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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: News: News: Happening Person: Ellen Gabehart FAKE GRASS TOPS PARK PRIORITIES What's a higher priority, making a pond that has drowned at least four kids safer, a new teen center downtown to keep kids out of trouble, paving over school fields and laying AstroTurf, acquiring threatened riverfront and ridgeline land for more bike and hiking trails, a downtown square, park tables for chess, building a big skateboard bowl at Washington-Jefferson Park, building a whitewater park for kayakers, building a course for mountain bike stunts, or restoring Amazon Creek for a natural park in back of the fairgrounds? After hours of testimony pleading different projects, the Eugene City Council went for the AstroTurf April 10, adding $5 million to a November bond measure for covering four grass fields at 4J middle schools and one field at Bethel High School with the synthetic surface. It's unclear why the council chose the fake grass over the other projects, which had far more support at the hearing. AstroTurf advocates, including officials from local organized sports leagues and former Mayor Jim Torrey, had lobbied the council behind the scenes for the last month to put their project in the bond. Charles Warren, a major donor for the Chamber of Commerce's conservative political action committee, testified that the synthetic fields would be less muddy and allow more playing time. He said a planned $20 million bond for acquiring parkland threatened by development and rising costs might not pass without support from AstroTurf supporters. But David Monk worried that adding the $5 million in hard AstroTurf, which he said many people don't like to play on, could hurt chances of the acquisition bond measure passing by increasing the voter sticker shock. Warren and a couple other artificial grass boosters were far outnumbered at the hearing by the two dozen Bethel residents who came with yellow ribbons to plead for safety improvements to a dangerous park in their neighborhood. Shauna Davis brought pictures of her teenage son and nephew who drowned in the steep old gravel pit at Golden Gardens Park last year. She choked when describing how they died at the park with inadequate safety access and where at least two other children had also drowned in recent years. "Nothing has been done at Golden Gardens Park after 12 years and four lives," the mother said. "It has to stop." City councilors later said they would look for some limited money for safety improvements in the park but didn't include anything in the November bond measure for major improvements. One leader from the Friends of Golden Gardens Park said it would cost about $400,000 to buy land and re-grade the steep slopes of the pits. By comparison, each AstroTurf field paving included in the measure will cost about $1 million and will require about $500,000 in resurfacing work every decade. Use of the AstroTurf fields will be tightly restricted and limited largely to organized sports leagues. — Alan Pittman
WHAT'S WRONG WITH EUGENE? The impact of land use planning on neighborhoods, the urban core and the economy is being examined in a two-part series at City Club of Eugene. The first in the series was last Friday, the second part will be at 11:50 am Friday, April 14 at the Downtown Athletic Club. Admission is free for City Club members and $3 for non-members.
The April 7 meeting focused on "Land-Use Planning: What's Wrong With Eugene?" and this week's meeting will look at solutions. Speakers last week were David Hinkley of Friends of Eugene, Terry Connelly of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, architect Dan Hill of Lane County Homebuilders, and Rob Handy of the Eugene Neighborhood Leaders Council. Handy said "neighborhoods are at the core of our economic, social and family life. …. It only makes sense that neighborhood residents should have significant roles in the planning process." He said Eugene's planning department is not neutral and favors developers over residents, and doesn't deal adequately with transportation and livability issues. He said public input is either too early or too late to affect development, and planning "too frequently benefits short-term private economic gain over broader, long-term community values." One example, he said, was approval for medical offices in the Chase Gardens Mixed Use Center, an area where residents spent years planning for neighborhood retail and grocery. Hill cited a lack of vision in the Eugene planning process, and complained of short-sighted restrictions on buildings that cause more problems than they solve. For example, he said Eugene's excessive set-backs and minimal lot coverage standards encourage two-story buildings. He also said public input can lead to problems and delays since "most citizens are not planning experts," and the city has "gone too far in allowing individuals and groups to stall out projects." Hinkley said Eugene has "no single super-majority held community vision" on what it wants to be as a city, other than the 19 council-adopted Growth Management Policies that are subject to interpretation or ignored. He said development standards are "too vague" or are applied arbitrarily, and development projects can be either delayed excessively, or rushed through quickly, as in the Whole Foods project. Another example he gave was the $1.3 million budgeted to promote and plan the new City Hall. "They are asking what should have been the first question last," he said. Connelly said planning is important, but it's "not an exact science, and cannot predict the future," particularly as the economy and the housing marketing change. He said "If the bar of perfection in planning is set too high, the outcome may be unattainable, no matter how much time, resources and citizen input gets put into the planning process," and "if we want more land off the tax roles for parks and open spaces, then the tradeoff is we need to ensure sufficient land still available or made available for people to live, work and generate the tax revenue that pays for essential city services." From the audience, architect Otto Poticha asked a tough question for the panel: Eugene's planning is focused on zoning, and there's no real big plans for Eugene, he said, and the result is mediocrity. "So does community planning really matter?" This Friday's luncheon meeting, perhaps providing answers to Poticha's question, will be broadcast on KLCC 89.7 FM at 6:30 pm Monday, April 17. — Ted Taylor
BAD JOBS GET BIG BREAKS State and local officials showered the new Royal Caribbean call center opening recently near Gateway Mall with hoopla, handouts and tax breaks. Most of the 230 new jobs at the call center will pay only $9.25 an hour. That's only $1.75 above minimum wage. At $9.25 a person would earn $19,296 a year, well below the average Lane County salary of about $33,000. It's also far less than a family wage. Economists estimate a family of two parents with two kids here needs about $42,000 a year to meet basic subsistence needs such as food, shelter, clothes and transportation. Call centers are widely seen as among the least valuable industries to attract to a city. The jobs are often low wage and high turnover and can easily leave for places with lower taxes and labor costs. Despite the low-quality jobs, state and local economic development officials gave the Royal Caribbean corporation $1.3 million in taxpayer money in grants. Officials also gave the corporation an enterprise zone tax break, worth about $1 million a year for at least the next three to five years. The millions in tax breaks will be diverted from funding for schools and local government services such as cops and firefighters. — Alan Pittman
PARTICLES, BIG & SMALL Proposed EPA air quality rule changes would tighten regulations on particle pollution in 2013, but revoke national standards for coarse particle pollution (PM-10) across Oregon for the seven years until the EPA's new rules are enforced. Large cities that have violated the 24-hour coarse particle standard over the last three years would be held to the current standard through 2013. But because no Oregon cities have recently violated the standard, coarse particle pollution would go unchecked throughout Oregon for the next seven years, said EPA spokesman John Millet. "There wasn't as much reason to [retain the current standard] in places that don't already have a problem," Millet said. "It's not like you're losing anything in reality." Oregon Toxics Alliance Communications Chair Barbara Allen disagrees. "This rule is a Bush administration gift to industry by opening up the possibility of no emission control rules for certain areas for seven or more years," she said. The EPA's proposed changes would lower the 24-hour fine particle standard (PM-2.5) from 65 to 35 micrograms per cubic meter while leaving the annual standard at 15 micrograms per cubic meter, despite an independent advisory committee's recommendation to lower it. Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority Director Merlyn Hough said that the new fine particle standards might be difficult for Lane County to meet, especially in Oakridge, where high levels of fine particulates have posed short-term air quality problems. "EPA's proposed timeframes are necessarily long, but we and our partners are already well on our way and we expect to meet EPA's schedules with much room to spare," he said. The proposed changes would also lower the 24-hour coarse particle standard from 150 to 70 micrograms per cubic meter, but revoke the annual standard nationwide. "Current scientific evidence does not show significant public health risks associated with long-term exposure to coarse particles," states the EPA website. But the EPA acknowledges that short-term exposure to high levels of coarse particles can cause premature death, reduced lung function and chronic respiratory disease in children. The EPA will accept public comments on the proposed rule changes until April 17. All comments should be identified by Docket ID No. OAR-2001-0017 and submitted online (www.regulations.gov);by e-mail (a-and-r-docket@epa.gov); fax (202-566-1741) or mail Air and Radiation Docket and Information Center, EPA, 6102T, 1200 Penn. Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 20460. — Kera Abraham
WARRIOR VIEWPOINT A one-day symposium at the UO Law School Friday, April 14, will examine the past and future of Native American law and policy. The conference, sponsored by the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, is titled, "From the Warrior Viewpoint: The Next Generation of Indian Law and Policy." Expected speakers include Charles W. Blackwell, Chickasaw Nation ambassador to the U.S.; Lorraine Davis, vice president for academic affairs at UO; Dave Frohnmayer, UO president; Jim Gray, chief of the Osage Nation; Wilma Mankiller, former principal chief of the Cherokee Nation; and Chad Smith, current chief of the Cherokee Nation. Rennard Strickland, retiring dean of the Law School, will be honored at an evening celebration for his 40th publication and 40th year of teaching. For more information, visit www.MorseChair.uoregon.eduor call 346-3700.
GRIEF & UNITY Veterans, peace advocates, students and the general public will gather from 3:30 to 6:30 pm Wednesday, April 19 at the UO for a "Grief and Unity" memorial intended to "bypass the polarizing labels of 'pro-war' or 'anti-war' through finding commonality in our shared loss," say organizers. The gathering will be held between the Fenton and Friendly buildings on 13th Avenue. Participants will stand in silence as names of U.S., Iraqi, and Afghan dead are read in the presence of symbolic flag-draped coffins. Contact information will be on hand for veterans or family members who wish to obtain grief counseling or assistance with other related issues. For more information, contact Eugene Peaceworks at 343-8548.
West Lane Herbicide Spray Schedule • Lane County Public Works plans to begin spraying herbicides again (Orin Schumacher, IVM Coordinator: 682-6908). Check Commissioners' Agendas to find out when the hearing will occur to consider changes to the Last Resort Herbicide Use Policy, and to approve the list of herbicides to be used, at www.co.lane.or.us/BCC/AgendaHome.htm;more information at www.lanecounty.org/RoadMaint/LastResort.htm and www.co.lane.or.us/RoadMaint/Vegprescriptions.htm • ODOT District 5 (within Lane County): Roadside herbicide nighttime spraying scheduled during the week of April 17 on Highway 126 East, and on Highway 58, weather permitting. ODOT District 5 IVM Coordinator Dennis Joll: 686-7526; daily spray information: (888) 996-8080. — Compiled by Jan Wroncy. Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332
ELLEN GABEHART
Artist, teacher and Bronx native Ellen Gabehart says she started drawing at age 3, and joined the Student's Art League at 14. But her parents disapproved of art and forced her to take an office job. "They made me be a bookkeeper," she says. "I left for California at 17." Soon married with three children, Gabehart completed a degree in education with a minor in art. She taught grade school, took watercolor workshops, and often traveled on her own to draw and paint in the Southwest. On a rare trip north in the '70s she fell in love with Oregon, sold everything and moved to Gold Beach. "I started my art career at age 41," she notes, "teaching at SWOCC." Five years later, Gabehart moved to Eugene, where she has been teaching ever since in many settings. "I taught at Maude Kerns Art Center for 25 years," she says. "I've just quit — I want to spend more time on my own work." Gabehart will still teach a few classes for seniors and kids. She travels to Mexico nearly every summer to draw and paint. See two recent works this month at the New Zone Gallery, 975 Oak Alley.
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