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Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes News: Happening Person: Herman Krieger
COUNTY TAX UNBALANCED Ron Chase, who for two decades has been a leader in the local criminal justice community as head of the inmate transitional housing program Sponsors, has come out against the county's law enforcement income tax, Measure 20-114. "I cannot support this tax," Chase writes in the Sponsors newsletter. Chase faults the measure for not putting enough money into crime prevention. "Based on my definitions," Chase says, he estimates 76 percent of the new tax revenue will fund law enforcement. Only 20 percent will go to prevention/intervention. "That is nowhere near the 50 percent figure being thrown around by measure supporters." "By adding more jail beds and more police, we are simply widening the net without dealing with most of the underlying issues," Chase writes. Chase says dedicating the revenue from the tax "forever" to public safety "presupposes that the problems it targets will never be solved, even with this massive infusion of money." Chase notes that local jail crowding isn't an issue for most of the serious violent criminals who are sent off to state prisons for increasingly long sentences. More criticism of the county tax Measure 20-114 came at the Eugene City Club meeting Oct. 27. Ron Davis, who unsuccessfully ran for county commissioner this year, said the county should be looking to get more of the tax from corporations who are paying less and less in Oregon. "We need to revisit the deep pockets." County Judge Darryl Larsen advocated for the tax at City Club, calling it "excellently designed." Larsen admitted the county had "relatively low rates of violent crimes" but claimed that "we're in the 93rd percentile" for property crimes. But that claim doesn't jibe with the latest FBI statistics that show that compared to other law enforcement agencies serving more than 100,000 people, Lane County's property crime rate is relatively low, in the 10th percentile. Other rhetoric in support of the county tax measure is being funded by taxpayers in the way of half-page newspaper ads. State law prohibits taxpayer financed campaign propaganda, but the county ads do not say how much the measure will cost the average taxpayer nor the fact that crime rates are falling. The ads appear clearly aimed at passing the tax. — Alan Pittman
HOWARD'S PUPPET Think all election ads are designed to bore you to tears? Think again. Although some Oregonians have mailed back or dropped off their ballots already, the election season isn't quite over as ads and polls besiege voters. Defend Oregon, a coalition working to defeat Measures 41 and 48, has the answer for you: a cartoon.
The cartoon, called "No on 41 and 48," was hand animated by Oregon Political Staffer LLC and has been viewed thousands of times according to YouTube's counter. "We're taking advantage of viral advertising," says Defend Oregon's Rebecca Uherbelau. She says Defend Oregon, representing groups from business to labor to education to the AARP, wanted to get the message out in a new way and emailed a link to the cartoon to supporters. Though there's a disclaimer on the clip, characters and animation are suspiciously similar to South Park. That's because South Park is set in Colorado, a state whose Measure 48-like TABOR, Uherbelau says, devastated the state. The clip begins with three familiar boys standing in front of familiar mountains, waiting for the school bus … which never comes. Why? Well, a fourth boy returns to report that "Summer vacation has begun." One boy responds, "That's totally lame! I don't want to stay home with my parents all day!" Another boy says, "It's April! We've got a shorter school year than Oregon?!" New York developer and Measures 41 & 48 backer Howard Rich arrives on the scene, complete with Don McIntire as a hand puppet, and the kids get mad. To see the clip, which has received what Uherbelau says is a strong positive response, visit Defend Oregon (www.defendoregon.org)or Blue Oregon (www.blueoregon.com)and gain some much-needed laughs as election season grinds on and on and on. — Suzi Steffen
WETLANDS' BACK DOOR The Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) will not have all the information needed to make a decision on Hayden Homes' request to fill wetlands for the proposed 187-home Meadow View subdivision until Nov. 3. That detail did not stop the agency's Assistant Director Kevin Moynahan from sending Hayden an email two weeks ago asking the company to help write the justification for an "issuance of a yes" on its permit request. Hayden's preferred option would impact 22 acres of the last 1 percent of wetlands remaining in west Eugene. Wetlands filter water, reduce flood risks and house endangered species such as the Fender's blue butterfly. Due to requirements of the Clean Water Act, Hayden needs approval to fill wetlands from both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the DSL in order to move forward with building Meadow View, one of the largest proposed developments in the West Eugene Wetlands in recent years. The Corps still has not yet issued its decision, and the DSL's review period is slated to end Dec. 21. When the DSL grants a developer permission to fill wetlands, it's not unusual for the applicant to write the justification in order to speed up the process. But it is not standard practice for an applicant to write the justification before the decision has officially been made, says DSL Operations Manager Michael Morales. DSL's Moynahan wrote in an Oct. 17 email to Hayden's wetland consultant that DSL needs "the applicant — Frank or Renee — to assist in drafting the findings for issuance of a yes on MVP [Meadow View Project] … Essentially, it is the justification for the issuance — that it is in compliance with the statutory/regulatory framework etc. Written to stand up to the possible challenge to the grant of the permit. You all prepare a draft, we review leading to a final document." Moynahan, who originally refused to comment, says that this is an attempt to jump start the permit process, which has now lasted for 10 months. Moynahan emphasizes that Hayden is not controlling the final decision but says that the permit's prospects are better now that Hayden has scaled down its proposal from 252 to 187 homes. "That's really close," he said. "We're pretty comfortable with that." DSL's Morales, who is currently in charge of reviewing the Hayden permit, said that he has not asked the applicant to write findings, nor is he aware of anyone else at his agency making that request. But Morales had been copied on Moynahan's Oct. 17 email. Lauri Segel, a Goal One community planner, questions DSL's timeline in other arenas. After DSL denied Hayden's permit request in August, Hayden contested the decision. In September, Hayden amended its application to include another alternative. While the public normally has as much as 30 days to make comments, DSL only allowed five days on the revised application. Morales says that there is no standard. "During this contested case process there aren't any set timelines," he said. "Everything's negotiable." — Sarah Mazze
'DOZER ALARM "By the time you get this message," Lisa Warnes wrote in an Oct. 30 email, "the bulldozer may be out there doing full blown destruction to protected Goal 5 Natural Resources" such as stream corridors, wetlands, rare lichens and pileated woodpecker habitat. Warnes, founder of the citizen group Vision for Intact Ecosystems and Watersheds, was referring to Green Valley Glen, a 40-acre, 110-house subdivision in the West Amazon headwaters. Developer Joe Green had hired contractors to conduct geotechnical testing on his property, a required part of city planning procedures. But Warnes and other neighbors worried that the bulldozer and hydraulic drilling machine could destroy protected natural resources in the process. Southeast Neighbors President Kevin Matthews and the Eugene police soon arrived on the scene. "With the calm and able presence of a Eugene police officer, who moderated the situation for nearly an hour, a tense stand-off between a contractor's crew with a bulldozer and a group of concerned neighbors … was successfully converted into permit-seeking and discussion," Matthews wrote in an email to City Manager Dennis Taylor and others. City planner Alissa Hansen confirmed that under city law, Green needs an erosion prevention permit for such work because of the site's steep slopes and drainage to waterways. "They are working with appropriate staff on that," she said, adding that the bulldozer may be back on the site later this week. The forested property has been the site of controversy for years. The city twice attempted to buy it as public open space, but those efforts fell through, and Green submitted plans to develop in fall 2005. Green's attorney, Mark Hoyt, could not be reached for comment. — Kera Abraham
ACTIVIST MURDERED
On Oct. 27, Mexican paramilitaries shot and killed Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old New York City Indymedia reporter who had been filming a citizen revolt against the Oaxacan governor, a subject that has gotten little attention in the U.S. press. Will had lived in Eugene and occupied trees in the Fall Creek anti-logging campaign in the late 1990s, then going by the name "B." Zapatista spokesman Subcomandante Marcos spoke in Sonora, Mex., about the shooting. He said that Will had traveled with the insurgents to various parts of Mexico, including the Yucatan Peninsula, shooting photos and video of their armed struggle. "The government doesn't want to take responsibility for what happened," Marcos said, calling for activists and alternative media to "demand justice for this dead compañero." Shelley Cater, a Eugene activist, remembered Will as a determined environmental and social justice activist with a wild streak. "He was rail thin, one of those skinny, energetic people that eat all day to maintain a metabolism that resents such things as quiet and sleep," she wrote in an Oct. 28 Indymedia post. "The sad but poetic irony of B's murder is that his goal of shining a spotlight on the atrocities in Oaxaca are now being covered in the mainstream media. It often takes the death of a white American activist for these things to happen. This irony would not be lost on B, who I can imagine saying something like, 'Oh, so NOW you wanna pay attention? Fuckers.'" — Kera Abraham
NOT ON HIS 'WHORE WATCH' A Eugenean has taken what he sees as a local sex and drug-traffic problem into his own hands — and to his computer screen. A blogger calling himself Diacetylmorphine has been documenting apparent prostitution in the Monroe Park area in his blog (www.monroeparkwhores.blogspot.com)where he's archived photos of the alleged "whores," license plate numbers of alleged johns and profiles of convicted local sex offenders since June 2006. Many of the regular posts are often little more than invectives against the offending women themselves, such as a recent entry entitled, "Well, at least her face cleared up!" which includes a photograph of an alleged sex worker and proclaims, "That's right folks, our original inductee is back and looking better than ever! All those scabs and pus have cleared up and boo-ya! What a hottie huh?" Others are more serious in tone, citing john traffic as a safety threat to mothers and children who use the bus stop in the morning on the way to school. Now, "The Whore Watch Dude" has become something of a local legend. On craigslist.com, people debate the value of his blog as either an important public service or the ramblings of a strange guy who needs to get a life. A recent post on the Craigslist forum defends Diacetylmorphine: "I think you don't understand what the owner of that blog is so upset about. Perhaps because you don't live in that area? … The whores, the johns, and the pimps are all contributing to drug abuse and passing along sexually transmitted diseases." — Martha Calhoon FINAL FORUM FOR CITY HALL The last in a series of four City Hall Master Complex Plan public forums will focus on conceptual designs the consultants have developed for the two sites currently under consideration by the Eugene City Council. The forum will be from 6 to 8:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 2 at the First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive St. in Eugene. The city is seeking broad public input on the civic structure, which would be built on either the full-block existing City Hall site at 8th and Pearl, or at the half-block north of Eugene's Park Blocks, where Lane County's "butterfly" parking lot and the Farmer's Market are located. Planning for a new City Hall has raised numerous issues, including questions about the high cost of the public input and design processes, whether or not new police facilities should be included under the same roof, what should be done with the old City Hall if a new site is chosen and whether a new City Hall is even needed when other city needs such as road maintenance are going unmet. Community members may register for the public forum at www.eugenecityhall.comor by calling 682-5222, TTY 984-3035. Food and childcare are provided; however, childcare requires registration. Lane County Herbicide Spray Schedule • ALERT: 'Tis the season for toxic smoke. Timber companies often spray slash piles with herbicides and then burn them in the fall, producing unusually toxic smoke containing substances such as phosgene gas. Complaints about local slash smoke can be filed with Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority: 736-1056. Call Western Lane ODF at 935-2283 or Eastern ODF at 726-3588 to find out who is burning slash. For more info, visit www.forestlanddwellers.org Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS Voted "Best Metal/Punk Band" in our Best of Eugene issue last week was On the First Day … They Were Kittens, but we heard from a friend of the band that the group members have changed since we last heard. Sabrina McNamara tells us the band is now Jared Hill on vocals, Kendall Fox on drums, Jamie Hartley on bass, Jesse McMinn on guitar, Mike Morrison on guitar and Drew Anderson on keyboards. The band announced at the Best of Eugene Awards that they are neither metal nor punk, but that's the category our readers picked for them.
EW Endorsements CANDIDATE RACES Governor of Oregon. Ted Kulongoski (D) U.S. House District 4. Peter DeFazio (D) Oregon Supreme Court. Position 6. Jack Roberts Lane County Circuit Court. Position 14. Alan Leiman Oregon Senate. District 4. Floyd Prozanski (D) Oregon Senate. District 6. Bill Morrisette (D) Oregon Senate. District 7. Vicki Walker (D) House District 8. Paul Holvey (D) House District ll. Phil Barnhart (D) House District 12. Terry Beyer (D) House District 13. Nancy Nathanson (D) House District 14. Chris Edwards (D)
STATE BALLOT MEASURES Measure 39. Private Property Condemnation. No Measure 40. Elect Judges By District. No Measure 41. Income Tax Exemptions. No Measure 42. Insurance and Credit Scores. Yes Measure 43. Parental Notification. No Measure 44. Prescription Drugs. Yes Measure 45. Term Limits. No Measure 46. Campaign Contribution Limits. Yes Measure 47. Campaign Finance Reform. Yes Measure 48. Spending Limit. No
LOCAL MEASURES Measure 20-110. Eugene Parks Levy. Yes Measure 20-111. Eugene Library Levy. Yes Measure 20-112. Springfield Jail/Police Levy. No Measure 20-113. Springfield Fire Levy. Yes Measure 20-114. County Public Safety Income Tax. No Measure 20-115. Bethel School District. Yes Measure 20-117. Springfield School District Bonds. Yes Measure 20-119: East Lane Soil and Water Conservation District Tax Rate Limit. Yes Measure 20-120. LCC 5-Year Option Levy. Yes Measure 20-126: Emerald PUD Renewable Power Projects. Yes
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS A subheadline last week on Kitty Piercy's Alaska trip story described Shishmaref, Alaska, as a "melting Klondike town," but the Klondike is actually on the Canadian side of the border with Alaska.
HERMAN KRIEGER
Detroit native Herman Krieger got stated in photography by way of a class taught by his high school biology teacher. "I took pictures for the school paper with a 4x5 Speed Graphic," he recalls. "I worked in a photo shop after school." After graduation at age 16, Krieger found work in the photo lab at the Packard Motor Car Company. At 18, he joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to photo-tech school. "At the end of the course they made me the instructor," he says. After the war, he studied chemistry and took a job in California. He earned a degree in math at UC Berkeley, worked in computer programming, and lived in Holland for nearly 30 years. In 1990, he retired and relocated to Eugene "for the climate and the scenery." Here he rediscovered photography and returned to school for a BFA from the UO in '94. Krieger's photo essay "Hamlets of Lane County" is currently on view at the Opus 6ix Gallery in Eugene through Oct. 12. Many other photo essays on life in Eugene and nearby towns can be seen at efn.org/~hkrieger
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