Eugene weekly., August 19, 2004, Page 14, Image 14

Puzzle pieces
In the immortal words of Mandy Patinkin
playing Indigo Montoya in The Princess
Bride “Let me explain. No, there is no time.
Let me sum up.”
The Farmers’ Market seeks expansion
and a permanent home. DIVA wants a home
too, albeit sometime before the passing of the
next decade. Ten viable architectural plans
for a site have already been drawn by stu-
dents of one of our city’s premiere architects,
incorporating both the farmers and DIVA.
The parking displaced by said plans can cer-
tainly be recouped in a more convenient loca-
tion, across from the courthouse. The entire
idea has the support of Commissioner
Sorenson.
Now I’m not going to say that’s a slam
dunk, but how about a jump shot with just the
slightest touch of rim?
I went back to Market Director Noa
O’Hare. To my surprise, he seemed non-
plussed. “I’ve not seen Otto’s plans. As
revered as Otto is, I think market design,
understanding the accessibility needs, is
something different. Even that development
might not be the optimal situation for us. Can
you get two million people downtown like
those who already come to the fairgrounds
each year? Can you get the parking for those
people?”
Well, some people just gotta find their
own way, I thought. You can lead a Farmers’
Market director to a permanent structure, but
you can’t make him sell his jellies and arugu-
la there.
Got change for change?
In closing I’d like to mention money.
Whatever the farmers do, change is gonna
take at least some cold, hard cash. Maybe a
moderate amount, maybe a whole bunch. At
the moment, the market board has men-
tioned a feasibility study (the last study the
market considered would have cost
$40,000), to investigate, according to
O’Hare, “how we’re working now, what
would work better, what our options are,
how much it would cost, and how much
manpower and development we would need
to venture forth.”
But O’Hare’s also the first to admit that
“No one’s really jumping out of the wood-
work, saying there’s money for this.”
“Do you have a timeline for the feasibili-
ty study?” I asked him.
“Four years ago,” he laughed. “I’d like to
see the study done in two years, just to get
information out there and answer questions.”
So it seems there is no hurry. But if any-
one wanted to get the ball rolling, perhaps the
city or the county or both could be involved.
Like Sorenson says, how about the public
investing in a beautiful, profitable, organic,
vitamin-filled future?
How about a Farmers’ Market reminis-
cent of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, perhaps
on the site of the current butterfly lot?
Could it be accomplished with a portion of
the taxpayers’ $29 million, with which the
city intends to wrap a new police station in
a bow for our recently embarrassed police
force?
Maybe it could, maybe it couldn’t.
Councilwoman Betty Taylor says, regarding
the public use of those funds, “It’s the tax-
payers money in my opinion. If the police
station fails, I think the council will vote to
build it anyway.”
Say what?
Our great financiers have taxed
their brains for the last 25 years to
increase the wealth of those
already made rich, while they have
placed the burdens upon the pro-
ducers of the country.
— H.E. H AYES
“I think it’s wrong,” continued Taylor. A
really big thing like that, that will obviously
prevent us from doing other things; the pub-
lic should say this is what we want most to do
with the money.”
ew
14 AUGUST 19, 2004