slant
• It’s decent weather now, but winter is coming. Opportunity Village Eugene
(OVE) is a nonprofit forming to organize and help manage a few acres of unused
land in the city next fall, providing life-saving transitional shelter and assistance for
people and families in desperate need. The project is evolving from the mayor’s
Opportunity Eugene task force on homelessness, and is now including elements of
permaculture and low-cost structures. Other cities, such as Portland with its
Dignity Village, have created such places for people to be, but their success
depends on support from a broad coalition of community groups, government
agencies and dedicated individuals.
We can do it. The Occupy Eugene camps of last fall and winter proved that many
of the challenges can be dealt with effectively. OVE promises to improve
substantially on the Occupy model and a comprehensive plan is expected to go
before the City Council July 23 in anticipation of a site before October. Where
would this project locate? One possibility is the vacant Naval Reserve land at 13th
and Chambers, across from the new Unitarian Universalist Church. Google
“Opportunity Village Eugene” to read the mission statement and to get on
emailing lists.
• Lane County is the winner of our Black Hole of Information Award. Media
requests to County Administrator Liane Richardson for comment on pressing
public issues, such as how the county is spending its money and not spending its
reserves, get ignored. Public records requests get met with huge charges
(Commish Rob Handy’s attorney was quoted $3 million for a recent public records
request for emails). We did finally hear back from Richardson, who tells us she gets
a lot of emails and can’t re-prioritize work for a press deadline. But wait, isn’t the
press primarily how the public gets information? What about the county’s public
information officer, who according to a recent job posting makes up to $71,000 a
year? Richardson told us in an email that “As to other requests for information, or
requests for county employees to provide opinions or the ‘whys and ‘why nots’
regarding a particular issue, for the most part, those requests will not rise to the
level where we will have time to address them.”
Richardson continues, “The public information officer position does not exist
for the benefit of the media. It exists for the benefit of the county.” But the PIO’s
stated duties include: “maintaining cooperative relationships with the public,
media, community leaders and public officials,” and “providing timely, accurate
information on county operations, services and programs to the public, media and
employees and to assist county departments in doing the same.” And our personal
favorite: “generating positive and fair media coverage of county issues even during
incidents of negative exposure.”
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• Here’s a friendly little “to-do” list for new UO President Michael Gottfredson:
1) Be sure to put all the meetings of the Board of Higher Education on your
calendar. They hired you and until the structure changes, they can fire you. 2) Don’t
diss the governor. He’s a smart and powerful guy. 3) Consult with former UO
president David Frohnmayer. His political and educational roots go deep in this
state. 4) Heed The Oregonian and seldom describe UO as “Oregon’s flagship
university“ except in UO faculty meetings or recruiting sessions. Portland’s daily
says this description causes hackles to rise “everywhere in the state outside Lane
County.” 5) Follow Richard Lariviere’s lead in trying to break down town-gown
barriers in Eugene and Lane County. 6) Fill your closet with yellow and green
T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, windbreakers, umbrellas. 7) Take time to enjoy the arts
and the outdoors.
• The Olympic Track and Field Trials that start June 21 are bringing
thousands of people to Eugene for the first time and this is a great opportunity to
show off our town and all its attributes. Our Chow restaurant guide this week has
a center-fold map of Eugene titled “Eat Like the Locals” and it includes eateries
near Hayward Field along with a mix of downtown favorites. EW is also doing
something very different this year, the Best of Eugene Express: bus tours during
the Trials that take track fans to downtown drinks, dinner and either a blues show
or a theater performance. Check out bestofeugene.com for schedule and tickets.
• If you follow Nate Silver’s 538 website (fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com)
of potent political forecasting, you know that he has given Obama a slight edge in
the November election with caveats about the economy, of course. A disquieting
note for Oregon is deep in his analysis. Silver suggests that Oregon could be a
sleeper state for Romney, remembering the close Gore-Bush vote. California and
Washington are dark blue on his “probabilities” map, but Oregon’s a lighter shade
of blue. It’s tough to think of Romney swaying Oregon voters, but we’ll keep
watching Silver’s numbers.
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
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