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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Sarah Kickler
EDITORIAL EDITOR
MikeSchmierbach
NIGHT EDITOR
Nicole Krueger
Money should
he taken from
transportation
projects and
put into
parks, which
encourage
recreation
OPINION
Jonas
Allen
Don’t miss this limited time offer!
This weekend, in the Eugene
area only, see real North Ameri
can dinosaurs!
The five-day Tour of Willamette bicy
cling event that ends this Sunday features
some of the best riders on the continent.
But while the competition brings life to bi
cycle enthusiasts, it is part of a dying breed
of bicycling hobbyists.
Riding a bike was originally a recreation
al activity. People, even families, would go
out on a sunny afternoon or weekend and
“pedal” their wares. Maybe they’d hit the
local ice cream parlor or head for the park.
Either way, their trusty bikes would get
them there. But with the exception of this
weekend’s competition, it seems that bikes
are now used to keep people in the rat race.
Take the Ferry Street Bridge construc
tion, for example. Eugene citizens had ex
pressed concern about the need for better
transportation in their ever-growing city.
The Ferry Street area, in particular, was de
veloping quickly and was in need of better
transportation over the Willamette, accord
ing to Diane Bishop, Eugene bicycle and al
ternative mode coordinator.
Because of these concerns, the commu
nity opted to revamp the bridge. Rather
than simply widen it, Bishop said, citizens
voted to make the bridge safer, especially
in terms of its seismic endurance. That
face-lift eventually came to include a sepa
rate bike path connected to the bridge.
Never mind that construction to improve
Eugene’s transportation has slowed the
commute to a snail’s pace. And forget that
rush hour has seemingly doubled because
of the project. Eventually, we’ll have a safer
bridge and a new bike path.
But will families headed for Alton Baker
Park take the new route with cars speeding
by, or will they opt for the old, quieter
way?
More to the point, will there even be
families using the bikeway? It’s doubtful.
The Tour of Willamette represents one of
the last groups of recreational bikers. True,
they race for points and prestige, but the
competition is fun at heart. Even in Eu
gene, voted one of America’s “Ten Best
Bike Towns,” bicycling for pleasure has be
come an oxymoron of sorts.
"Probably one of the things that got the
bike paths going is that people wanted bet
ter access to the parks and outdoors,” Bish
op said.
But with the change from recreation- to
transportation-focused biking, attention to
those parks has fallen by the wayside. Ac
cording to Eugene’s 1997 Community Sur
vey, the public has failed to maintain the
parks that inspired its bike paths.
According to the survey, while 89 per
cent of those surveyed felt the city’s bike
paths were above average, the same mark
for parks dropped to its lowest total in six
years.
Bishop said it was surprising that the
survey showed such a discrepancy when
parks got the bikeways started in the first
place. Eugene park planner John Etter
agrees.
“In the last 20 years, bike paths have
been seen as more transportation than
recreation. There’s almost not a connection
between recreation and biking anymore,”
he said.
So what happened? There isn’t a sure
fire answer. Measure 50 hasn’t helped; it
resulted in a massive lack of funding for
Eugene’s park system.
“We’ve had some cutbacks in [park]
maintenance,” Etter said. “We’ve browned
out parks, downed some trees. Jogging and
Ridgeline trails funding was cut...” He
could go on for minutes.
Rather than avoid park cutbacks, would
n’t it make sense to divert funding from,
say, an already highly rated bike system
and put it into city parks? Probably,
but that’s not possible under the
current system.
“The money that went
into the Ferry Street Bridge
bike path had to be used
for transportation,” Etter
said. “There are all sorts of
places that parks should get
money from; we’re just not
able to take from those funds.”
I’m neither a politician nor an
economist, and I don’t even claim
to be a good debater. But if ap
proval ratings for something are
already high, rerouting a few dol
lars from that fund to put into the
city’s parks couldn’t hurt.
Although that’s not possible cur
rently, the mayor’s Parks and Open
Spaces Committee is in the process
of reviewing outdoor priorities for
the city. While the committee is
not reviewing Eugene law, its find
ings could affect funding for the
city’s outdoor spaces.
Right now, the committee is taking a
good look at what’s outside the windows of
City Hall. What it won't see are people
switching bike gears to slow down rather
than hurry to work. It won’t see a park sys
tem flourishing with sufficient funding.
What it will see are hundreds of people
zipping past the parks they once held so
dear. It will see residents changing bike
lanes as quickly as they forgot to fund the
motivation behind those paths.
When all is said and done, the commit
tee needs to realize it’s not in Kansas any
more. Dry fields don’t happen in Eugene
unless there is a drought. Right now, the
drought is in funding for Eugene’s parks. If
anyone on the committee is listening, help
show your residents some green.
Jonas Allen is a columnist for the Emerald.
His work appears on alternate Fridays. His
views do not necessarily represent those of
the newspaper.
CHRIS HUTCHINSON/Emerald
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
GTFF editorial flawed
The editorial (ODE, April 14) about
GTFs and Summer Session contains errors
of fact and interpretation that require cor
rection.
First, there has been no duplicity in es
tablishment of 1998 summer salaries. The
manner for computing them was thor
oughly discussed during the collective
bargaining process. The GTFF itself insti
gated the survey in which departments
were asked to indicate the number of
hours required to provide their summer
1997 courses. The GTFs accepted the sur
vey results without question and partici
pated in negotiations based on those num
bers.
Second, hours are not being cut to save
money. There are fundamentad differences
in delivery of classes offered during the
summer. This does not make them less rig
orous or less valuable; it simply makes
them different. It is illogical to assume that
one can offer identical patterns of office
hours, quizzes or written assignments in
four or eight weeks as in a 10-week acade
mic term. It is simply these differences
that the summer GIT contracts address. It
should also be pointed out that present es
timates for summer GTF salaries are 23
percent above those paid last year for the
same number of individuals.
Third, the issue of a tuition freeze upon
which the editorial expounds is irrelevant
to the current GTF issue described in your
commentary. GTFs do not pay their own
tuition; it is provided in full by the Univer
sity along with a portion of their incidental
fees and the full cost of their health insur
ance.
Steadman Upham
Vice Provost for Research
Dean of the Graduate School
Act like adults
“Self-serving.” “Conservative.” “Spine
less.” “Suck-up.” “White boys.” “Kill.”
Did I get your attention yet? Well, James
Paustian certainly got mine today. That’s
some powerful rhetoric. Like all rhetoric,
however, the accusations are shallow, de
signed to hurt people and divert attention
away from important issues. Paustian
failed in his mission to get my vote for his
Progressive ticket.
His statements are sad commentary on
the ability of ASUO politicos to act like
adults. Calling a pair of candidates “white
boys” in the most degrading and pejorative
of senses is not the act of an adult. These
statements put debate on the same level as
children in a sandbox, fighting with shov
els over sand.
Selena Brewington
Computer Science
Hunger affects all
Hunger is an issue that knows every
race, age, gender, class and nation. People
suffer every day all over the world because
they either don’t have shelter over their
heads or food in their stomachs. However,
most upsetting is the fact that the majority
of the victims of hunger and homelessness
are children. In the United States alone, 12
million children are hungry. Worldwide,
34,000 children under the age of 5 die
from hunger every day!
Hunger is an issue that affects everyone;
no one is immune to its destruction. OS
PIRG’s Hunger and Homelessness Group
is doing its part to help combat these prob
lems locally. They have organized a
Hunger Clean-up that will take place this
Saturday, April 18. Everyone is invited
and encouraged to help bring an end to
hunger and homelessness. Teams of stu
dent organizations, community members,
sororities, fraternities and students will go
to local shelters and food banks, helping as
many people as possible.
For more information, you can call OS
PIRG at 346-4377 or just show up at
Johnson Hall at 10 a.m. and we will put
you with a team of other concerned citi
zens.
Echo Shumaker-Pniitt
Pre-psychology