LET TERS
initiatives approved for circulation before
they are duly qualified for the ballot. Their
loyalty to the timber industry is strong and
their maneuvers are calculated.
But what of Commissioners Pat Farr
and Sid Leiken, strategically quiet and
innocuously neutral? Are they keeping voters
guessing until they can once again leave Pete
Sorenson as the solitary moral compass?
Commissioners Farr and Leiken, you
owe voters an answer: How will you vote
when this proposed ordinance comes to
the floor? Will you change the goal posts
in the middle of the game, snatching
three approved initiatives from the hands
of residents engaged in the circulation of
those petitions right now? Does it bother
you to violate the people’s constitutional
right to pass laws without government
interference? How about our First
Amendment right to circulate petitions?
Lane County voters, let’s demand some
answers. Let’s shine some light on the
behind-the-curtain wizardry. Call, write
and meet your commissioners!
Rita Fiedler
Eugene
BETTER WAYS
Theocracy. “What is wrong with a
theocracy?” one might ask. It necessarily
limits free speech. It does not allow for
discussion outside of the dogma. Fortunately,
there are ideas stronger than dogma, but
those on the bleeding edge suffer, to wit:
Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Wallace, et. al.
I read in the Activist Alert [7/21] about
the vandalism of the CALC office. This
was an inexcusable barbaric act. There are
better ways to present your perspective
(this [letters] forum).
I am writing to correct an inaccuracy.
Anti-Zionism is not necessarily anti-
Semitic. The photo printed is anti-
Zionism in its content (though not in
its presentation). It equates Zionism to
fascism. Nazism is, among other bad
things, a theocracy in that it believes in an
Aryan race to the exclusion of all others.
Fortunately, that bad idea was dispelled
through many sacrifices.
When we realize the subtle difference
between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitic
we get a new perspective on the issues
facing Palestine and Israel. We take away
the highly emotionally charged aspect of
religion and get down to the brass tacks
of creating an environment conducive to
peace between two peoples.
We, in the United States, are fortunate
that we have the First Amendment; that
we can practice our faith and, at the same
time, present our perspectives without fear
of retaliation or intimidation.
People that contemplate barbaric acts
have already failed. There are more peaceful
and productive ways to present their
perspective. Any cause is hurt with violence.
Gregg Ferry
Corvallis
dangling between the Hillary option, aka
no-Trump, or not voting at all? Well hang
in there because there is a better choice, in
fact a super one:
Jill Stein, a Harvard-educated physician,
is the Green Party candidate for president. She
shares the progressive values championed by
Bernie Sanders: an economy that works for
everyday people, living wages, union rights,
health care as a human right and more. Jill
wants to cut the military budget and end our
endless wars, cancel student debt and — as
the Green Party name suggests — create a
society in harmony with nature.
While Hillary may be “likable enough”
as a person, her political persona is hard to
embrace. At best she represents business
and politics as usual. We need something
more to change this time around than just the
nameplate on the White House door. Grudging
incrementalism and a don’t-rock-the-boat
policy approach are simply not sufficient to
turn our foundering Ship of State around.
Bernie Sanders’ name won’t appear on the
Oregon ballot in November, but Jill Stein’s
will. Let’s cast our votes for this Superwoman
who stands for truth, justice and the NEW
American way. Let’s choose hope over fear
and change over more of the same. Let’s show
strong support for true progressive values.
Let’s stand with Jill and be counted!
Benton Elliott
Eugene
I’M FOR STEIN
REGRESSIVE PARTIES
Burned by the Bern’s burnout? Angry
enough to bust? At the end of your rope
The current political reality is that we
are hampered by two regressive parties:
the we-won’t-do-it Republicans and the
we-can’t-do-it Democrats.
John Adams, our second president, said:
“There is nothing which I dread so much
as a division of the republic into two great
parties, each arranged under its leader and
concerting measures in opposition to each
other. This, in my humble apprehension, is
to be dreaded as the greatest political evil
under our Constitution.”
Our first president, George Washington,
agreed, stating “The alternate domination
of one faction over another, sharpened
by the spirit of revenge, natural to party
dissension, which in different ages and
countries has perpetrated the most horrid
enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
Democrat officials have insisted we
must live under a cloud of fear for far
too long, always asking us to accept their
corporate candidate in the face of the
dreaded Republican candidate. Republicans
now operate from the bottom of the political
barrel. Bernie Sanders has shown us that
millions are tired of this dead-end approach.
The major parties have nothing to offer
us by way of any exit out of the current
national and global chaos. We the people
must think way past the next election and
challenge politics as usual. Let’s work to
end Citizens United and consider a third
party or an electoral system whereby voters
rank candidates in order of preference
(instant runoff voting). Voting under the
current system changes next to nothing.
Christopher Michaels
Eugene
DESIGN MATTERS
BY JERRY DIE THEL M
Look Homeward City Hall
City Hall can be a win if we are ready to think anew, act anew
B
ig changes are shaping up that could turn a faltering Eugene City Hall
process into a real win for downtown. Perhaps it will yet turn out to be
a good thing that the old City Hall was torn down prematurely before
there was a solid master plan for the city’s block or a true and reliable
estimate for what a City Hall replacement was going to cost.
When something jarring and game-changing interrupts a design project, the
most productive and professional response is, well, “It’s a new program!” Abraham
Lincoln had famously advised, “As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act
anew.” And that’s where we find ourselves with our City Hall project. Two large
elephants have entered into the project space.
The first, of course, is cost. As everyone now knows, the bids for the proposed
building came in too high. Spending $28 million or $600 per square foot on a modest
30,000-square-foot headquarters office building has obviously become far too much
for too little. An attempt to whittle back the price still remains a possibility, but
reducing costs through value engineering often only results in the stripping away
of too many of the pleasurable surface qualities of a project that touch on one’s
everyday experience.
So, appropriately: time out.
The second was the unexpectedly large size of building needed for the new
county courthouse. It had been loosely hoped that the eastern half of the block
would eventually become the site of a new Lane County Courthouse, but the shelf
life of this master plan expired when the county began their serious courthouse
program planning. It turned out that they would need the whole city block for
their new consolidated courthouse, and the idea of a courthouse building wrapping
around a City Hall sitting on the southwest corner was a non-starter for all but the
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July 28, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
conceptually frozen.
The City Hall strategy had been to link the initial building to a future Phase II
office building behind it. Phase II was to afford the eventual reconsolidation of city
services when their downtown leases expired, although any serious acknowledgement
of the timing, cost and financing of a Phase II building had been carefully avoided.
The numbers just became too large if one admitted that the real cost of a new City
Hall was Phase I plus Phase II, and that the building of a Phase I headquarters meant
a commitment to a costly Phase II office building down the road. A larger courthouse
eliminated any possibility of a Phase II behind the headquarters expansion.
So, thinking and acting anew. Never look a gift elephant (or two) in the
mouth. Having the entire former City Hall block shovel-ready for new courthouse
development would greatly enhance Lane County’s chances for state funding. A new
250,000-square-foot consolidated courthouse would be a huge rock in the downtown
pond economically and architecturally. And remodeling the old courthouse for the
city’s Phase II service needs would greatly benefit both parties.
Look homeward City Hall. It’s not well known, but the original City Hall sat on
the corner of the north Park Block at the corner of 8th Avenue and West Park from
1885 to 1914. Then in 1914, City Hall moved to 11th and Willamette for 50 years
before it took over the whole block on 8th between Pearl and High in 1964.
Now, 100 years later, circumstances have aligned and conspired to return a new
City Hall to its north Park Block home, a place it has always symbolically belonged,
and where it can now become the leading partner in a market, park block and civic
center renaissance.
Jerry Diethelm is a Eugene architect, landscape architect and planning and urban design consultant.