MUPTE supporters organized the
forum at The Barn Light June 8 in
advance of a Eugene City Council
public hearing on MUPTE revisions
that begins at 7:30 pm Monday,
June 15.
• Eugene’s Multi-Unit Property Tax
Exemption (MUPTE) was portrayed
in a public forum this week as the
salvation for downtown, both past
and future, even though MUPTE has
had a much bigger impact on the
West University area than it has had
on downtown. The 10-year property
tax breaks have helped build The
Tate (condos for wealthy people)
and Capstone’s 13th and Olive (a
fortress for students with parking
for 1,000 cars) and a few others,
but the revitalization of downtown
has had more to do with public-
private partnerships to fill ugly
holes and renovate old commercial
buildings, city loans for businesses,
moving city offices downtown and
Oregon’s economic recovery. One
thing that was clear in the forum
is that if MUPTE is revived after its
two-year hiatus, it must not include
more student housing downtown,
and it needs to be revised,
restricted and better managed from
the beginning through the entire 10
years of tax breaks.
Eugene has a serious lack of
affordable housing. Councilor
George Brown wants a “workforce”
housing requirement to be
included in future MUPTE projects,
noting that 40 percent of Eugene
households were “rent burdened”
(spending more than 30 percent of
income on housing), when he took
office six-plus years ago. Today
60 percent of Eugeneans are rent
burdened. It’s an uphill battle. The
Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce
is advocating for fewer restrictions.
As a corporation, Whole Foods
gets mixed reviews. The chain of
420 stores in the U.S. and Europe,
which generated $12.9 billion in
revenues in 2013, tends to pay
employees well and is relatively
“green,” but CEO John Mackey
is an anti-union libertarian who
has spoken out publicly against
universal health care, including
Obamacare.
• A little bragging, and a follow-up
to our May 21 Slant: If you pull up
the last segment of Vice, the gutsy
national hard news investigation
program on HBO, you’ll see a Eugene
Weekly cover along with major
media in a story about campus
sexual violence. Trask Bedortha of
our art department designed the
cover, a basketball with “Win, Drink,
Rape” headlined across it. The story
only mentions the UO in passing.
See an image on our blog.
• The groundbreaking for Whole
Foods Market in Eugene reminds us
of a cover story we did back in 2006
when Texas-based Whole Foods was
proposing to build on the same site
and wanted $9 million in subsidies
for land and parking (see wkly.
ws/210). Whole Foods is now back,
without a demand for subsidies
(take note, MUPTE supporters).
The huge store will create jobs
downtown and generate big retail
sales, but small, independent
grocers are likely to suffer. People
can only consume so many organic
carrots and bags of granola. And
as our 2006 cover image drawn by
Harvey Dickson so well illustrates,
the profits will get sucked out of
Lane County, as with other national
chain stores. Small, independent
grocers can survive — with the help
of loyal customers.
• Oregon’s improving economy
has well outstripped state tax
revenue projections, which is great,
but Oregon has a peculiar anti-tax
law that requires the Legislature
to declare a tax “kicker.” In this
situation, a rebate of $473 million is
expected to show up as a credit on
next year’s individual tax returns.
Other states wisely use unexpected
revenues for rainy day funds or
education support. The Oregon
Legislature has the power to divert
that $473 million to reserves and
education through House Bill 3555.
The bill is in the House Committee
on Revenue this week, but the
clock is ticking. An online petition
supporting the bill can be found at
wkly.ws/211.
DENNIS HEBERT
BY PAUL NEEVEL
HAPPENING PEOPLE
SL ANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHASING NOTES COMPILED BY THE EW STAFF.
HE ARD ANY GOOD RUMORS L ATELY? CONTAC T TED TAYLOR AT 484-0519, EDITOR@EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• The Eugene Bicycle and
Pedestrian Advisory Committee
meets at 5:30 pm Thursday, June
11, at the Atrium Sloat Room, 99 W.
10th Ave. On the agenda is the new
YMCA design and the Civic Stadium
property.
• The Eugene Police
Commission meets at 5:30 pm
Thursday, June 11, at the EPD
Headquarters Kilcullen Room, 300
Country Club Road. On the agenda is
the civil disturbances policy.
• “EWEB — the Next 100
Years” is the topic at City Club of
Eugene at noon Friday, June 12, at
the Downtown Athletic Club, 999
Willamette St. Speakers include
EWEB General Manager Roger
Gray and Mike Hatten of SOLARC
Engineering and Energy. $5 for non-
members.
• The 15 Now Oregon Eugene
group working to raise the minimum
wage in Oregon to $15 will have
its next general meeting at 2 pm
Sunday, June 14, at AFSCME Local
1724, 688 Charnelton St. Find the
group on Facebook.
• A Eugene City Council public
hearing on MUPTE revisions
begins at 7:30 pm Monday, June
15. The city’s Multi-Unit Property
Tax Exemption program has been
in hiatus for two years, and the
council is looking at revising the tax
breaks for future housing projects
downtown, not including student
housing. Also on the agenda is
postponing Eugene’s ordinance
requiring paid sick leave for
employees.
• Urban planner Jeff Speck will
speak on “Toward a More Walkable
Eugene” at 6 pm Wednesday, June
17, at the Hult Center Studio. Free,
but RSVP to dxoregon@gmail.com.
“I was born on the bayou,” says Dennis Hebert of Houma, Louisiana.
“When a hurricane came, we’d board everything up and feel the house
shake.” Hebert left the University of Southwest Louisiana in Lafayette
to get married, but instead got drafted. He received a Dear John letter
and a Purple Heart in Vietnam. He finished a marketing degree on the
GI Bill, moved to Phoenix and started doing carpentry. He traveled the
West for three years in his 1961 International van, the Turtle, picking up
jobs along the way. Returning to Phoenix in 1981, he met a lady, Larena.
They explored Oregon on vacation, then packed the van and moved to
Eugene in 1986. Within days, he had a carpentry job and a rental house
off Hilyard Street. In June, the roar of Eugene Emeralds baseball games
drew him to nearby Civic Stadium. He became a fan of the team and of
its wooden grandstand, a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA)
project built in 1938. He married Larena in 1988, commuted to a job
at the state Capitol in Salem until 2001, then worked at the UO until
retirement in 2010. When a judge ruled in 2007 that the Eugene School
District could sell the Civic Stadium property, Hebert parked the Turtle
out front with a banner and collected 3,500 signatures to save it. He
started the nonprofit Friends of Civic Stadium to raise funds, and he set
up tables at local events. A goal of $3 million to support the city’s bid
for Civic fell short, until it was rescued earlier this year by a new public-
private partnership, the Eugene Civic Alliance. “They thank us for bearing
the torch,” Hebert says. “We thank them for making it happen.”
eugeneweekly.com • June 11, 2015
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