WHITEAKER POOL?
The old Whiteaker School may become a
city swimming pool, Willakenzie School
could be used for a neighborhood park and
portions of Bailey Hill, Willard and
Westmoreland School property could be con-
verted to low-income housing, according to a
city study.
The city of Eugene reviewed eight 4J ele-
mentary school sites the district has listed as
surplus for possible city purchase for parks,
recreation or affordable housing.
“Many of the school sites offer excellent
opportunities for new [low-income] housing
sites,” the city study found. The affordable
housing would likely be used by many fami-
lies with children, helping 4J with its declin-
ing enrollment problems. School district offi-
cials are “very interested in housing that re-
sults in increased enrollment,” the study said.
The city would only buy about half to a
third of any school site for affordable hous-
ing. The rest of the site could be used for mar-
ket-rate homes.
The city is interested in only the land, not
the buildings. The city report describes the
older schools as too costly to renovate.
School District 4J hasn’t reached final de-
cisions on how to dispose of the property. But
here’s the city’s view of potential uses for the
school sites:
• Bailey Hill Elementary rated high
for possible use as affordable housing. The
city described the site as not suitable for a
neighborhood park because it is already ade-
quately served by nearby playing fields at
Kennedy Middle School and Churchill High
School.
• Dunn School was rated moderate for
low-income housing and low for a park. The
neighborhood isn’t well served by parks, but
the site is too small and difficult to access.
• Laurel Hill School was not suitable
for affordable housing or a park. An existing
park south of the school already serves the
neighborhood.
• Santa Clara Elementary was rated
as moderately suitable for housing or a park
(away from River Road) and deserving of
further evaluation
• Westmoreland Elementary was
identified as a strong opportunity for afford-
able housing. The area is already well served
by several nearby parks.
• Whiteaker School did not meet crite-
ria for affordable housing. Residents are al-
ready served by nearby parks. But the site
was rated high for possible use as a future
swimming pool or other recreation/commu-
nity center needed in the central city area.
• Willakenzie School was rated high
for a neighborhood park (fields on a portion
of the site) and high for low-income housing.
• Willard/Eastside was rated as moder-
ately suitable for a neighborhood park on the
portion of the site away from 29th Avenue.
The site was also rated highly suitable for af-
fordable housing. But 4J has listed the site as
a “reserve” school location, so it’s unclear
when and if the district may sell it.
— Alan Pittman
LOSING GROUND
Senate Bill 100 passed the Oregon
Legislature 30 years ago this month, estab-
lishing comprehensive land use planning for
the state and setting a standard for the nation.
But today we’re losing ground, figuratively
and literally, in controlling growth, says Bob
Stacey, the new executive director of 1000
Friends of Oregon.
Stacey, keynote speaker at the Friends of
Eugene (FoE) annual meeting May 22, iden-
tified several key areas of concern for land
use advocates.
“Two hundred bad land use bills have
been introduced in Salem,” he says, “and
many have passed the House.” Stacey says
he’s hopeful the Senate and the governor’s
veto pen will minimize the damage, but he’s
also worried.
Stacey described the governor’s new
Industrial Lands Taskforce as “well-inten-
tioned,” but he fears the public input will be
mostly negative. “The radical right will have a
field day in the public hearings,” he says. “We
need to change the debate away from bad local
decisions and rather work to provide a vision
for our state and our communities.”
BY PAUL NEEVEL
Nellie Oehler
“I always wanted to be an extension
agent,” says Nellie Oehler, who grew
up on a dairy farm near Coos Bay.
After she studied foods and nutrition
at OSU, Oehler spent a year working
with poor families in Jamaica. “It’s a
wonderful place,” she says. “I learned
so much about resourcefulness.” On
her return, Oehler was hired as 4H
extension agent for Linn and Benton
counties. “I’ve been involved in some
kind of extension ever since,” she
notes, “with time off to raise two chil-
dren.” In 1983, Oehler founded
Oregon’s first Master Food Preservers
Program at the Lane County Extension
Office in Eugene. Her current MFP
class has 16 students. “In return for
the eight-week class, they volunteer
40 hours,” she explains. “We also have
about 40 returning volunteers.”
Volunteer MFPs conduct summer
workshops and maintain a statewide food-preservation hotline that attracts
6,000 calls annually. In addition to her half-time OSU faculty position (she also
coordinates the Leadership Education Program), Oehler raises sheep, pigs, fowl,
veggies and fruit on 40 acres surrounded by the city of Corvallis. “I call it my lit-
tle health club,” she says. “True work is good exercise.”
8 MAY 29, 2003
The lack of public education, he says, is
one of the big hurdles facing public accep-
tance of good land use planning. And we
need to educate both progressives and con-
servatives. He figures fiscal conservatives
would embrace more stringent planning if
they understood the true costs of sprawl.
Stacey says “homebuilders and the aggre-
gate industry still have a virtual political
stranglehold on LCDC” (Land Conservation
and Development Commission), but he sees
hope in local communities fighting for sensi-
ble land use planning
Commenting on local land use issues such
as the West Eugene Parkway and
PeaceHealth’s new medical center plans,
Stacey says: “What could be worse than
building a highway through wetlands to an
area that shouldn’t be developed? How about
moving a leading medical center to the very
edge of the urban area, to a place accessible
only bycars?” — Ted Taylor
ADDRESSING THE GAP
A serious achievement gap faces students
of color locally and nationwide. About 40
percent of white fourth-graders are proficient
or above in reading, according to the National
Assessment of Education Progress reading
assessment, but only 16 percent of Latino and
5 percent African American students read at
that level. African American students con-
tinue to lag behind other ethnic and minority
groups. This pattern is said to begin as early
as fourth grade. African American students
seldom recover from this educational
deficit.
Each year a large number of our students
fail in our schools, and it has never been more
apparent that it will take the village to raise
our young African American leaders. The
Churchill community believes this commu-
nity effort is possible through the promotion
of collaboration among community mem-
bers, students and school staff.
To help create this sense of alliance, the
Churchill region is holding a one-day confer-
ence 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday May 3, in the
Churchill High School auditorium. The con-
ference is for African American students, ele-
mentary to high school level, and their fami-
lies in the Churchill region. The conference
goals and objectives are: To increase the
amount of parental involvement of African
American parents in our schools; to increase
awareness of the current pitfalls for our
young adults, in hopes of improving African
American scholastic achievement; to collab-
orate on new strategies for the development
of programs for African American students
and families that would successfully support
the families served; and to find new ways to
establish and build student and professional
relationships within the African American
community in Eugene.
Speakers and workshop panelists include
Haze Pope, Ph.D., Portland Public Schools
psychologist; Winston Cornwall, Oregon
Department of Education; A. Halim Rahsaan,
Concerned Black Men, Portland; Dwight
Lee, Serenity Lane counselor, and many oth-
ers. For more information, contact Bahati
Ansari at 687-3221.
SEEKING JUSTICE
A Eugene attorney with
a doctorate in biochem-
istry is working with
advocates in Chile to
seek justice for a town
contaminated by toxic
mining wastes abandoned
by a Swedish company.
Chernaik
Mark Chernaik is a staff scientist with
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (E-
LAW). He will join Francisco Ferrada, a
Chilean attorney, to discuss the case at a pub-
lic presentation on June 3 titled: “Seeking
Environmental Justice in Chile.”
Chernaik has witnessed firsthand the en-
vironmental threats that communities face
around the world through his travel to work
with advocates in Japan, the Philippines,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri
Lanka, Nepal, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech
Republic, Israel, Peru and Argentina.
The presentation is co-sponsored by E-
LAW U.S. and the Environmental & Natural
Resources (ENR) Program of the UO School
of Law. The presentation is free and open to
the public at 7 pm Tuesday at the Knight Law
Center Room 175 .
In 1984, a Swedish multinational mining
company began shipping its mining wastes to
Chile, purportedly so that a local Chilean
company could reclaim gold and silver from
the wastes. More than 20,000 metric tons of
unprocessed waste were dumped in the
northern city of Arica, on the border with
Peru. Later, the Chilean government built