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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 2003)
retro-historical Heron building. “The public will like the [fire house] building,” he says. “It’s like Disneyland, it’s a picture postcard.” The new 28,000 sq. ft. fire station will be built at the southwest corner of 13th and Willamette with demolition of the existing tire store set to begin next month. Completion will be in 2005. — Alan Pittman FIREHOUSE DESIGNED WITHOUT PUBLIC INPUT • This week we are inserting the first Ducks Illustrated in the center of our paper for all our readers who are fans of UO men’s and women’s sports. This mag- azine is a partnership with some local Duck fans who have been publishing sports journals here since 1992, most notably Inside Duck Sports. They provide the content, we provide the printing, advertising and distribution. Why are we 8 AUGUST 28, 2003 ACTIVISTS FIGHT BUSH ON DOUBLE FRONTS The timing was good for President George Bush as his Aug. 21 Portland fund- raising visit coincided with a Senate Rules Committee hearing on repeal of the USA PA- TRIOT Act (UPA) in Salem. The two events split the state’s activist voice. But the competing events didn’t soften outspoken opposition at either location. Leaders from Eugene were among those who expressed their opposition at verbal “battle- fields” 50 miles apart. The role of women was significant, as it has been since govern- ment response to 9/11 began threatening some civil liberties. Hope Marston led “the charge” in Salem, and Amy Pincus Merwin braved barbed wire obstacles to challenge Bush tactics in Portland. Marston is the leader of the Lane County Bill of Rights Committee which has helped spawn formal opposition to the UPA in six Oregon communities and more than 100 na- tionwide. She says at least 100 people from around the state attended the hearing, and about 20 had a chance to testify. Their goal is to get Oregon to become the fourth state to take a formal stand “in defense of our Bill of Rights that are violated by much of the PATRIOT Act.” She is optimistic because “it is not a partisan issue, but has good Republican support, as well.” Pincus Merwin, who broadcasts for KBOO, KWVA and Eugene Community TV, was among news media who got coverage Protesters do a little dance, make a little fun in Portland Aug. 21. JOHN KNEELAND Should a civic building be designed with input from the taxpayers who paid for it, or only by the city staff who work there? That’s the question local architect Otto Poticha is asking about the city’s design for a new $6.6 million fire station downtown at 13th and Willamette. Unlike the city’s new library, the fire sta- tion was designed without input from citizens or peer review or input from local architects, Poticha says. “This is the fire department’s baby.” Poticha says such large civic buildings should be important showcases of innovative architecture and community style and pride and be designed with full public input and discussion. Poticha questions whether the city’s future plans for a new police headquar- ters and City Hall will also be designed with- out community input. “The Fire Department or the Police Department or the sanitation department or whoever should not be given full design au- thority over civic architecture or civic spaces, that is the reflection of this community,” Poticha says. “The issue is there is no process,” Poticha says. “The city does not have a process for civic architecture and civic spaces.” Poticha says the Fire Department should- n’t have been given the sole authority in de- signing the building without public input. “These are public buildings,” he says. “You and I own the building, the Fire Department leases it as a tenant.” Deputy Fire Chief Matt Shuler did not re- turn a call requesting comment. Eugene Design and Construction Manager Mike Penwell declined to comment. Poticha faults the fire department’s de- sign, with a traditional brick façade and “fake” tower, as unimaginative “retro” and not “tomorrow” enough. “I find that offen- sive,” he says. “It’s clear they have no skill at designing anything.” Poticha acknowledges his architectural tastes probably aren’t shared by the majority of the public. He likes the new metallic fed- eral building design but “hates” the recent doing it? An independent Media Audit survey shows that 47,700 out of our 84,000 regular readers follow football, basketball, track and other team sports on radio and TV; and 21,700 EW readers actually attended a Duck game last year. We expect this sports-season partner- ship to provide good, solid Ducks cover- age for our readers and advertisers, and to support the work we do in our regular paper. We welcome your feedback. • What’s new in the local pursuit of sus- tainable policies and practices? We hear a Sustainability Eugene Advisory Panel (SEAP) has been formed with plans to work with neighborhood groups on issues of recycling, household waste management, nodal development, trans- portation and liveability. The new group is apparently an outgrowth of the 2003 Citizens State of the City address spon- sored by Citizens for Public credentials, but were immobilized behind eight-foot-high chain-link fences constructed for the day. “I still was able to videotape the police, protesters, and news media with a back- ground of police gunmen on top of the Chiles Center” (at the Bush luncheon site at the University of Portland). “I wonder,” she says, “how anyone can expect the news media to portray the protest that they can’t even get close to.” She says pro-Bush demonstrators seemed outnumbered 100-1. “That ratio,” she said, “included the 520 well-heeled donors es- corted into the center as they paid $2,000 for a salmon and salad lunch. Some, I’m told, paid $10,000 for having their picture taken with Dubya.” She questioned the propriety of local costs for the chief executive’s campaign fund-raising event being paid by the city and state. “Who pays for police to escort wealthy donors who just dropped a cool $1 million for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign? How can Oregon taxpayers accept any smidgen of cost burden for this fund-raising soiree, consider- ing the funding crisis in our schools and in so- cial services for the poor, disabled, homeless and mentally ill?” Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker predicted the security costs would be about $100,000. Yaney MacIver of PeaceWorks said the police presence in such numbers “was intim- idating … Not only was it disturbing to be hemmed in by them, but there also was no way for Bush supporters and Bush himself to see how large the protest was. We were all squished together in a block or two next to the center.” — George Beres Accountability and Friends of Eugene. Stay tuned. • The B&B Complex wildfires are raging in the Cascade foothills east of Eugene, even closing Highway 20, but media cov- erage is sketchy, even on TV. One good source updated several times a day is the website for the Nugget Newspaper in Sisters (www.nuggetnews.com). Lots of good maps and dramatic photos.
