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.”
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• 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.
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Reader Evelyn Herczeg sent us this photo of what
she calls “a Darwinian disaster waiting to happen,
right outside Albertson’s on Royal Avenue.”
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eugeneweekly.com • June 5, 2014
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