Eugene weekly., October 27, 2011, Page 9, Image 9

NEWS BRIEFS
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
As the camp made ready to move, word
was out that City Manager John Ruiz was
not going to let campers remain at the park
past hours, per city park rules against
overnight camping. However, Ruiz instead
brought a proposal to grant the Occupy
Eugene an exemption to the city’s ban on
camping in municipal parks. Had the city
voted against the exemption, the previous
informal policy of allowing the occupation
to continue without a confrontation been
the demonstrators and the police might
have been tested.
Occupy Eugene has been having
weekly marches, in addition to its massive
almost 3,000-person protest Oct. 15, and
the marches have been marked by a lack of
the conflicts between protesters and police
that Eugene has had in the past.
The Eugene City Council voted 5-3 on
Oct. 24 to allow the exemption. Councilors
George Brown, Chris Pryor, Andrea Ortiz,
Betty Taylor and Alan Zelenka voted to
allow the camp to continue while
Councilors Mike Clark, Pat Farr and
George Poling voted against it.
The Occupy camps in Eugene and
across the country have been compared to
depression-era “Hoovervilles,” homeless
encampments that sprung up in places such
as Seattle and Central Park in New York
City. The name “Hooverville” was a
political criticism of government policies
that led to the economic crisis.
Civil Liberties Defense Center attorney
Lauren Regan, who has been involved
with Occupy Eugene, which is a
decentralized group ruled by consensus,
says the composition of the campers
“definitely varies.” She says, “There are
certainly folks that have been there every
night since the beginning, but some folks
come and go.” In addition to the committed
core group, Regan says, there has also
been a fluid coming and going of other
participants.
Occupy Eugene supporters and
marchers run the gamut from students and
grad students to activists to business
owners. Its Facebook page has close to
3,000 followers who engage in lengthy
discussion threads about the movement.
The group has committees for everything
from childcare to sanitation to morale and
peacekeepers. For more information go to
occupyeugenemedia.org
— Camilla Mortensen
CORRECTIONS/
CLARIFICATIONS
In our Oct. 20 story on Occupy Eugene, John
Flanery was described as “a facilitator of general
assemblies,” but he tells us his role was “merely
that of a consultant on meeting procedure — the
consensus version of a parliamentarian. This is
not a leadership role, and on no account should
my remarks be taken to represent the views of
Occupy Eugene.”
BETTER NEWS
FOR FOREST
PROTECTIONS
It’s been a good week to be a treehugger
with positive forest news coming out of the
courts and Congress.
On Oct. 21 a three-judge panel of the 10th
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeal unanimously
upheld the Clinton-era Roadless Rule, which
proposed cordoning off millions of acres of
federal lands in the West from road
development. In August 2009, the 9th Circuit
made a similar ruling.
The Roadless Rule, which affects about
60 million acres of National Forest land,
sparked debate about wilderness versus
human uses of the land. Sean Stevens of
Oregon Wild called the most recent ruling
“good news” and says Oregon Wild has been
working on the wilderness issue for 40 years,
since Congress passed the Wilderness Act in
1964. He says federal wilderness and roadless
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EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 27, 2011 9