• We’re unabashed cheerleaders for the Public Interest Environmental Law
Conference that begins Thursday and runs through Sunday afternoon at UO (see
story this week on page 14). The 25th annual gathering once again puts Eugene on
the global map for leadership in the kind of practical activism that builds a frame-
work of ecological sanity in a mad world. Lawyers, students and activists come
here from all over to share knowledge and tactics for holding polluters and gov-
ernment agencies accountable. There’s not a lot of fuzzy talk about hugging trees
and being one with nature; these folks talk about suing the bastards and winning.
Registration is free for community members (donations are appreciated), and it’s
also OK to just show up at the law school, browse the tables and sit in on some of
the panels, workshops and keynote talks.
• We got a letter last week from Jeff “Free” Luers, hand-written before the recent
appeals court decision tossing out his 22-year sentence for arson. He’s sticking by
his rhetorical guns. “I am unapologetically militant,” he writes. “In keeping with the
history of social change, I believe that both nonviolence and militancy are con-
tributing components of social change. A provocative act of sabotage — in this
case arson — often brings publicity to an issue, creating debate and dialogue that
would not otherwise have occurred.” Is he right? It’s a debate that will never be
resolved. Eco-saboteurs have indeed raised awareness of issues, but they have
also discredited and politicized the environmental movement. We’ve come a long
way from the Boston Tea Party’s act of poliitcal vandalism. We have more sophisti-
cated tools now for organizing and educating the public. We are evolving as a
species, and it’s time to step above all forms of violence. Who has more impact
when it comes to saving the environment? A hundred saboteurs with torches and
monkey wrenches or Al Gore with his wonkish traveling slide show? We favor the
latter.
• Eugene used to be known as “Track Town USA,” but that label and image have
faded over the years for a number of reasons, including our obsession with Duck
football and men’s basketball. We’re pleased to see signs of a revival of running
sports in town coming from both the community and the UO. It helps that Eugene
has been picked for the 2008 Olympic track trials. Want to get involved in making
Eugene a Track Town again? A series of town hall forums is coming up from 7 to 8
pm March 6, April 3 and May 1 in Heritage Hall in the Bowerman Building on cam-
pus, 15th and Agate. Contact Mike Black (mikesblack@comcast.net) or Michael
Reilly, UO assistant athletic director, at 346-5243 for more info.
• Most anonymous letters to us get tossed in the recycling bin. But one letter last
week from a former Eugene resident provided a perspective on “Savage Love”
that’s based on personal experience: Too many parents today are trying to shelter
their kids from the darkness when they should be educating them so they can get
information from a trustworthy source. I was never spoken to about sex nor
drugs, and when I got to college I got heavily into drinking, drug use and unpro-
tected sex. Now I’m 32, HIV positive and just getting out of rehab. I know if my
parents had ever sat me down and really told me the truth about these issues, I
probably would not be a heroin addict, and I’m certain I would have listened when
they spoke about STDs. Parents, please realize hiding your kids from the world
only increases the chance that they will try to figure it out for themselves, often
ending in tragedy.
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
HAPPENIN’
BiZ
news
briefs
CITY HALL
TO POP THE
QUESTION
After spending $1 million on planning for
a plan for a new City Hall building with an-
other $1 million in the pipeline, the city of
Eugene will finally ask citizens if they actu-
ally want to pay for the roughly $120 million
building.
In a 6-2 vote Feb. 14, the City Council di-
rected staff to spend another million on City
Hall planning and do a survey soon to find
out if people want to pay for a new building.
Councilor Alan Zelenka made the suc-
cessful motion to move the survey up rather
than delay it to the end of the planning
process as staff had proposed. “If we get data
back that says only 17 percent of the people
want to build another City Hall, I don’t want
to spend another million dollars,” Zelenka
said.
City facilities manager Mike Penwell ob-
jected to the survey idea. Without giving peo-
ple details of the City Hall plan including its
location, “most people are just going to say
no” to the new building, he said.
Mayor Kitty Piercy also opposed the poll.
“Don’t ask for what you don’t want to hear,”
the mayor said. Passing a City Hall finance
measure “is just by its nature a heavy lift,”
she said. The poll should be about finding out
what kind of new City Hall citizens want
rather than whether they want one at all, ac-
cording to Piercy. “I don’t think you need to
go out and ask people, ‘Do you want a new
City Hall?’”
Councilor Jennifer Solomon said the city
shouldn’t stop the City Hall project. “If we
stop now, we will have wasted a lot of
money.”
Josh Proudfoot (left) and Josh Skov
JOSH PROUDFOOT AND JOSH SKOV
OF GOOD COMPANY
Back in 2000, UO psychology grad and crew athlete Josh Proudfoot left a
teaching job in Seattle to join his old rowing buddy Dag Hinrichs of L.A. and
Hinrichs’ cousin Josh Skov, then a grad student at Berkeley, in Eugene.
Together the three founded Good Company to do research and consulting in
sustainability. (Hinrichs has since moved to Vestas Wind Power in Portland.)
“We got into this to help businesses and consumers make sustainable deci-
sions,” Skov explains. “Eugene has a legitimate shot at being a model sus-
tainable community. We have the people and the political will to do it.” GC
has consulted with 15 colleges and universities to develop measures of sus-
tainability. It works with ODOT and engineering and construction firms to integrate large projects into local ecosystems and economies. “The best example is the McKenzie
River bridge at Armitage,” says Proudfoot. “We’re working with the Watershed Council to find the best use of demo material. We’ve got biodiesel in the cranes and heavy
equipment and compost-based erosion control.” Learn more at goodcompany.com — Paul Neevel
8 MARCH 1, 2007