• 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an outdated address for Oakshire Brewing.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.”