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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2003)
BARRY’S ESPRESSO TO GET ’BUCKED? Southies, get your rugelach and bialy while you can. Barry’s Espresso and Bakery at 29th and Willamette may well be replaced with what owner Barry Siegel was told would be a “national coffee presence” when PC Market of Choice expands late next year into the Rite-Aid section of the plaza. Given the “national coffee presence” that moved in kitty-corner to Full City downtown and that same presence in The Stereo Store center on 7th Avenue, it’s a good bet that Barry’s is get- ting Starbucked. Siegel has a month-to-month lease with Rite-Aid on its current location at the front of the drugstore; he says the agreement is good at least through next summer. (Siegel has rented this space since Barry’s original loca- tion was absorbed into the U-Lane-O/Oregon Community Credit Union reconstruction.) However, with Market of Choice’s expansion next year resulting in a smaller drugstore, Rite-Aid has no plans to extend Siegel’s lease. Siegel says he has no choice but to keep his eyes open for another south Eugene location. “I’ve had this business in south Eugene for six and a half years now. I’d be silly not to try and stay in the area.” He explains that such a relocation isn’t easy for a small, local business like his. While he has cultivated a strong and loyal customer following, he hasn’t found support on an official level. “There isn’t anyone [city officials] standing up for the small businesses in this town.” The city, he says, makes it diffi- cult — and expensive — for a small business to get started or relocated. A manger, identified only as “Derek,” for Market of Choice said that “no one here knows anything about this — I have no infor- mation.” Trond Ingvaldsen, vice president of real estate for Standard Insurance Company, Portland owners of the shopping center prop- erty, says that Siegel’s tenancy is dependent on continuing the lease through Rite-Aid. This is unlikely, he concedes, since Rite- Aid’s reconstruction involves downsizing and displacing tenants within the drugstore. As for that national coffee presence, Ingvaldsen says, “There are lots of rumors flying down there, but we haven’t made any agreements with any coffee chains. We’re still in lease negotiation with Rite-Aid and PC Market.” Ingvaldsen does say that follow- ing the reconstruction of Rite-Aid and Market of Choice, Standard Insurance will build additional retail space, but nothing will be available for at least three years. Good news for the college set: Siegel has opened a second bakery on campus at Alder and 12th Avenue. In spite of all the South town shuffling, he says, “We’re happy that our customers and the community really sup- port us.” — Bobbie Willis CONFERENCE ENERGIZES GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT This past weekend’s Peace, Justice And Media Conference accomplished its mission, according to two of its organizers, Michael Carrigan and David Zupan. The ambitious mix of speakers, work- shops and panels was intended to “educate and empower the public to lobby and reform the mainstream media to gain more fairness, accuracy and diversity of voices and to build and strengthen the progressive movement and the independent alternative media,” says Zupan. “Attendees left the conference better in- formed, more united and with some new skills they can use to get their voices heard in their communities,” says Carrigan. Some post-event fund-raising was needed last year to cover costs, but this year the con- ference is expected to meet expenses, thanks to an increase in sponsorships from 50 to more than 120 organizations from around Oregon and the book tour appearances of Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins (still to come Oct. 25). The organizers estimate that more than 1,500 people have attended events so far. Hightower drew a standing room only crowd of more than 850 at his LCC appear- ance Oct. 9. Panels and workshops continued all weekend, some drawing large crowds, others only a few people. Carrigan described BY PAUL NEEVEL Moriah Chavez Two years ago, as a seventh-grader at Spencer Butte, Moriah Chavez began earning elective credits as a volunteer peer tutor in special-ed teacher Todd Brenneman’s life skills classroom. “This is one student who really has her head on straight,” Brenneman reports. “Moriah truly cares for the students and always wants the best for them.” Chavez contin- ued as a tutor in eighth grade. “I really liked it,” she says. “When I heard they were doing summer school for a month, I volunteered for that.” Now a freshman at South Eugene High, Chavez recently fin- ished her season with the JV volleyball team. She still puts in an hour a day as a life-skills tutor at South. “I go swimming with them at the Y or we go downtown on the bus,” she says. “There are five other tutors — they spread us out through the day.” In her third summer of work with the Northwest Youth Corps, Chavez spent a solid month in the woods this past summer in a crew of 10, building trails and bridges, pruning and planting trees. “It’s hard work but it’s fun — we earn minimum wage,” she notes. “Everybody got stung except for me. I’ve had enough peanut butter sandwiches to last me for all time.” 8 OCTOBER 16, 2003 the turnout at the free sessions as “fair, but not great, despite extensive publicity. … Except for a Friday evening hip hop concert and the workshops dealing with military re- cruitment, there was very little participation by young people. A better job of outreach to youth at their schools is needed.” Zupan attributes the limited workshop turnout to “some degree of activist burnout” post 9/11, and that “learning how to be an ef- fective media activist is not at the top of many people’s lists.” Planning for future conferences and events will likely again include a large dose of enter- tainment to encourage participation. —TJT IVINS TALKS TWICE In response to the quick sell-out of her 7:30 pm lecture Saturday, Oct. 25, columnist Molly Ivins has agreed to do a 3 pm lecture the same day, also at the McDonald Theatre. Tickets are $10 in advance and are available at Tsunami, Black Sun, Foolscap, Mother Kali’s, Star Gate and Book Mine book stores, the UO ticket office and the Justice Not War office at 454 Willamette, 343-8548. Tickets at the above outlets are still avail- able for a separate dinner reception, music and book signing with Ivins at Cozmic Pizza, 8th and Charnelton, after her evening talk. Advance tickets are $25, or $30 at the door. COHOUSING GROUP EYES LINCOLN CORNER Cohousing Eugene has “tied up” a down- town parcel at the northwest corner of 11th and Lincoln for an urban cohousing commu- nity, according to Martin Henner of the group. Cohousing is a style of cooperative hous- ing developed in Denmark that features indi- vidually owned houses or apartments that are architecturally designed to promote commu- nity interaction and neighborliness. The housing often includes common buildings and grounds in addition to self-sufficient apartments or homes. The group held an information meeting Oct. 11 at the Eugene Public Library and is now recruiting members who would like to help design the project and then purchase homes in the completed community. For more information, call Henner at 345- 6466 or visit www.cohousing.org DOPPELT TACKLES LOCAL SUSTAINABILITY The broad and often puzzling topic of sus- tainability will be on the agenda of the City Club of Eugene at 11:50 am Friday, Oct. 17 at the Eugene Hilton. Bob Doppelt, director of the UO Center for Watershed and Community Health, will speak on “Growing Lane County’s Economy Through Sustainability: Results of a Six Month UO Research Effort.” Doppelt is expected to outline the find- ings and recommendations of a multi-faceted academic study into the business and job op- portunities potentially available through the application of sustainable development prac- tices in Lane County. Doppelt will summa- rize four reports that have been produced by this project covering green building, natural foods, eco-industrial development, and the results of a questionnaire mailed to private companies and public agencies throughout Lane County. Doppelt’s talk precedes the free Sustainable Business Symposium at UO Nov. 14-16, one of the longest-running sus- tainability conferences in the Northwest. This year the symposium will be held in the newly completed Lillis Business Complex and will feature a products exposi- tion, panels, workshops and speakers, “pro- viding concrete examples of how businesses can simultaneously increase profits, decrease ecological impacts and increase investment in the social capital of our communities,” ac- cording to organizers. Speakers include Donna Wilson, Alan Durning, John Cusack, Michael Shuman and Jack Roberts. Get updated information at www.uoregon.edu/~sbs/ MINER’S LETTUCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? The 4J school district has revised its pol- icy on naming new schools to include not just dead presidents. The new policy allows schools to be named after “indigenous and characteristic” local plants and animals, geo- graphic place names and distinguished peo- ple. Using a living person’s name is OK, as long as they are retired. The new policy also allows “thematic names which reflect the character of the community, culturally and
