TO THE EDITOR
A BIG THANKS
Thank you, Eugene Weekly, for your en-
dorsement and a huge thank you to all of you
who worked so hard on the Kitty Piercy for
Mayor campaign. I am so grateful and humbled
by the outpouring of support for canvassing,
phoning, volunteering, tabling, endorsing,
planning, writing and all the pieces that made a
great campaign. It was a nexus of so many dif-
ferent parts of Eugene and a very special mo-
ment in time. We did this together for all of us
and for our community and we should all be
proud.
We have before us the opportunity to make
this wonderful city even better through encour-
aging innovative and smart growth, supporting
our educational institutions and social service
infrastructure, continuing to revitalize our
downtown, caring for our neighborhoods, and
preserving the environment we love. We can do
this in a way that capitalizes on our talents and
respects our differences, where we really listen
to each other. It is an exciting prospect.
Kitty Piercy
Eugene
FOR THE BIRDS
As difficult as it must be to present a bal-
anced view of any given subject, the recent arti-
cle denigrating wind power (“Blowing in the
Wind,” 4/22) fails to even consider other causes
of bird deaths nor does it try to put wind power
related bird deaths into perspective.
Nearly any activity humans engage in re-
sults in an impact on nature and corresponding
wildlife losses. Let’s consider some of the more
common forms of activities that result in mil-
lions of bird deaths per year.
Electrical utility lines: 130-174 million; col-
lisions with automobiles and trucks: 60-80 mil-
lion; tall building and residential house win-
dows: 100 million to 1 billion; lighted commu-
nication towers: 40-50 million; agricultural
pesticides: 67 million; cats, both feral and do-
mestic: 8 to 127 million; jet engines, smoke
stacks, bridges and any number of other human
structures and activities: 1 to 4 million per day.
The National Wind Coordinating
Committee (NWCC) completed a comparison
of wind farm avian mortality with bird mortal-
ity caused by other man-made structures in the
U.S and found that commercial wind turbines
cause the direct deaths of only 0.01 percent to
0.02 percent of all those bird deaths.
Next time EW tries to write a full-page arti-
cle about something of which it has no under-
standing, I hope that the writer will take a few
minutes to research the subject, rather than sim-
ply echo the press releases of wildlife activists.
As well-meaning and important as the goal
may be, sending an emotionally charged tor-
pedo into the blades of commercial-scale wind
facilities is the wrong tactic. Perhaps it would
be better to dam up a few more rivers and grind
salmon into paté to make electricity?
R. Sparks Scott
Eugene
JWN’S VITAL VOICE
I want to set the record straight regarding
the Jefferson-Westside Neighborhood (JWN)
in response to allegations by EWEB candidate
Paul Conte in EW’s endorsements (5/6). JWN
is one of the oldest neighborhood groups in
Eugene. While other neighborhoods have suf-
fered from flagging attendance and support,
JWN has remained a vital voice for neighbor-
hood concerns. Just last month, Mayor Torrey
publicly stated that JWN is one of the best
neighborhoods in Eugene.
Paul is quoted as saying that “the JWN has
for some years been dysfunctional and poorly
supported by area residents.” Actually
Jefferson Westside is one of four Eugene
neighborhoods that meets all the city’s criteria
for full activity and has every year that the
measurement has been in place. Paul also said,
“Meetings are rarely attended by more than a
handful of people.” All neighborhoods strive to
increase the involvement of their constituents
but the reality is that in 2003 JWN held nine
neighborhood meetings that were attended by
232 neighbors, an average of 26 per meeting. If
the same percentage of Eugeneans attended
City Council meetings, the average attendance
would exceed 575.
The elected Board is made up of experi-
enced community volunteers including a
teacher, two attorneys, retired union leader, leg-
islative staffer, business owner, drug-dealer
watchdog and former Neighborhood Leaders
Council co-chair. In my opinion, as a board
People Power
E
ugene has a new mayor, Kitty Piercy. At this turning point in the city’s his-
tory, it’s worth considering what this means for the future of Eugene.
Piercy and council candidates Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman and Andrea
Ortiz won election last week because the majority of people in Eugene want a
more progressive government. They want government that serves the people, that
strives to do the most good for the most people by protecting the local environ-
ment, quality of life and human rights.
Piercy and the elected council candidates were backed by more than 700 volun-
teers and small donors working for what they believed in: a better city. Nathanson
and council candidates Maurie Denner, Tom Slocum and Scott Meisner were finan-
cially backed by only a relative handful of big developers and businesses who profit
from weak regulation, taxpayer give-aways and environmental destruction. People
power won.
Eugene’s new mayor is not a radical liberal as some local conservatives would
claim. Piercy was the true moderate in the election. Nathanson was the conserva-
tive with a voting record out of touch with the values of Eugene. That’s why she
lost.
During her campaign, Piercy made an effort to cross political lines with her eco-
nomic plan to promote jobs. Nathanson made no similar effort to reach beyond her
narrow constituency.
4 MAY 27, 2004
member for the last year and a half, and as past
chair (1984-86), the JWN is fortunate to have
committed and hard-working board members
who bring a variety of perspectives that are rep-
resentative of various neighborhood interests.
Attend a meeting of your neighborhood or-
ganization and become involved in your com-
munity.
Marilyn Odell
Board Member JWN
VOTE GEORGIE OUT
I want my money back. I was promised en-
tertainment with spectacular special effects
while the “bad guys” were to receive “shock
and awe.” It was promoted as “Godzilla U.S.
Meets Bambi THEM” inbred with “A Holier
Than Thou High Noon.”
Instead, it’s the bastard child of Platoon
meets Pulp Fiction.
Iraqi prisoners have been photographed
being humiliated, abused and tortured. The
American public is shocked and the entire de-
bacle is God-awful.
In the neo-con wet dream, greed, power and
overweening ego-tripping were given full
reign. George W., primed by messages from
God, puppet-handed by Dick, and aided and
abetted by Rummy, Ashy, Condi, Pearle and
company, would flick the military equivalent of
his silver spoon and the Middle East would
come up hearts and flowers in two shakes of the
proverbial lamb’s tail.
Turns out the flowers are on the graves of
Americans brought home in government-en-
forced silence and the darkness of a govern-
ment-enforced media blackout.
Turns out the tail is attached to a tiger of
frightening proportions.
Now the misguided ideologues are doing
their best to spin while dancing a backtracking
Texas two-step, all the while counting on gen-
eral attention deficit in the American populace
to keep them in control after the coming elec-
tion.
Tell you what — keep my money. Just vote
Georgie out of the White House where he does
a dangerously lame job pretending to be presi-
dent and send him back to Texas where he can
pretend to be a rancher.
Morgan Songi
Eugene
As a moderate, Piercy will likely compromise on many of Eugene’s thornier
issues. The right certainly won’t like everything she does, but, then, neither will
those on the left. Ironically, a moderate mayor may mean action on many conser-
vative causes, albeit with compromises, that would have been bogged down with a
more divided mayor and council.
With a potential 5-4 council and mayor majority, progressives will now be able
to advance causes that have been stymied. Eugene’s environment, quality of life,
human services, human rights, as well as government fiscal responsibility, open-
ness and fairness will improve. Voices long locked out of city hall will now be heard
as Piercy makes committee appointments that reflect all of Eugene.
Of course, all may not end happily-ever-after for progressives. In the past,
seemingly progressive councilors have disappointed supporters with their votes.
Meisner lost his seat to such disappointment. In that ward, it is a big plus that the
winner is a Latina woman.
But Piercy is a big change from the past. Old-timers tell us that Eugene has
never had a progressive mayor. Mayor Jim Torrey is the last in a long line of former
Chamber of Commerce presidents to hold the position. Torrey blocked many of the
progressive, pro-environment and government reform initiatives that would have
made Eugene a better place to live. As a conservative, Republican mayor of a
largely Democrat, progressive-leaning town, Torrey never truly represented the
city.
In a startling rebuke to the old guard, Eugene now has a mayor chosen by a
wide range of citizens. Local progressives now know what can be accomplished
when they get organized and motivated. The people have elected a mayor for all
Eugene.