By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
There is no easy way to define
the word “community.” One ap
proach is with a dictionary entry:
n. any group living in the same
area or having interests, work, etc.
in common.
That description, of course,
leaves out way too much. Which is
why the Emerald has left it up to
those who should know best how
to portray the deeper sense of what
the word inspires in the Eugene
populace.
Eight people offered a few in
sights on the town that most stu
dents will be calling home for the
next nine months and some resi
dents have called home forever,
give or take a day. They defined
community in their own words,
each person spoke about why he or
she has chosen Eugene as their
place to live and everyone suggest
ed one change they would make
for the city.
Michael Lamont owns the Bijou
Art Cinema, just off campus, and
he came to Eugene in 1978. Lam
ont made it to senior-level status in
computer science at the Universi
ty before, in his words, “tanking
out.” He’s stayed because, first of
all, he was coaxed into becoming
the Bijou’s owner. Beyond his cine
matic obligations, however, Lam
ont said he also appreciates Eu
gene’s other cultural offerings.
Tom Patterson Emerald
Ernie Bok works at the University Bookstore and said she would change nothing at all
about Eugene. Bok likes the quietness of certain neighborhoods in the city.
More than that, though, he says
it’s “the surrounding areas, the
ease with which you can go to the
coast in an hour, or skiing in an
hour, or hit the high desert in a few
hours — the hiking trails up
Spencer Butte.”
He gave a textbook definition of
“community,” but added that the
people should strive to “hopefully
make themselves better, and as a
result, the community will im
prove over time.”
Should he stay here for another
22 years, Lamont wants to either
add more screens at the Bijou or
open a second theater.
“It would give [the community]
access to more films that don’t
have the kind of profitability that a
small business like mine requires,
so I just have to pass on some
films,” he said. A wider range of
films would add more culture to
Eugene, he added.
Mary Daniels, who works in ad
vertising and marketing for Sereni
ty Lane, an alcohol and drug treat
ment center, is originally from
London, England, but has lived in
Eugene since 1973. Similar to La
mont, she gave a more common
definition of community. Daniels,
however, also named several areas
where she has lived and can com
pare to Eugene: San Francisco;
Pickwood, Ohio; Pontiac, Mich.;
and Greely, Colo.
She left England because her
hometown was “very formal” and
she wanted to experience a coun
try that was less so.
“I’ve been [in Eugene] so long
because I have a sense of roots here
that I never had anywhere else,”
she said. “The longer I live here,
the more people I see that I know
going down the street and it really
is a sense of roots for me that I’ve
never had before. ”
Those roots may run deep for
Daniels, but her dislike for high
ticket prices at the Hult Center
were on the tip of her tongue in re
sponse to the community change
she would make.
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“There was a big deal about the
Hult Center when it opened, but I
don’t think that it’s for the commu
nity, it’s for the rich people in the
community,” she said. “I think it’s
failed to be a community theatrical
experience [and] I think it’s be
come only for those who have
$75,000 a year or more.”
Bagonda, Old S.L.U.G. Queen,
1997-98 reign, put it simply: “To
me, community is family, really,”
said Bagonda, who goes by Kevin
Henry when not promoting slug
ness.
Bagonda came here in 1992 and
said it’s important to tout the
S.L.U.G. Queen title because it’s
the truest spirit of diversity. In fact,
moving to Eugene freed Bagonda
to become “the glamorous person
that I am.”
At the 1997 Eugene Celebration,
Bagonda went around to each en
tertainment stage to talk with the
partygoers.
“I told a little story about an
unglamorous slug who arrived in
Eugene, and how she became
glamorous and became herself and
let her true spirit out,” Bagonda
said. “So many people come to Eu
gene to become themselves, they
leave behind their life in the old
country and they come here yearn
ing to be freed, and they can.”
The biggest change Bagonda
wants to see is in how money con
trols everything.
“I don’t think we’re going to see
real change until money is re
moved from politics. ... Unfortu
nately, because of so many budget
cuts and unfair tax policies, the
Celebration now has to be spon
sored by many corporations and I
see that as a kind of advertising for
them,” Bagonda said. “I think tax
money should be spent on public
art, it should be spent on public
events. [Events such as] the Cele
bration build community. ”
Kimber Williams came to Eu
gene from Kansas 12 years ago and
is a feature writer for The Register
Guard. She acquired a master’s de
gree in journalism at the Universi
ty, and pointed out in her answers
that she is “married and keeps
busy chasing after a 20-month-old
daughter, two aging cats and two
hyperactive dogs.”
Not surprisingly, she doesn’t
think of community as a static sys
tem. From her job as a newspaper
reporter, she sees the act of build
ing community as ongoing, a
{{so many people come
to Eugene to become
themselves, they leave be
hind their life in the old
country and they come
here yearning to be freed,
and they can.
Bagonda
former Eugene
S.L.U.G Queen
process that arises from the ordi
nary — shared experiences, com
mon struggles, the mundane, in
credibly necessary functions of
daily living — and said Eugene is
“constantly refining its own sense
of community.”
This town is Williams’ choice to
call her community, because of,
among other attributes, “sunsets
over the coastal range. ... Witness
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As the parent of a young child,
however, Williams worries about
raising her in such a homogenized
area.
“As a community, even our re
cent history has not been one of in
clusion,” she said. “I would love to
see our community become more
inviting to minorities, to truly
achieve the diversity and tolerance
that we so often find flaunted on
bumper stickers.”
John Huang has lived in Eugene
for nine years with his wife and
they have one child. He and his
family moved here from China so
that Huang could attend the Uni
versity; he received a sports man
agement degree in 1994.
To Huang, it’s important for peo
ple in a community to go beyond
their common interests and be more
supportive. With that in mind, he
says he has stayed in Eugene “be
cause people here are very friendly
and people help each other.”
Huang has settled in town and he
staked out a claim in the area’s sub
stantial massage therapy field,
while teaching tai chi, as well. An
other reason Huang has stayed in
the Willamette Valley is the clean
liness factor — the city streets are
clean, the water is good and the en
vironment is close to perfect, he
said.
Yet, if there were one thing
Huang would change, it would be
the growing traffic problems.
“I don’t want [Eugene] to become
like San Francisco or Los Angeles,”
he said.
Barbie Griggs talked about the
Eugene community and compared
it to Santa Cruz, Calif., near Mon
terey, where she lived before com
ing to this area nine years ago. She
said the sense of community in
both areas was an “interconnected
ness of people living and thriving
together, assisting each other. They
[both] have an established commu
nity of earth-conscious, friendly
minded people.”
Griggs runs her own craft busi
ness, which brings her to the down
town Saturday Market every week
end, and she also has her wares
available on-line.
If there's one thing I
might change, it would be
that people have a truer
respect for real diversity,
and an ability to dialogue
when we disagree.
Steve Clovis
Priest, St. Paul
Catholic Church
She appreciates the fact that she
can walk down the street without
being harassed. But she does see a
few infrastructure problems with
the city’s growth.
“There’s so much development
happening when there are build
ings that are vacant and readily
available,” she said. She said that
new buildings in one residential
area will draw people away from an
already established residential area,
which changes the system of both
areas.
“There is no interconnectedness
when it comes to the business es
tablishments,” she said. She added
that taxes shouldn’t be used to
build new schools, when there are
so many available buildings that
could be used for that purpose.
Father Steve Clovis is a priest at
St. Paul Catholic Chinch, which is
nestled in between Coburg and
Harlow roads in northeast Eugene.
He was transferred to the city 14
months ago, but “fell in the love”
with the area dining his first stay in
Eugene, for a summer in 1987.
Clovis said that a community
should strive for a sense of unity
and search for common ground.
Eugene, he said, has a wide range of
activities that appeal to a broad
scope of individuals, and that
there’s a diversity here that makes
it a comfortable place to live.
The differences that people have,
however, sometimes create discord,
which Clovis would like to see re
solved with more consideration.
“If there’s one thing I might
change, it would be that people
have a truer respect for the real di
versity [Eugene residents] have and
an ability to dialogue when we dis
agree,” he said.
Clovis said that “attention-grab
bing activity” gets too much play in
the media and he wishes that “au
thentic and respectful dialogue
would be just as attention-grab
bing.”
Ernie Bok works at the Universi
ty Bookstore, which is a microcosm
for her community definition: “It’s
a place where you live and you in
teract with other people, hopefully
in a positive way.”
Bok, who is married with two
children, was bom in Arizona and
moved here from California. Her
family background — Bok’s ances
try is Native American, German
and Spanish Basque — sounds
more diverse than Eugene as a
whole, but she likes the town be
cause with its small size, “there’s a
lot of cohesiveness; it’s a nice envi
ronment, with friendly people.”
The quietness of the town and
the neighborhoods appealed to her
on a visit 20 years ago, so she made
a move. Of course, moving from
California to central Oregon does
have its drawbacks.
“It would be nice if it were sun
ny, warm and wonderful — nine
months, 10 months out of the year
[with no rain] would be nice,” she
said.
Other than a change in the
weather, who knows how many lo
cal residents Bok speaks for when
she gives a final comment on nec
essary changes for Eugene?
“I’d change nothing.”
Azle Mai in a o-AI va reztrnera I d
Old S.LU.G. Queen Bagonda, whose reign occurred during 1997-98, gets a little help
with fashion. Bagonda was on hand in August to watch the 2000-01 Queen be chosen.
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