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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (April 19, 2012)
NEWS BRIEFS packed with local residents on a tour of neighborhoods and the toxic industries that impact them. Participants included Mayor Kitty Piercy, Commissioner Rob Handy, City Councilors Andrea Ortiz and George Brown, and councilor candidate Juan Carlos Valle. Ben Duncan, chair of Gov. Kitzhaber’s Environmental Justice Task Force and others representing state and federal interests attended as well. City Councilor Pat Farr, who is running against Handy for the North Eugene commissioner’s seat, was signed up but did not arrive for the event — River Road in the north Eugene district is one of the impacted areas that was toured. Mixed in with neighborhood residents were students from the UO, as well as representatives from the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA), the agency that monitors and enforces air quality issues. The tour was part of a three- day wide-ranging community discussion of environmental justice that took place everywhere from a church to the UO campus. The bus tour was a collaboration between Beyond Toxics ACTIVIST ALERT • Finalists for the executive director of Lane Council of Government will speak and take questions from 5 to 7 pm Thursday, April 19, at the Hilton Vista Room. A final decision is expected at the LCOG board meeting April 26 in Veneta. • A candidates forum for North Eugene’s County Commission race, sponsored by Harlow Neighbors, will be from 6 to 8 pm Thursday, April 19, at North Park Community Church, 3484 Harlow Road. • Max Rameau, director of Take Back the Land, a national movement “liberating” vacant government land and foreclosed homes by moving homeless families into them, is in Eugene for several events, sponsored by Reality Kitchen, Occupy Eugene, CLDC, Lane Peace Symposium, and A Community Together (ACT). He will speak on “Community Control of Land and Human Rights” at 7:30 pm Thursday, April 19, at Reality Kitchen, 245 Van Buren, Eugene. $10 advance, $12 at the door (tickets at realitykitchen.org). This talk will be recorded by David Barsamian for Alternative Radio. • Local publisher Kris Millegan of TrineDay Books will speak at 7 pm Thursday, April 19, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette. Millegan has published 40 books by authors investigating RESIDENT JOANNE GROSS STANDS IN FRONT OF HER HOUSE WHILE A NEARBY PLANT EMITS TOXICS INTO THE AIR disproportionate exposure to environmental harms. Arkins says that many argue that the industries were there first, before the neighborhoods, but she points out that some of the housing was built for the people who would be working places such as the Union Pacific railyard, and some of the schools were in place before the industries were. Arkin says the Eugene Toxics Right-to- Know reporting system shows that Bethel schoolchildren breathe approximately 72 pounds of toxic chemicals a year. The tour included the UP railyard site and its toxic groundwater pollution; a flooded auto wrecking yard near ponds that are home to the western pond turtle; Murphy Plywood, which emanates formaldehyde, a known carcinogen; and Georgia-Pacific Chemical, a COURTSEY OF BEYOND TOXICS Koch Industries company that puts out 36,000 pounds of air toxics a year, according to LRAPA, to name and Centro LatinoAmericano. Many of the people who are only a few. Many of the industries were in close proximity to affected by the air, water and soil pollution in West Eugene schools, homes and even a daycare center. are Latino, and several spoke of the conditions they face For more on the effort to bring environmental justice to through a translator. According to the Environmental west Eugene, visit BeyondToxics.org Protection Agency, which was one of the sponsors of the tour, — Camilla Mortensen minority and/or low-income communities often face a conspiracy topics. Free. • “Occupy the Economy” with NPR’s David Barsamian will be the program at City Club of Eugene at 11:50 am Friday, April 20, at the Hilton, 12th floor. Barsamian is founder of Alternative Radio and author of Targeting Iran. • The Lane Peace Center’s fifth annual Peace Symposium/ Democracy Convergence is April 20-21 at LCC. Free. Speakers and panelists include David Barsamian of Alternative Radio, David Cobb of Move to Amend, Ms. George Friday of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Ben Manski of the Liberty Tree Foundation for Democratic Revolution, Max Rameau of Take Back the Land, and David West of the Potawatomi Nation. For information and registration visit www.lanecc.edu/peacecenter or e-mail peacecenter@lanecc.edu • A Saturday, April 21 panel on ”Homelessness and Housing in Lane County” with Nancie Koerber, Doug Bales and Susan Ban will be recorded at CTV cable access and available to watch at realitykitchen.org and CTV. • Eric Tars from the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty, will speak on “Housing is a Human Right: National and Local Perspectives on Housing and Homelessness” from 6 to 8 pm Monday, April 23, at the Eugene Public Library. Co-sponsored by the Eugene Human Rights Commission and the Community Coalition for the Advancement of Human Rights. Free. Tars works on homelessness as a human rights issue and protecting the rights of homeless youth. See http://nlchp.org • A fundraiser and silent auction to benefit Commissioner Rob Handy’s re-election campaign will be from 5:30 to 7:30 pm Tuesday, April 24, at Cozmic, 8th and Charnelton. $10 cover. Handy will speak at 6:45 pm. More info at reelectrobhandy.com • “Occupy the Media,” a free event featuring Alternative Radio producer/host David Barsamian begins at 7 pm Tuesday, April 24, at Harris Hall, 8th & Oak in Eugene. Sponsored by Eugene Media Action, A Committee of Eugene PeaceWorks, Occupy Eugene Zinn/Chomsky Library, ProgressiveVoices.org and CALC. • A candidates forum for North Eugene’s County Commission race will be from 6:30 to 8:30 pm Thursday, April 26, at Willamette High School cafeteria, 1801 Echo Hollow Road. Focus will be on children’s health, environment and education. Sponsored by Lane Coalition for Healthy Active Youth, Beyond Toxics and STAND for Children. • Take Back the Night this year will begin with a rally at 6 pm Thursday, April 26, at the EMU on the UO campus, followed by a march to 8th and Oak with a speak-out at 8:30 pm. More details next week. slant • County Commission candidates Rob Handy, Pat Farr and Nadia Sindi drew a small crowd for an evening City Club forum April 12, with Handy and Farr getting a little testy with each other while Sindi was looking queasy. She was suffering from food poisoning and was probably wishing to be anywhere else. Hopefully she will be recovered for the next two forums (see Activist Alert). Farr has accused Handy of inaccuracy and deliberately mischaracterizing facts. We haven’t seen evidence of that other than maybe Handy labeling Farr an “ultra- conservative,” but we did hear some disturbing statements, reportedly from the Farr campaign. One of our readers participated in a Lindholm phone “survey” that had some potentially libelous questions, such as, “Are you aware that Rob Handy was investigated for perjury?” and “Are you aware that Rob Handy was involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit?” Both of these allegations are false, of course. Farr is currently on leave from his staff position at Lindholm, and the Lindholm Company has donated $2,500 as an in-kind contribution to the Farr campaign. The person who was surveyed considered this call to be “offensive” and a “push poll,” an effort to sway public opinion disguised as an impartial survey. Farr and his campaign did not respond by press time to questions about the survey. • Congressman Peter DeFazio put out a shocking observation about the U.S. Postal Service when he spoke to City Club April 13. He said he thinks “the people managing the postal service are trying to destroy it,” citing examples of terrible management. That’s not so shocking when you remember the Grover Norquist/extreme right strategy of shrinking the government until it fits into a 10 APRIL 19, 2012 EUGENE WEEKLY bathtub. We should help DeFazio in every way we can to save the postal service, starting with demanding leadership that believes in it. • Issues remain after the Oregon State Marine Board voted 3-2 last week to uphold the ban on internal combustion motor boats on Waldo Lake. The rules could be overturned in the Oregon Court of Appeals, and the case could end up in the Oregon Supreme Court. Deep pockets are behind the litigation. Meanwhile, the Oregon State Aviation Board is adamant that float planes be allowed to land, taxi and take off anytime they want, and the Marine Board has reluctantly agreed. Float planes are rare at Waldo, but when they come they certainly violate the 10 mph speed limit on the lake, they can bring invasive species on their pontoons, they are more prone to crash than wheeled planes, the noise of take-offs can be deafening up close and the sound carries for miles over water. The Aviation Board will be looking again at its rules for Waldo, but members are expected to only talk about limiting parts of the lake that can be used, restricting times of use, and discouraging practice take-offs and landings. Comments can be emailed to aviation.mail@state.or.us or mailed to 3040 25th St. SE Salem 97302-1125. See http:// wkly.ws/185 for individual board members’ email addresses and phone numbers. • In Slant last week we talked about our early prediction that conservatives would use Occupy Eugene as a campaign issue, and then we went on to mention mayoral candidate Kevin Prociw’s bashing of Occupy Eugene in a recent candidates forum. Prociw tells us, however, that it was a “mischaracterization” to associate him with conservatives. He says it’s “an easy mistake, I’m sure, as anybody running against Kitty Piercy would seem conservative. However, in the traditional sense of the word, I am not. While I do advocate for fiscal responsibility and accountability, you will find that I am a member of the Independent Party and that many of my values are more progressive.” • Congrats to UO volcanologist Katharine V. Cashman. The professor was one of 220 elected nationwide to the 2012 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cashman studies volcanic rocks and has worked to explain the nature and predictability of volcanic eruptions. • It was a splendid show on Dexter Reservoir April 13-14 when more than 1,300 rowers and scullers raced their shells and sculls across the laned lake. The sun even shone. High school, collegiate and master athletes came from the Pacific Northwest, Arizona and California, some sleeping in tents scattered around the lake. This 18th annual Covered Bridge Regatta, hosted by the Oregon Association of Rowers and Oregon Rowing, is the only regatta Dexter will display this year. It’s a huge volunteer effort with crews of parents and friends serving heaps of food, cleaning up, putting on the races, cheering their teams. The 2013 Covered Bridge Regatta will be April 13-14 with the Dexter Dash and Dinner April 12 for masters. 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 WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
