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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2015)
Falafel of Eugene is planning to join Wrap City at Kesey Square, says Kim Still of Saturday Market. Saturday Market contracts with the city to administer the food cart program at Kesey Square and on the Park Blocks. “We are actively seeking a couple more carts to add back in to the plaza food pod,” Still says. “Unfortunately we are not able to permit food trucks in that area, just carts.” Contact the market office at 686-8885, ext. 102. Will Leather Goods now has a retail outlet at the 5th Street Public Market. The store is in a “reimagined vintage freight car” in the parking lot of the market, adjacent to the Inn at the 5th hotel. The Eugene-based company makes hand- crafted leather bags and accessories. CEO and creative director is William Adler, who has lived in Eugene for the past 15 years. Adler also designed the interior of the new store, drawing inspiration, he says, from Oregon’s rich history and natural landscape. Local craftsmen from Back Forty Woods built the interior using locally sourced Douglas fir walls and reclaimed beams. Call 246-8650. The Eugene-based nonprofit Next Generation Nepal (NGN) also has offices in Kathmandu and is working with Nepal government agencies and NGOs in the regions where children are at most risk of exploitation, according to a press release from Sarah Charlesworth, a development associate with the organization. NGN is “deeply concerned that the Nepal earthquake is going to lead to a sharp increase in children being trafficked or displaced to ‘orphanages,’” Charlesworth says. She advises against sending money to so-called children’s homes in Kathmandu. Instead, donate to reputable nonprofits, such as UNICEF Nepal or the Umbrella Foundation. See nextgenerationnepal.com or call 912-5432. The Eugene Scottish Festival is 10 am to 5 pm Saturday, May 23, at the Irving Grange, 1011 Irvington Drive in the Santa Clara area. The Scottish Festival is run by a nonprofit organization and the annual event is sponsored by Bi-Mart, Springfield Creamery, Eugene Weekly and Bob’s Red Mill. It’s a family event — alcohol — but vendors are welcome to apply. Suggested donation of $5 plus a can of food. See eugenescottishfestival. com for a schedule. POLLUTION UPDATE The DEQ has again fined Christopher Bartels for violating environmental law at the slaughterhouse he operates on Central Road, this time for violations of monitoring and reporting requirements. DEQ fined Bartels $30,147 on May 7 for failing to perform required monitoring of slaughterhouse wastewater in 2013, and for trying to pass off 2012 monitoring results as having been collected in 2013. Bartels has 20 days to request a hearing on the fine, and based on past history between DEQ and Bartels, he will request a hearing and DEQ will reduce the fine. Visit goo.gl/tvJvU6 for information on some of Bartels’ past violations. — Doug Quirke/ Oregon Clean Water Action Project 8 May 21, 2015 • eugeneweekly.com SHELL NO! ENVIRO ADVOCATES WHITEAKER BUSINESSES SAY NO TO ARCTIC DRILLING LOOKING FOR NEW HOMES AFTER LANDLORD DEBACLE #ShellNo, #YouShellNotPass, #PaddleinSeattle. The hashtags were fun, but the protests May 16-18 in Seattle disputing Shell oil’s plans for Arctic drilling were calling attention to a serious issue — Big Oil and global climate change. The Obama administration gave conditional approval for Shell to drill in the Arctic earlier this month. Shell protesters included well-known environmental groups such as Greenpeace and 350.org, grassroots organizations such as Rising Tide as well as indigenous peoples. Activists con- verged upon Seattle and Puget Sound for three days of pro- tests, which included sur- rounding the behemoth Polar Pioneer drilling rig with kayaks and canoes (kayaktivists), rallies and marches. Lauren Regan of Eu- gene-based Civil Liberties Defense Center traveled to Seattle to provide legal support and know-your- rights training, though she says no arrests were made. IMAGE COURTESY SHELLNO.ORG Activists say they are worried about the potential for spills and accidents in pristine icy Alaskan waters, and even more concerned that the drilling is set for the already melting Arctic. Many cite a study in the January issue of the journal Nature that says “to keep the climate somewhat safe and relatively stable, 82 percent of the world’s coal reserves, half of all natural gas, and every drop of Arctic oil must be left in the ground.” Port of Seattle commissioners approved Royal Dutch Shell’s presence in January, but the mayor and the city council have opposed it. Regan says the mayor participated in the kayak protest. Regan herself kayaked to the base of the massive Polar Pioneer and says it was “nauseating to see how humongous it was — it looks like something that could wreck civilizations.” The Polar Pioneer will be loaded at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 5 — where protesters gathered and blockaded May 18. According to media reports, the Seattle Department of Planning and Development determined that Terminal 5 is not permitted for oil equipment maintenance. Regan says the port may be fined if it doesn’t acquire the proper permit. Former Eugenean and current Seattle resident McKenzie Funk points out in his May 18 New York Times Magazine piece, “Shell Oil’s Cold Calculations for a Warming World,” that the corporation’s previous attempt to find oil in the Arctic was disastrous — the drilling rig Kulluk wrecked on its voyage there. Funk writes that one of Shell’s planning scenarios shows that “only when climatic chaos breaks out does society take it seriously, and by then great damage has already been done.” According to Funk, along with the Polar Pioneer, a drill ship called the Noble Discoverer will attempt the 2,000-mile journey to the Arctic. He writes that, previously, the Discoverer “was at the center of eight felony pollution charges. Last month, the vessel failed another Coast Guard inspection in Hawaii.” Regan says CLDC has reached out to and worked with several climate justice campaigns and cites Shell for its “history of absolutely no qualms about destroying communities, the environment and killing humans for profit.” This past weekend was a “practice run,” Regan says. There is a narrow window for Shell to get the rigs to the Arctic, she says, and Rising Tide and others are committed to making sure the rigs won’t make it to the Arctic Circle. — Camilla Mortensen Only a few months ago, EW noted in our Spring Chow issue that Kore Kombucha owner Curtis Shimmen was opening a kombucha taphouse in the Whiteaker neighborhood, serving a variety of fermented drinks and foods, including kefir and kimchi. Now, everything has changed. “I put my blood, sweat and tears into that place, and all my money,” Shimmen says. “I’m looking for another spot, but it’s going to be difficult.” Shimmen of the Kore Kombucha Taphouse and Ben Maude of the Hard Times Distillery Tasting Room are both in need of alternate buildings after city code violations and landlord troubles made it impossible for them to carry on at their previous side-by-side locations in the Whiteaker neighborhood. According to city records filed in April, 543/547 Blair Blvd. has operated as a retail space without a change of use permit since 2005, making it in violation of city code. The property was previously an auto repair shop and has served as an art gallery, performance space and other businesses in the past 10 years. KORE KOMBUCHA OWNER CURTIS SHIMMEN Shimmen says that, in April, the city contacted him about a separate code violation, informing him that his storefront at 543 Blair Blvd., which he was leasing from landlord Glen Fogelstrom, was not code compliant. Further investigation found that the site needed two bathrooms in order to comply with city code and qualify for his required licensing. Shimmen says that according to estimates from potential contractors, adding two bathrooms would cost around $27,000. Though he did not have the money upfront to install the bathrooms, he says he planned to work with Fogelstrom to make the necessary modifications. However, according to Shimmen, Fogelstrom evicted Shimmen via voicemail on April 15 and allegedly broke their two-year lease agreement. EW spoke with Fogelstrom, but he requested he not be involved in the story. Maude says that Fogelstrom, who also owns the property Maude was leasing at 547 Blair Blvd., next removed portable bathrooms that made the Hard Times tasting room temporarily legal. Maude says the city gave him 280 days to raise funds to install permanent bathrooms. After Fogelstrom refused to put the temporary bathrooms back due to expense, Maude says, Fogelstrom asked Maude to leave. Maude says that, prior to the evictions, he and Shimmen were working to launch a fundraiser on Kickstarter and use funds from an upcoming distillery fest at the Hult Center to help offset the cost of the necessary modifications, which
