slant
• Another sneaky action by conservatives on the Lane County Commission.
Conservationists around the country have been sending recommendations on
BLM wilderness expansions to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he prepares to
submit a final report to Congress in mid-October. With this process in mind, our
elected county leaders quietly sent a letter to the BLM Aug. 18 calling not only
for no more wilderness in Lane County, but also for freeing up potential
wilderness lands for “active management,” i.e. roads, logging and mining.
Commissioners Bozievich, Leiken and Stewart voted in favor of the letter with
Handy and Sorenson objecting. A New York Times story Sept. 7 noted that
“Republicans in the House have resisted putting new lands off limits to oil and
gas, timber and mining developments, citing high unemployment in the West. In
some cases, local officials indicated that no new wilderness is needed.” If we had
heeded these same old arguments in earlier times we would have no wilderness
and no national parks today.
This action involved no public hearing, no public input, and Lane County is
now on record with Congress opposing any future protections of pristine parcels
in the Cascades, foothills and Coast Range.
Bad policy, bad process.
• UO President Richard Lariviere made an arrogant mistake in giving hundreds
of his administrators pay raises while tens of thousands of other state workers
are being told to suffer pay cuts and furloughs in the name of budget-balancing
shared sacrifice. Splattered on front pages, Lariviere’s big mistake will cost the
state plenty in opposition to government revenue and resentment of the
haughty Ivory Tower. We understand the competitive justification for pay raises
for long-underpaid faculty — that means better professors and instructors for
students asked to pay ever-rising tuition bills. But not raises for administrators.
In this economy, they are easily replaced with overqualified people. We don’t buy
Lariviere’s argument that he should be able to do whatever he wants with UO
money that doesn’t come directly from the state taxes. Should state DMV
administrators be able to give themselves big pay raises because most of their
budget comes from fees and not taxes?
• This weekend is the big Furthur Festival at the Cuthbert, and we hear on the
streets that EPD will be cracking down on unlicensed vendors who will be in
Eugene for the three-day Grateful Dead culture music festival. Cops have
reportedly been handing out notices at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza
reading, “It is unlawful to conduct sales in this area without a permit,” and
numerous citations have been written. Vendors have been told they can’t even
give away their art or merchandise and accept donations. Bartering? Nope. Just
want to display your art on a blanket? Not allowed. Coincidentally, the city’s
crackdown on local and visiting street vendors is coming just before the
“Charter for Compassion” goes before the City Council in October.
• Kudos to the City of Eugene for a fun, healthy and green Eugene Sunday
Streets last weekend. Thousands of kids in carts, dancing grandparents,
bicyclists, strolling couples, hula hoopers, slackliners and many more Eugeneans
enjoyed the event that closed three miles of 5th Avenue downtown with loops
at either end. This is exactly the kind of active transportation promoting,
community building, fat burning, business boosting, pollution reducing event
that Eugene has been starving to have for decades. We hope the city will
continue its can-do attitude and repeat the event next year and even expand it
to multiple weekends and routes like in many other cities. How about a Sunday
Streets down south Willamette? Between downtown and the UO via 13th? A
Sunday Streets/bridge pedal closing I-105 and the Ferry Street Bridge for
human fun and a good cause?
• The front-page furor in both Portland and Eugene mainstream media about the
NCAA investigation of Oregon football feels like rearranging the deck chairs on
you know what. So far we know that the UO paid a “street agent” $25,000 to
help with recruiting, a transaction that has attracted the interest of NCAA
investigators. Like many NCAA violations, that’s a peppercorn compared to
issues laid out by Taylor Branch in “The Shame of College Sports” in the latest
Atlantic magazine, echoed in the Wall Street Journal and bouncing around the
talk shows. Branch proposes paying the players. Does that make sense when
they already get enviable benefits and national attention?
• Getting in enough hiking and wildlife watching this summer? Now is the
perfect time: Mosquitoes are few and snow-bound high trails are finally clear.
This year we actually got off our butts and took a hike and lodge tour with the
Obsidians, a venerable hiking and mountaineering group. Signing up for
Obsidians hikes is much easier now at www.obsidians.org instead of at the YMCA
bulletin board. Also check out Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Sierra Club,
Audubon, McKenzie River Trust, Altair, Forest Web, UO Outdoor Program,
Volkssport, Nearby Nature, Friends of Buford Park, Campbell Center, meetup
groups, the city of Eugene, Willamalane and we’ve probably missed a dozen
others.
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
JANE GIBBONS
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