The Shedd Institute
www.theshedd.org - 541.434.7000
Keep Your
Sunny Side Up!
The music of De Sylva, Brown & Henderson
Thu, November 2, 7:30 pm - cabaret seating
Sun, November 5, 3:00 pm - concert seating
Free Jazz tickets for Students program
Saturday Nov 4
bad language, fighting. They scare her so
much she is thinking of moving.
Councilor Greg Evans spoke of similar
problems at a park near where he lives,
which he said are the worst he has seen in
the over 30 years he’s lived in Eugene.
This is great. The profoundly alien-
ated surplus people that middle-class so-
ciety literally has no use for can drive the
middle-classers out of their homes, lower
property values, de-gentrify neighbor-
hoods and make houses available to be
subdivided into cheap apartments.
In the absence of any coherent mili-
tant leadership among the advocates, the
“thugs” will lead the way. When creation
fails, it’s time for destruction.
“Just trying to prove, that your conclu-
sions, should be more drastic” — Bob Dylan.
Lynn Porter
Eugene
BAD BONDS
An apology: In the recent voters’ pam-
phlet, I opposed the bond measure “Bonds
to Fix Streets and Fund Bicycle and Pedes-
trian Projects.” I did so on the grounds that
the 9-1 spending on paving streets to alter-
native transportation infrastructure was not
enough. It isn’t. But I went on to say, “This
isn’t the right bond for Eugene.” And for
that I apologize.
Aquila Tax-Free Trust of Oregon, a
New York group that manages Oregon
Municipal Bonds, identify the Oregon Mu-
nicipal Bond Investor as “Oregon taxpay-
ers who can benefit from income that is ex-
empt from federal and state income taxes.”
The logic is this: Lacking tax money for
basic services, the city taxes us to buy a
bond that will provide tax-free income to
the richest Oregonians?
Outcomes aside, any bond measure im-
poverishes the community. The $3.8-tril-
lion bond market uses local governments
to funnel money upward to the very people
who then (Citizens United v. FEC) control
our government from the top down. That is
oligarchy, not democracy.
I want separated bicycle lanes, but I
cannot support any bond measure. The oth-
er day, at the City Club of Eugene, I asked
myself, “Who am I? Why am I here?” That
was a difficult question.
I realized afterward that maybe we
should all ask ourselves the same question.
“Who are we? Why are we here?” Try not
to leap to an answer. Sit with it. Then look
at this bond measure again.
Otis Haschemeyer
Eugene
THE BOND SCAM
The question on the ballot in Measure
20-275 is not whether we should fix our
streets, but whether we should buy a bond
to do so.
I don’t support the bond measure for
several reasons. A relatively peevish one:
I resent the city hiring California strate-
gists (the Strategy Research Institute) to
tell them how to message the bond mea-
sure such that it might pass. The strategists
were clear: Passage would require city
agents (some official, some not) aggres-
sively promoting the bond.
We’ve seen the city insiders coming out
in letters, talks on social media. I find the
overlap of scripted terms — “necessary,”
“successful,” “accountability,” “respon-
sibility” — and threats of a dark future,
such as “if allowed to sunset, streets will
begin to deteriorate, immediately!” All too
Matrix-y.
But, again, the measure is not about
whether we should fix our streets. It is
about whether we should buy a bond to do
so. The bond market is a trillion dollar in-
dustry profiting the top-half of the wealthy
one percent.
Local governments can stop buying
bonds. The money comes from us. It can
stay with us. No need to pay what would
in this case be $2.5 million-plus to billion-
aires like Uncle Phil.
It’s okay, everyone. We can find an-
other way. The city will find another way.
No need to be taking our dollars and giving
them to the top. There are many dire things
in the world, but this is not one of them.
Zondie Zinke
Eugene
Ehud Asherie
Hilary Gardner
The Late Set
Con & Mary
Sheffer
sponsor
Shedd Classical
2017-18
Th ursday
Nov 9
Robert Ashens
conductor
Siri Vik
soprano
Nathalie Fortin
piano
Mike &
Nancy Oft
Rose
Siri Vik
sponsor
Sure On Th is
Shining Night
Vocal & chamber works
by Samuel Barber & Aaron Copland
Nov 11 Alejandro Escovedo
Burn Something Beautiful
eugeneweekly.com • November 2, 2017
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