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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 8, 2009)
news briefs offering support,” says Hart. “The only sil- ver lining was that my 4-year-old was far enough away to hear the screams but not see the mauling. Lola was her dog, her best friend.” Animal Control was called, and the owner of the mastiff chose to stay. “It turned out they had had the mastiff for only two months, getting it from somewhere else. Because of the severity of the incident the mastiff had to go with Animal Control. The owners opted to have it put down,” she says. “We had only been in Eugene one week,” she says. “Up until we got Lola, I've always had big dogs. Because my dogs were so gentle, it never occurred to me what could happen when a big dog bites a small dog. Now I know.” Hart wants to see a dedicated small dog park at Amazon Park. Her online petition can be found at www.thepetitionsite.com/1/ lolas-park or residents can call or email members of the City Council. Hart says, “Had there been small dog park, Lola would be alive and my 4-year-old daughter would still have her best friend.” Hart says there has already been some back- lash from people who don’t want to see the park divided, and debate over whether the park is big enough to have a separate small dog area. Hart says she is open to other options, as long as somewhere at the park small dogs would have their own safe space. ACTIVIST ALERT • The Eugene Police Commission meets at 5:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 8, in the McNutt Room at City Hall. The commis- sion’s Use of Force subcommittee meets at the same time and place Wednesday, Oct. 14. • Historian John Attig will speak at 6:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 8, at the Bascom- happening people slant Tykeson Room of the Eugene Public Library. Attig’s topic will be the Nobel Peace Prize. He heads the project which is creating a Nobel Peace Walk area to be built in Alton Baker Park. • “Raising the Bar on the Possible Visions of our Downtown Riverfront” with developer Brian Obie, Kari Westlund of Travel Lane County, and architect Otto Poticha will be the topic at City Club of Eugene at 11:45 Friday, Oct. 9, at the Hilton. The first question will be asked by Pat Johnson, chief ecologist for BLM. See www.cityclubofeugene.org for more infor- mation. • The West Cascade Peace Corps Association (WCPCA) meets at 6 pm Friday, Oct. 9, at the UO Many Nations Longhouse. On the agenda is announcing the creation of the Beryl Brinkman Memorial Fund. The endowed fund to be managed by the Oregon Community Foundation will contribute to WCPA humanitarian projects around the world. Brinkman was a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan in the late 1960s, traveling by horse, donkey and camel to remote villages to vaccinate women and children against small pox. • Dr. Paul Hochfeld of Corvallis, who appeared on CNN this week to talk about Mad As Hell Doctors and the Rose Garden meeting with Obama, will be at the screen- ing of his documentary Health, Money and Fear as part of the Eugene International Film Festival at 11 am Saturday, Oct. 10, at Regal Cinema’s Valley River Center Stadium 15. • Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides annual meeting is from 4 to 7 pm Saturday, Oct. 10, at King Estate Winery. Music by Laura Kemp, appetizers by King Estate and a no- host wine bar. Free to members; $15 dis- count membership available at the door. • October Afghanistan anti-war events include a new film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald. Rethink Afghanistan will be shown at 7 pm Oct. 14, at Harris Hall, BY PAUL NEEVEL LARRY DOBBERSTEIN The son of a beer com- pany executive, Larry Dobberstein had never lived in one place for more than four years when he hit Eugene in 1990. His family left San Jose for Saint Louis in the middle of his senior year. "I couldn't wait to get back," he says. "I became a hippie in San Francisco in ’67." Tiring of city life, he moved to a rural hippie community in Takilma in 1971. "I've lived in Oregon ever since," he says, except for tree-planting in Washington, a BA in visual arts from Evergreen State College in 1980, then a few years in Arcata. "I got work as a projectionist in the only movie theater in Ashland," he says, and when his hours were cut, he found a projectionist job in Springfield and a place to stay in Eugene. "I'm still here, that's a record." Using a borrowed video camera, Dobberstein taped a series of lectures on the Iran- Contra affair that found air time on Community TV in 1992. "It was exciting for me," he says. Currently president of the CTV board, he volunteers for office work and programming, teaches classes, produces five weekly series and lots of docu- mentaries. "The most recent is on murals of Lane County," he says. "It's easy, it's fun, and it's cheap to produce a show and get it on TV." More at ctv29.org. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • Just months ago the city of Eugene was using an exclusion ordinance to target the homeless downtown as criminals. Now, after a series of violent attacks on the homeless, the city is realizing they are the victims of crime. The city should not just throw more police at the problem. The police are ill- trained, ill-equipped and ill-tempered to deal with the homeless. Instead the city should increase funding for more cost-effective social services, particu- larly housing, drug, alcohol and mental health programs that address the roots of the problem. • Kudos to the Eugene Police Department for going after the convenience store malt liquor dealers. Cheap alcohol is a major driver of street crime. This is exactly the kind of problem-solving community policing Eugene has long craved. Now if EPD could only get the INET squad to drop pot and focus on the real narcotics problem. • Did UO megadonor Phil Knight make the call on giving LeGarrette Blount a second chance? UO football coach Chip Kelly claims it was his decision to consider reinstating the player who punched an opponent and threw an embarrassing violent fit on national TV. But in the past, such dramatic flips in UO decisions haven't been made by the football coach, the athletic director or the UO president; they've been made by the Nike billionaire. ESPN has reported how UO officials "genuflect at his Nikes" and how Knight forced the UO out of an anti-sweatshop group and forced out a track coach. • They looked like big ducks out of water. Last Saturday, about eight hours before the Washington State game, the UO football team, alike in their black- ish-greenish warm-ups, strolled self-consciously through the Saturday Market behind their affable head coach, Chip Kelly, in his Bermuda shorts. It was a wild juxtaposition but probably a good idea, just like it was a good idea for the new president of the UO to join with Mayor Piercy and other officials walking door-to-door in the sometimes rowdy West University district greeting stu- dents and setting a standard of civility to be copied, they hope. One more smart town-gown gesture was President Lariviere's appearance in the Eugene Celebration Parade. Lariviere is also planning a City Club talk as a follow-up to a Sept. 9 program on the UO’s impact on Eugene and its neigh- borhoods. Maybe a new collaborative era will bring the brainpower of Eugene and the UO together to solve our vexing downtown puzzles. Go Ducks! • Speaking of UO/city collaborations, a number of ideas have been kicking around in recent years, and one of our favorites is a UO/city partnership to build more student housing downtown, with a shuttle bus service to campus. Architect Otto Poticia is a big advocate for downtown housing, and it makes more sense than building new housing east of campus or across the river, which would exacerbate the division between UO and the city. • It was sad to see right-wing media celebrating Chicago's loss of the Olympics because they wanted to portray it as a defeat for President Obama. It was even sadder that much of mainstream media mindlessly took their bait and blamed him. That made no sense. Congratulations, Rio. It's your conti- nent's turn to host the Olympics. • Last week we ran a letter (“Dismayed by Eugene”) from Michael Bittner of Millbrook, NY, in response to Alan Pittman’s “Carbon Foot Print” cover story Sept. 17. Despite his concerns about Eugene, Bittner says in a follow-up letter that he has “high regard” for the city and “we have decided to make Eugene our home and open our business. Eugene offers so much in the form of qual- ity of life that communities around the nation could learn from.” Bittner’s enterprise in New York state’s Hudson Valley is called Zen Hot Spot Yoga (see http://zenspothv.com). Bittner is returning to the Northwest; he has a doctor- ate in education from the UW. Welcome back. • The war in Afghanistan is now entering its ninth year and teach-ins, films and demonstrations are planned nationwide and locally in October (see Activist Alert). As a nation we are not alone in this war effort, but so far the U.S. has lost 852 solders, suffered 4,139 serious injuries and spent more than $228 billion. The war has spread into neighboring Pakistan, and public opin- ion polls in the region show an increasing animosity toward the U.S. and other foreign occupiers. How can we militarily impose peace on an ungovernable Afghanistan beset by massive poverty, disease, ignorance and a deep tradi- tion of armed resistance to outsiders? The best long-term outcomes would grow from humanitarian relief, support for secular education and women’s rights, health care and diplomacy. The billions being spent on drone attacks and troop escalations would be better invested in scholarships for bright young Afghan women and men to study abroad in medicine, agriculture, law, business, political science and the arts. 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 OCTOBER 8, 2009 9
