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.