killed. He also
has stopped setting traps during the
day. Now, the traps are only set out
from 1 to 4 a.m.
The point isn’t that the Humane
Society made a mistake. The point is
that an apartment complex’s manage
ment should not be capturing their
residents’ pets and transporting them
across Eugene.
How can it be sure that the cat be
longs to one of its rule-breaking resi
dents? One of the cats captured be
longed to a Duck’s Village resident.
The other cat belonged to my friend.
The two surviving cats have been re
trieved.
Two weekends ago, three non-resi
dents attending a party went for an
after-hours swim. They were con
fronted by a Chase Village security
guard and a police officer. One, car
rying an open container, was arrested
for trespassing. Maybe I’m overreact
ing, but that seems to be a rather
harsh punishment for swimming af
ter hours. Maybe I’m overreacting by
being upset when pets are accidental
ly killed.
Although strict rules exist to pro
vide a safe, quiet environment for
tenants, sometimes management
goes a bit overboard.
On the other side of Kinsrow Av
enue, Duck’s Village advertises 24
hour security as one of the advan
tages of being a tenant. However, a
few residents informed me that their
tires were slashed on their bicycles
and that one of their bicycles was
stolen. Their main front door lock
has broken at least five times, and a
knife fight was heard beneath one of
their bedroom windows.
Because Duck’s Village was built
so rapidly, many units are also falling
apart. One-year-old balconies are al
ready rusting. Windows, which were
not caulked until this month, leaked
water throughout the year.
Huge homogeneous apartment
complexes do not exist to provide an
aesthetically and environmentally
pleasing living environment. Rent at
Chase Village runs at the high cost of
about $355 a month, while Duck’s
Village is now raising its rent from up
to $325 for a four bedroom apartment
to $340 per month: A high price to
live in “really expensive dorms.”
It should be no surprise when
these institutions insensitively solve
noisy late-night cat fights with cat
traps or fail to live up to the standard
of quality security that they’ve
promised. These actions are taken for
one reason: to ensure a consistent
profit.
Nicole Kristal’s column appears
every other Tuesday in the Emerald.
Her views do not necessarily repre
sent those of the newspaper. E-mail:
nkristal@gladston e. u Oregon .edu
In the May 19
Emerald, the
opinion on
political neutrality
implied that the
labor practices of
Wholesome and
Hearty Foods, the
producer of
Gardenburger,
were question
able. Actually, the
debate revolves
around the labor
practices of
NORPAC, which
Wholesome and
Hearty Foods does
business with.
The Emerald
regrets the error.
LETTERS
Life as usual
Erik Talbert’s take on life as
usual made me quite angry,
even though he eats organic Gar
denburgers [ODE, May 13).
Somehow he missed the point
that life has changed, and there
are some things we just don’t eat
any more on principle, not be
cause they sell and make mon
ey.
I expected others to have
learned some new information
as it became available to inspire
us into different actions. Presi
dent Frohnmayer has not
learned it either and is in trou
ble now for several transgres
sions.
Yes, Gardenburgers are good.
So are shrimps and scallops (the
dragnets ruin reefs and sea bot
tom forever)-, so is steak (fed with
grain humans could eat); so is
Jarlsberg cheese (Norway is
whaling again); so are Nike
shoes, Toys-R-Us and grapes.
But if you have a social con
science and believe in justice or
the well-being of our environ
ment and can accept that the
state of our planet is precarious,
you might use your brain and re
consider.
Gardenburgers are boycotted
because they are distributed by
a company (NORPAC) that cares
little about its workers. The
product is good but needs to be
with a wholesaler with con
science. In the meantime, could
not Talbert and others eat anoth
er veggie burger and Frohnmay
er could teach the students to
stand up for workers’ justice in
stead of only thinking money?
Boycotts work!
Hilde Cherry
Eugene
Naked courage
I’ve let a lot of important is
sues go by due to my busy
schedule but, this time, I just
had to speak up. I think it’s sad
when a 16-year-old has to serve
as the spokeswoman for equal
treatment of women’s bodies,
and I commend her for her
courage [ODE, May 15).
As an adult, I want to say
that I agree with Jesikah Allen;
there is nothing obscene about
women’s breasts. If society did
n’t hold women to a different
standard than it did men, bare
breasted women wouldn’t be a
problem for businesses nor a
concern of parents with small
children.
If female toplessness became
commonplace, women’s
breasts would cease to be ob
jects of mystique and sexual al
lure for the male’s gaze and
lust, thus creating a healthier
social climate for both women
and children.
Such changes in social
norms cannot occur, however,
if people “agree in principle”
but take no action. The silence
on this issue is disturbing.
That is why I urge everyone
who believes the female body
should be respected as whole
some and presentable to call
the city council and protest the
formation of any ordinance
which would classify the expo
sure of female breasts different
ly from that of men.
Chen Zheng Ar-Rashid
Psychology
VINNERS
LanyKing
CNN talk show
host Larry King will
marry 37-year-old
Marry Shawn
Sothwickin De
cember—the
couple will have 10
marriages between
them.
Tiger Woods
The golf super
sensation picked
up right where he
left off at the Mas
ters this weekend,
earning his second
straight victory on
the PGA Tour.
Laurent Kabila
The rebel leader’s l
troops took control |
of the Zaire capital, \
marking the end of j
former President {
Mobutu’s reign. j
Christopher Reeve I
The actor who
gained fame by
playing Superman
has recovered
some feeling in his
spine after injuring
himself in a horse- f
riding accident two
years ago. I
LOSERS
Hillary Rodham
Clinton
Whitewater special
prosecutor Ken
neth Starr claims
he may have
enough evidence
to indictthe first
lady.
The Duck’s Golf
Team
After an impres
sive showing in the
Pac-10 champi
onship, the Ducks'
were eliminated
from the NCAA
West Regional
Golf Champi
onships this week
end.
Mattel Employees
400 employees for
Mattel Inc. toy
company are out
of work after Mat
tel bought Tyco
Toys Inc.
Theodore
Kaczynski
Attorney General
Janet Reno said
she believes the
death penalty
should be request
ed in prosecuting
the suspected Un
abomber.