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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2014)
• Eugene author and LCC English instructor Steve McQuiddy will give a reading, discussion and book signing at 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 13, at Tsunami Books, 25th and Willamette. McQuiddy is author of Here On the Edge: World War II, Conscientious Objectors On the Oregon Coast, and Seeds of the Sixties. Free. • The No Industrial Pisgah group is planning a public fast from dawn to dusk at Springfield City Hall Nov. 14-15, led by a Japanese Buddhist order. The group has also launched an online petition to the city of Springfield to save the rural Seavey Loop area and its small farms from industrial zoning. Find the petition at wkly.ws/1u8. • Gorilla Gospel Motorcycle Club has been collecting donations for the homeless for their Operation Warm Streets. The club will have a barbecue and donation distribution event beginning at noon Saturday, Nov. 15, at Alton Baker Park. Donations of clothing, hygiene products, blankets and more can be dropped off at N Touch Auto Detailing, 2040 W. 6th Ave., or visit Facebook.com/ GorillaGospelMotorcycleClub. • Jeremy Scahill’s film Dirty Wars will be shown at 8 pm Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Pacific Hall, Room 30 on the UO campus. The film highlights U.S. covert wars since 9/11. Discussion follows examining alternatives to war for the U.S. to pursue in Iraq and Syria. For more information contact CALC at 485-1755. CORRECTIONS/ CLARIFICATIONS • In Best of Eugene last week we gave an outdated address for Oakshire Brewing. The public house is at 207 Madison St., and the Madera address we listed is for brewery operations, which are no longer open to the public. • Two were tied for Best DJ in Best of Eugene last week, but one name we printed wasn’t quite right. Ryan Floyd tells us he goes by Dj reddfox. The extra “d” is because there are other DJ Red Foxes out there. Find him on Facebook. • In our news briefs Oct. 2 we wrote about two big cedar trees that are scheduled to be cut near Hollywood Video on West 7th Avenue, but we heard this week from the owner of the store that the business is actually called Hollywood Treasures. 8 November 13, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com At first glance, it looks like a landfill — abandoned couches and chairs, food wrappers piled on top of plastic bags, electronics and old clothing. But in actuality, it’s a strip of riverbank along the south side of the Willamette River between Autzen Footbridge and Knickerbocker Bike Bridge, and a recent YouTube video portraying trash along the riparian zone has garnered the attention of homeless activists, environmentalists and Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy. “Soon the high waters are coming, and all of that garbage is going to be washed into the water,” says Aaron Baker, who shot the video and posted it to his No Sugar Coated News YouTube channel Nov. 8 after seeing tents from the bike path. “It’s an extreme amount of garbage, and it’s definitely below the high-water mark.” The video revived conversations about the rights of the homeless to sleep and exist, and how people pushed out of the city are forced to find other places to live. For some, that means the riverbank. On Facebook, Piercy responded to the video, saying that it isn’t city land and is either railroad or UO property and that the Eugene parks department would contact property owners “to try to get this tended to.” In over 90 comments to her remark, posters have debated over who should take care of the trash and how the issue only highlights the limited options available to the homeless when it comes to camping. The site in the video belongs to Union Pacific, according to Matt Roberts, senior director of community relations for the UO. “The UO, the city and Union Pacific are working in collaboration to try and address the issue from a bigger perspective,” Roberts says. John Brown, an EWEB board member with years of experience cleaning up riverbanks, says that the site is the worst he’s ever seen it. “In an earlier cleanup of a 300-yard strip, HIV Alliance found 1,100 hypodermic needles,” Brown says. “It’s a sad thing to have happen to a protected waterway.” Brown says he’s spoken repeatedly to the Eugene City Council and Piercy about this issue, and he says he worries that once grocery carts, foam pads and tents get swept into the water, they will be difficult if not impossible to retrieve. “Water’s the most precious resource we’ve got,” he says. Travis Williams, executive director of Willamette Riverkeeper, says that while the video reflects “the kind of trash we don’t want heading into the Willamette when the water level gets up,” the video also highlights a wider societal issue. MAGGIE DONAHUE BY PAUL NEEVEL • The future of passenger rail in Oregon will be discussed at a luncheon meeting noon to 3 pm Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Oregon Electric Station. Organized by the Association of Oregon Rail Advocates. See aortarail.org to register online. $25. TRASH ALONG WILLAMETTE RIVER HIGHLIGHTS HOMELESS- NESS, POLLUTION PROBLEMS HAPPENING PEOPLE • “Achieving Equity in Law Enforcement” is the topic at City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, Nov. 14, at the Downtown Athletic Club, 999 Willamette St. Eugene and Springfield police chiefs and the county sheriff will respond to last week’s panel on inequity in law enforcement. $5 for non-members. See cityclubofeugene.org. ‘THE UO, THE CITY AND UNION PACIFIC ARE WORKING IN COLLABORATION TO TRY AND ADDRESS THE ISSUE FROM A BIGGER PERSPECTIVE.’ — UP SPOKESMAN MARK DAVIS “I had an Irish Catholic upbringing,” says Maggie Donahue, who grew up in Chicago and attended an all-girls high school. “When I was 9, I did therapy, every day, at the home of a child in the parish who had brain damage. It led to a career in special ed.” She spent two years at an all-girls college in Colorado, then returned to Chicago and Loyola U for a degree in psychology. She came to Eugene to pursue a master’s in special ed in 1975, the year when Law 94-142 mandated education for kids with disabilities, and she was hired in 1977 to build an autism program for Eugene schools. “I did special ed till ’87, when my son was born,” says Donahue, who got married, adopted a son, Brennan, then divorced when he was 5. “Massage was my next passion,” she says. Licensed in 1994, she currently does massage therapy at the UO Health Center and in private practice. Inspired when she saw Zimbabwean musician Dumi Maraire at the WOW Hall in the 1980s, Donahue learned to play marimba and joined the local band Shumba. “I had a brief period of celebrity,” she says. “But only eight people got to play. It made me think about a community center for sharing this music.” In 1991, she founded Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center, dedicated to the music and people of Zimbabwe. Kutsinhira offers marimba classes, brings Zimbabwean artists to the U.S. and funds community projects in Zimbabwe. “We try to raise $2,000 each year,” she says, “to support organizations that help kids go to school.”
