NEWS
ACTIVIST
LERT
• The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the topic of a
free Sierra Club forum at 7 pm Thursday, Feb. 13, at the
Unitarian Universalist Church at 13th and Chambers.
Speakers include Jesse Swanhuyser, chair of the
national Sierra Club’s Committee on International
Trade, Human Rights and the Environment, and Linda
Peterson of the Oregon Fair Trade Coalition and AFSCME
Local 3214. Contact Bill Rogers at 654-0405.
• A free meeting on “Marijuana Re-Legalization”
will be from 5:30 to 7 pm Thursday, Feb. 13, at the
Eugene Public Library. Facilitator will be Dan Koozer,
director of Willamette Valley chapter of National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
and co-founder of the Cannabis Liberation Front and
the Emerald Empire HempFest. Sponsored by the
Lane County ACLU. Email lanechapter@aclu-or.org for
more information.
• A “bee swarm” protest is planned for 11 am
Saturday, Feb. 15, on the sidewalk outside of Home
Depot on Seneca Road, as part of the national “Show
Bees Some Love” campaign, bringing attention to
pesticides that damage bee colonies. A carpool to the
protest will meet at 10 am at Beyond Toxics, 1192
Lawrence St.
• A workshop on rain gardens will be from 9 to
11:30 am Saturday, Feb. 15, at Petersen Barn
Community Center. $10. RSVP to 465-6443, ext. 102.
• “Imagine Peace” is the theme of a multi-choir
concert at 2:30 pm Sunday, Feb. 16, at New Hope
Church, 1790 Charnelton St. Performing will be In
Accord Community Choir, Eugene Peace Choir, Rogue
Valley Peace Choir and Portland Peace Choir. $3 to $5
suggested donation.
• Permaculture advocate Jan Spencer will speak
at 6:30 pm Wednesday, Feb. 19, at the East Blair
Housing Co-Op, 940 W. 4th Ave. as an introduction to a
tour of the site from 1 to 3 pm Saturday, March 1,
which will also meet at the co-op’s community room.
Call 345-3827 or see suburbanpermaculture.org.
• Friends of David Oaks (FODO) is planning a
“living estate sale” Feb. 21-23 and the group is looking
for good items to add to the collection of antiques and
collectibles coming in. The sale will be held in the
storefront next to Jasper’s Deli at Delta Oaks Shopping
Center on Green Acres Road. Find the FODO sale on
Facebook at wkly.ws/1os or call 343-8242.
• The Eugene Budget Committee’s Revenue Team
subcommittee meets from 5:30 to 7:30 pm Thursday,
Feb. 20, in the Atrium Building Sloat Room at 10th and
Olive.
• Gil Penalosa, executive director of 8-80 Cities,
will speak at a gathering from 7:30 to 10:30 am
Thursday, Feb. 20, at the Eugene Hilton. Penalosa will
join a panel to talk about creating cities for people of all
ages though sustainable and healthy urban design.
Panelists include Mayor Kitty Piercy, Christine
Lundberg and Doris Towery. Dan Egan will facilitate.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
Doug & Linda Carnine, 485-3781, plan to hire Larry
Kimer, 206-7187, to ground spray 200 acres near
Spencer Creek with Element 4, triclopyr. See ODF
notice 2014-781-00159, call State Forester Brian
Peterson at 935-2283 with questions.
White Water Ranch, 968-7596, may be planning to
backpack spray 60 acres near Ritchie Creek, a fish-
bearing stream, with Westar, Roundup and/or
Crossbow with water, the notification is not clear on
the details and a written plan was not submitted but
may be required. See ODF notice 2014-771-00126,
call State Forester Tim Meehan at 726-3588 with
questions.
Compiled by Jan Wroncy & Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers, 342-
8332, forestlanddwellers.org.
8
February 13, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
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tracted by a scandal of his own making, our economy con-
tinues to founder, our rural areas continue to suffer neglect
and the electorate becomes angrier and — rightly — more
disaffected.” She continues, “We deserve better than this.”
— Camilla Mortensen
WHOVILLE WEATHERS
THE SNOW AND ICE
Less than three weeks are remaining of the 30-day re-
prieve given by the Eugene City Council on Jan. 30, and the
campers at Whoville persevered through a storm that shut
down schools, public buildings and stores.
The 30 to 35 residents periodically cleared snow from
the tops of their tents and the walkways between them.
“I’m loving it,” Whoville camper Megan Ludwig says.
“It’s not easy, but I come out every hour and my tent’s not
doing too bad. So I’m loving it.”
Campers say teamwork and donations got them through
the snow and ice storm.
“Basically, you take care of your own tent or somebody
might do it for you,” Whoville camper Aurora Richardson
says. “We all take care of each other here.”
Campers fought the freezing temperatures by gather-
ing around the outdoor fire pit, with candles in their tents
or inside the warming structure near the center of the site.
The approximately 7-by-12-foot kerosene-heated structure
is made up of wooden boards, blankets and tarps. Inside,
campers passed around the communal guitar to pass the
time.
“Most of us have gotten used to the community setting,
and we need each other to take care of each other,” Richard-
son says. “I don’t know where I’d be if I was still downtown
on the streets.”
She says campers are not going to move at the end of the
30 days if the city has not given them a new site.
“Until they give us a place where we can all go — all
35 of us — then we’re here,” Richardson says. “But we’re
really confident, working with them, that they’re going to
provide for us a place.”
City Councilor Alan Zelenka says Whoville is a micro-
cosm of a bigger problem — the 1,700 people in Eugene
without housing.
“The snow’s going to go away and so will the cold. But
that’s not the long-term solution to any of this,” Zelenka
says. “The long-term solution to this homeless stuff is pre-
venting it, but that doesn’t help with the immediacy of deal-
ing with the cold.”
City Councilor Mike Clark says the council is having
trouble agreeing on a long-term solution to get people off
the streets.
“But I think it’s real wrong that by default we’re saying
‘Yeah, I guess it’s OK [to sleep outside].’ Because I don’t
think it is,” Clark says. “I wouldn’t let my kid sleep outside
in this and I wouldn’t want to. So why is it OK for some-
body else?” — Missy Corr
WOW HALL, CITY AT IMPASS
OVER HISTORIC STREET
LIGHTS
A dispute has been brewing for years over a proposal to
install four historic street lamps in front of the Woodmen
of the World Hall, aka the nonprofit Community Center for
the Performing Arts on West 8th Avenue. The WOW Hall is
willing to cover the costs of installation, retrofitting, main-
tenance and electricity, but Eugene Public Works is balk-
ing, saying the old lights conflict with the city’s efforts to
upgrade street lighting citywide. Eugene has about 10,000
streetlights.
The light fixtures date to the early mid-20th century and
were removed and stored several years ago as part of im-
provements in the West University Neighborhood. WOW
Hall, built in 1932 and one of the few historic buildings
still standing downtown, wants to buy the lights and retrofit
them with energy-efficient bulbs. The intent is to add to the
building’s historic ambiance and also to enhance the neigh-
borhood and improve security, according to Jon Pincus, fa-
cilities and development consultant to the nonprofit.
“This is part of a historic landscape context for a Na-
tional Register property,” Pincus says, and adds that current
lighting is inadequate, particularly on the west side of the
building along Lincoln Street where trees cast shadows at
night and illicit activities sometimes go on.
The WOW Hall has partnered with the Downtown
Neighborhood Association, the Eugene Historic Review
Board and others on this project, and Pincus says he has the
support of city planning staff and local businesses. But city
Traffic Engineer Tom Larsen has declined to sign off on a
Neighborhood Matching Grant proposal that would make
the project possible.
“The response from the grant people was you need to
have Public Works buy off on this for the application to go
ahead,” Larsen says. “I would categorize his [Pincus’] re-
sponse as getting support from everybody else on the block
rather than sitting down to have a conversation with Public
Works.”
Pincus says he is frustrated that Eugene Public Works
won’t return his calls or meet with him. An email asking
for a meeting this month was sent Feb. 6 to both Larsen and
Kurt Corey of Public Works. A tentative meeting has been
set for Feb. 21.
“I will inherit this forever if it goes in,” Larsen says, cit-
ing multiple concerns: Public Works has been trying to get
old, inefficient, high-maintenance lights out of the system.
The old globe lights have “hidden maintenance costs” and
provide diffused light instead of directed light. One of the
locations proposed for the old lights is next to a new street-
light. Merchants have agreed in the past to maintain special
lights but went out of business, leaving the burden on the
city. Public Works has denied special streetlights to other
businesses, such as a pink light requested by Voodoo Do-
nuts.
“We don’t do special fixtures for special people,” Larsen
says. “I like to treat everyone the same in that respect. But
Voodoo Donuts heard ‘no’ the first time and kept the stan-
dard street lights.”
Pincus says Larsen’s concerns about efficiency and
maintenance have no merit, and the project is similar to
many historic restorations that have been conducted by the
city of Eugene and around the country. “This project will
help the community understand the historic nature of the
WOW Hall and will have a great benefit for the neighbor-
hood surrounding the hall.” — Ted Taylor
CITY HALL AND A
WRECKING BALL
Concepts of a new Eugene City Hall don’t look much
like the old building, city councilors saw at a Feb. 10 work
session. Architecture firm Rowell Brokaw presented config-
urations of a small building, with a council chamber similar
to the existing one, facing 8th Avenue near its intersection
with Pearl.
The first phase of the plan includes a new council cham-
ber, mayor, City Council and city manager’s offices and pos-
sibly community meeting rooms covering between a quarter
and half the block. The partially underground parking would
likely be eliminated and temporarily replaced with street-
level parking until phase two of the project comes before
council — at an as-yet undetermined date.
Mayor Kitty Piercy says that temporary street-level park-
ing was recommended as a way to keep the remainder of
the block shovel-ready for phase two of City Hall while
possibly taking in a little income, but parking isn’t the only
option. “I’d like to have a broader discussion than just park-
ing,” she says. “It could be a community garden space —
there are a lot of possibilities for it.”
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