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Bounce: An occasional rant by a mixed bag of local Duck nuts Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: POLICE REVIEW GETS A FORUM The upcoming Nov. 8 election in the city of Eugene has just one item on the ballot, the External Police Review Board Measure 20-106, and just one public forum planned so far. Ballots are mailed Oct. 21. The forum is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 pm Wednesday, Oct. 19 at EWEB, 500 E. 4th Ave. The event is sponsored by the ACLU of Oregon, CALC, Communities United for Better Policing, the League of Women Voters of Lane County and KOPT Radio. Bonny Bettman, Gary Papé, Henry Luvert and Ken Tollenaar are the scheduled panelists. Alan Siporin will be moderator. The ballot language will ask voters: "Shall Eugene charter authorize city council to hire police auditor and appoint civilian review board to review complaints against police?" Setting up an independent external review requires a charter amendment since all powers to hire and fire city staff are currently held exclusively by the city manager. The measure is an outgrowth of a 15-month review by the Eugene Police Commission. The commission looked at current practices for handling complaints against Eugene police, and analyzed various models of oversight being used around the country. A description of the ballot measure and its background can be found at www.eugene-or.gov under "City Highlights." Proponents have a website now at www.yeson20-106.org A Voters Pamphlet is expected to arrive in city residents' mailboxes the week of Oct. 17. Deadline for registering to vote is 21 days before the election, which is Oct. 18. — TJT
BENNIS TALKS ON EMPIRE Activist scholar and journalist Phyllis Bennis will be speaking in Eugene Tuesday, Oct. 18. The title of her talk is Challenging Empire :Moving US Politics Toward A Positive Solution.
Bennis is a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies and is active with the anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice. She's a writer, analyst and activist on Middle East and U.N. issues. Bennis appears frequently as a commentator and analyst on U.S. and international television and radio, and has written about U.N. and Middle East issues for almost 20 years. Bennis is also involved with the creative and theatrical peace and social justice movement CODEPINK (www.codepink4peace.org).On Sept. 26 she joined Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and more than 30 other women at a colorful direct action in front of the White House. Bennis will also be in Corvallis speaking about her recently published book, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, at 7 pm Monday, Oct.17 at the Odd Fellows Hall downtown.
CRAPPY CREEK Sections of Amazon Creek and the A2 diversion canal in west Eugene exceed state standards for fecal bacteria, city Water Resources Manager Therese Walch told the Eugene City Council this week. To address the problem, the city plans to spend $21,000 next year on a three-year study of the source of the pollution. "We simply don't know" where the fecal bacteria are coming from, Walch told the council. "Bacteria is a really challenging issue." After the council's previous conservative majority cut $1.8 million out of the city's stormwater protection program two years ago, Eugene has now fallen behind other cities in protecting water quality. Springfield, Salem, and Portland now have stormwater development standards requiring developers to build natural swales and other improvements to treat contaminated water on-site, but Eugene has no such rules. Council conservatives have also slashed a planned city program to buy up stream corridors threatened by development. The new, more progressive City Council appears to be looking to fix the damage in the environmental program. The council this week approved a $300,000 increase in water protection funding and directed the staff to bring back the stream corridor acquisition program for reconsideration. Councilor Bonny Bettman pointed to studies showing that acquiring and protecting streams instead of piping and filling them can increase water quality, be cheaper and provide a natural amenity to neighborhoods. She called the "green infrastructure approach" environmentally "sustainable" and "forward looking." Councilor David Kelly said the city could also use buying threatened streamsides as a way to avoid developers' Measure 37 claims for compensation. "One way to assure protection of an important resource is to buy it." But city staff appeared to resist this idea. City Manager Dennis Taylor complained that the acquisition proposal hadn't been "fully vetted" by city staff who would like to put forward competing priorities for the money. The council also is considering new setback requirements for developers building next to sensitive streams. But Friends of Eugene President Kevin Matthews faulted city staff for failing to identify many streams needing protection. The new setback requirements apply to only 65 percent of the sensitive stream corridors identified a few years ago as targets for acquisition, according to Walch. Matthews called the city's new setback regulations "a piece of garbage," for failing to identify all the threatened waterways. The city is trying to do the "absolute minimum protection that would pass muster with the state," he said. — Alan Pittman
SLUMLORDS BEWARE Slumlords hoping to cash in on a fresh crop of UO student renters beware, there's a new housing cop in town. The city of Eugene's new Rental Housing Code became effective July 1. The code allows renters to file complaints with the city, rather than filing an often time-consuming and costly state lawsuit. The city can force slumlords to provide minimum habitability standards to safeguard the health, property and well-being of users of rental property. The code has standards for plumbing, heating, weatherproofing and structural integrity. To file a complaint, a renter should first notify the landlord in writing and wait for 10 days to see if he/she fixes the problem. Then the renter can file a written complaint with the city including names and addresses, a copy of the complaint sent the landlord and a complete description of the problem. The city can then force the landlord to fix the slum conditions. The city address is Rental Housing Code, 99 W. 10th Ave., Eugene 97401. Renters may want to take full advantage of the program since they are paying for it whether they use it or not. The city plans to fund enforcement staff through a $10 per unit annual fee that landlords will likely load on to existing rents. For more information, call the city at 682-8282. Information is also on the city's web site (www.eugene-or.gov). — Alan Pittman
SHORR TIME
Ira Shorr, national field director for Physicians for Social Responsibility, will be in Eugene Sunday, Oct. 16 for three events. • Conversation with Claude Offenbacher on "Preventing Nuclear Terrorism" from noon to 1 pm on KLCC, 89.7 FM. • Workshop on "How to talk to Americans about Global Issues: Iraq, Terrorism, Nuclear Dangers, and Global Warming" from 2:30 to 5 pm at the First Congregational Church, 1050 E. 23rd Ave. Cost is $25 including workbook, or $10 suggested donation without the workbook. • Free public talk on "Iraq, Terrorism, Nuclear Dangers, and Global Warming: Feeling Secure Yet?" at 7 pm at Columbia 150 on the UO campus, 13th and University. For more information, call Beyond War/PSR at 485-0911.
AT THE GATES Eugene peace activist Peter Chabarek has written his observations of the mass protest in Washington, D.C., Sept. 24-26. He and others were arrested for blocking the entrance to the Pentagon (see Michael Carrigan, News Briefs, 10/6). "I do not know at this point in time what will be the effect of our actions toward ending the war," he writes, "but my gut tells me the tide is turning, and it is only a matter of time before the Bush house of cards begins to collapse. Carry on, brothers and sisters. We must be as relentless as the forces of darkness we are facing." The full text of his essay is at www.eugeneweekly.com this week, along with photos by Carol Melia.
We all love the home team — and it helps when the players are aggressive, athletic, attractive and winning most of the time. Sports fans (and I don't mean just those Autzen habitues, or ESPN channel surfers) know that the UO women's soccer team may be the best "futbol" team in the state. It's even more delicious when more than one-third of the team is home-grown. That's right, we can go out and root for women who have bloodied their shins and dug in their cleats in the high school and select club programs of Oregon. We wrote this column before the Duck women lost both conference openers in Arizona last weekend, 3-0 to Arizona State and 4-2 to Arizona. But we're sticking with them, hoping that our pride is only temporarily dimmed.
It is a real tribute to soccer in this state that so many players are competing at the Division 1 level. A nod also to first-year Duck Coach Tara Ericksen who can recognize local talent and is willing to work with it. Too often coaches miss the local stars while chasing a player no better a thousand miles away. The most noticeable local plays in that soccer crucible known as the goal. She's Jessie Chatfield, the freshman sensation in the net from Churchill High school. She has already recorded six shutouts in 12 games and brings enormous energy and courage to the anchor position. She has allowed 16 goals this year. Six of those were against number four ranked Portland, and if she hadn't been punching away shots and diving on the ball at the feet of onrushing Pilots, another six could easily have found the back of the net. Chatfield is the bomb-diggity for anyone who loves to watch smart, aggressive and athletic goalkeeping. Other home-growners fill positions on the field from striker to stopper. Senior co-captain Katie Abrahamson from West Linn is starting alongside another talented freshman from Churchill, Allison Newton on defense. Lisa Tedford, also a junior Olympic skier, plays defense off the bench, as does Jen Cameron from Sherwood. Madison Cheek and Tiffany Smith from Tigard and Eugene support Nicole Garbin up front, while Taylor Callan from Portland and Kaily Winther, Eugene — currently rehabbing a knee — play in the midfield. Not all the stars hail from Oregon. It has to be a relief for every player to have Nicole Garbin back in the lineup after a year healing from injuries. As a power forward in the mold of the famous German, Gerd Muller, she can trap the ball in traffic, turn and deliver with power. She knows how to beat defenses and get results. Even though she comes from Hawaii, the fans at Pape field are smart enough to treat her like a native daughter. Speaking of daughters, if you've got one take her over to the games next weekend. Coming off their Arizona downer, the Ducks will be playing only four more times before the home crowd. These players are role models and members of our community. Just ask the elementary school girls who got to walk to school the other day with members of the team. The Ducks showed up at 7:15 am to participate in a "Walk to School Day." Once the youngsters realized that the college students walking with them were soccer players they lit up. The little ones buzzed about their next games, the Ducks' next games and kicking around at recess. Those youngsters might be the home-growns of 2015. The Ducks have four more home games: UCLA at 5 pm Friday, Oct. 14; USC at noon Sunday, Oct. 16; Cal at 5 pm Friday, Nov. 4; and Stanford at 1 pm Sunday, Nov. 6. All games are at Papé Field, next to Autzen stadium. — G. Posts
Blowing
Smoking Four years ago the City Council passed a public health measure prohibiting smoking in all public places and places of employment including bars and restaurants. But city staff administering the ordinance then created a huge loophole. They allowed businesses to create new "outdoor" smoking areas that were enclosed by roofs and walls enclosing 75 percent of the sides, with screens often allowed on the remaining openings. Within a few years, bars and restaurants established at least 40 such "outdoor" enclosures. The doctors and other public health advocates that pushed for the original smoking ban complained the new law had been subverted. Last month council progressives narrowly voted to pursue changes in the law that would largely do away with the outdoor smoking enclosures and restore the law's original intent to protect employees and patrons from secondhand smoke. The council voted 5-4 to require roofed outdoor smoking areas to be 75 percent open on the sides and unscreened. Mayor Kitty Piercy and Councilors Andrea Ortiz, David Kelly, Bonny Bettman and Betty Taylor voted to require existing structures to meet the new requirements within one year. Councilors Gary Papé, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor and George Poling opposed the public health measure, arguing that existing smoking areas should be exempt and that new structures should be only 50 percent enclosed on the sides. Bettman said it was unfortunate the staff didn't follow the council's intent in 2001. "Right now the standard is if you've got a couple windows and open them, that's considered a smoking area." But Papé questioned whether there was much of a problem, arguing that few had complained. Responding to complaints, the city has issued 30 compliance orders and 12 fines to bars and restaurants for failing to comply with the old rules since 2001. Papé said, "I haven't seen any clear and convincing evidence" that there's a problem with secondhand smoke in the enclosed smoking areas. Papé said he'd like smoking banned in cars and homes where there are children but opposes banning smoking in taverns. "It's legal." Although it was proposed weeks earlier, Pryor complained that the 75 percent open requirement was "boom, out of the blue." Councilor Poling argued for grandfathering in existing smoking areas. "I oppose the principal of making people change." But Bettman said the city should "level the playing field" between new smoking areas and old areas and not grandfather in businesses. The council majority did pass a measure providing $15,000 worth of subsidized permit fees for businesses changing their existing structures within the one-year grace period. Kelly pointed out that in some cases the businesses proposed for grandfathering had deliberately pursued loopholes to avoid the smoking ban. Kelly said he wasn't willing to "play Santa Claus endlessly" to such businesses. Piercy said opening the smoking areas was needed. "We are being told by our county health department that we need to address this issue." Ortiz agreed, "I would err on the side of safety." Bettman said that many bar and tavern workers, some single moms risking their jobs, had come "courageously" forward in 2001 to call for the employee safety measure. Business owners have long complained that the smoking ban would hurt their incomes and wasn't necessary. But Bettman said, "the medical experts have been very articulate and firm that secondhand smoke is a killer." Secondhand smoke kills thousands of Americans each year, causing asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and other ailments, scientific studies have shown. The smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including 69 known carcinogens such as formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, benzene, and radioactive polonium 210, according to the American Lung Association (ALA). Independent, objective studies have repeatedly shown that anti-smoking laws don't hurt and may in fact help businesses. A recent report by the city of New York showed that since a new smoking ban went into effect, restaurant business receipts and employment increased and the ban was supported by most New Yorkers. A 2004 Zagat survey polled 30,000 New York restaurant-goers and found, by a 6-1 margin, people said they were eating out more often because of the ban. Zagat reported, "The city's recent smoking ban, far from curbing restaurant traffic, has given it a major lift."
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