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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2017)
LET TERS ERROR IN SLANT PIECE Your lead story on the Feb. 2 Slant column asserted that Steve Bannon was a “Breitbart News co-founder and an avowed white nationalist.” Andrew Breitbart was the sole found- er and Bannon came around later. Can you please cite your sources that Bannon is “an avowed white nationalist”? I can’t seem to find any credible ones. I enjoy your publication, but please lift up your journalism chops. By the way, I monitor Breitbart on a regular basis and have never seen an article publishing any “white nationalist” or “alt-right” articles or agendas. Mark Fiser Eugene PROTESTING AND LOBBYING I was encouraged by the massive demonstrations in Eugene and around the world on Jan. 21, since such political action influences elected officials. Those of us who are unhappy with U.S. politics should be prepared to say both what we oppose and also what we advocate as an alternative. In the case of global warming, the world cannot afford to wait until another U.S. election before seeing action by the federal government and also internation- ally. Climate scientist James Hansen’s latest research indicates the dire conse- quences of inaction at the national level, but also that timely government policies could reverse the harm to the planet by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere through better agriculture and forestry. Dr. Hansen supports the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) carbon fee and dividend proposal (a kind of carbon tax) through which the tax money would go to households equally. People can both protest and lob- by. When delegations meet with con- gressional offices, what grassroots ac- tivists say can be important. CCL points out that our proposal would create jobs by transferring money to lower-income people (they tend to have the smaller carbon footprints). Milton Takei Eugene NO GOING BACK IN TIME Mr. Tyndall (“SJW Whiners,” Feb. 2): Aside from your seeming obsession with “social justice warriors,” I’d like to explain why killing the Trans Pacific Partnership was not a pivotal event, but a distraction from the real problem. While it’s true that TPP has all the problems of its predecessors like NAF- TA and GATT, its contribution to perma- nent job loss is small in comparison to what automation has done, and is going to do. Trump’s bluster about bringing jobs back to America is mostly market- ing hype from a marketing mogul. Remember, Trump said in his book that the art of the deal is telling people what they want to hear. Don’t be so gull- ible as to think adding a few thousand jobs here and a few hundred there is go- ing to solve the decades-long decline in work or wages. I worked in the manufacturing sec- tor for 35 years. In the ’80s and ’90s a popular topic at conferences and in trade publications was “the end or work.” This was the observation and prediction that automation would eliminate half the jobs in this country. It was also a warning to political leaders that they need to ad- dress the problem of a post-employment society. No president or legislator as yet to tackle this enormous and perplex- ing problem. (Although, see President Nixon’s attempt at a guaranteed basic income back in the ’70’s.) There is no going back to a better place and time, Mr. Tyndall. Your “evi- dence and logic” would be better spent on preparing for the realities of the fu- ture. James Stauffer Eugene PISS TEST Golden showers are not good for flowers and probably not fit to drink. We don’t know for certain if someone is squirtin’ to satisfy Donald Trump’s kink. Spud Smith Oakridge ELLIOTT IS HEAVEN Where is heaven? Heaven is on Earth. An objective description of it is the El- liott State Forest. Every conifer needle, every patch of moss and every drop of dew are the jewels in this kingdom. Neither the rich nor the poor will sur- vive into future generations if we turn this, and other examples of God's grace into clearcut, mono cropped, poison sprayed abominations. No race or species deserve the bless- ings it bestows more than any other. For every living organism forests produce oxygen, sequester carbon, regulate cli- mate, purify water and provide a habitat for those of us who choose to enter and behold divinity. Many of our brother and sister animals find this paradise home, and the Earth as a living breathing whole cannot survive if its most vulnerable members are trampled upon and robbed. The administration of the Elliott falls upon Gov. Kate Brown, Treasurer To- bias Read and Secretary of State Den- nis Richardson. They, as a group, have so far been impotent to prevent the El- liott's commercialization either by In- dian tribes or logging companies. At this point there is the posturing and huffing by those who seek to turn this refuge into millions of dollars for those who already have enough dough. To hell with them all! It doesn't mat- ter if men from Mars come and protect this treasure, as long as it it is allowed to exist, persist, regenerate and evolve naturally; unaffected. No portion of hu- manity can lay claim to the source of life for all. David Ivan Piccioni Eugene LET'S MAKE A DEAL BY BOB WA RREN Of Sawdust & Chips — Part II BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND OREGON’S ECONOMY I t’s almost impossible to overstate how devastating the 1980s recession was for Oregon. The early 1980s had the largest percentage of job loss since World War II. For Oregon, this truly was the "Great Recession,” hitting the state harder than the more recent reces- sion of 2008, and it would change Oregon forever. This recession would result in making economic development a permanent part of the Oregon political landscape, changing the state and fueling economic growth, for good and for bad, in ways that were almost unimaginable prior to that crisis. It started with the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979. In the chaos that followed, the price of oil skyrocketed, fueling an already escalating inflation rate in the U.S. The Federal Reserve increased interest rates in a series of sharp blows aimed at reducing inflation. The increased interest rates had a devastating effect on home building. By the end of 1981 the home building industry in the U.S. had collapsed, resulting in a dras- tic slowdown in the wood products industry. And because Oregon's economy was captive to the bust and boom of the housing cycle, the state was thrown into a major recession. Revenues plummeted. The state jobless rate soared as the timber industry shed tens of thou- sands of jobs. Thousands left and Oregon actually lost population as, formerly stable middle- class communities were ripped apart. So many people were moving away, the U-Haul company offered free trailers to people moving into Oregon. Oregon had no economic development department and there was no organized effort to “recruit” new business from out of state. There was no lottery. There was no “Silicon Forest” or “Silicon Shire.” The state’s economy was dominated by forest products and agriculture. With the Oregon economy in crisis, state policy makers scrambled to diversify. Vic Atiyeh became the first governor to actively work to recruit new industries into the Or- egon economy. He was the first governor to court business in Asia, laying the groundwork for an Oregon economy that would rely more heavily on international trade, earning him the nickname “Trader Vic.” He traveled to California's newly emerging Silicon Valley to court companies seeking to expand. The state lottery was enacted by ballot measure in 1984 for the express purpose of funding economic development. This created a dedicated source of funding to support business recruit- ment and economic development, making a state economic development department inevitable. Neil Goldschmidt was elected in 1986 on an economic development platform called “The Oregon Comeback.” He was the first governor to promote an organized, professional approach to economic development at the state level. Prior to Goldschmidt, economic development in Or- egon was comprised of four to six people reporting to the governor’s office with broad mandates for community development. Goldschmidt created an aggressive economic development department — one that was still a part of the governor’s office — aimed at recruiting diverse high-wage rate employment through outreach, marketing and incentives. Economic Development would become a fully functioning state agency in 1991 under Gov. Barbara Roberts. By the end of Goldschmidt's term, Oregon's economy had been successfully transformed from natural resource dominance to high technology and innovation. While timber and agricul- ture would remain important industries, they would no longer dominate the state economy, and Oregon was no longer subject to the boom-and-bust cycle of the timber industry. Although eventually the Oregon economy would recover, many of Oregon's rural communi- ties would not. They had lost their economic base of timber and fishing, and they didn’t share in the new economic prosperity. Many of the mills that closed in rural communities never came back. Some came back for a while, but many could not compete with the more efficient, auto- mated, small-log mills often located closer to transportation corridors and a larger labor pool. By the end of the decade, Oregon would be unrecognizable to my friends at the Waterfront Tavern in 1974. Many of the communities where they lived, worked and played are today strug- gling for their very survival, while urban Oregon, especially in the Portland metro area, booms and grows as could never have been predicted. And Oregon continues to grow with more people moving here than to any other state. The path ahead is being driven by economic development. It was not the Great Recession that changed Oregon forever; it was economic development. It was economic development decisions that put Oregon on the path to the explosive growth we are now seeing in parts of the Willamette Valley. And the decisions that were made in the 1980s that led to where we are now were made with little or no public involvement. Economic development is not just some benign government program to create jobs; it is a powerful and dynamic driver that determines what and who we will become. But it operates in the shadows, below the radar. And it needs to come out of those shadows and more into the light of public involvement. See Part One in the Feb. 9 issue of EW at eugeneweekly.com. Bob Warren retired in 2012 as the regional business development officer for Business Oregon for Lane, Lincoln, Linn and Benton Counties. Prior to that, he was senior policy advisor on forest policy for Gov. Barbara Roberts and district aid and natural resource advisor for Rep. Peter DeFazio. He is currently a member of the board of directors for McKenzie River Trust. eugeneweekly.com • February 23, 2017 7
