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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2005)
Elect BY MARY O’BRIEN 4J School Board Position 6 Land Bridge Endorsed by: Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, David Piercy, City Councilor Bonnie Bettman, City Councilor Andrea Ortiz Seeking concrete answers in an asphalt world. A n oxymoron, my dictionary reports, is “a combi- nation of contradictory or incongruous words (as cruel kindness).” If “sustainable growth” means “sustainable economic growth,” I think it might be in the ring with “cruel kindness.” For 23 years, I’ve been watching a bigleaf maple grow in my back yard. First it overshadowed and killed the mountain ash that had red berries each fall. Then it grew over the lilacs. If they lean way out, the lilacs can still display a few fragrant flowers. We fi- nally cut back a branch of the maple so the dogwood ‘ D o y ou t h in k and its dusty pink flowers could eke out at least a stunted existence. p eo pl e w a nt All of this bigleaf maple growth is finite, of course, to go b ac k to because one bigleaf maple, like one human, can only grow so large. But bigleaf maples, like humans, like to w al ki n g w it h reproduce. If the bigleaf maple were left to its own p ie c e s o f gl a ss devices, little maples and associated plants and ani- i n t he i r s h oe s ? ’ mals would gather around it, and my neighborhood h e s ho t at m e . would once again be a native forest in the floodplain of the McKenzie and Willamette. But some other land would have to grow the concord grapes, apples, pears, and peas I now grow and that food would have to be transported to me. We humans do inherently take up space and consume energy. Tomorrow I leave for a two-day meeting of about 30 people in Southern California. We will be examining the “perfect storm” gathering over that region, and how that storm can (or can’t) be addressed under my favorite environmental law, NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act). The storm being examined has the less-than-bestseller title of “Regional Infrastructure Development for Goods Movement and Related Transportation Congestion in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area.” Translation: Building more highways and railroad lines to transport the flood of global trade items that are being brought into the Port of Los Angeles at the same time that Southern California is experiencing record population growth and auto- mobile congestion, and balancing this transportation construction and population growth with the environment. Condensed translation: Building more highways and increasing Los Angeles population in balance with the environment. Really condensed translation: Sustainable growth. Aria Seligmann • Equity in Education • Healthy Food in School • Diversity and Tolerance Leadership with Heart PAID FOR BY SELIGMANN FOR SCHOOL BOARD VOTE! DEADLINE MAY 17! A t the moment, inland cities such as the City of Industry, Ontario, and San Bernardino are becoming choked with freeways, warehouses, traffic con- gestion and pollution as millions of containers of clothes, autos, comput- ers, running shoes and such are brought to the Los Angeles Port, shipped to ware- houses, and then shipped on highways throughout the U.S. to factories and malls and small, trendy stores. Things are also transported from Southern California to the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast and then re-loaded onto ships, because the U.S., in transportation parlance, is a ”land bridge” for transporting “goods” from Asia to other ports. Meanwhile, the population of humans in Southern California (as well as their asthma) is soaring. The soaring population is driving around in more and more cars in already-congested truck traffic. (Remember Michelle Shocked singing, “I’ve driven 500 miles today and never even left L.A.” in Repo Man?). This soaring popu- lation needs more and more houses, so where do you put the freeways? More air- ports are “needed” in L.A. to transport more and more things and humans. And (asked in a tiny voice), where do you put the meadowlarks (who are plummeting because they require open space), and chaparral, and coastal sage scrub, and sugar pines (which are dying from vehicle pollution)? Where do you put clean air? Where do you put children losing childhood to asthma? Where do you put silence? So when you next hear the phrase “sustainable [economic] growth,” it might be worthwhile to seek concrete answers to questions such as, “What growth? Sustainable of what?” But be forewarned. This topic can bring out the Bolton in some people. Recently I was at a dinner with a retired oil corporation lawyer. He was complaining about occasional power outages in his small town. I mildly remarked that we have be- come addicted to running numerous energy appliances simultaneously in our homes. “Do you think people want to go back to walking with pieces of glass in their shoes?” he shot at me. We don’t yet know how to talk together about consequences of, or alternatives to, endless growth. MAY 5, 2005 7
