Eugene Weekly : News : 05.27.04

News Briefs: Developers Get Discount While Poor Pay Full Price | Salmon Still Protected by Pesticide Buffers | Logging Fuels Fires, Doesn't Prevent Them | New Tree-Sit Raises Stakes For Trees, People | New Progressive Council Could Revisit Votes | Church To move or Destroy Homes, Trees | 

Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes.

News:

News Ethics

KEZI lacks time to correct all mistakes; R-G editor indicts paper's practices.

DEVELOPERS GET DISCOUNT WHILE POOR PAY FULL PRICE

A poor family in Eugene has to cough up $175 for a summer pass to Amazon Pool this year under the city's policy of recovering 100 percent of its costs for recreation programs.

Eugene residents will pay hefty fees at Amazon Pool this summer.

But a developer hoping to make millions off rezoning a piece of land he speculated on to build a big box store on the edge of Eugene only has to pay 22 percent of the cost of processing a land use permit.

City Councilor Bonny Bettman says the city spends about $800,000 a year subsidizing developer profits by not charging for the full cost of processing land use permits. Rezonings and other land use changes can result in "a huge profit for the applicant," Bettman says. "The taxpayers should not be subsidizing that."

Bettman proposed increasing developer fees to about 65 percent of full cost recovery, still way below the 100 percent the poor family has to pay for having its kids learn to swim and have fun. But the city budget committee, stacked by Mayor Torrey with conservatives, balked.

The city council could reconsider the developer subsidy, but Bettman hasn't had any luck in the past. "This is an issue that I've brought up every single year," Bettman says. "We have some of the lowest development [charges] in the state of Oregon." —Alan Pittman

SALMON STILL PROTECTED BY PESTICIDE BUFFERS

The Seattle District Court has denied a motion to suspend its January 2004 injunction prohibiting the spraying of certain pesticides near salmon streams. The pesticide industry group CropLife and grower groups had requested a stay that would remove safeguards for salmon while they appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a strongly worded opinion written on Tuesday, May 18, U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour denied the industry request for a stay and underlined the need for the injunction's protections for threatened and endangered salmon.

Coughenour's order stated, "In enacting the ESA (Endangered Species Act), Congress expressly preferred the preservation of endangered species, deprived of the ability to protect themselves against the perpetual technological crusade of ever-expanding humankind, over the preservation of chemicals that have the potential to make extinction of these species imminent."

Coughenour also faults the Environmental Protection Agency for its lack of compliance with the law that made the injunction necessary, and for its poor communication to pesticide users about the injunction's requirements.

His ruling further stated, "If the EPA had expended as much effort in compliance with the ESA as it has expended in resisting this action, the lawsuit might have been unnecessary." —AS

LOGGING FUELS FIRES, DOESN'T PREVENT THEM

President George Bush wants to cut down the Northwest's forests in the name of saving them from wildfires. But a leading forestry scientist said this week that it's exactly such indiscriminate logging that has fueled Western forest fires.

Duke University forester Norman Christensen said this week in a press release that logging litters the forest floor with sawdust and debris that fuels fires. At the same time, removing trees increases wind speed by removing wind breaks and increases temperatures by removing shade, according to Christensen. He adds, "As a result, ground fuel fires that break out can spread faster and farther than they would normally." —AP

NEW TREE-SIT RAISES STAKES FOR TREES, PEOPLE

Several members of the Cascadia Forest Defenders (CFD) have erected two tree-sits on the site of the Straw Devil timber sale in the southern Willamette National Forest, near Oakridge. The tree-sits are of a new design, suspended more than 100 feet in the air by a complex network of ropes anchored to as many as 25 trees per platform, each covering several acres.

If any of the ropes are tampered with or the trees are felled, the structure will drop and down will come tree-sitter, all the way from 100 feet up.

"We will not tolerate violence on the part of the forest service toward forest activists simply protecting the last of the wild beauty in our region," says CFD member Evelyn Whisps.

This will be the second summer that CFD has occupied the Straw Devil sale in an attempt to halt the destruction of the old growth forest. Straw Devil is host to numerous nesting sites of the threatened and rare Oregon Red Tree Vole, one of the primary food sources for the endangered Northern Spotted Owl, along with other species.

The Red Tree Vole and the site of the tree-sits were formerly protected under the Survey and Manage Program contained in the Northwest Forest Plan, but have been added back to the sale by the National Forest Service since the elimination of that program. —AS

NEW PROGRESSIVE COUNCIL COULD REVISIT VOTES

What will change when the new city council and mayor take office with a potential progressive majority next year?

Here's a list of close council votes on key issues over the past five years where having Councilor-elect Andrea Ortiz and Mayor-elect Kitty Piercy in office could make a big difference if the decisions are revisited:

Pursue a moratorium against big-box store development. Failed 5-4 on May 25, 2004.

Ban the use of urban renewal money diverted from schools and other government services for a new highway near the river. Failed 5-4 on Feb. 25, 2004.

Raise stormwater fees to adequately protect water quality and buy and protect threatened stream corridors. Failed 3-5 on Aug. 11, 2003.

Support developer plans to sharply reduce natural areas that may be protected. Passed 5-3 on July 28, 2003.

Increase development fees for sprawl versus central city development. Failed 5-4 on July 28, 2003.

Preserve funding for the Toxics Right to Know law. Failed 3-5 on March 12, 2003.

Require above poverty "living" wages for the employees of the city, its contractors and recipients of city tax breaks and incentives. Failed 3-4 on Jan. 29, 2003.

Refer a city performance auditor to voters to make sure the city isn't wasting money. Failed 3-5 on July 10, 2002.

Allow the West Eugene Parkway to destroy endangered wetlands. Passed 5-4 on July 8, 2002.

Take money from other needed road projects to build the West Eugene Parkway through wetlands and promote urban sprawl. Passed 5-3 on July 8, 2002.

Subsidize the $80 million UO football stadium with city park property for parking lots. Passed 5-3 on Jan. 22, 2001.

Require permits to cut more than three trees. Failed 5-3 on Sept. 25, 2000.

In addition to these decisions, a progressive majority could also revisit several votes over the past five years that blocked funding for human services, including city funding for non-profits, housing programs, drug treatment and poverty reduction. —AP

CHURCH TO MOVE OR DESTROY HOMES, TREES

Residents of the Jefferson-Westside Neighborhood are speaking out against the Faith Center Foursquare Church's decision to move or demolish 10 houses within the area of Polk St. and 15th Ave. to make room for a youth center and parking lot.

Cialin Mills-Ostwald, who occupies one of the houses on the south side of 15th Ave., directly across the street from those that would be moved or demolished, has spoken to many of the church members, who she says had not been "fully informed as to the extent of the plans, or had considered their impact."

Steven Savich, another neighbor, says "We want to come to some compromise that works for both the neighborhood and the congregation. We do request that the Faith Center leave the neighborhood intact (trees, houses, landscaping) until the process of approval from the city has been completed, instead of clearing the land and leaving it empty."

According to Savich, the properties in question are currently zoned R-1 (residential), meaning the church must petition the city for a conditional-use zoning change to complete its project. The youth center will include two auditorium spaces and a gymnasium, and would be used primarily on Sundays and some weekday evenings.

Neighborhood residents intend to gather at 7 pm, Thursday, May 27, at 1330 Polk St. to discuss possible alternatives to moving or destroying the houses. One option may be for church members to use the brand-new facilities at the soon-to-be-constructed Cesar Chavez Elementary School, which is only two blocks away. —Ben Fogelson

News Ethics

KEZI lacks time to correct all mistakes; R-G editor indicts paper's practices.

BY ALAN PITTMAN

It's hard for KEZI-TV to find enough time in its 30-minute news broadcast to run all the corrections it should and a top Register-Guard editor is "terrified" at omissions in the paper's coverage.

That's the news from a panel on "Ethical Challenges to Journalism" sponsored by the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists at the UO May 5.

"God knows we make more mistakes than I'd say a newspaper does," said KEZI-TV news director Alan Beck. But he said that in a 30-minute newscast, "It's hard to find time to correct them all." Beck then looked around at the lecture hall of about 100 journalists and journalism students and added, "Don't quote me on that."

Register-Guard Associate Editor Jim Godbold announced that he had a "blistering indictment of the R-G's practices" in failing to cover the diversity of the community. "The Register-Guard believes the people who read the paper are the people who are in the paper," Godbold said. "On a given day, I am terrified by the size of that omitted population."

The panel discussion focused on recent scandals around journalists who made up stories at the New York Times and USA Today.

Godbold said journalists at the R-G believed such a scandal couldn't happen at their smaller paper because a reader, colleague or a source would complain. "Someone would blow the whistle."

Unlike larger papers, "The size of The Register-Guard provides for a lot of interaction" both inside and outside the paper, Godbold said.

Beck agreed that the "appalling" made up stories would be harder to do at a smaller news organization where people talk to each other more.

But Seattle Times executive editor Michael Fancher, the third panelist, said, "I don't think there is an editor in the country that would flat out say that couldn't happen at their paper."

Fancher said editors depend on trusting that their reporters aren't making up stories. "We're really vulnerable to the trustworthiness of every individual."

Godbold apologized for implying that a similar scandal wasn't possible at his paper. "Of course it's possible anywhere."

Godbold said papers were very vulnerable to reporters who flat make up their stories. "An engaging sociopath that's good at lying," Godbold said, "can take people for a long, long ride."

Beck said he has to guard against some young TV news reporters who "start to stage things" in response to pressure for compelling video. If you do that "you begin to hack away at your credibility."

Beck said he also struggles with the move toward softer, more entertainment-oriented TV news. "You have to hold the line."

With only a half-hour minus commercials, TV news is necessarily "broad but not very deep," Beck said. "When people tell me that 'I get all my news from TV,' it horrifies me as a news director," he said.

Beck said he's seen surveys showing that a large number of people get all their news from watching Leno and Letterman and other "talk, entertainment spin crap" shows. "It's incredible," he said.

Panelists responded to a question of how ownership of local media affects coverage. KEZI is owned by the Chambers family, which also owns Chambers Construction and donates to pro-development local candidates. The Register-Guard's Baker family also owns one of the area's larger development companies.

Beck said he regularly consults on KEZI news coverage with Scott Chambers. "He can steer me in a way to the community that can help me," Beck said, adding, the Chambers owners "become great sources of information."

Godbold said, "Every publisher has sacred cows and blind spots and tender spots and issues they're afraid of." Godbold said when he was news editor, he tried to encourage the Baker family to allow stories about such sensitive topics as their own business deals. He said he'd ask the owners, "You don't want to see it in Eugene Weekly before you see it in The Register-Guard do you?"

Godbold said, "I've never ever been told not to do a story." But he admitted in response to a question that the R-G didn't cover some labor stories about a recent contract dispute. The owners had decided, "We're not going to discuss our labor negotiations on the pages of the paper."

Fancher provided this advice about newspaper sacred cows: "They make great hamburger."