leam mulls ideas on neighborhood woes
MiasKTorcemet inursaay
to brainstorm ways to curb
crime and improve housing in
the West University area
Danielle Gillespie
Safety/Crime/Transportation Reporter
With many run-down apartment
complexes and rental houses, livabili
ty issues in the West University neigh
borhood have raised concerns and
some have speculated that this could
be part of the reason for high crime
rates and riotous activities in the area.
To help prevent future problems
and brainstorm ideas to improve
living, a task force of community
members and University officials
met Thursday to discuss strategies
to improve the West University
neighborhood.
ASUO Community Outreach Co
ordinator Jesse Harding said the task
force made several suggestions for
short-term and long-term goals for
upgrading the area.
He said one short-term goal in
cluded having a community involve
ment day, where University students
could clean the neighborhood and
repair its parks.
Forming a database with names
and addresses of the neighborhood’s
permanent residents to form, per
haps, a neighborhood association was
another short-term goal, Harding said.
“We just want to build more com
munity involvement from every
one,” he said.
As for long-term goals, members
of the group expressed concerns
about the neighborhood’s lighting,
especially on 14th Avenue, Associate
Vice President for Institutional Af
fairs Jan Oliver said.
She said poor street lighting can
increase crime such as theft and
vandalism or cause riotous activities
because darkness often leads people
to think they’re anonymous.
The task force also talked about
the need to upgrade housing stan
dards in the neighborhood as a long
term goal. The task force suggested
that if housing were improved, it
would change the overall environ
ment of the neighborhood and could
help to reduce crime and riotous ac
tivities, Oliver said.
According to an apartment report
done by the Eugene appraisal firm
Duncan & Brown, the campus area
currently has a vacancy rate of 2
percent. Last fall, the vacancy rate
was about 0.78 percent.
The report found that property
managers in Springfield and other
Eugene neighborhoods have report
ed that the number of units rented to
student tenants has increased. This
is primarily true in the neighbor
hood near Autzen Stadium, which
contains 1,450 units and is about 75
percent student-occupied.
“Clearly many students do not
want to live (in the West University
neighborhood), and something
needs to be done,” Oliver said.
Harding, who said some students
don’t want to live in the neighbor
hood because many places are dilap
idated, compared the houses to
sheds with slanted roofs.
“I think the vacancy rates in this
area are because the places are so
bad, run-down and the rent is so
high that no one is willing to live
there,” Harding said.
University senior Aarti Tanna,
who has lived in the West University
neighborhood for two years, said she
thinks it’s hard for students to find
nice housing close to campus. But
Tanna said she does not see a corre
lation between improving housing
standards, riotous activities and
crime, because it’s not as if improv
ing the area will chase out the peo
ple causing the problems.
“It’s mostly students who live there,
and they will still be there,” she said.
Contact the reporter
atdaniellegillespie@dailyemerald.com.
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Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Judy Sylvia has been an employee at the Safeway on East 18th Avenue for more than four years. She says she will be on the picket
line if workers go on strike soon for issues including pensions, wages and health care.
Strike
continued from pagel
“Employers want to retain their
current employees,” she said. “They
are the ones who are skilled.”
Merrill said the employers must
change health care benefits to com
pete with nonunion companies like
Wal-Mart, which has moved into the
market and increased competition.
Currently, the employers pay 100
percent of employee health benefits,
and it takes six months for new em
ployees to qualify for the plan. Un
der the new plan, members would
pay a portion and it would take two
years to qualify.
The new contract also proposes
that new employees be 21 or older
to receive pension benefits, while
currently, there is no age require
ment to receive benefits.
“The employers are discriminating
against young people,” Sawyer said.
The UFCW 555 is also asking for a
50 cent per hour raise for all mem
bers, but the employers want to pay a
lump sum, which would be five times
less for full-time employees. Employ
ers also want to nearly double the
time it takes union members to reach
“journeyman” status, which current
ly offers a wage increase after 5,200
hours of work.
Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albert
sons are taking applications for
temporary employees, but man
agement hopes the issue is re
solved and an agreement is
reached, according to Merrill.
Many union members support a
strike. Others are less sure, but hesi
tated in giving their names because
they are worried about the reper
cussions of being a “strikebreaker.”
East 18th Avenue Safeway
cashier Rebecca Natividad said if an
agreement is not reached, a strike
will be necessary.
“Safeway is trying to break the
union, and they are starting in Eu
gene,” she said. “If (the employers)
break the union, we will all be work
ing at Wal-Mart without medical
(benefits) and on food stamps.”
Some employees, however, are
opposed to striking.
Safeway cashier and University
junior Grant Leffler said he does
not believe the union is calling a
strike for the benefit of employees,
but for a show of power. He said
"Employers want to
retain their current
employees"
Melinda Merrill
Northwest Food
Employers Inc.
spokeswoman
management would not agree to
the union’s requests.
“Safeway (management) said
that’s the best we could get, and if
we went on strike, they would lessen
benefits more,” he said.
Others are not sure. An Albert
sons employee who would identify
himself only as “Peter” said he has
not been informed enough about
the matter.
“It’s kind of foggy,” he said. “We are
stuck in the middle of this conflict.”
The last Oregon grocery workers
strike took place in Portland in 1994
and lasted for 88 days. The last one in
Eugene was in 1979. Approximately
1,100 employees of Safeway, Albert
sons and Fred Meyer are covered by
UFCW 555 contracts in Eugene.
Roman Gokhman is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
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