Eugene weekly., April 17, 2008, Page 13, Image 13

Philip Scher
A group of local nonprofits is interested
in moving into buildings that the Marines
and Navy plan to vacate on 13th Avenue in
Eugene.
Committed Partners for Youth (CPY),
the HIV Alliance and Lane Shelter Care
have met to discuss the possibility, accord-
ing to CPY Director Susie Walsh.
The central site on a bus line near
Chambers Street and César Chávez
Elementary could be “the ideal place for a
consortium of nonprofits to call home,”
Walsh told the Eugene City Council at an
April 14 public forum.
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy responded at
the meeting that she hoped “there will be a
way for the reserve site to be used by non-
profits.”
“We are truly in just the genesis of
exploring the idea” which a couple other
non-profits have also expressed interest in,
Walsh said in an interview. “We thought we
might as well get the ball rolling.”
Walsh requested that the council involve
the nonprofits in a process for planning for
the site’s use. She said she understands that
the city owns the land and that the Navy and
Marines may be vacating about 32,000 sq.
ft. of buildings at the site in coming
months.
Rather than using federal money to tear
the buildings down, the money could go
into remodeling them for the nonprofits,
Walsh said. She said she hopes the city will
“have a thoughtful process around what
they’re doing with it.” — Alan Pittman
UO PROF
GRANTED
GUGGENHEIM
Late one night, UO anthropology and
folklore professor Philip Scher went to his
office to check his email. “I was floored,”
Scher says. He had been awarded a 2008
Guggenheim Fellowship. “It felt like a long
shot,” says Scher. “It was a complete sur-
prise.”
Scher was chosen from a pool of more
2,600 applicants and plans to conduct
research in the Caribbean. The average
award is about $43,150, though amounts
vary for each project.
Scher will use the Guggenheim to study
a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site.
World Heritage sites protect and preserve
cultural and natural heritage areas around
the world. Scher will explore the site in
Bridgetown, Barbados. Bridgetown is the
capitol of this easternmost island in the
Caribbean.
“I’m interested in how people use cul-
tural identity for economic gains,” says
Scher, who is also a Fulbright scholar.
“There is a large global economy of cultural
tourists who want to consume difference
within its own features: food or festivals or
village life.” Tourists are attracted to places
that celebrate culture through vibrant cos-
tumes or exotic cuisine. For example, Scher
CALI BAGBY
MILITARY
CENTER FOR
NONPROFITS?
says that if tourists went to Jamaica and
there were no Rastafarians, they would be
disappointed.
The Guggenheim allows Scher time do
hands-on, archival, interview and fieldwork.
Scher will also be teaching at the University
of the West Indies, and he hopes to see a
relationship sprout between the UO and the
Caribbean. Scher has worked in the Caribbean
since the early ’90s but may expand his
research to the Pacific Islands in the future.
For now he looks forward to spending a year
in Barbados. — Cali Bagby
LGBT TOWN
HALL
An LGBT town hall meeting on Sunday,
April 13, attracted many more lesbians than
gay men, but the men had something to brag
about. One of the male couples had been
together for 28 years — and they were
eclipsed by another male couple’s 33-year
relationship.
The crowd of more than 100 queer, trans,
bisexual, gay and lesbian Eugene-area peo-
ple (and their straight allies, including Lane
County Commissioner Bobby Green and
County Commission candidate Rob Handy)
roundly applauded.
That sound echoed through the South
Eugene High School cafeteria more than a
few times during the two-hour meeting and
discussion facilitated by Julie Weisman.
Weisman and three others started the
town hall meeting process in 2007. Based
on comments from the community members
who attended last year’s discussion, the
committee invited members of various
LGBTQ organizations to present their
groups’ missions and opportunities after
everyone took part in icebreaker community
building exercises.
The groups ranged from the Equity
Foundation to the GLBT Caucus of Lane’s
Democratic Party and from PFLAG to the Q
Center, with many other organizations rep-
resented. Questions from the audience began
with a plea for help to stop harassment.
When Becky Flynn of Basic Rights Oregon
suggested that the person being harassed go
to the city’s Human Rights Committee, the
victim explained that the HRC had said to
go to the police, who had said they couldn’t
do anything. Sally Sheklow, EW columnist
who was representing CALC’s Back 2
Back: Allies for Human Dignity program,
stepped in and offered to help get a better
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• Last week in this column we wrote about the new petition that would force the
$85.5 million EWEB bond sale to go before voters. Now people are asking,
“Should we sign the petition?” We recognize the need for EWEB to upgrade and
expand its facilities for its 250 operations workers and all their vehicles and equip-
ment, and we appreciate EWEB’s efforts to create an environmentally sound facility
at Roosevelt and Beltline. But we think this bond sale should have gone to the vot-
ers when the City Council had its chance back in February. The bond sale will have
a big impact on ratepayers for decades to come, and that alone calls for the higher
level of public scrutiny that comes with putting funding before voters.
EWEB needs more public scrutiny. The revelation two years ago that EWEB had
subsidized Hynix’s power bill with untold millions of ratepayer subsidies elicited only
a shrug from the board and management. EWEB’s rate structure for industrial
power encourages waste while shifting costs to homes.
The utility’s plans for its prime riverfront property have so far ignored the public
interest in a park at the site. And this week the EWEB commissioners did something
outrageous and politically foolish. Out of a pool of 45 applicants, they picked five
like-minded people to serve on the nine-member Community Advisory Team to
guide redevelopment of the EWEB riverfront acreage. EWEB has stacked the panel
with construction and development people, with the exception of business attorney
Tom Hoyt. Not one person with expertise in landscape architecture, riparian habitat
or urban design was chosen, leaving the four remaining positions to be filled by a
split City Council.
EWEB wants to maximize the value of its surplus property in order to help pay
for its new facilities, but EWEB is a public utility and the public has a right to a bal-
anced decision-making process. A ballot measure on the bonds would hopefully stir
a lively public debate about EWEB’s priorities.
• Tough call for the City Council this week in turning down a proposal for uphill bike
lanes in the south hills near Wayne Morse Park. We tend to favor bike lanes every-
where, but it’s a steep route, and residents fronting the streets have been fighting
for years to give up as little space and vegetation as possible. Narrower streets,
traffic calming and, we hope, “Bikes in Road” signs may slow cars. But cars going 10
mph are still deadly when squeezed over a cyclist or pedestrian. We hope this
doesn’t set a no-bicyclists-in-my-front-yard precedent for other needed improve-
ments. For safety, livability and global warming, we hope the council and city staff
are serious about looking for other bike lane opportunities in the south hills.
• Last fall and winter downtown redevelopment was a hot topic, culminating in a
battle over the city’s plans to expand and extend urban development funding to
subsidize large-scale redevelopment of the core of downtown. The decisive vote in
November crushed the plan. The city went on to work with Beam Development on
a smaller project involving the Centre Court and Washburne buildings, and a
request for proposals went out on the pit across from the library. We figured the
public would turn its attention elsewhere, but thanks to Citizens for Public
Accountability and its April forum series, the public discussion is back on track.
Some very bright and insightful people are showing up for these meetings, and
bringing ideas that could find traction as the City Council debates the future of
downtown. Join the discussion in person or online (www.downtowneugene.org).
• How many Americans have died in Iraq since our invasion March 20, 2003? If
you say 4,000, you are off by more than 1,100. Often overlooked are the 1,123 U.S.
civilians who have been killed, or abducted and assumed dead. Many of the contrac-
tors who have died are in some ways indistinguishable from U.S. military personnel.
The civilians often have military training, wear uniforms and carry weapons. They
are much better paid, of course. An Army sergeant in charge of convoy security
might make $50,000 a year while a Blackwater mercenary with similar responsi-
bilities can reportedly make $500,000 a year. Regardless of pay and status, the real
U.S. death toll exceeds 5,100, and our total casualties (killed and seriously injured)
are approaching 85,000.
• Look for more news and views at our redesigned blogs.eugeneweekly.com this
week, including more information and links about water use and conservation, a
new Signal:Noise podcast and a new See/Hear Q&A, this one with Eugene Symphony
Executive Director Paul Winberg.
Lane Area Herbicide Spray Schedule
• ODOT: The approximate schedule of nighttime spraying is: April 14-17, finish
Metro ramps, Hwy. 58, and 126 East; April 21-24, Cloverdale, Hwy. 99 South, 126
West to Austa, and Territorial Highway. Call (888) 996-8080 or Dennis Joll, IVM
Coordinator at 686-7526.
• Near Triangle Lake School: Dan Klemp (927-6181) will ground spray Garlon 4
on 20 areas starting April 21 (#50274).
• Giustina has elected not to use Atrazine for spraying on Notice #50202 (ground)
and #50208 (aerial).
Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, forestlanddwellers.org
EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 17, 2008 13