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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 24, 2008)
by thousands of dollars from developer interests. Business consultant John Crane has reported raising $5,100 through April 27. Ortiz reported raising $3,924, mostly in smaller contributions. Ward 7 stretches from the Whiteaker neighborhood north to include parts of the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhoods. Land speculator, construction and sand and gravel magnate Avon Lee Babb gave Crane $2,500. The state’s largest develop- er PAC, Oregonians for Affordable Housing, gave Crane $1,000. Roxie Cuellar, a lobbyist with the local home- builders developer group gave an in-kind contribution of $300. In a recent statement to a neighborhood group, Crane criticized Ortiz for siding with progressive south Eugene councilors in close votes. Ortiz, who works as an ER nurse, wrote in her statement that her goals include liv- ability, environmentally sound practices, transparent government and community health and safety. Her largest contributions are $500 from real estate broker John Brown and $500 from the Eugene Firefighters PAC. Ortiz also received a $200 contribution from the local Democratic party. — Alan Pittman ACTIVIST ALERT • An evening with Kitty Piercy with food, wine and music is planned by her re-election committee for 6:30 pm Friday, April 25, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette. RSVP to dnoble4990@aol. com A large crowd is anticipated, so the folks at Tsunami are suggesting people bus, walk, bike or look for parking a block or three away. • The third in a series of four free public events focusing on downtown revi- talization is planned for noon to 5 pm Saturday, April 26, at the Tango Center, 194 W. Broadway. Projects initiated by working groups formed at earlier meetings and by other citizen will be displayed and discussed in a fun atmosphere with food, entertainment and tours. The event is orga- nized by Citizens for Public Accountability. The fourth and final gathering in the series will be at 7 pm Tuesday, April 29, at the WOW Hall. Visit www.downtowneugene. com or call (541) 346-1328 for more infor- mation. • The Oregon State Board of Forestry will be holding a regular meet- ing April 29-30 at the Village Green, 725 Row River Rd. in Cottage Grove. Public comments will be heard beginning at 8 am. Agenda items include sustainable management 2009-11, and developing policies to ensure sustainable forests, 2009 legislative concepts. More info at http:// orgon.gov/ODF/Board. • Local Oregon WAND members are organizing a “house party” for Rob Handy from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, May 1, at his campaign headquarters at 6th and Lawrence. RSVP to 484-9595. • The LCC Budget Committee continues its annual meetings that began April 9. The next will be 5:30 pm Wednesday, May 7; followed by 5 pm Wednesday, May 14. The LCC Board of Education makes final budget decisions and will hold the annual budget hearing at about 6:30 pm Wednesday, June 11. All meetings are held in Building 3, room 216, at LCC. • Brewhaha this month focuses on the Lane County budget and includes can- didates for the County Commission. “Get On the Budget” begins at 7 pm Wednesday, April 30, at Davis’ Restaurant, 94 W. Broadway. The event is sponsored by the Bus Project and Eugene Weekly. Dress as your favorite budget line item. • Attorney general candidate John Kroger is expected to appear from 5 pm to 7 pm Wednesday, April 30, at Tsunami, and a public debate between Kroger and BY PAUL NEEVEL BROOKE PARROTT “I started piano lessons when I was 6,” says Eugene native Brooke Parrott, seated at the key- board in her parents’ home. “I’ve studied piano ever since.” Parrott began writing songs as a middle- schooler, when she had a band with friends. After graduation from South Eugene High School and a year at the UO, she worked and played music in Seattle for two years. “I wrote a lot of songs,” she says. “I got a scholarship to Berklee.” In two-and-a-half years in Boston, she finished a degree in songwriting and piano. “The first semester, I started a group to play my original music,” she says. In her second semester, Parrott launched the orga- nization Student Musicians Against AIDS. “We did a lot of fundraisers,” she relates. “I taught myself. It was a good experience.” Back in Eugene since June, Parrott has been working to complete her debut album, Another City, recorded in Boston last spring. At 7 pm May 9, she will play “bluesy Americana” songs from the CD in a release concert at Cozmic Pizza. A wine raffle will benefit LifeLovers, an AIDS education program for children in Ghana. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • You might notice the thickness and heft of this issue of Eugene Weekly. Thanks to a big CHOW! insert, we’re publishing our biggest paper ever this week. And it’s happening right in the middle of gloomy economic news and the shrinking of mainstream newspapers everywhere. We’re also printing a record number of papers, 41,000 at last count, and most papers get passed around to an average of two or three readers. Our website, interactive blogs and new Wink & Kink personals are also exploding with thousands of new visitors in recent weeks. Our total reach has grown to well beyond 120,000 people. Thank you all: Readers and advertisers, letter writers and news sources, artists of every sort, grumpy critics and effusive lovers. Together we are all are driving this marvelous collaboration called Eugene Weekly. Let’s keep it going for years to come! • Back when he was mayor, Jim Torrey once said he needed to raise a lot of money for his elections because of Eugene Weekly’s biased coverage. That’s a real skull-scratcher. Is EW contributing to campaign finance escalation? More likely, Torrey has to raise lots of bucks for out-of-state consultants and expen- sive TV ads because he lacks grassroots support. Now Kitty Piercy finds her- self far behind Torrey in fundraising in the critical May primary. If a candidate gets 50-plus percent of the primary vote, he or she will run unopposed in November. So what can we Piercy backers do (yep, that’s an official, early endorse- ment)? If you have a few bucks to spare, go to kittypiercy.com and make a contribution by credit card, or mail a check to Kitty Piercy for Mayor, PO Box 2953, Eugene 97402 (include your occupation, employer and employer’s address). If you’re broke or don’t have a credit card, you can still support Piercy by putting out a lawn sign and doing your own get-out-the-vote campaign among family, friends and neighbors. Meanwhile, Torrey is publicly calling for more spending on potholes and cops, but he’s dodging questions about how to pay for these expensive city services. To be taken seriously by anyone other than ideologues, Torrey needs to come up with plans that make sense. • Speaking of potholes, The Register-Guard declared without evidence this week that potholes are the top issue in the mayor’s race. Baloney. City surveys have shown over and over again that citizens view school funding, parks, envi- ronmental protection, social services and other issues as far more important than asphalt. Last year a gas tax for potholes failed by a wide margin. Last year a survey showed that a property tax for potholes would similarly fail. Conservatives love to jump up and down about potholes damaging their SUVs, but it’s evident most Eugeneans have higher priorities. • McKenzie-Willamette and city staff need to get off their golf-course vision for a hospital. Demands for a huge site so that a sprawling-suburban style design can be surrounded by acres and acres of surface parking lots served by freeway exits won’t serve the community or the hospital company and just aren’t realistic. Look at the mess, delay and cost this vision wrought at the Delta Highway site. With all the vacant parking lots, pits and vacant buildings downtown, there’s plenty of room for a sensible, multistory hospital with struc- tured parking and easy bus, bike and pedestrian access. • On the Eugene City Council, the conservatives most critical of losing PeaceHealth to Springfield are those most opposed to efforts to locate McKenzie-Willamette in south Eugene. The conservatives most supportive of the unpopular, huge urban renewal subsidies for mega-developer KWG down- town are the councilors most opposed to far more modest and popular subsi- dies for Beam downtown. Of course, this makes total logical sense. If the pro- gressive majority in Eugene wants it, whatever it is, they are opposed to it. If it’s unpopular, they are all for it. • How do we integrate more arts into our urban scene? Artist Jerry Ross tells us he’s been talking to Kitty Piercy about his proposals for a downtown city art museum/gallery, scenic vista points around the city with platforms designated for landscape painters, and subsidized living/studio spaces down- town for artists. He says the mayor is open to his ideas. And judging by the public input into the April “Downtown Together” forums organized by CPA, Ross is not alone in wanting to revitalize downtown through arts and housing for artists. If we can provide an attractive living and working neighborhood for painters, sculptors, writers and performing artists, we can create our own vibrant little Paris Left Bank or Greenwich Village. City support for creating affordable downtown housing can help. Ross can be contacted at ross@rio.com and the topic will be discussed at the CPA forum Saturday afternoon (see Activist Alert this page). 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 EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 24, 2008 13
