Regarding the failure of the recent
downtown renewal measure: It’s clear that
the city elected officials and staff are out of
touch with the citizens on this one. While I
agree that apathy, anti-tax sentiment and
other factors all played a part in this fail-
ure, I’d like to add one more for considera-
tion: Perhaps downtown does not need to
be fixed.
SMALL PRICE TO PAY
This letter is in response to the Nov. 8
letters by Peter Howland (“Crude
Propaganda”) and Chris Fanshier (“Toss
My Cookies”). Of course the meth ads are
gross and disgusting because meth is a
gross and disgusting drug. A little revul-
sion of your appetite while you choose on
your own to thumb through a highly opin-
ionated free newspaper is a very small
price to pay in the grand scheme of the pos-
itive benefits of grossing out people stupid
enough to consider doing meth.
Anyone whose ever lived by tweaker
neighbors and has been victimized by their
gross and disgusting criminal behavior
knows exactly what I’m saying. EW pub-
lished a letter by Eugene resident Davy
Ray a while back (12/8/05) called “Demon
Meth” where he said it perfectly about
meth addicts: “They subject their children
to houses of ridiculously toxic chemicals
VEGETARIAN MENU
• Veggie Taco Salad
• Veggie Nachos
• Veggie Burrito
• Tofu Burrito
• Bean Burrito
• Bueno “No-Cheese” (vegan)
• Potato Hard Taco
• Chile Relleño
• Cheese Enchilada
• Cheese Quesadilla
• Veggie Taco
• Potato Taquitos
• Veggie Tamalé
*menu availability varies by location*
Mention this ad for our
NOVEMBER
SPECIAL
... on now!
$5.25
Chile Relleño, rice and beans plate
“A Great Place To Eat”
e
Fre livery
De
e
ibl
red ing
Inc Cater
GET ON WITH IT
Based on my experiences downtown,
the real problem is simple fear. Many sub-
urbanites assume that downtown is a den
of iniquity populated by dope dealers and
thugs. This may be true to some extent, but
it’s not relevant. I’ve been offered drugs in
downtown Seattle, Santa Cruz and
Portland’s Washington Park Zoo; I’ve been
threatened with random violence in down-
town San Francisco. None of these areas
can be considered wastelands, as so many
people seem to think of downtown Eugene.
The difference is that in those cities, people
just accept some of this as part of life, and
get on with their business.
Of course downtown does need some
physical renovation. The site of the former
Western Office Exchange building (which
some folks insist on calling the former
Sears building) is an obvious eyesore as
are the Willamette pit and the abandoned
Connor/Woolley buildings. But each of
these are the result of renewal efforts gone
awry. If these problems are fixed, and if
downtown were then left to evolve on its
own, I think we’d eventually have an en-
tertainment district to rival that of any sim-
ilarly sized city in the country.
Jim Johnson
Eugene
st
kfa
rea u
ll B en
Fu M
thinning as misguided as industry’s.
In his Nov. 8 Viewpoint, Hermach says
the forest can take care of itself. In the wet
forests west of the Cascades, this argument
has merit. Logging these rain-drenched
forests to reduce fire hazard is a dubious
objective.
In the dry pine forests of Oregon’s east
side, a completely different situation ex-
ists: 100 plus years of fire suppression and
logging the biggest trees has left a tangle of
small trees many times denser than a cen-
tury earlier. Old growth trees are being
choked out by this unnatural ingrowth and,
as a result, are at high mortality risk from
beetle epidemics and wildfire.
These fires burn much hotter and more
destructively than the historic frequent,
low severity fires that removed small trees
in favor of larger ones. The recent Davis
Fire near Davis Lake is a stark example of
this catastrophic effect.
Nearly all the old pines were killed,
soils were cooked and essential habitat was
lost, and industry enjoyed a salvage log-
ging bonanza. No informed person physi-
cally reviewing this kind of burn would
characterize this fire as “natural.”
In the dry forest, preserving native
ecosystems requires prudent understory
thinning and use of prescribed fire to re-
store ecosystem function. Without this
kind of active management, the stage is set
for dysfunction and more destructive fires.
Hermach’s uninformed blanket rejec-
tion of thinning as a forest restoration tool
does the struggling dry forests of the West
a great disfavor.
Darin Stringer
Integrated Resource Management
Eugene
ns in Eugene and Springfie
o
i
t
a
c
o
ld
8L
Gr Es
eat pr
Sa esso
nch &
wic
hes
TO THE EDITOR
Make your pregame reservation or order a lunch to go.
450 Country Club Rd. • Eugene, Oregon 97401
(541) 485-7500
485-7500 • • fax
fax (541)
(541) 485-7504 • www.delillama.org
(541)
NOVEMBER 21, 2007 5