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
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