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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2014)
We appreciate the shout out to School Garden Project at the end of the article. We depend on more than 100 volunteers each year to help us deliver our garden education programs in Lane County schools. For those interested in helping this year, there are three volunteer trainings scheduled between September and October. Email info@ schoolgardenproject.org or call 541-284- 1001 for details and registration. Thank you! John Moriarty Executive director, School Garden Project of Lane County Eugene and the smoke wafts all around you while waiting for food. Horrible! I think the smoking section should be a fenced area that is actually outside the venue area so non-smokers can breath without being accosted by secondhand smoke. Cathy Rau Newport TYPOCIDE RAP First they came for Comic Sans, and I did not speak out — 
 — because I did not spec Comic Sans. Then they came for Helvetica — hold it right there, typography bigots! This is Eugene! This is our alternative community newspaper, Eugene Weekly! We honor diversity and respect all typefaces, from the lowly, common Times Roman, to the regal Goudy Old Style. Helvetica is one of the most respected, legible and readable typefaces in the whole wide world. I bet you don’t know that it’s named for a country, eh, right, smartypants? The most neutral and well- designed country in the whole wide world. Even if you want to disparage that copyright-avoiding bastard Arial, I won’t stand for it. Nosireebob, you snobby sans serif hater. All typefaces deserve love and respect. Oh, and stop showing your ignorance! A “font” is not a “typeface.” Look it up, Mr. Knowitall. So, don’t come to our happy little town spouting your hateful hate and willfully ignorant aesthetics, because we won’t allow it, Bub. We will stand up to you bigots and hug all typefaces close to our bosoms, protecting them from your disgusting talk of typocide. Take your vile opinions to Springfi eld (some other Springfi eld, not ours — try Missouri or maybe Kentucky). We don’t need your kind here! PS: Please don’t set this letter in Eurostyle Bold Extra-Expanded. That’s only used by engineers and student architects. Thanks. BTW, that Whit Party cover was rather ugly, but it’s fi shwrap now. Stephen Stanley Eugene graphic designer THE SLUSH/HUSH FUND for local residents and it deserves to be protected. It’s linked with food security. I am wondering if the current work on Franklin Boulevard is in any way linked to the city of Springfi eld’s need for growth. Is the installation of a new sewer line linked in any way to the project of industrializing the Seavey Loop area? In light of the historic drought that is impacting most of the Western states, and considering that California’s Central Valley, once known as a global breadbasket, is turning into an arid desert, it might be wise to foresee a future where fertile alluvial lands such as the Willamette Valley (and Seavey Loop) will soon become strategically important for food production while we still have suffi cient water for irrigation. Laying concrete and asphalt over fertile lands and possibly polluting nearby farms is tantamount to being an agent of collapse. We humans need fruits and veggies more than gravel and crushed rock to survive. Marco Elliott Eugene COLOSSAL MISTAKE THE GREEN CORRIDOR An open letter to the Springfi eld mayor: The intent of this letter is to share my opinion regarding the proposed expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary to include an area of Seavey Loop and develop it as an industrial area. This project is going to encounter some very serious opposition from different stakeholders far and wide. Not just the local residents are ready to get involved in this issue. As a resident of south Eugene and a frequent visitor to the Seavey Loop area where I fi nd pleasure, healing and relaxation when hiking in the Mount Pisgah complex of trails, kayaking on the Coast Fork of the Willamette or also when my wife and I come to the area to buy or pick local agricultural products, I can assure you that we feel very invested in this green corridor to the [Mount Pisgah] Arboretum. The thought of having this natural Oregon gem being tarnished by further development is a source of outrage. The presence of small, family-owned farms in this area so close to Eugene and Springfi eld is an incomparable asset National Public Radio eliminated my favorite show, Michel Martin’s Tell Me More. The airwaves have nothing like this program. It fi lls a crucial need in the community. Many folks have no contact with people of color and only learn about racial issues from the media, which, in general, does a dismal job. Michele is artful in her ability to get people to listen and learn. So I wrote to NPR to register my dismay and was told that NPR plans to “infuse Michel Martin’s perspectives into every aspect of our journalism.” The problem with this is the glaring reality that we are losing a woman of color as the head host and replacing her with a white guy. How do young women/girls of color imagine themselves as the host of a radio show if they don’t hear themselves refl ected by a woman of color? Listening to her confi dent and intelligent voice gives us all a view into what reality can and must sound like on radio. As NPR’s new CEO pointed out in an interview with Michel, on one of her last shows, a majority of NPR listeners are white; all the more reason to position voices of color in publicly heard leadership roles. It is vital to create the climate in the microcosm that we say we want in the macrocosm. In my opinion, NPR has made a colossal mistake by replacing Tell Me More with On Point. I have been listening every day trying to give On Point a chance. But, for me, this program falls fl at. It sounds like more of the same NPR white male hosted programming, while Michel Martin’s voice and guests woke us up. We need to hear more racial diversity in radio’s choice of hosts and subject matter. Michelle Holman Deadwood SCHOOL GARDENS Thanks for the great article about the Spencer Butte Middle School garden (“Learning to Grow,” EW, 8/14) and congratulations to principal BJ Blake, Keith Fiedler and the Spencer Butte team of teachers and students who make it happen. While not every school chooses to move the produce from their garden into the cafeteria, it’s a great option for those who do. Having cooperation from Nutrition Services staff is crucial to success. Many schools in Lane County — including 4J, Bethel, Springfi eld and Crow- Applegate-Lorane public schools — have developed educational vegetable gardens that focus on science and STEM curricula, while teaching kids to plant, maintain, harvest and eat the produce they grow. While not supplying much produce directly to the cafeteria, this approach offers the option of increasing garden diversity, letting plants go to fl ower to reinforce lessons on pollinators, and still encouraging students to “graze” the vegetables they grow directly from the garden. Both university studies and our own observations indicate that kids who grow vegetables in a school garden are more likely to learn to like them. That’s important because Lane County’s Community Health Improvement Plan calls out farm to school and school garden education as key components for addressing childhood obesity, one of the fi ve priority health issues identifi ed in the plan. Michael Gottfredson is off down the road, all his idea, so the public is told. That $940,000? Why, ’twas just a gift — nothing to do with any rift. See, we have this fund, code name “slush,” or upon occasion, code name “hush,” and we’ll spend the dough as we see fi t. Not a damn thing, you can do ’bout it. We’re the “new sheriff in town,” so give us space, as we see fi t, to run this place. And if our actions, you don’t like, go join Michael on his well-paid hike. Gary Crum Junction City GOODWILL PRICING The WTF? photo in the Slant column July 31 was amusing. The pricing confl ict likely occurred because Goodwill moved to regional standardized pricing several years ago and it was too much work to peel off the old sticker. Who determines the prices on items and what is that based on? Goodwill prices are standardized and based on the fair market value sheet, which provides the price at which stores are able to sell donated items. These prices have been carefully researched over a period of years and refl ect the current fair market value of each item listed. This sheet is for donor valuation and not for setting prices, so it’s not quite the full answer. Their offi cial pricing list is much more detailed and updated regularly. It is not publicly available. Prior to price standardization, stores were able to independently set prices on the donated merchandise. The problem was that a systematic bias occurred in that urban, inner-city Goodwill stores had higher prices. While this was said to have been related to higher rents and upkeep in urban settings, it also amounted to a sort of economic class discrimination. Corporatization of the stores standardized procedures and prices, including becoming more selective as to what items they accepted as donations. Their model has shifted toward taking in more dollars to fi nance new and remodeled buildings, corporate salaries and work centers for rehab training. Their current operating model still helps disadvantaged persons receive work training and experience. Unfortunately, the stores no longer have discretion to benefi t those in need directly and cannot respond to urgent needs. See also article and comments at wkly. ws/1ss. Brian Lee Corvallis eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 21, 2014 5
