Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2014)
SLANT The West Eugene EmX expansion is moving forward, despite vocal opposition and efforts to derail it. With this in mind, the nonprofit Better Eugene-Springfield Transit (BEST) is holding a public forum to “share diverse views on why transit is, or isn’t important to our community” from 5:30 to 7:30 pm Tuesday, June 10, at the LCC Downtown Center, Room 105. By late summer, BEST will report back to the community on views that have been expressed, and “offer suggestions for possible next steps toward improving public transit in our community,” says Rob Zako, executive director of BEST. See best- oregon.org. We see the “For Lease” sign is still up at the former location of Top City Frozen Yogurt Café near Albertson’s at 18th and Chambers. The business, owned by Joel and Tina Rimmer, opened in spring of 2012 and closed at the end of 2013. The Rimmer family owns Oldfield’s Appliance and Home Theater. No comment from Joel Rimmer on why the yogurt shop closed. A couple of food-related businesses have tried that high-visibility location (Bene Gourmet Pizza was first) since it was a branch of Oregon Community Credit Union. It still has a walk-in bank vault. Hmmm. Maybe a good place for a cash-only medical pot dispensary? Evans Elder & Brown is asking $1.12 per sq. ft. and the building is 3,500 sq. ft. Mountain Rose Herbs is trying something different, a first-ever retail pop-up shop from 4 to 9 pm Friday, June 6, and from 9 am to 5 pm Saturday, June 7, at the Broadway Commerce Center at 44 W. Broadway. The pop-up shop will coincide with the June First Friday ArtWalk and the Eugene Saturday Market. Mountain Rose has a large facility in west Eugene, but zoning there does not allow retail sales. Friendly Street Market has a new full- service deli and patio that opened May 31. Owner Erin Gilfillan says she enlisted the help of local artists, architects and landscapers to “create a space that is relaxed and comfortable. What was once a dark, cluttered space has now become bright, welcoming and full of opportunity.” General manager is Angela Mustacchia. See friendlystmarket.com. Across the street is the LUCiA development which is happening in stages starting with townhouses. Pink Buffalo Productions is a new business in Eugene that organizes and manages running events. Owner is runner Piper Ruiz, who recently won $2,000 in prizes for her business plan and pitch to the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce Latino Business Network. Ruiz also works with Eclectic Edge Racing. One local event coming up is the “Running of the Bulls” July 19, but instead of live bulls, runners will be chased by Roller Derby girls. See pinkbuffaloracing.com. The Makindu Children’s Program is planning its annual fundraising benefit and auction from 6 to 9 pm Saturday, June 7, at 123 Café, at 123 International Way in Springfield. Keynote speaker will be founder Winnie Barron. The nonprofit supports the Makindu Children’s Centre in rural Kenya, serving hungry, sick and dying children, many of them orphans of the AIDS epidemic. See makindu.org or call 357-9673. “Guerrilla Funding for Small Business” is the topic of an LCC Small Business Development Center session at 6 pm Thursday, June 12, at the Downtown Eugene Library. Speaker is Frank Plaisted, an expert on financing small start-ups. Call 682-5450. • No Eugene Celebration or parade this summer? We broke the news on our blog and Facebook page Tuesday afternoon. Sad news for all of us who are big fans and have been going and volunteering for more than three decades now. Maybe our great and quirky parade can be salvaged. It’s the one time each year when our entire, diverse community comes together — north, south, east and west. What happens now? Will the Whiteaker Block Party (which is free) become the new Eugene Celebration? We remember when the EC was free and timed for late September when students were back on campus. Will “Little Portland” businesses downtown take it over? How about the UO athletic department? Ducks on parade. How about the Eugene Police Department? The EC is good for overtime. The SLUG Queen competition must go on, but the new queen will need a parade to begin her rain. • The Chronicle of Higher Education has a long, detailed story about athletic recruitment that starts with the UO walking away from Marvin Clark after the young athlete needed surgery for a fractured foot. “The Courting of Marvin Clark” details how the UO “campus wowed him. Everywhere he looked, he saw the Nike swoosh. The company’s co-founder, a big Oregon donor, had helped finance some of the nicest facilities in the country. For a kid who had spent time in homeless shelters, it seemed like nirvana.” The story goes on to ask, “But in the cutthroat world of recruiting, who is looking out for him?” Who is looking out for UO athletes, as well as other students on campus? . This article, like the recent UO rape investigation involving basketball players, makes us wonder, again, whether the Ducks are putting sports success ahead of student well-being. • Mike Bencheck was a welcome visitor at the Opportunity Village Eugene open house out at Garfield and Roosevelt on May 31. A non-denominational minister from the Dallas, Texas, area, Bencheck was here to see a project that works for transitioning homeless people off the streets. He has been exploring the idea in Dallas and sees helping veterans as the best approach for that part of Texas. It was inspiring to see what Dan Bryant, Cary Thompson and many other Eugeneans have built for about $100,000: tiny unheated houses, central showers and toilets, an outdoor kitchen, a community center yurt — not exactly permanent places to live, but a significant step up. OVE is launching a second village where residents will be able to build and sell equities in their houses. Lots of problems to solve, but we predict they will succeed. • Homeless advocate Alley Valkyrie has a pertinent essay on Kesey Square at wildhunt. org in which she describes police chasing and tackling a young man suffering from severe mental illness at the square. The man had been excluded from downtown for earlier disorderly conduct. “The tragic irony of the situation suddenly struck me on a very deep level,” she writes. “People with mental illness were being banned from a plaza named after the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and were being subdued and arrested directly in front of a statue of the author himself. How did a plaza named after a counterculture hero become ground zero for socioeconomic conflict and class-based exclusion policies? Kesey himself would have been excluded under these laws … He would have been sitting right here, smoking a joint while dressed like a hippie farmer, and they would have banned him from downtown … Kesey Square might be a troubled, dead space but it is the commons all the same, and the person whose name is invoked in the title of this specific place would never have stood for what I was witnessing.” proudly presents THURSDAY JUNE 5 8PM KENNY REED CD RELEASE FRIDAY JUNE 6 7:30 AND 9:30 PM SHOWS GRAMMY AWARD WINNER ERNIE WATTS WITH THE MARC SEALES TRIO RETURN ENGAGEMENT ADVANCE SALE TICKETS ON LINE SATURDAY JUNE 7 7 AND 9PM SHOWS HALIE LOREN RETURNS HOME TO EUGENE ADVANCE SALE TICKETS ON LINE SUNDAY JUNE 8 4 - 7 PM ALL COMERS JAM, WITH KENNY REED AND BAND ALL LEVELS, ALL AGES WELCOME SATURDAY JUNE 14 • 7 AND 9PM CONCRETE LOVESEAT ADVANCE SALE TICKETS ON LINE Visit: www.thejazzstation.org For continuing schedules and advance ticket sales 124 West Broadway, Eugene Whirled Pies Pizzeria • For geeky-politico election watchers like us the races for East and West Lane County Commission seats are real nail biters. Last week the R-G and the Lesley and Matthews campaigns “all asked the Lane County Elections Office directly and were provided a form to fill out, paid a fee for the information and received the records” of ballots with signature challenges. Rather than ask the clerk directly, Commish Jay Bozievich made a public records request, and when he didn’t get the info when the others did, he followed up on Saturday. “His campaign was told to bring the appropriate Secretary of State’s form into the office with payment between 2-3 pm,” Lane County tells us. An employee was paid $28.95 to come in on the weekend and copy records. At last count Boz was ahead of challenger Dawn Lesley by 23 votes, and Commissioner Faye Stewart is 13 votes ahead of Kevin Matthews. At this point either race could go to a fall runoff. Local Food, Beer & Wine! • We now have our own correspondent in Brazil for the World Cup. Killian Doherty graduated from the UO School of Law in May and scraped together a round-trip ticket to Brazil. He’s an avid soccer fan and one of 600,000 foreigners in Brazil. Like most fans, he is there on a shoestring budget, watching the football games on TV in cafés, bars and on the streets. Find his “Whatsupworldcup” column in our news section this week, a primer for those who would like to know more about the biggest sporting event on the planet. Any large specialty pizza (or other $25 purchase) when you mention this ad WTF? Reader Evelyn Herczeg sent us this photo of what she calls “a Darwinian disaster waiting to happen, right outside Albertson’s on Royal Avenue.” & Bottle Shop 5 off $ offer expires 5/31/13 $ 6 lunch Our famous strombolini & a side salad for just $6 from 11am to 3pm daily offer expires 5/31/13 541.636.3737 1123 Monroe St, Eugene Open 11am to 10pm Daily Full Menu at WhirledPies.com eugeneweekly.com • June 5, 2014 9
