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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 2016)
LET TERS INSPIRING STORY What a great article on a great man, someone I’ve never met but long admired [“Citizen Terry,” 8/25]. Someday when I am done working I will show up on his doorstep offering to help. Truly inspiring. Made my day, and these can be disheartening days. Thanks, Rick Levin! Amy Isler Gibson Eugene NOT SO THRIFTY Look, I’m all in favor of the celebration of capitalism done right, but Citizen Terry may have overlooked one small detail in his fervor for firm financial footing — his customers. St. Vincent de Paul and other nonprofit thrift stores are retail spaces that people like me — the “poor but not destitute” — have depended on for years to fill the gaps in their households and wardrobes. When I’m done with an item, I turn around and donate it back. Lately, when I go into a St. Vincent de Paul’s “thrift” store, I consistently find that the majority of items have retail (or higher!) price tags. This is unacceptable. Yes, there is a new moneyed hipster market that revels in their Macklemore scores and VIEWPOINT can afford the thrift chic aesthetic, but I am not one of them. Remember your base and price accordingly, for this fad too shall pass. Meanwhile, those who can no longer afford to support your good works are resorting to home clothing exchanges and Craigslist bargains. Angela Kern Eugene DOUGHNUT DISAPPOINTMENT It’s always disappointing to see valuable space taken up with articles that are neither informative, enlightening or even really witty. Much like your article on downtown Springfield, your recent piece on doughnuts was similarly useless [Fall Chow, 8/25]. Rather than getting any useful information on where to find a good glazed raised, we got a lot of rather snarky criticisms with a dash of armchair pseudo- philosophy. For those that are truly interested, and I suspect many people are, there are some really good doughnut shops in town. Despite the author’s rather strange rant about Dizzy Dean’s, they make a solid range of good, uncomplicated doughnuts. For me and many others, there are two totally dependable doughnut locations. Market of Choice and Cal’s on River Road are the top of the doughnut heap. The maple bars, especially, are thick and doughy with the perfect amount of luscious maple icing. And the old-fashioned glazed raiseds are light, fluffy and perfectly glazed. I don’t mind humor in your articles and reviews, far from it. I do object to pieces that fail in their endeavor to be funny and end up serving no real purpose at all, especially in a supplement like Chow which seems to be geared toward both supporting local restaurants and giving your readers the chance to discover the best Eugene has to offer. This weakness was made more obvious by the other articles positively highlighting several new ventures. And, because of them, I’m pretty excited to try schnitzel, Bavarian pretzels, Middle Eastern food and the new Brails! Jake Gariepy Eugene DOUGHNUT CHALLENGE What annoyed me the most about Ben Ricker’s “Glazed and Confused” article [Fall Chow, 8/25] is that he so clearly had formed his opinions before even trying any doughnuts. He had that article written before stepping a foot into any doughnut shop. It read like your typical hipster cry of “It’s Popular, Now It Sucks!” while idolizing and promoting any hole-in-the- wall for the sake of sounding different. I worked at Voodoo for many years, and I genuinely believe they have the best doughnuts in town. It pisses me off to read an article like his because not only do I think the product is amazing, but Voodoo is a wonderful business that is full of thought and quality. The owners of Voodoo are two of the most exceptionally kind and generous people you will ever meet. They have expanded in a cautious and respectful way to maintain the integrity of their business and quality of product. The company has massive roots in their community and gives back in ways I can’t begin to list. The owners of Voodoo make employment there a place where you can have a career and work happily. They gave me opportunities to learn and grow that allowed me to pay my way through college and have a life I love. I would hate for people to stop going because journalists are bored of writing about how great and popular it is and need to make up new stuff to get published. Weirdly enough, I do think I agree with Mr. Ricker on one point: A doughnut is a doughnut. It doesn’t need to be made by organic chickens wearing flannel in a Mason jar to taste good. However, you shouldn’t discount a place because it is BY ROBER T WA RREN The $7 Million Giveaway EUGENE AND LANE COUNTY’S TAX BREAK MAKES NO SENSE I am baffled by the decision of the Eugene City Council and the Lane County Board of Com- missioners to give away an additional $7 mil- lion, to Singapore-based Broadcom, on top of the $14 million the company was already get- ting for creating 229 jobs in the West Eugene Enter- prise Zone. That’s $21 million, what they paid for the property, for 229 jobs! Of course I am happy Broadcom will be creating jobs at the former Hynix site. These are badly needed jobs in our local economy. And I am not opposed to enterprise zones. They were originally conceived to help disadvantaged rural communities compete for manufacturing jobs and industrial development. They were later expanded into urban areas. I believe they can be very real incentive for companies wishing to expand and/or relocate here. In theory, the Enterprise Zone is used to “recruit” a company that would not have located here otherwise. I know for a fact that not having an enterprise zone can be a deal killer for businesses from another area looking for a place to expand and relocate. The tax break creates an incentive for the company to make significant investments in the property and, after the exemption period ends, they pay property taxes on the full value of the property. Those property taxes could be substantial, as they were with Hynix. And I believe a case can be made for offering the additional two years of tax waivers. But the extra 4 September 1, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com two years of property tax waivers should come in exchange for, well, something. In this case it appears the city and county caved in and gave away the additional $7 million and got almost nothing for the $7 million in return. They were able to extract a commitment for Broadcom to contribute a total of $500,000 spread over five years to the Lane Workforce Partnership. That’s $500,000 for the $7 million. And Broadcom will get its investment back since it will be using the workforce partnership to provide them with qualified applicants for their jobs. City Councilor Chris Pryor and Lane Commissioner Jay Bozievich both claimed the additional two years, and $7 million, were an “investment.” Pryor went on to say they were "not giving money away.” Really! So what did we get in return for the extra $7 million “investment” of our money? It’s not the jobs. The company had already purchased the site; it was not going anywhere. It announced in November of last year it would be hiring 250-300 employees for the new plant. For the additional $7 million, Broadcom was allowed to pare that down to 229. For the extra $7 million why not, at the very least, insist on the upper end of the previously announced 250-300? Or challenge it to create more? Broadcom’s Colorado plant employs 800. It’s not the wages. The company claimed last November it would be paying wages “way above the median income.” It has to; the company will be competing for good employees in an industry that pays well. The extra $7 million did not compel or encourage Broadcom to increase the wages at all. In fact, for the extra $7 million, Broadcom agreed to the absolute minimum average wage to qualify, $59,073. For $7 million, why not push for a higher average? The average wage at Hynix was $70,000. If it’s not the jobs, and it’s not the wages, then what is it? It may be another kind of investment. Local elected officials often feel compelled to “create jobs.” One tried and true way to do that is to find a project that is already going to succeed and put some additional public resources into it and claim credit for the jobs. Jobs that would, of course, have been created anyway. The ability to add two years of enterprise zone benefits can be a powerful incentive to help a company decide to locate in a specific community. But when negotiating with a company like Broadcom, with 8,400 employees and revenues over $4 billion last year, our team appears to have been in way over their heads. They gave away $7 million to close a deal that was already done. I would not call that driving much of a bargain for our $7 million. Robert Warren retired from Oregon Business Development Department (formerly Oregon Economic and Community Development Department) in June 2012.
