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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2018)
LET TERS ANOTHER TAKE ON 102 The Register-Guard got it wrong in their Oct. 5 editorial against Measure 102. Too many people in Lane County are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table. Doing nothing to address our housing crisis is not an option, but that’s ex- actly what The Register-Guard is advocating. Measure 102 is a broadly supported tweak to the Oregon Constitution that would enable — but not require — local govern- ments to partner with affordable housing developers to provide homes for the most vulnerable in our community. State legisla- tors got it right when they declined to lock in one-size-fits-all requirements. Eugene, Enterprise, Springfield and Sisters should not be required to address housing issues in the same way. If, under Measure 102, a local government in Lane County were to propose a bond measure for affordable housing, let’s trust local vot- ers to make sensible decisions about how best to spend such monies and what guar- antees they insist on. Local voters value accountability and transparency, and they’ve proven that time and again with smart investments with lo- cal bond dollars. VIEWPOINT Measure 102 enables sensible local so- lutions to problems across our state. Join me in voting yes on Measure 102. Rob Zako Eugene SENIORS FOR BROWN We senior voters of a Eugene retirement community have comments on the gover- nor race. Both major party candidates are appeal- ing to the “center.” We like non-partisan- ship, but even when policy specifics are offered, weighing the politics behind them is a challenge. We appreciate some of Knute Buehler’s quasi-moderate talking points, but think Kate Brown’s positions are more in tune with Oregon voters. We condemn the in- nuendo leveled against her by dark money campaigns aligned with Buehler. Further, we watch the national GOP repeatedly going off the rails and do not want to give it another inroad into Oregon politics. We — individually and as a group — are more comfortable with Brown’s track record and positions on health care, fos- ter care, state executions, immigration, gun control, unions and climate change. Buehler campaigned against Measure 101 funding for healthcare for vulnerable Ore- gonians, and misrepresents Brown’s foster care program. Buehler supports capital punishment and the racial profiling detailed in Measure 105. He has opposed sensible gun control and wants to fund education by cutting teacher benefits. On climate change, he proposes revenue-neutral carbon taxes, not allowing for the investment to address it. Overall, Buehler aligns with big money interests over people. We endorse Kate Brown for governor. Jack Taylor Eugene UPON A STAR The trouble with the STAR voting system is that it assumes people are intel- ligent. That is not a high-scoring proposi- tion for me. Mike Kopf Eugene TRUMP IN OUR BACKYARD Told the luxury Market Street expansion “won’t pencil out,” Eugene City Council voted 5-3 to grant Brian Obie and Casey Barrett of Gordon Lofts their MUPTE ap- plication worth $4.7 million. What the council may not have known is that the Market Street Expansion is in a Donald Trump “opportunity zone.” The University of Oregon and EWEB is in an- other “opportunity zone,” and Eugene has a third in Bethel. Trump’s “opportunity zones” are part of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and of- fer investors a tax haven for capital gains. Marketed as an “incentive” to “spur” de- velopment in “low income communities,” these “zones” are corporate offshore ac- counts within the country, like little Cay- men Islands. Through an “opportunity zone,” inves- tors can defer their capital gains, reduce them up to 15 percent (which is the tax limit on capital gains) and pay zero taxes on further gains after 10 years. Yes, zero! Available only through “opportunity funds” — kudos, Wall Street! — “oppor- tunity zones” are hand-me-downs for loyal service that will make the ruling class rich- er still, widen the wealth gap and impover- ish our communities with a lack of services and debt-slavery. B Y B O B WA R R E N Chopped Liver SATURDAY MARKET NEEDS TO BE CONSIDERED IN DOWNTOWN EUGENE’S FUTURE D oes anyone remember Bizarro World? It was a DC Comics planet, a mirror of Earth, except everything was opposite. Sometimes I feel as though Eugene must be a city located on the planet Bizarro. From November to April, all winter long, downtown Eugene on Saturday is a ghost town. Locals gather and drink coffee at Full City while the city downtown sleeps in. Not much else goes on to attract people to down- town. It’s a dreary, empty place. Then, on the second Saturday in April, with spring in the air, something miracu- lous happens. Everything changes as Saturday Market returns to the park blocks. It’s like a small town when the circus arrives. Cars, vans and pickups start arriving before dawn. Crews erect awnings and set up tables. Booths go up. The smell of fresh cof- fee permeates the early morning. The park blocks are filled with activity and energy, color and life. Downtown Eugene is alive once again, until fall, when the Saturday Market closes up shop for the winter. Across the street, on the sidewalk around the fringes of the county-owned but- terfly lot, the Farmer’s Market also emerges, taking full advantage of the opportunity created by Saturday Market’s drawing power. Saturday Market draws thousands of people to downtown Eugene. The market has 275 booths, employs 600 people and draws 10,000 to 15,000 people every week — thousands of people who are obviously not downtown the rest of the year. More than $2 million will be spent at Saturday Market before it shuts down for the season in the fall. In addition to the jobs and the vitality created by drawing thousands of people to an otherwise largely deserted downtown Eugene, Saturday Market is a business incubator for a host of small businesses that started there. Businesses like Off The Waffle, Wandering Goat Coffee Roasters, Toby’s Foods and others all got their start at Saturday Market. If the Farmers Market were not there, Saturday Market would not even notice the loss of the several hundred people it draws. Take Saturday Market away, however, and downtown Eugene remains a ghost town and Farmers Market sales plummet. So, why does the city of Eugene largely ignore Saturday Market as it plans for the new City Hall and “improved” Park Blocks? Every mention about the convoluted plans to build the new City Hall includes a new building for the Farmers Market, with no mention at all of Saturday Market. It’s as if the city does not even acknowl- edge the existence of Saturday Market. The market might wonder, “What are we, 4 November 1, 2018 • eugeneweekly.com chopped liver?” Meanwhile, the city plans “improvements” to the Park Blocks with no consider- ation at all about how they will impact Saturday Market. The city hints it might dis- place Saturday Market with construction during the market’s run. Closing the Park Blocks down for construction between April and November would be devastating to the 600 people who rely on the market for their livelihoods. It would also impact the other downtown businesses that benefit from the people who come downtown for Saturday Market. Talk about dumb. There is something very wrong with this picture. The city of Eugene will do any- thing to promote and help the Farmers Market but won’t give the time of day to Saturday Market, except of course to hint they might have to vacate the Park Blocks when it would hurt them the most. Really? The city won’t commit to a construction schedule that will not devastate Saturday Market? Only on Bizarro would the city commit to providing a new building for the Farm- ers Market, while entertaining plans to shut Saturday Market down for construction in the middle of the season. Only on Bizarro would the city thumb its nose at an in- stitution that has brought economic vitality to downtown Eugene continuously since 1971. Please do not get me wrong. I like the Farmers Market. We are lucky to have it. It’s a vital part of my favorite place. I shop there. I encourage you to shop there. However, the city needs to work closely and cooperatively with both markets, and the markets should be working cooperatively with each other. The city could, and should, require them to work and plan together. For example, while Saturday Market is open until 5 pm, the Farmer’s Market closes at 3 pm, what’s up with that? If this were Earth, instead of Bizarro, the city would reach out to both markets and do whatever it could to ensure both of their futures. The city would guarantee not to disrupt Saturday Market during market season. The city is doing that with the Farmers Market, committing to a new building. Why would they not do that with Saturday Market? Both markets are part of what makes Eugene my favorite place. But the Farmers Market is the tail and Saturday Market is clearly the dog. And the dog wags the tail, not the other way around. Un- less, of course, you live on Bizarro World. Bob Warren retired in 2012 as the regional business development officer for Business Oregon for Lane, Lincoln, Linn and Benton counties.
