MUTUAL AID FOR NEXT
EUGENE CELEBRATION
Will the Eugene Celebration return to
“brand name” sponsorship this year? You
can bank on it.
Washington Mutual Bank has signed on
as the Celebration’s “presenting” sponsor
for 2003. Those who have enjoyed the
Celebration devoid of any corporate logo
these past two years may feel concerned that
the event is retreating toward a more com-
mercial position. But the organizers at
Downtown Events Management, Inc.
(DEMI) don’t see it that way.
Steve Remington, president of the DEMI
board and managing director of The Eugene
Celebration, says he’s appalled by the myths
and misconceptions that bubble up each
time they get major funding. He says he’s
frustrated that certain individuals still
equate sponsorship with some kind of sell-
out. “First off, the citizens of this town are
the owners of The Eugene Celebration —
DEMI is a non-profit public entity,”
Remington emphasizes. “Every cent that
comes in, whether from sponsors or button
sales, gets put back into maintaining, ex-
panding and improving the five festivals we
produce every year. The goal is always to
make them the best they can possibly be.”
But what about the fact that after three
years of “Centennial Bank Eugene
Celebration” posters, the DEMI Board
voted to permanently ban that kind of spon-
sor-first formula? “That is precisely why we
are placing ‘sponsored by’ after The Eugene
Celebration title,” Remington says.
He points out that the two years the
Celebration had no title sponsor also coin-
cided with the U.S. economy bottoming out.
DEMI had to let some staff members go,
and other cutbacks occurred. Now things are
looking up. Remington also emphasizes that
the choice of Washington Mutual wasn’t ar-
bitrary. “I am not just giving them a plug,”
he says. “We really do see them as a busi-
ness that goes beyond most in people-
friendly services. That fits our 2003 theme
of Heart of the City.”
“The most important point,” Remington
asserts, “is that sponsors get absolutely no
discretionary say over content or produc-
tion. They don’t call the shots. They know
the Celebration can be provocative, but they
sign on because they trust us to put on a rel-
evant, interesting and fun cultural event.”
— Joseph A. Lieberman
LOCAL HOUSING COSTS
KEEP HEADING HIGHER
Is the inflated housing market in Eugene
about to pop?
Eugene housing costs have outstripped
earning power, according to Census data. In
Eugene, the percentage of homeowners pay-
ing more than 30 percent of their income on
housing increased from 18 percent in 1989
to 26 percent in 1999. Over the same
decade, the percentage of renters spending
more than 30 percent on housing increased
from 49 to 51 percent.
In 1989, the average Eugene mortgage
was $678 a month. Ten years later, that aver-
age payment had swelled to $1,129 a month.
In the 1990s, the average rent increased
from $425 a month to $621.
Census data for last year is not available,
but local housing costs appear to remain
high despite the state having one of the high-
est unemployment rates in the nation.
In the last decade, housing prices in
Oregon shot up faster than any other state in
the nation. Median home values increased
78 percent in Oregon from 1989 to 1999, ac-
cording to the 2000 Census. At the start of
the decade, the average Oregon home cost
$67,100, 15 percent less than the national
average. By 1999, Oregon homes cost an
average of $152,100, 27 percent more than
the national average.
In 1990, Californians could buy a house
in Oregon for about a third of what they
would pay at home. By 2000, Oregon homes
were averaging almost three-fourths the cost
of California homes. — Alan Pittman
HERBICIDE SPRAYING
OK AS A ‘LAST RESORT’
After wrangling the last few months with
the issue of herbicide use on county roads
and byways, the Board of County
Commissioners has drafted the Last Resort
Herbicide Policy. It will, according to
• Tom Lininger goes off the County Commission Aug.
15 to take a law school job and about 20 appointee hope-
fuls from the East Lane District have been calling com-
missioners, hanging around and warming audience
chairs in commish meetings. Some are seasoned public
servants, some have political agendas and aspirations,
and some are likely just after the $70,000 a year salary.
The commissioners can’t legally pick Lininger’s replace-
ment until after Lininger is gone, and the appointment
will only be until the May 2004 elections. This is an im-
portant swing vote and we hear rumors of elaborate po-
litical strategizing behind the scenes. Sen. Tony Corcoran
would make an excellent commissioner, but the timing’s
not right. He’s up to his nose hairs in state funding bat-
tles and this legislative session could drag out all sum-
mer. Corcoran says this week he’s not a candidate for ap-
pointment, but will he run in May when he’s between ses-
sions? Meanwhile, some names being kicked around for
the appointment include Faye Stewart, Al King, Cedric
Hayden, Cindy Weeldreyer and a couple of small town
mayors in the district. Applications are now available and
must be turned in by July 14.
8 JULY 3, 2003
Commissioner Pete Sorenson, go to public
hearing for consideration as an ordinance on
July 16. The new policy will require Public
Works to consider herbicide control of vege-
tation only as a last resort, after all “mechan-
ical, manual, biological and cultural tech-
niques” have been tried first.
Input on drafting the policy has come
from
Public
Works,
Vegetation
Management
Advisory
Committee
(VMAC), Northwest Coalition for
Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) and a
subcommittee of the Health Advisory
Committee (HAC).
Aimee Code of NCAP says the new pol-
icy will allow more feedback and considera-
tion of the effects of herbicides before
spraying occurs. It will, says Code, have
“the check of the Board of Health and the
Department of Public Health …” The cur-
rent policy has only internal checks. The
new one will
allow the Board of
Health/BCC to evaluate all chemicals
Public Works is considering to control road-
side vegetation.
Bev Hollander, of the HAC subcommit-
tee, says that when they were assigned along
• If you’re placing bets on when the legislative session
ends, note that State Treasurer Edwards casually told the
Eugene City Club last Friday that it could be the end of
August. That’s sooner than Phil Barnhart predicts. He
says Labor Day or even into October — but he might be
kidding. Already The Oregonian has run a front-page
story about the daily cost of keeping the legislature in
session, $22,000 excluding legislators’ salaries. More
such stories are sure to follow.
• A colleague tells us that Bonny Bettman has decided
to run for re-election to her City Council seat. That’s
good news for progressives, partly because of her elec-
tability. She fared unusually well in R-G coverage during
the debate on re-naming Centennial boulevard for Martin
Luther King Jr.
• A Portland party last weekend celebrating Judge
Ted Goodwin’s 80th birthday paid lots of attention to his
recent majority opinion that removed “under God” from
the Pledge of Allegiance. He’s a UO graduate who started
his legal career in Eugene, eventually rising to the U. S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1971. Current UO
Dean Laird Kirkpatrick called him probably the most fa-
with VMAC to look at how the policy could
work, “We, as a subcommittee, took it liter-
ally. It could only work if the Board of
County Commissioners made it an ordi-
nance. … It needed to have teeth in it and be
enforceable.”
The issue of herbicide use and toxicity
dangers has proven a point of contention for
the BCC. In a May 22 R-G story,
Commissioner Anna Morrison was quoted
saying, “On the issue of toxic versus non-
toxic, the scientific support for me as a pol-
icy-maker is just not there.” In a Feb. 19
BCC meeting, Commissioner Green also
expressed concern and disagreement with a
last resort policy. Commissioners Dwyer,
Lininger and Sorenson, however, felt that
other technologies should be explored be-
fore resorting to chemical spraying.
An award-winning story by Judy
Yablonski in EW April 18, 2002 (see
archives at www.eugeneweekly.com) de-
scribed a $100,000 independent audit in
1997, paid for by the county, that recom-
mended elimination of all roadside herbi-
cide spraying due to inefficiency, environ-
mental damage and lawsuits. Sorenson
mous graduate of the UO School of Law. That great line
from Albert Camus, a Frenchman indeed, was the only
quote on Judge Goodwin’s 80th birthday program — “I
should like to be able to love my country and still love
justice.”
• A reader tells us she received an Orwellian letter of
response June 10 from Sen. Gordon Smith regarding
Iraq, saying, “We have no intention of imposing our form
of government or our culture. The foundation for democ-
racy is now being laid and our military forces will leave as
soon as we’ve accomplished our mission ...”
• President Bush’s religious fervor is no secret, but it
does explain some of his staggeringly ill-advised foreign
policies and priorities. In the Israeli newspaper Haaretz
June 26, Bush is quoted as saying, “God told me to strike
at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me
to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am deter-
mined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help
me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will
have to focus on them.”