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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 2014)
NEWS Cascade Raptor Center on Fox Hollow Road took a big hit in the recent snow and ice storm, says Louise Shimmel of the center. She says volunteers wore hard hats as they were feeding the birds and checking on them amid crashing branches and even falling trees. The birds survived despite damage to their aviaries, though a couple of traumatized owls and a kite needed to come inside for the weekend. A supply shed was damaged, along with the mouse barn and a car. The center was closed for two weeks and is now fundraising to help pay for the damage and lost revenue. See eraptors.org or call 485-1320 to help. A free PTSD community clinic is being offered by Suzanne Fairchild, L.Ac. and Lisa Harrick-Varga, IARP of Harmonic Health. Along with monthly guest healers, the two are donating their time, energy and materials the first Sunday of the month to deliver care, acupuncture and Reiki to patients with PTSD. Patients do not have to be veterans, but “This is a patient population that has been and is underserved and it is a true joy and honor to offer this to them,” says Fairchild. The next clinic will be from 2 to 4 pm Sunday, March 2, at the Stellaria Building, 150 Shelton McMurphy Blvd. Donations not required but will be accepted. Email suzannefairchild@gmail.com. The Gluten Free Cart opened in downtown Eugene last week at 225 W. Broadway, across the street from Noisette Pastry Kitchen. The business, which also has a display at the EuGenius Market at Gateway Mall in Springfield through March, offers gluten-free mixes, pastas, fresh- baked goods, gift baskets and gourmet foods. Call 912- 5370 or find them on Facebook. The cart will also be at EW’s Spring Wellness Summit March 29 at Cozmic. Bicycle businesses in Lane County are gathering and celebrating with a fundraising event starting at 7 pm Tuesday, March 4, at Cush Café, 1235 Railroad Blvd. Two local bands will play and speakers will talk about “pioneering” bike businesses in the city and the future of bike enterprises. Participating will be Patchwork Repair, Cascadian Courier Collective, Pedal Power Music, Crepe Cyclette, Emerald City Pedicabs, Hummingbird and others. Find the event at wkly.ws/1oy. Springfield Shelter Rights Alliance, a program of Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC), is busy building Conestoga huts to house the homeless in Springfield. Two huts will be constructed March 1 at Northwood Christian Church, 2425 Harvest Lane. The Springfield City Council approved the huts, which cost about $1,200 each for materials. The city pays for portable toilets and garbage collection. See calclane.org for details and to contribute. A free small business clinic is planned for 5 to 7 pm Thursday, March 6, and again March 27, at the Eugene Public Library downtown. Sponsored by the LCC Small Business Development Center and SCORE: Counselors to America’s Small Business. Topics include “Start and Grow an Arts & Crafts Business.” Pre-registration is required, call 682-5450. CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS In our story last week “All Art and No Business?” we got the date wrong on the meeting. It was Feb. 12. lighten up BY RAFAEL ALDAVE Perhaps the best news coming out of the just-released auditor’s report on the shenanigans in Lane County government is that the Republicans on the Board of County Commissioners acted more like Sarah Palin than like Chris Christie. 8 February 27, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com DESPERATELY SEEKING CITY FUNDING The city of Eugene’s Revenue Team is sifting through potential strategies to suggest revenue increases to the Budget Committee for the city’s General Fund, in light of the $3 million deficit the city faces for fiscal year (FY) 2015. Their goal is to recommend revenue strategies that will generate significant revenue, be acceptable to the community and can be implemented by FY16. City Councilor and Revenue Team member Claire Syrett says the team aims for its recommendations to equally affect businesses, property owners and people using city services. “Let’s say we put forward three or four specific tax proposals,” Syrett says. “I would say probably at least half of them would burden folks of lower income.” Eight of the 15 strategies to be further examined dur- ing the Revenue Team’s meetings on March 13 and 20 have the potential to have more of an impact on low- income residents, according to the Finance Budget Ana- lyst Team’s report. However, many of the taxes can be structured to be less regressive, such as the transient room tax, which could exclude unhoused people who are using vouchers. “One of the things I like about it is it captures dollars from folks coming from outside the community,” Rev- enue Team member Laurie Trieger says. A 1 percent increase on taxes of hotel rooms, mo- tel rooms, RV parks and campgrounds would contribute approximately $105,000 yearly to the general fund, ac- cording to the Finance Budget Analyst Team. “If we were to go to 12.5 percent instead of 10.5 percent,” Revenue Team member John Barofsky says, “you’re getting $200,000, which is a branch library.” Closing down the Sheldon and Bethel branch librar- ies are cuts proposed to balance the city’s budget. The Revenue Team is also considering an admissions tax for performances, red light cameras and a tax on electronic cigarettes. “Supposedly, this is something that’s supposed to help folks get off cigarettes,” Trieger says of e-cigs. “It’s really as much a ploy to engage youth in nicotine addic- tion as it is to really help people quit cigarettes.” State law prohibits cities from taxing tobacco and al- cohol sales but does not yet restrict e-cigarette taxation. Budget Committee and Revenue Team member Marty Wilde says he would recommend implementing the tax based on nicotine content of the product. “I certainly think it’s reasonable to impose what I would say is a reasonably equivalent tax to the ciga- rette tax that is imposed on the state level,” Wilde says. — Missy Corr WALIDAH IMARISHA PHOTO BY PETE SHAW OREGON’S HIDDEN HISTORY EXPOSED Dozens of people were turned away from the Bas- com-Tykeson room at the Eugene Public Library Feb. 23. The room had reached its full capacity of 106 people well before Walidah Imarisha’s 2 pm talk “Why Aren’t There More Black People in Oregon? A Hidden Histo- ry.” Several people watched through the windows from Broadway. Imarisha, a professor in Portland State University’s Black Studies department, has been touring Oregon for three years giving the talk, with 12 stops this February in honor of Black History Month. The event began with Imarisha directing the audi- ence to grab a partner and inspect the timeline: docu- ments describing key events in Oregon’s racial history hanging on the surrounding walls. One document marked 1859 stated: “Oregon became the only state admitted to the Union with a racially ex- clusive law, written into the Constitution. It banned any ‘free negro, mulatto, not residing in this state at the time’ from living holding real estate and making any contracts within the state.” “What were people’s initial reactions to the time- line?” Imarisha asked. “I feel like we’re talking about a Southern state,” one woman said. Another sheet marked 1994 describes the impact of Measure 11, the ballot that established mandatory mini- mum sentencing: “Black people account for just 4 per- cent of the state’s youth population, but 19 percent of Measure 11 indictments.” “Because of the war on drugs and the criminaliza- tion of consensual crimes, there’s more people — more black people — in prison now than there were slaves back then,” said one man. The conversation turned to “sunset towns,” — towns and cities that essentially banned people of color af- ter sunset. Imarisha referred the audience to James W. Loewen’s book Sundown Towns and its corresponding website: wkly.ws/1oz. Loewen, the American sociolo- gist and historian who wrote Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, provides information on each state and the cities that have or had sundown laws. Eugene, Springfield, Flor- ence, Oakridge and Ashland, among others, are on Or- egon’s list. The last slide Imarisha presented was about the Black Panther Party. “There were two chapters of the Black Panther Party in Oregon and one was in Eugene and one was in Portland,” she said. At its height circa 1969, the BPP fed 10,000 children per day through its free breakfast program. — Alex Notman
