The Real Eugene

I’m leaving Eugene for Roseburg sometime soon. I may be gone by the time this letter gets printed or I may be about to vanish sometime in September; it is not clear yet.

I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed that my two years of work with CouchHosting.org has possibly gotten only two people permanently off the street, when I compare that to Keith McHenry’s claim that Los Angeles has $2 billion dollars for solving homelessness, but not one unit of affordable housing has been built there recently.

I’m leaving right at the peak of all of my grievances against city and county government coming to a head. This would have been formed into a petition to end all petitions, that urges people to pledge to boycott and picket all city and county sponsored meetings.

My concerns range from the new Downtown Activity Zone and Free Speech Plaza vending rules to the nuisance ordinance expansion, the planter strip rules that include trespassing in the second degree for campers (which if I were to stick around I would push to include trespassing of 5G equipment and their installers) and the payroll tax.

Even LTD made my bucket list, with their installation of card readers on buses before the first hearing about a cashless fare system. And EPD is no different than others around the country, with their trivial pursuits taking precedence over chasing people who have guns and knives, especially in downtown Eugene.

John Thielking

Eugene