Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
PO. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
Online Edition:
www.dailyemerald.com
Editor in Chief:
Andrew Adams
Associate Editors:
Jeremy Lang
Peter Hockaday
Eugene shouldn't meddle
wr h businesses'affairs
Where to put a hos
pital?
That has become
one of the most
content us questions here in Eu
gene, and it has seemed to further
polarize the two local political
blocks.
While it’s a quite simplified
view, one could say that here in
Eugene the “pro-business” mod
erate^conservatives are pitted
squarely against the “anti
sprawl” progressive liberals. Al
though every conservative in Eu
gene is not for sprawl and every
liberal is not against business,
this does hold true to some ex
tent.
And one can see that recently
in how some in Eugene want
PeaceHealth to be able to develop
where it needs to and others re
fuse to let the health-care
provider out of the downtown
area.
Like a fearful lover who knows
their partner wants to leave
them, the Eugene City Council is
resorting to frantic and question
able tactics such as re-zoning and
offering to help pay for a down
town site to keep the hospital
close to its present location.
Despite what the company
says it needs, city councilors
want their own way. Granted, not
just the City Council but also sev
eral local residents, business
owners and even doctors and
nurses have campaigned for
keeping PeaceHealth close to the
city center.
But we as a community must
realize we cannot force a hospital
into an area that its owners argue
will not work. We should be able
to assume that PeaceHealth
knows what is best and not im
pose any restrictions to fit the
hospital to some fixed agenda.
Some councilors continue to
argue they are only trying to pre
serve Eugene’s downtown core.
But it does not make sense how
any new business would be inter
ested in coming to Eugene in
light of PeaceHealth’s experi
ence. The council’s message ap
pears to be: “Come to Eugene and
your business will be left victim
to city planners, councilors and
activists who decide for you
where and how you run your
business.”
It is unreasonable to argue that
any business should have free
reign in any community, but
there is a certain point at which
local governments need to back
off if they want continued devel
opment in their cities.
There are many people in Eu
gene who do not want any devel
opment here, and they are wel
come to that opinion. But that is
a little unrealistic because Eu
gene is not some sleepy hamlet in
the which the quality of life
would be severely degraded with
development. This is the second
largest city in the state, and it’s
about time the City Council real
ized that. Eugene is going to get
nowhere by trying to keep this
city in a box. Let PeaceHealth de
velop in North Eugene, and let’s
have some new development
downtown. The hospital’s mov
ing should only open up some
prime real estate.
No one enjoys sprawl, but at
the same time, by allowing the
best development we can avoid
the wrong development.
Smoking ban flawed
from the start
So despite a ban, people still
want to smoke? Well, that is in
teresting. One would think that
with such a progressive and well
minded action like the City
Council’s ban on smoking, we
would all put down our ciga
rettes.
But we haven’t..In fact, it ap
pears that some bar owners’ fears
have come true, and smokers are
heading to other establishments
that still allow them to light up.
Tom Fieland, a manager of three
local bars in which one can’t
smoke, told the council Monday
night the ban was hurting his
businesses. Especially because
some managers were able to re
ceive a reprieve from the ban
with the promise they would
start building a smokers’ patio.
City Manager Jim Johnson will
begin looking into the ordinance,
and let’s hope that some sanity
will soon come to Eugene’s to
bacco laws.
If Eugene is really serious
about banning smoking, then the
City Council should make the
law as fair as possible. This op
portunity for an exemption from
the ban was not well-publicized,
and now some bar owners are
hurting because of it. Councilors
should open up the application
process now, for all business
owners, to solve this imbalance.
It’s a safe bet that every bar will
probably go for an exemption,
and Eugene will be right back to
where it was before the ban.
It just goes to show prohibition
politics do not work.
Praise to all of Oregon’s
little creatures
It appears now that our great
state may have earned its name
because of smelt, a tiny, innocu
ous bait fish that Native Ameri
cans ground into oil. Two Uni
versity graduate students have
published an article describing a
link between the Native Ameri
can word for the fish, “ooligan,”
and “Oregon.” This discovery
just continues Oregon’s great
connection with friendly little
critters. There’s a beaver gracing
the back of the state flag, this
University’s mascot is the harm
less little duck and Eugene even
celebrates the banana slug with a
parade.
There’s nothing wrong with it,
and it actually is somewhat re
freshing. When animals such as
bears, cougars and wolves are so
often used as mascots and such,
it is nice to see Oregon taking a
different route.
This editorial represents the views of the
Emerald’s editor in chief and does not nec
essary represent the views of the Oregon
Daily Emerald.
Weddings? They're not so scary anymore
ast Saturday, I attended my
fifth wedding in two years.
Because I anticipated know
JL^ting all of four people there, in
cluding the bride, I dragged a good
hearted friend home with me for the
weekend. After seeing a wedding
program full of married brides
maids, hearing one of my friends in
form me she’d gotten engaged on the
Fourth of July,
and listening to
— the rampant
gossip about all
the other wed
dings on the
(docket, he said,
“I can’t wait to
get back to Eu
gene. At least
people there are
screwed up in
normal ways.”
The Mayer I’ve been sur
bliss for long enough that I’ve ceased
to find it traumatizing. After attend
ing two or three of my friends’ wed
dings, I stopped adding things to my
checklist of what shouldn’t be in
cluded at my own. I stopped worry
ing about whether I really believed
people my age were ready to commit
themselves to someone until death
ism
rounded by
matrimonial
does them part. Weddings don’t
scare me anymore.
Not other peoples’ weddings, any
way. Like my friend who couldn’t
wait to return to Eugene and hordes
of other people I know, the mere
thought of being married makes me
want to run for the hills. What is it
about marriage that we find so scary?
The lifetime commitment to one per
son, probably. At this point, I have a
hard enough time keeping track of
myself and my own choices, much
less worrying about how I’ll affect
someone else’s life. Marriage, of
course, means always thinking about
someone else, because it’s not just
your life anymore. And at 20 or 21 or
22, that’s a sacrifice many people, in
cluding me, aren’t prepared to make.
Maybe that speaks well of us in a so
ciety where, even though it seems
that marriage is spreading like flu in
the residence halls, you hear more
about the enormous divorce rate.
But here are some things to con
sider about weddings. Aside from
being a public declaration of love,
they’re also a public declaration of
independence. Yeah, you read that
right. Think about it. Think of the
bride’s father giving her away as
more than the tradition of th§ two
of them walking down the aisle to
gether. Sure, the law establishes an
age where we’re all adults. But it’s
at weddings that parents formally
surrender their authority over their
children.
For the two people getting mar
ried, the wedding is an acknowl
edgment that they’re giving up the
freedom so many of us are petrified
of losing — and they’re ready for
that. It’s their declaration that
they’re trading the freedom to look
for the right person for the freedom
of not having to look anymore. It’s
their statement that they’re adults
who can make decisions together
because they’re secure enough
with themselves to be able to con
sider someone else. And that’s
something worth celebrating.
Maybe that’s why weddings don’t
traumatize me anymore. There are
worse ways to spend an afternoon
than watching my friends vow to
stick it out for the people they love.
Maybe if I tour the wedding circuit
long enough (and there are plenty
more wedding invitations in my fu
ture) , I’ll learn not to be afraid when I
think of myself standing at the altar. I
think that’s far enough off in my fu
ture that for now, I can save my fears
for something else: The day I open
my mailbox and find the first birth
announcement.
Katie Mayer is the Emerald copy chief and isn’t
planning on getting married anytime soon.
She can be reached at
kmayer@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
Eugene: it's the happiest place in the world
Guest Commentary
Jason
Borbet
I fell in love with Oregon when I
was just a young lad. One sum
mer day before I began the ninth
grade, my family of five saddled
up the old conversion van to take a
journey. It was a less-than-stellar trip
from New York to Portland. Being a
raging adolescent at the time, I spent
my days swearing in the back seat and
plotting dark revenge on my family.
By the time I reached my promised
land, my two-year-old brother’s inces
sant wailing, coupled with my 11
year-old brother’s belligerence, ren
dered me mute and agitated. Years of
therapy transpired, and by the time
college applications went out, the
University of Oregon was still at the
top of my list. I swore I would become
a Duck come hell or high waters.
When it was time to pick my new
four-year home at the end of my jun
ior year, I still wanted to attend the
University. However, when review
ing the financial packages and in light
of two younger brothers, I opted to be
a debtless terrier at Boston University.
Oh, I don't mind being a small yap
ping dog living in the city that sleeps
at 7:30 p.m. — it's actually rather
nice. However, I knew I had sold out
and I had to become one with Oregon
somehow. So, as a starry-eyed fresh
man I packed my things and split to
Eugene for the summer. I didn't know
anyone, and only through some
clutch e-mailing did I land a place to
stay. My first day in the laid-back land
of Volkswagen mini-buses and glass
blowing shacks was one of some seri
ous schooling.
Lesson one: The streets in Eugene
are as confused as the ones of Boston.
Unlike the delicious Roman layout of
New York City (and Springfield, as I
later found out) streets here are non
sequential. So, when arriving at the
Greyhound station with my 150
pound duffel bag, tired from a
transcontinental flight, I figured,
"Hell', I am on East 10th, I can walk a
few blocks to East 16th, right?"
Wrong. I walked for what seemed
to be days, and finally someone
said, "Oh, East 16th. That's about
two miles past Hayward Field." Ex
cited as I was to see the track capital
of the nation, I was too exhausted
and stupid to realize I could have
just hailed a cab for ten bucks and
saved my shoulders.
An hour later, after a cold shower
under some impressive water pres
sure, I was on my way to check out
the city I loved but had never met.
This blind date taught me a most
embarrassing lesson two. In line,
ready to purchase a slurpee at the lo
cal 7-Eleven, I committed the most
heinous of out-of-towner crimes. I
won't mention what I said, but I was
told immediately that, "Hey, buddy,
we haven't GONE anywhere."
Sadly, it wasn't until my third pil
grimage (this year) that I was in
formed that it was eu-GENE and not
EU-gene. Apparently everyone I
met the previous summer had a
good laugh at my expense as I tried
to figure out what was so funny
through a vacant stare.
My pleasant revelation of that first
day was finding out that if I walked
across a street, cars would stop for
me. Not only would they halt here in
Eugene, but the drivers would smile
and wave. This was a welcome re
prieve from getting flipped off and
threatened with castration.
Oh, and one night I spent lying on
the grass. I looked up in the sky and
saw these bright sparkly things.
Someone told me they are called
stars. Yup, Oregon is quite different
from Boston, and I liked those dif
ferences. Here l am again, finding
out more reasons why Eugene is the
happiest place on earth.
Want to know what Boston is
like? That's another issue altogether.
Jason Borbet will be a senior at Boston Univer
sity but is spending his summer in Eugene.
Letters to the editor
Stein knows how
to deliver results
No matter who else gets in the
race, I’m supporting Beverly Stein
for governor. Stein is the dynamic
woman who served as CEO for
Multnomah County for eight years.
That means she is experienced and
tested running the state’s third
largest government.
What makes Stein different? She
has a proven record of results. When
she was running Multnomah County,
the callback time for county nurses
was shortened from three hours to
three minutes. We need someone
running the state who knows how to
deliver that kind of service.
And while other candidates have
been lollygagging around, trying to
decide what to do, Stein has been
hard at work. She is drawing people
to her campaign. She'has more than
1,500 volunteers working in almost
every county in the state.
For her experience, record of re
sults and optimism, Beverly Stein is
the best choice to be our next gover
nor.
Maggie Moore
Eugene