LET TERS
COUNTING
Kevin Sullivan made a stab at class
analysis in “And Inequality For All,”
(Aug. 7), saying “It is near impossible,
however, to draw a bead on the wealthiest
Eugeneans.” That’s not the “end of story,”
however. Colorful income maps for all of
Oregon show wealth distribution patterns
by sections of neighborhood, city and
county. Pie charts break it down for cities.
Eugene had 1,956 households making
over $200,000 in 2009 during the Great
Recession. There were 1,791 making
over $150,000 and 1,776 taking in more
than $125,000. These 5,423 households
comprised 10 percent of Eugene’s
total. This could be mapped onto the
public disclosure list of the 5,077
Eugeneans contributing large amounts to
political campaigns from 2006 to 2014.
It lists them by name and occupation,
though many are retired. Coordinating
these with actual residences is fairly easy,
though time consuming. News stories and
business statistics add interest. The income
map shows high levels up in the hills and
lower ones in the fl atlands. North Eugene
and parts of west Eugene were moderately
wealthy, too. In South Eugene, though,
income and elevation are coordinated.
Divining the 1 percent, or the richest
500 households in Eugene, would
require research, but it’s not impossible
to fi nd them. Many don’t want to hide.
We’re still in a roaring, plutocratic era.
Characterizing the top 10 percent, or
VIEWPOINT
5,000 households, would be more useful
for a class analysis looking at wealth and
power of the elite, like the sociologist C.
Wright Mills did for America during the
last century.
Chris Piché
Eugene
I thought I might never be moved
to write another letter to the Weekly, let
alone stoop to the superfl uous use of
profanity in one. However, after reading
Ray McMillin’s condemnation of the font
Papyrus, I just have to say right the fuck
on.
Timothy Shaw
Eugene
we’re taking the kids to the wave pool.”
This works because there is no
announcement requiring a response. The
conversation can move on gracefully even
if the person I am speaking to is startled by
the incidental mention of my gay son.
This simple formula never fails me.
Anytime I consider how to phrase a
statement about my son, I try the sentence
substituting a straight daughter, and it is
easy to tell if it works.
If everyone who has gay children,
siblings, or friends would acknowledge
them in routine conversations, the
awkwardness of these references will
disappear.
Susan Kehrli Rogers
Eugene
AWKWARD MOMENTS
EXPIRED TAX HIKE
I
appreciated
Sally
Sheklow’s
description of the “awkwardness” of saying
“my wife” in public conversation [“Living
Out” column, 8/7]. As a parent with a
gay son and son-in-law, I know that most
people are not used to hearing anyone refer
casually to “my son and his husband.”
I try to talk about my gay son in the
same way that I talk about my straight
daughters. I never announce that my
daughters are straight, so I don’t need to
announce that my son is gay. But it would
be routine for me to say, “My daughter and
her husband are visiting me, and we’re
going to the fair.” So I can say, “My son
and his husband are coming to Eugene, and
Responding to “Inequality for All”
[cover story, 8/7]: The most important
paragraph talked about how in 2010
Oregonians voted yes on Measure 66,
increasing taxes on individuals earning
over $250,000 a year. And then the state
Legislature allowed it to expire in 2012.
This is worthy of an article. Who
allowed this and are they still in offi ce?
These are the legislators who are not doing
as the people wish. Vote.
Rouanna Garden
Eugene
MOVED BY FONTS
Raging Grannies celebrated Medicare’s
SMOKING AT CUTHBERT
We have attended two concerts at the
Cuthbert this summer so far. The venue
is well organized; however, the smoking
section is huge, encompassing the portable
toilets and bathroom area. Also right next to
food and drink booths. You have to stand in
the smoking area to wait for the bathroom
BY ROBER T EMMONS
State Law
vs. Natural
Law
SPRINGFIELD’S SEAVEY LOOP
PLANS DRAW IRE
A
long Seavey Loop Road winding all the
way to Hwy. 58, “Stop Seavey Loop
Industrial Zone” signs have cropped up
over the past few weeks on almost every
property. The two-lane blacktop runs
through fl oodplain rich in farmland and natural areas
nurtured by the Coast Fork of the Willamette River and
Oxley Slough and overseen by Mount Pisgah rising
gently in the east. The signs are an expression of solid
resistance in a neighborhood unifi ed in its opposition to
the Springfi eld City Council’s decision to sweep part of
the Seavey Loop area into its urban growth boundary
(UGB) overfl ow and open it up to industrial development.
On Aug. 6, in the shade of one of Buford-Mount
Pisgah’s large white oaks, neighbors and other
concerned citizens met with State Rep. Phil Barnhart and
State Sen. Lee Beyer to put their passionate and often
eloquent voices behind the signage. Chief organizer
Charles Stewart, a Seavey organic farmer, began with
4
MEDICARE FOR ALL
49th birthday in front of Lane County’s
Health Department! Health Care For
All Eugene members loved having the
Grannies share this special event and
remind everyone that improved Medicare
is really what we want for everybody in
Oregon. They also remind us that a raising
of the eligibility age from 65 to 67, with
additional cuts to Medicare and Medicaid,
is not acceptable! Cutting Social Security
or Medicare is not acceptable!
HCAO asks their supporters to call
the Capitol switchboard (866) 220-
0044 and request to be connected to
their representatives or senators. A truly
universal health care system that will
reduce the defi cit and save American lives
will also save us $500 billion a year just on
health care costs.
The rest of the world is watching our
failing health care system. Can we make
the changes needed? Join their monthly
meeting at 7 pm the fi rst Tuesday of the
month at First United Methodist Church,
1376 Olive St.
Ruth Duemler
Eugene
A ugust 21, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
an announcement that the Straub family, relatives of
the former governor and owners of 56 acres of Seavey
Loop land critical to Springfi eld’s UGB proposal, have
abandoned their neutrality and joined neighbors in the
fi ght against expansion and industrialization.
A dozen speakers highlighted the deep-rooted
cultural history of the area, the callousness and absurdity
of imposing industry on its fragile ecology, the impact of
industrial pollution on the land, the lives and the living
of local farmers and residents, and its place in the joint
city-county scheme to urbanize and industrialize the I-5
corridor from Springfi eld through the Lane Community
College basin to Goshen. Planners refer to the proposed
industrial area as College View.
In response, the guests of honor paid lip service to the
beauty and fertility of the surrounds without, however,
recognizing the importance of the area’s farms and
farmers to the local economy and to food security now
and in a future plagued by population and development
pressures and depleted resources. To the contrary,
Barnhart insisted that “Oregon is an industrial state” and
that the economy needs and will have industry, implying
that industrialization of the gateway to Pisgah is both
desirable and inevitable.
Both legislators encouraged the audience to voice
their concerns at upcoming city and county sessions on
UGB expansion. But they know the system is rigged
against equitable and meaningful participation by the
legislative requirement that local jurisdictions provide
a 20-year supply of buildable lands, a toxic recipe for
exponential growth well beyond its pull date.
Given the unwillingness to address population
control, land-use protections weakened or eliminated by
development interests and complicit administrators and
politicians and the inevitable environmental and social
degradation as a consequence, the expansion of urban
growth boundaries is axiomatic.
The common corollary, “It’s a state law; we have no
choice,” justifi es every invasion — as if the 40-year-old
buildable lands mandate, established in a bygone era,
were an edict from God and immutable. To eliminate
this requirement, as anachronistic and destructive as the
General Mining Law of 1872, is both a choice and an
obligation.
Expanding to meet state law, Springfi eld runs into
natural law: Any direction it chooses to expand is already
occupied by wetlands, rivers and streams, farmland,
forestland and mountain. Given these topographical
limitations, it’s unfortunate that Barnhart and Beyer
were not asked where the farms will grow and how the
rivers will fl ow as UGBs expand into infi nity.
In a bid to the farmers and sympathizers in the crowd,
Beyer properly praised Hector McPherson, a farmer, as
the progenitor of SB 100, but in the same breath chose
to damn Tom McCall as a mere opportunist given the
credit due to McPherson and Bob Straub. Beyer should
be counseled that without McCall’s passionate and
articulate commitment to comprehensive, regulated
land-use protections and his tireless public advocacy —
qualities conspicuously absent in every state legislator
and governor since — Oregon’s nationally recognized
land-use program would likely have died an early death,
or never been born.
Early in the session, someone asked if there were any
Springfi eld city councilors, planners or Lane County
commissioners present. We looked around but couldn’t
fi nd any.
Robert Emmons of Fall Creek is president of LandWatch Lane
County, a group that seeks to protect and sustain Lane County’s
soils, air and water quality. See landwatch.net.