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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2005)
news briefs POLICE REVIEW GETS A FORUM have a website now at www.yeson20-106.org A Voters Pamphlet is expected to arrive in city residents’ mailboxes the week of Oct. 17. Deadline for registering to vote is 21 days be- fore the election, which is Oct. 18. — TJT BENNIS TALKS ON EMPIRE Activist scholar and journalist Phyllis Bennis will be speaking in Eugene Tuesday, The upcoming Nov. 8 election in the city Oct. 18. The title of her talk is Challenging of Eugene has just one item on the ballot, the External Police Review Board Measure 20- Empire :Moving US Politics Toward A Positive Solution. 106, and just one public forum planned so far. Bennis is a senior analyst at the Institute Ballots are mailed Oct. 21. for Policy Studies and is active with the anti- The forum is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 pm war coalition United for Peace and Wednesday, Oct. 19 at EWEB, 500 E. 4th Justice. She’s a writer, an- Ave. The event is sponsored by the ACLU of Oregon, CALC, Communities United for alyst and activist on Middle East and Better Policing, the League of Women U.N. issues. Voters of Lane County and KOPT Bennis appears Radio. Bonny Bettman, Gary Papé, frequently as a Henry Luvert and Ken Tollenaar are the scheduled panelists. Alan Siporin commentator and analyst on will be moderator. U.S. and interna- The ballot language will ask voters: tional television and “Shall Eugene charter authorize city radio, and has written council to hire police auditor and appoint civilian review board to review com- about U.N. and Middle East Phyllis Bennis issues for almost 20 years. plaints against police?” Setting up an independent external review Bennis is also involved with requires a charter amendment since all pow- the creative and theatrical peace and social jus- ers to hire and fire city staff are currently held tice movement CODEPINK (www.code- exclusively by the city manager. The measure pink4peace.org). On Sept. 26 she joined Cindy is an outgrowth of a 15-month review by the Sheehan, Medea Benjamin of Global Eugene Police Commission. The commis- Exchange and more than 30 other women at a sion looked at current practices for handling colorful direct action in front of the White complaints against Eugene police, and ana- House. lyzed various models of oversight being used Bennis will also be in Corvallis speaking around the country. about her recently published book, A description of the ballot measure and its Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli background can be found at www.eugene- Conflict, at 7 pm Monday, Oct.17 at the Odd or.gov under “City Highlights.” Proponents Fellows Hall downtown. • Listening to KLCC’s semi-annual Radiothon last week we heard about a caller promising to match the pledge of the next fan of KRVM’s Jefferson Public Radio. What’s going on here? Public radio generates strong loy- alties and a sense of ownership, and in this case, one listener loves both sta- tions, and took this opportunity to express it. What’s not to love? If “Morning Edition” on KLCC-FM gets boring, you can switch to Diane Rehm on KRVM-AM. Weary of Garrison Keillor on KRVM? Switch to Brian Hebb and Claude Offenbacher on KLCC. Our cover story this week looks Alan Siporin into a topic that’s not been explored before — how KLCC picks its program- ming, and how some members of the community and staff have reacted in recent years. It’s a clash of values, priorities and process familiar to every human collabora- tion. Non-profits are particularly prone to such conflicts because they have a public service mission, and are held to higher standards. Organizations relying on broad com- munity support and entrusted with the public airways have an even bigger burden. We listen to the ever-chipper KLCC Radiothon hosts telling us that they want feedback and suggestions. Our cover story this week has an abun- dance of both. On a final note, it’s great to hear Alan 8 OCTOBER 13, 2005 CRAPPY CREEK Sections of Amazon Creek and the A2 di- version canal in west Eugene exceed state standards for fecal bacteria, city Water Resources Manager Therese Walch told the Eugene City Council this week. To address the problem, the city plans to spend $21,000 next year on a three-year study of the source of the pollution. “We sim- ply don’t know” where the fecal bacteria are coming from, Walch told the council. “Bacteria is a really challenging issue.” After the council’s previous conservative majority cut $1.8 million out of the city’s stormwater protection program two years ago, Eugene has now fallen behind other cities in protecting water quality. Springfield, Salem, and Portland now have stormwater development standards requiring developers Siporin’s voice back on the air. He’s a substitute host at KOPT, two years after leaving KLCC. • Mouths are flapping lately about whether urban sprawl makes us fat. It’s a chicken-or-egg debate: Do people become sedentary because they move into sprawl- ing suburbs and drive their cars everywhere, or do people move into sprawling suburbs because they don’t like to exercise? Northwest Environment Watch maintains that it’s the former, and that sprawl is making Americans fatter. A recent OSU study found that it’s the latter, and we can’t blame sprawl for the rising obesity rate. We think both sides are asking the wrong question. Rather than debate the source of the sprawl-obesity connection, we need to acknowledge that the link is there, and ask what it’s doing to our kids. • After Hurricane Katrina we suggested in this column that Eugene residents are also vulnerable to disaster from flooding if our dams fail. Several concerned readers have asked us for more information, and City Club last week featured three local experts on natural disasters. It seems we are vulnerable to all sorts of catastrophes. The most dramatic would be a major quake on the Cascadia Region Subduction Zone along the Oregon Coast. We don’t like scaring people (well, maybe sometimes), but federal agen- to build natural swales and other improve- ments to treat contaminated water on-site, but Eugene has no such rules. Council conserva- tives have also slashed a planned city pro- gram to buy up stream corridors threatened by development. The new, more progressive City Council appears to be looking to fix the damage in the environmental program. The council this week approved a $300,000 increase in water protection funding and directed the staff to bring back the stream corridor acquisition program for reconsideration. Councilor Bonny Bettman pointed to stud- ies showing that acquiring and protecting streams instead of piping and filling them can increase water quality, be cheaper and provide a natural amenity to neighborhoods. She called the “green infrastructure approach” environ- mentally “sustainable” and “forward looking.” cies say the Big One could cause more than $12 billion in damage and untold deaths in Oregon. What would happen to the dams? OK, here’s the scary part: The National Inventory of Dams lists 812 high potential hazard dams in Oregon and 34 are in Lane County. All are upriver from us, except Fern Ridge. The biggest in storage is Lookout Point, followed by Hills Creek, Cougar and Fall Creek. It’s a whole lot of water, varying with the time of year. Local and regional disaster planning is impressive, and UO geol- ogy prof Ray Weldon says the chances of a catastrophic quake are only 3 to 5 percent in the foreseeable future. But those of us who live on the valley floor are taking a new look at those old life jackets piled up at St. Vinny’s. • Got unexplained divots in your lawn? Could be a neigh- bor golfing through at midnight with a 9 iron, or more likely raccoons digging for night crawlers. Want to trap those pesky critters and take them on a one-way ride? Sorry. Against the law, unless you have a special wildlife permit. We might think of raccoons as big rat bandits, but they are actually small bears with an obsession for cat food and backyard chickens. Ever hear raccoons or skunks mating? Best description wins an EW/Ems T-shirt. SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
