slurs from the curs who conceive ’em. The truth, come
to pass/ is your head’s up their ass/ as far as you’ll
believe ’em. Those ads on the tube/ prezoom you’re a
boob/ who’ll fall for these half-baked lies./ The truth,
evermore/ since eons of yore/ crocks of shit will
always draw flies.
Thumbs up for the civil political discourse in our
community, compared to much of the country these
days.
Thanks to the initiative and hard
work of the City Club of Eugene and
the League of Women Voters of
Lane County, eight public candidate
forums have been offered, with
careful guidelines and lots of good
information to help voters. KLCC
broadcasts the forums on Mondays
at 6:30 pm. The Morse Center on the
UO campus opened its pre-election
series April 26 with “Calm Before
the Storm: Oregon and National
Campaigns at Halftime.” Jack
Roberts, the only Republican on the
panel including Betsy Boyd, Serena
Cruz and Jeff Mapes, said he could
not vote for Donald Trump if he is the
R nominee. That conversation will
continue May 23 when the Morse
Center offers “Thunder on the Left
and Right: Populism in the 2016
Elections.”
We criticize America most of the
time, and that’s our privilege, but
we cannot imagine another country
that could or would grow the genius that was Prince.
Eugene’s own Mason Williams, who was head
writer for Saturday Night Live back when it was still
funny, has continued to write music and diatribes
over the years. We ran across one of his unpublished
poems from 2008 that resonates today. It’s called
“Dirty Politics, The Vulgar Truth,” and reads:
Mud slinging campaigns/ for political gains/ are
The tone-deafness of Mayor Kitty Piercy and
many on the Eugene City Council reached new depths
on the evening of Monday, April 25. The city of Eugene
announced late in the day Monday that they were
tagging on a status update for Kesey Square after the
council’s public forum at 7:30 pm. After hearing plea
after plea from citizens to stop building fences that
target areas where the unhoused seek shelter, and
rather focus on affordable housing, the issue of Kesey
Square came up.
Councilor Chris Pryor suggested the city should
do more outreach before deciding on the fate of the
public square, after which Piercy made her own plea
Cycle the Lovely
Mohawk Valley!
May 7, 2016
to council in the name of the private developers,
including architectural firm Rowell Brokaw, which
wants to build high-end apartments on Kesey Square.
This is the same architectural firm designing City Hall,
another project whose process has been riddled with
problems, delays, a ballooning budget and a disregard
for transparent process from the beginning.
“In their case, just prolonging the discussion
doesn’t seem to be that helpful,” Piercy said to the
council of the development group. “They just need
to know because they’ve invested a lot in it and this
has been hanging around a long
time.”
We wonder why Piercy feels
any obligation to the developers,
who according to her, brought
this proposal to the city out of
their own volition? The city and
the public did not ask them to
invest time or money in a plan to
build on a public space so why is
anything owed to them?
Councilor George Brown
rebutted Piercy’s point:
“You know, the potential
developers, they’re developing
property right across the street
so they’re going to have a nice
project; they don’t need this
project,” Brown said, adding
with a laugh, “They will survive
and prosper if they don’t get
Kesey Square.”
Even
pro-development
Councilor Mike Clark addressed
that the way the development
group introduced its proposal
to the city, and the way the city
handled it, was problematic and made it appear that a
sweetheart deal was in the works.
Councilor Betty Taylor made a motion to bar the
square from being sold. It was defeated 5-3. In a
surprise turn of events, Councilor Claire Syrett joined
Taylor and Brown for the first time in advocating for
Kesey Square to remain a public space. Meanwhile,
Councilor George Poling said the square should be
sold to the developers right away.
Seattle author and longtime
Stranger columnist
David Schmader visits Eugene to
read from and sign his new book
The 5th annual benefit bike ride for
Oregon Supported Living Program’s
Arts & Culture Program
mohawkvalley100k.org
40K 60K 100K 100K+
Armitage Park, Eugene, OR
7 pm Friday, April 29
Barn Light East
545 E. 8th Ave.
FREE
sponsored by
eugeneweekly.com • A pril 28, 2016
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