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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2011)
NEWS BRIEFS science reporting for her series on the McKenzie River, “Mayhem on the McK- enzie.” Photographer Todd Cooper took home a third place award for his portrait of Winona LaDuke for EW’s “Fighting Fossil Fools” cover story. EW also competed against newspapers across Oregon and Southwest Washington in the SPJ non-daily newspaper contest. Levin’s Sasquatch story took first in general features, and Mortensen took first in religion and ethics for her story on police fibbing, “License to Lie.” Mortensen took second in lifestyles for “Airstream Dreams” and “Mayhem on the McKenzie” was third in environment. EW swept the arts criticism category with a first for freelancer and former visual arts and theater editor Suzi Steffen’s review of Eurydice at the Lord Leebrick, “Should Have Known Better;” a second for Molly Templeton’s book review of Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas, “Demands of the Drowning;” and a third for Templeton for her review of David Mitchell’s novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Steffen also took a second in arts reporting for “Post Office Space.” In business news, Alan Pittman, took third for “Trash + Cash: Eugene’s Garbage Goes Corporate.” Editor Ted Taylor won second place for his snappy headlines. In newspapers with circulation over 65,000, Eugene’s other paper news source, the R-G, took home two awards: Greg Bolt got a second in sports reporting for “Feeding the Green Machine” and Mark Baker got a first in short feature stories for “No Leaving a Beaver.” Local CBS affiliate KVAL won eight awards in the television category with firsts in spot news, general news and special report/ documentary. — Camilla Mortensen BIKE POLITICS Oregonian political reporter and bike book author Jeff Mapes told Eugene bike advocates last week, “if you’re not having anybody complain, then, frankly, you’re not doing anything.” Mapes, who wrote Pedaling Revolu- tion: How Cyclists Are Changing Ameri- can Cities two years ago, credited the big jump in biking in Portland and other cities to an “iron triangle” of organized bike advocates, politicians and city transporta- tion bureaucrats. Mapes spoke at Cozmic Pizza at an event sponsored by the UO group Live Move. Mapes apologized that his book didn’t mention Eugene much because he didn’t want to make it too Oregon-centric. “I purposely, when I was writing my book, didn’t spend much time down here.” New York City’s transportation bureaucrat Janette Sadik-Khan has become a celebrity by pushing the green, healthy, efficient and livable move to biking, according to Mapes. “She’s someone in a powerful position and she doesn’t say, ‘oh well, just do what’s easy or little crumbs,’” he said. “She’s been very aggressive.” Mapes said the increase in biking has lead to a “bikelash” in Portland, other cities and the Republican U.S. House as bikes compete for a share of road funding and space. Multi-billion dollar road projects like a proposed bridge over the Columbia River to serve urban sprawl in Portland continue to garner support from Demo- crats due to lobbying by construction unions and truck freight interests, accord- ing to Mapes. Mapes said the expensive bridge may require a hike in the statewide gas tax. “You people down in Eugene will pay for it.” Bike advocates are a “small minority” but like NRA gun advocates they enjoy the advantage of focused intensity, Mapes said. “You are very passionate about cycling,” he said. “They do pay attention when you are noisier.” But the biggest ongoing advantage for bike advocates may be generational. Mapes said that like gay marriage, young people show much stronger support for biking. The culture shift to bike transportation “is obviously not going to be easy, but I hope I’m around to see it,” Mapes said. — Alan Pittman A version of this story first appeared at Eugenecycles.com WILL WOW TREES STAY STANDING? The WOW Hall’s two bigleaf maples that the city recently put on the chopping block could provide shade for the historic building and popular music venue a little while longer, according to a report by an independently contracted arborist. The city is willing to let one of the two trees live a little longer. The trees were recently designated for removal by the city of Eugene due to the presence of Ganodderma Spp., a decaying fungus, as well as Armillaria shoestring root rot. Mark Snyder, Eugene’s urban forester, has said he was concerned the trees are not structurally sound. But the WOW Hall secured an extension for the removal until May 26, pending the judgment of the independently contracted arborist. Damon Shrosk, of Colton, Ore.’s Treecology inspected the trees on May 16, accompanied by Jon Pincus of the WOW Hall and Snyder. Pincus has fought to preserve the trees, not only for their historic value — they are mentioned in the WOW Hall’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places — but also because shade from the trees keeps the building cool in the summer and provides the venue with energy savings. Pincus is concerned that it will take decades for the small saplings that will be planted to replace the trees to provide the benefits of the current bigleaf maples. Shrosk’s report said the trees could be maintained safely for seven to12 years, if recommended remedial measures are followed and with yearly inspections. The report said that the trees are both “obviously over mature” and the real question is if they “can be retained safely for ‘a while’ longer.” The report said the trees could be potentially manageable as living structures while the new trees are growing large enough to provide beneficial shade. After seeing the report, city planner Neil Bjorklund responded that the city is willing to compromise and let the southernmost of the two trees slated for removal stay standing with pruning and annual inspections. The middle tree however, Bjorklund wrote, will be cut down this week. “We do not concur with the city’s analysis on this and plan on continuing the discussion,” said Pincus. — Brit McGinnis and Camilla Mortensen slant • We heard the voters on the Eugene school income tax measure, but have yet to hear a single viable solution from the opposition to our school funding crisis. We also felt the ferocity of the anti-tax, anti-government, anti-public employee forces and we expect even more ferocity ahead. Who ever imagined that public school teachers would be such targets? Two groups leading the charge are Americans for Prosperity, nationally funded by the Koch brothers and professionally staffed in Oregon, and Healthy Communities Initiative (HCI), incorporated as a non-profit on March 11, 2011, by Dennis Morgan of Springfield. HCI loaned $15,000 to the PAC for Citizens for Jobs & Schools. Who donated the $15,000? The mainstream press should be interested. Speaking of the mainstream press, The Register-Guard appears to accuse Eugene Weekly, part-owner Art Johnson and his daughter-in-law Hillary Johnson of advocating for creative ways to preserve Eugene’s history of excellent public education. Guilty as charged. • “Yes we can” rings true again with the prospect of the Eugene YMCA and the Save Civic Stadium folks joining forces to develop 10.2 acres in the middle of the city with much more than a shopping mall. Rick Wright, a successful local businessman who owns Market of Choice and, incidentally, loves soccer, has offered to lease the site for three years to give the two groups time to fashion a plan and nail down financing for a great place. That leaves out the Fred Meyer development and the Y’s proposed apartment plan, which would have housed 400 to 500 students out there. So, what’s next? Some imagination from the school board and the city, please. This community is stepping up! ACTIVIST ALERT • Many Rivers Group Oregon Chapter Sierra Club will hold its monthly Beer Social from 7 to 9 pm Thursday, May 26, at High Street Brewery, 1243 High St., in Eugene. To get on the mailing list, email sally. nunn@oregon.sierraclub.org or visit http://wkly.ws/qk • The Oregon Global Warming Commission is posting an online survey to provide feedback on the 2020 Roadmap, as well as the state’s • Only our Oregon Bach Festival and Portland’s Time-Based Art Festival made it to The New York Times’ “Summer Stages” section from Oregon this spring. Ashland’s Shakespeare festival often shows up, but not this year. About OBF they said, “Bach takes a back seat to other themes, one of which is called ‘In Praise of Women,’” and listed that wonderful program, plus other highlights. The Times called the Portland dance festival “America’s best performance festival of the summer.” Planning your summer? EW’s definitive summer guide comes out next Thursday. efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas 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 Oregon.GWC@state.or.us 10 MAY 26, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY footprint. The survey is at http:// wkly.ws/12c and comments on issues of relevance to the Global Warming Commission can be emailed to WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
