LET TERS
CELEBRATING THE WHIT
As a recent transplant I again attended
the Whiteaker Block Party — an amaz-
ing event celebrating a highly influential
neighborhood in this wonderful city. Be-
cause I don’t fully understand the relation-
ship between those organizing the event
and the city of Eugene, I simply want to
ask some questions.
Is Blair Boulevard from W. 5th Avenue
to W. 2nd Avenue so crucial to Eugene that
it couldn’t be closed for 24 hours? Like-
wise with W. 2nd Avenue to Jackson Street
and then close Jackson to W. 4th? Or is
better to let drunk pedestrians spill over
the sidewalk and into the street where they
battle it out with cars and bikes?
I am fully aware that to close any road
for any reason costs money and resources.
Will those money-saving efforts be com-
forting after a tragedy occurs?
Thank you to those that organized the
Whiteaker Block Party and, more importantly,
thank you to those that cleaned up after and
returned the Whiteaker to its state of eclec-
tic beauty. I hope city leaders, if they don’t
already, support the Whiteaker Block Party
and continue to find ways to make the event
fun, safe and a way to highlight the things that
people love and enjoy about Eugene.
Josh Gebhart
Eugene
DOWNGRADING RAPE
I live in Springfield and would love to
ride my bike to work in west Eugene during
the dry season, but it’s not the fear of other
vehicles, death or crashing that stops me …
it’s the transients, hijackers and rapists.
And before anyone gets their panties in
a wad, I am aware that not all transients are
criminals and not all hijackers are rapists.
But all transients and strangers who ap-
proach are scary in the wee morning hours
when you’re alone on a bike path.
In the last six months, several people
have been attacked on bike paths, and I just
read that, in the Alton Baker Park incident,
the Eugene Police Department called the
victim’s rape an “unlawful sexual penetra-
tion, not rape” — a shocking downgrade to
an offense that protects the criminal, and a
massive upgrade in offensiveness in down-
grading that woman’s value as a human be-
HOT AIR SOCIETY
ing. It is downright barbaric.
I called EPD today to ask what they are
doing about this problem and was told that
they are short staffed and unable to keep
the bike paths safe at all times. It is up to
the users of the bike path to toss that coin.
“What about video surveillance,” I
asked. Nope. That’s on us, too. If we want
security, we’re gonna have to go knock on
the doors of City Hall.
I dunno, maybe we should just carry
guns, and if someone gets shot EPD could
call it “unlawful penetration of a bullet.”
Michele Walter
Springfield
MORE DOWNLOADS, PLEASE
I was surprised and disappointed that
you didn’t include the WNYC weekly
podcast On The Media, OTM, (ontheme-
dia.org) in your podcast list. They serve
of razor sharp analysis of mostly the U.S.
media. “Blah, Blah, Blah… Bang” on July
20, was particularly great, IMHO.
Check it out, please.
Janet Whitesides
Eugene
#FAILINGEUGENEWEEKLY
I am writing to ask why the cover story
of your most recent issue (8/2) was simply
a list of things that your staff has down-
loaded. I ask this in all seriousness because
it begs the simple question: Why? As in:
What is your purpose? I struggle to see
how a list of random cultural artifacts has
anything to do with the fulfillment of your
paper’s official mission statement.
It’s not like you have nothing to re-
port on. Can you not write more about
the specific performance of our city man-
ager? What percentage of Eugeneans are
happy with his performance? Your article
had quotes both in favor of and opposed
to Ruiz, but little information as to what
he has actually done. Why is he seen as
controversial? How is his performance dif-
ferent from other managers? Perhaps the
city’s “oppressed and dismissed” could use
more information about their local govern-
ment.
Also, the problem with our recycling
situation is not that it is suddenly “compli-
cated” to sort, but that we aren’t recycling.
The larger point here is that your paper
BY TONY CORCOR AN
Democrats and Dystopia
POST-OBAMA POLITICS
W
e all know the world changed two years ago. Oregon Republi-
cans now embrace Cambridge Analytica, the Mercers, the Koch
brothers and the Trump clan: It’s America’s new Gilded Age.
Promoting historically high income disparity and tax breaks for
the uber-wealthy, gutting women’s rights, immigrant families
and union rights, and tweeting racist dog whistles — these new robber barons are the
same assholes that caught Mark Twain’s eye over 100 years ago when he described
the first Gilded Age.
Obscene power grabs arrived quickly with these new thieves, aided by the whor-
ish compliance of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and the Republican Party in
general.
SCOTUS already slapped public employees and the doctrine of stare decisis
upside the head with the Janus v. AFSCME decision. Settled law, my ass. Roe v.
Wade, you’re next. It’s just a matter of time. Judicial activism in the face of reli-
gious bigotry is a virtue, not a vice these days. I’m sorry, Mr. Kavanaugh, on sec-
ond thought maybe we’ve already got too many mackerel snappers on the Supreme
Court. Couldn’t we just get another one of those nice Jewish lawyers? Preferably a
woman?
Oregon campaigns come into clearer focus as we enter the last 100 days before
the Nov. 6 general election. Like most progressives I’ll be focused on turnout. Who’s
exciting and who’s drawing money and interest? Whose interest?
PERS made its perennial appearance with its unfunded actuarial liability (UAL)
and projected rate increases facing the next Legislature. The Oregonian’s Ted Sick-
inger recently reported that even though PERS had a healthy 15.4 percent return on
its investment portfolio (reducing the UAL by $3 billion going forward), it still faces
a 38 percent increase for the 2019-21 biennial budget cycle.
Anticipating the increase, a coalition made up of the Oregon Business Council
and employer groups representing cities, counties and school boards presented a
joint letter to the PERS board. They asked the actuarial company, Milliman, to cal-
culate savings that could occur under various proposed legislative actions. These
included several that would certainly draw intense legal scrutiny by the unions:
• Extending a federal salary cap used in benefit calculations (now $275,000) to
Tier 1 employees.
• Establishing a 6 percent pension fund contribution from Tier 1 and Tier 2 em-
ployees and a 3 percent contribution from Tier 3 employees.
4
A ugust 16, 2018 • eugeneweekly.com
• Transitioning Tier 1 and 2 employees to Tier 3 benefits.
• Establishing an early retirement incentive program that allows eligible Tier 1
and Tier 2 employees to retire any time after age 50 and start collecting a benefit
while continuing to work for a PERS-covered employer for five years.
The good news is we’re only facing five statewide ballot measures in November,
down from an average of 14 over the last 20 years. Some of them simply revisit na-
tional red state values in Oregon like anti-immigration and anti-choice crap.
The immigration proposal would repeal Oregon’s 1987 sanctuary law, which
prohibits state and local law enforcement officers from helping to enforce federal
immigration law. A solution in search of a problem.
Another initiative would prohibit state funding for abortion, which is current-
ly covered by Oregon’s Medicaid program and public employees’ health insur-
ance. Pro-choice advocates argue this measure would actually increase the number
of unwanted pregnancies therefore increasing the number of abortions! Great public
policy and great family planning! God bless unintended consequences.
Speaking of bad policy, two of the other proposed constitutional amendments
affect tax issues. One extends the three-fifths supermajority vote requirement to oth-
er means by which the state tries to raise revenue. The other taxation proposal would
amend the state constitution to ban taxes on food, an attempt by the grocery industry
and the soda pop sugardaddies prohibiting a much-needed source of revenue for the
Medicaid obesity population in Oregon.
The last measure is a legislative referral that would allow local governments
to issue bonds to pay for affordable housing projects involving nonprofits or other
nongovernmental entities.
Finally, a shout out to my buddy, Mo Smith, an Oregon Nursing Association
staffer who helped out the PeaceHealth Riverbend hospitalists at a recent picket
line. Great turnout and rally. Mo even taught me a new chant, honed by a hospital-
ist from the next generation of labor’s Woody Guthrie-inspired poets. I think it has
something to do with a small Catholic hospital that morphed from a Sacred Heart to
a PeaceHealth MegaCorp.
“We don’t care what the pope would call it:
“We still call it Sacred Wallet!”
Stay tuned. Governor’s race, is it close? Let’s follow the money.
Former state Sen. Tony Corcoran of Cottage Grove is a retired state employee.