LET TERS
DON’T TRUST YMCA
ADVOCATE FOR WHOVILLE
I appreciate the valuable services the
YMCA contributes to the community.
However, they should not be entrusted
with development of valuable public lands
like Civic Stadium.
The Y’s 60-year history of development
along Patterson Street includes sell-offs
to unintended uses and confl icts with the
residential neighborhood. Half the land
between 20th to 24th avenues, acquired
in 1953 from 4J School District, was later
sold to developers for apartments and
professional offi ces. Required parking was
never constructed. And an unsightly, sun-
blocking tennis barn was imposed on the
neighbors. Today, the present grounds and
buildings are marginally maintained, and
the back alley remains a neglected mud
hole, inviting transients and vandalism.
Neighbors protested to no avail at
city hearings throughout development.
Often struggling for money, dependent on
volunteers, the Y pursued its own economic
interest over the neighborhood’s. Giving
it complete discretion over the Civic
Stadium property could not be in the best
public interest.
We should encourage the Y’s participa-
tion in a broader community service devel-
opment at Civic Stadium, however.
The city should buy the entire property
from 4J with dedicated parks money, lease
some to the Y for its uses, with maintenance
obligations, form a Civic Stadium board to
fund, restore and operate the sports fi eld,
and devote the rest to community valued
income ventures — like a wave park and an
inviting restaurant. Something for everyone,
too much for none, keeping the public in.
Loren Sears
Eugene
I was raised by two parents in Atlanta,
Ga., who worked directly with Martin
Luther King Jr., risked their lives for racial
integration and educated me about the Civil
Rights Movement. I was about 4 or 5 years
old when they participated in the sit-ins.
I was in the fi rst grade when my mother
marched with James Reeb (one of the three
people killed in the Selma March).
Part of the way I was educated was
when my mother had me watch a fi lm on
MLK. From the fi lm, I learned of King’s
involvement with the rights of poor and
working-class people. He said that the
problem of poverty is a systemic problem
that needs to be addressed. If we lived in a
society where everyone’s needs were met,
we would have less fear of those we view
as “criminal,” poor and black people. See
wkly.ws/1od.
I have a compassionate understanding
of homeless people not only from my
background. If I did not have friends
helping out I would be homeless. I have
been a hard-working citizen (with no
substance abuse) for many years and still
do what I can to pull my own boot straps.
I have a debilitating disease that is keeping
me from working enough to be able to
support myself. It is a long wait to see if
the judge from my court hearing will grant
me disability. There are many people like
myself who are on the streets. I wish I
could do more to advocate Whoville and
the homeless.
Ceila “Starshine” Levine
Eugene
COLLABORATION NEEDED
While I have compassion for the
diffi cult decision the Eugene District
4J School Board must soon make, and
appreciate the fi nancial needs of school
districts, I cannot sit idly by and allow the
sellout of my community to a corporation
such as Kroger. Accepting the tantalizing
offer from a huge corporation such as
Kroger, #4 on Yahoo Financial’s list of
large U.S. corporations that pay their
employees the least (behind #1 Walmart,
#2 McDonald’s, and #3 Target) may bring
in quick and future cash, and create a
number of non-living wage jobs; yet it may
also cause long-term collateral damage for
the surrounding community.
There will be greatly increased, almost
constant traffi c to and from the area;
unnecessary zoning changes to the far-
sighted Eugene Metropolitan Plan; great
expenditure of time and money for the city
of Eugene to bring about these changes;
a decrease in property values in the area;
potentially
economically
damaging
competition for many locally owned and
operated businesses along Willamette;
as well as the tragic loss of a historically
recognized landmark devoted to recreation
and the public good.
Personally, I would love to see a
cooperative venture between the city
of Eugene, Friends of Civic, soccer
organizations and the YMCA. In the
meantime I urge all concerned citizens to
4
let the School Board know how you feel
about a Freddy’s on Willamette, reminding
them that their fi duciary responsibilities
include nurturing the public trust for the
passage of future bond measures.
Rebecca La Mothe
Eugene
WHO’S CRAZY?
In the latest issue [1/23], Rick Levin
paired Alley Valkyrie’s excellent article
with one on homeless insanity. He quoted
Whitebird’s Ben Brubaker as estimating
that a quarter to a third of homeless people
are mentally ill (a defi nition Brubaker
himself challenges as nebulous). Lauren
Regan of CLDC is quoted as saying
“Nobody chooses to live on the streets who
are in their right minds.”
The latter statement is simply not true.
Young people, fed up with bourgeois,
suburban society, often test themselves by
living very simply, keeping their wits about
them as a daily exercise in meeting reality
head-on. Others are forced out of more
comfortable situations by divorce, job loss,
felony conviction or other unfortunate
circumstances. Not all of them are crazy.
As to the one-quarter to one-third
statistic, yes, some lash out at “ghosts in
Kesey Square.” But are one in four people
on the street more crazy than you? I mean
you, the reader. Since the 1980s, some
folks have received advanced degrees
in creating complex forms. Others have
got degrees in sifting the information to
exclude those who might not fi t a desired
pattern. Others have developed networking
skills and technical competence, enabling
them to answer an alarm clock and rush off
for eight hours in a tiny cubicle, focused on
a telephone and a computer screen — fi ve
days a week for 30 years.
Who’s crazy? Those who succeeded
at fi lling in the forms and occupying
the cubicles? Or those to whom these
conditions were unacceptable? People
January 30, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
who cannot cope with the modern world
are considered crazy by default. But more
alcohol and drugs are consumed, per
capita, by housed, employed people —
and at least the homeless are not bombing
Pakistani wedding parties.
It’s a mistake to denigrate a whole
class of people, different than ourselves,
and herd them like animals. Legalize
homelessness.
Christopher Logan
Eugene
A REAL WIN-WIN DECISION
We’re endangered by ongoing ripoffs
of Eugene’s resources and livability such
as the loss of Amazon and Westmoreland
low-income housing while allowing
Hyundai and now Capstone. That’s why I
oppose Fred Meyer’s plan to demolish and
replace the publicly owned and historically
signifi cant Civic Stadium with another
store. As a YMCA member, I also oppose
the Y proposal to replace Civic with 60
single-family homes supposedly selling
for $300,000 each. Given the obvious glut
of new housing and the demise of big box
stores, allowing either my private nonprofi t
club or a corporate chain to benefi t from
selling Civic, our “heart of Eugene,” to the
highest bidder is shortsighted, risky and
irresponsible.
A real win-win option for all parties
serving the public interest is for the city
to buy the land from 4J using park funds
and allow the Y and Civic Stadium to share
the site. Such strategic collaboration and
vision from our civic leaders could result
in a new Y next to a renovated and covered
Civic Stadium with dynamic soccer, track,
football, baseball and music programs
benefi ting the entire community year
around. Let’s lobby the 4J board to do their
civic duty and accept the city’s offer.
David Zupan
Eugene
UNRESOLVED CONCERNS
Oakleigh Meadow Co-Housing (OMC)
is not approved to break ground
soon, as they state on their Facebook
page. Neighbors on Oakleigh and McClure
Lanes have appealed OMC’s PUD
application and it is now in the hands of the
Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).
OMC’s project is too large for
our community to be compatible
and harmonious, as required by a
PUD, Oakleigh Lane does not meet the
minimum city of Eugene street requirements
to handle the additional traffi c fl ow,
and OMC drivers have already proven to be
fast and unsafe to our community during
their monthly site visits.
Neighbors have tried to compromise
with OMC about terms since the summer
of 2010, only to be repeatedly
ignored! Neighbors have tried many
times to mediate with OMC over the
past 110 days when the public hearing was
scheduled. No compromise! OMC will not
respond to neighbors or other concerned
citizens when we approach them.
In addition, we are very concerned
about neighbors and citizens of
Eugene being held responsible for
additional costs from this project. EWEB
will have to upgrade the water lines
along Oakleigh and McClure, which will
require expensive road improvements.
These costs will be passed on to Eugene
EWEB customers.
This project has too many unresolved
concerns to be breaking ground anytime
soon, and OMC needs to be honest with all
affected individuals before making such