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Park
Parking: City subsidizes stadium parking.
New
Abortion Option: RU-486 makes its way to Oregon -- slowly.
Focus
on Women: Alliance pushes an equity agenda for the Legislature.
News
Briefs: Chadded Cells | Corporate
Stooges | Obscurity Sells | 'Shroom
Boycott | Looking Ahead
Happening
People: German Nieto-Maquehue, Director of Amigos de los Sobrevivientes.
Park Parking
City subsidizes stadium
parking.
By Alan
Pittman
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Cars and RVs pack
the stadium area during home games.
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The UO football program has enough money to build an $80 million addition to its
football stadium and pay its coach $1 million a year, but is still demanding and
getting a major subsidy from the city of Eugene.
While the city has struggled in the past to find money to keep kids' wading pools
open, it has continued to provide the football stadium with tens of thousands of
dollars of virtually free parking in a city park.
Under a 1997 agreement, the city has allowed the UO to park cars in two gravel areas
that are a part of Alton Baker Park. The UO pays the city 66 cents per space per
game for the parking. The spaces are worth much more. Nearby, the WISTEC science
center charges fans up to $26 a space per game. The cut-rate parking the city provides
amounts to a subsidy of almost $60,000 a year to the UO's already lavishly funded
football program.
Park advocates want the UO to stop parking cars in city parkland so they can restore
the area alongside the canoe canal. "In an ideal world, we would immediately
fill in that parking lot with soil and plant a forest," says David Sonnichsen,
vice chair of the East Alton Baker Park Citizen Planning Committee. Sonnichsen says
the city should use the UO's application for a waiver of parking requirements for
an enlarged stadium to renegotiate the 1997 agreement with the UO. "They have
an enormous lever and I wish they would flex it."
Charlotte Behm, chair of the park committee, says the city could at least charge
the UO the market rate for the parking and then use the revenue to pay for a phased-in
restoration of the area back to parkland. But she says the city officials haven't
been driving a hard enough bargain.
"The university is taking, taking, taking and the city is giving, giving, giving,"
Behm says. Meanwhile, the park parking allows the UO to make thousands of dollars
off preferred donor spaces next to the stadium and the UO plans to make millions
in revenue off the expanded stadium and pay its coach $1 million a year, Behm points
out. "Hello!"
But the city management appears intent on continuing and even increasing the city's
football subsidy. City planner Allen Lowe argues that restoring the lots to parkland
"is going to just put pressure somewhere else" for more parking.
But the city hasn't been as concerned about lost parking when the UO has decided
to put its lots to other uses. In 1997, the UO wiped out more than 1,000 spaces by
building a new indoor football practice facility and adjacent playing fields. A UO
parking plan for the stadium expansion also continues to allow RV parking for tailgating
donors and adds a 51,000 sq. ft. "great lawn" in the middle of the parking
lot for pre-game party tents.
Although the UO has a vast expanse of stadium parking lots that could offer alternative
locations closer to the stadium, city staff are also pushing to allow the UO to build
a new bus transit station in a city parking lot next to WISTEC to accommodate crowds
from the bigger stadium.
That location would wipe out WISTEC's ability to sell parking to fans, a vital source
of revenue for the science center. "It would most certainly put WISTEC out of
business," says center Director Meg Trendler.
The UO has so far refused to compensate the center for all of the loss of revenue,
so the city has decided to step in to try and make up the difference. The city has
offered to allow WISTEC to charge for game-day parking in west Alton Baker Park lots
near the duck ponds, according to a Nov. 30 memo from City Manager Jim Johnson.
The city will charge the UO an unknown amount for use of the WISTEC lots and dedicate
the money to building more parking in the park to accommodate football parking. The
city will place a "high priority" on adding 152 spaces to the existing
lots and on developing a park meadow with concrete embedded in the grass to accommodate
another 200 cars, according to the memo.
But Trendler says the park parking revenue is uncertain and won't make up for the
revenue the center will lose. WISTEC will have to win a competitive bid to run the
park parking contract for the city.
City Councilor Bonny Bettman doesn't like the whole approach. She says the city shouldn't
be trying to use parkland to subsidize parking for the expanded stadium. "We
have this incredible gorgeous park on the river in the center of the town; it's a
very valuable asset."
Bettman says the city should end game parking in the park, put the transit station
in the UO lots, restrict illegal parking in neighborhoods and require the UO to build
a stadium parking garage to accommodate the displaced car parking. "I want to
see them expand [the stadium], but I want to see them absorb the cost of that expansion
on state property and not externalize it on the park, on WISTEC, and on surrounding
neighborhoods," Bettman says.
Bettman says the football program can easily afford to build a garage. "They're
building an $80 million expansion for only six days a year," she says. "A
parking structure would solve a lot of these problems."
Back to Top
New Abortion Option
RU-486 makes its way
to Oregon -- slowly.
By Aria
Seligmann
After years of political wrangling, RU-486, the "abortion pill," finally
won the FDA stamp of approval in late September. Yet two months later, it is still
not available in Eugene, and probably won't be until sometime next spring.
RU-486 is not to be confused with the "morning after pill," which is a
high dose of oral contraceptive that can be taken in the first 72 hours after conception
and prevents pregnancy by preventing a fertilized egg from adhering to the uterine
wall. Instead, the new (to the U.S.) procedure actually terminates a pregnancy and
is an alternative to surgical abortion.
Currently, medical abortions are available using a different drug combination, but
are rarely done. RU-486 actually consists of taking more than one medication and
requires strict protocols. The procedure must be administered by a trained health
professional and involves three visits to a clinic or doctor's office. It's also
not cheap: The current price tag on RU-486 is about $250 to $300, similar to a surgical
abortion.
Currently, the RU-486 option is only available in Oregon at the Planned Parenthood
clinics in Portland. (The first procedure in Oregon was slated to be performed this
past Tuesday in Planned Parenthood's downtown clinic). Planned Parenthood in Eugene
does not offer abortion services. The Salem clinic does, but will not have RU-486
trained staff for another six months or so, according to the Eugene clinic's Associate
Executive Director Diane Duke.
All Women's Health Services, which provides abortions in Eugene and Portland, also
will not be able to offer the option for several months. Staffers at the Eugene clinic
must wait for staff members of the Portland office to receive training from the National
Abortion Federation first and then pass that training onto them.
Women's Care Associates, another local clinic that provides abortion services, just
met this week for the first time to discuss the RU-486 option. "It's so new
we have no position on it yet," says Women's Care Associates Community relations
spokesperson Jennifer Ocker.
In Eugene, doctors cannot perform abortions at PeaceHealth because it is a Catholic-run
hospital that does not allow the procedure. Doctors associated with McKenzie-Willamette
Hospital do perform abortions, but their names are not released and at this point,
none are known to be offering the RU-486 option.
RU-486 protocols, according to Planned Parenthood's Duke, are set by the FDA and
the National Abortion Federation and then adapted to meet each agency's needs. At
Planned Parenthood in Portland, they are as follows: First, a patient visits the
clinic, where she is given an ultrasound to find out how far along she is. RU-486
can be administered up to the seventh week of pregnancy. The patient then receives
counseling on her options. If she decides to continue with the abortion, she takes
three pills, which include mifepristone. Three days later, after the fetus has been
aborted in a manner similar to a miscarriage, the woman returns for follow-up medication.
She then returns two weeks later to make sure the abortion is complete. If not --
a scenario that in clinical trials occurred in five percent of cases -- she will
be scheduled to undergo a surgical abortion.
According to Duke, women who choose RU-486 over surgical abortion do so for several
reasons. Many consider it more empowering to undergo the procedure in the privacy
of their own homes, rather than turning over control to doctors in a medical facility,
says Duke. "It's non-invasive and it's safe. Of the 600,000 women in Europe
who've used it, none have died," she says.
Others, however, prefer surgical abortion because it's faster. Whereas RU-486 involves
two days of cramping, bleeding and sometimes nausea, such as with a miscarriage,
surgical abortion is over and done with in half a day. The surgical patient then
goes home to rest for the remainder of the day and returns later for follow-up care.
Some are concerned about offering the RU-486 option in Eugene because so many women
come to town from rural areas for abortions. "Part of the training includes
emphasizing how important it is for these women to return two more times for treatment,"
says Debra Buston, All Women's Health Services patient services director.
And because of the highly politicized nature of abortion that caused the FDA approval
of RU-486 to be delayed so long in the first place, there is no indication at this
point that RU-486 will make abortions any more accessible in rural areas. Doctors
in small, conservative towns still fear the fall-out that might occur if word got
out they were doing any kind of abortion.
Back to Top
Focus on Women
Alliance pushes an equity
agenda
for the Legislature.
By Elizabeth
Pownall
The Oregon Legislature convenes in 2001 and the Oregon Women's Health and Wellness
Alliance is calling for legislative action in support of women's equity in the areas
of health, safety and social justice.
Oregon Sen. Susan Castillo (D-Eugene), representing the Alliance in Eugene, briefed
Planned Parenthood members Nov. 28 as well as members of the community on the upcoming
bill package that will be presented to the 2001 Legislature.
The Alliance is an association of individuals, state agency representatives, lobbyists,
community organizers, and elected officials who have met since 1992. Bills introduced
through and supported by this group focus on women's equity.
Here are the issues being discussed and researched for the 2001 - 2003 Legislative
Session:
* Violence against women: to increase state support for domestic violence and sexual
assault victim services. Currently, shelters can only accommodate one in eight survivors;
shelters turn away 13,000 adults each year.
This bill would provide direct services for survivors, including support services,
legal representation, etc. Children would gain access to services. Statewide training
and technical assistance for judges and law enforcement officers in responding to
and preventing domestic violence would be standardized. The Alliance will be asking
for $25 million to begin to address these needs.
* Prescription for fairness, or contraceptives parity: Require insurance plans to
provide the same level of coverage for prescription contraceptives that they provide
for other prescription medications.
In the U.S., 111 pregnancies occur per 1,000 women ages 15-44. Oregon's teenage pregnancy
rate ranks 27th nationally, and 29 percent of all births in Oregon are to unmarried
women. Oregon ranks 31st in the provision of contraceptive services to women in need.
Although the Alliance has tried for years to establish a higher level of access for
women, the bill wasn't even given a hearing in the 1998 Oregon legislative session.
"This is a no-brainer," says Sen. Susan Castillo. "We should have
gotten this a long time ago." This year, one-third of the Legislature is made
up of women, the most ever, Castillo says, which is promising.
* Emergency contraceptives: to increase access. Emergency contraceptives, in the
form of a prepackaged, measured, safe and effective dose of birth control pill, or
"morning after pill" is considered a much better option for a woman than
ingesting what could be an improper dose of birth control pills when she realizes
her contraceptive measures have failed.
The emergency contraceptive pill (ECP) is not a pill that will abort a viable fetus.
It merely prevents a woman from becoming pregnant if taken within 72 hours of unprotected
intercourse.
Under Oregon law, a physician must prescribe the medication. If a woman does not
have quick access to a physician, she may not get the medication in time. A woman
could acquire ECP medication directly from her pharmacist, if Oregon law allowed
a pharmacist and a physician a cooperative agreement enabling the pharmacist to dispense
the medication under certain guidelines.
* Prenatal care: to increase access.
Oregon ranks 39th in the nation for early initiation of prenatal care. Currently
5,000 women each year do not qualify for public heath/insurance assistance for prenatal
care. Of these women, statistics indicate that 60 percent are Hispanic, 36 percent
are white, and 62 percent are foreign-born.
The Alliance is supporting legislation that will increase funding for early prenatal
care for all Oregon women. This may be in the form of a voucher system, or an increase
in funding to "safety net clinics."
"This is something the governor's office has been very interested in,"
says Castillo.
* New baby bill: provides paid leave for new parents.
This bill would require Oregon companies with 25 or more employees to provide up
to 12 weeks of unemployment insurance to new parents immediately after the birth
or adoption of a child. Of the 130 countries that offer family leave benefits, only
three of those countries do not offer paid family leave -- USA, Ethiopia, and Australia.
* Student child care block grant: Support efforts to supplement the federal block
grant for the purpose of providing child care assistance to low income post-secondary
students in Oregon.
The block grants provide opportunities for a student who meets government low-income
requirements, is enrolled for at least nine credits, meets his or her school's academic
standards, and is unable to have the other parent provide care.
There are 250 block grants available. More than 900 families are on the waiting list.
In 1989, the state funded child programs at four post-secondary schools. Currently,
there is no state money allocated to assist student parents.
Nineteen percent of people in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have less than
a high school education researchers found in a study of Oregon's Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF), conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Society
at the UO, in cooperation with Oregon's Adult and Family Services.
Lack of education keeps people in low wage jobs, researchers say, thus locking them
into poverty. One of the policies, they suggest, would be to increase access to education
and training, Researchers found that 85 percent of the TANF families wanted more
eduation.
Contacts: Sen. Susan Castillo 343-1581, castillo.sen@state.or.us;
Sen. Neil Bryant (541) 389-3224, nmbryant@empnet.com;
Rep. Kathy Lowe, (503) 653-9681, klowe@teleport.com;
Rep. Diane Rosenbaum, repdiane@teleport.com
 Chadded Cells?
Lane County government might have a newly expanded jail today if it had updated its
ballot-counting machines two years ago.
In November 1998, county Measure 20-06 to build a $5.1 million jail expansion failed
by 13 votes or just over one one-hundredth of one percent of the votes cast.
Now, in last month's election, the county's punch-card machines didn't record a vote
for president in about 2.5 percent of the ballots cast. That's 3,852 ballots in Lane
County without a vote for president.
Some voters may have decided they didn't like any of the candidates and abstained,
but the 2.5 percent undervote could also be machine error. Dimpled, pregnant and
hanging chads are the center of attention in the disputed Florida vote for president;
and Lane County uses the same chad-dependent machines.
Many other counties have updated to more modern optical scanning machines that read
voter pen or pencil marks in bubbles. According to a recent article in The New York
Times, these machines don't suffer from chad problems and tend to be far more accurate.
"Across the country, the punch-card systems have resulted in significantly higher
numbers of uncounted ballots," the Times reported. "In 467 counties that
used punch cards with pre-punched cards in the 1996 presidential election, according
to a New York Times analysis, 661,000 of the 25 million ballots were not counted,
or 2.6 percent of the total."
By contrast, "In 729 counties that used optical scanning technology, 1.9 percent
of the ballots cast had no votes for president counted," according to the Times.
That difference in voting technology could have made all the difference for the jail
in 1998. If Lane County had used optical scanning technology with the lower error
rate, the county could have counted about an extra 700 votes, more than enough to
swing the election in favor of a new jail.
Then again, those 700 voters could have also swung the jail vote to a more clear
defeat. With the current punch cards, we will never know how they meant to vote.
-- AP
Corporate
Stooges
A feisty e-mail letter to Lane County commissioners from Cottage Grove resident A.
Max Opus has stirred an Internet debate of sorts over the merits of a countywide
ban on indoor smoking.
In late November, Opus wrote to the commissioners, "I am one of those who believes
that Bill, Bobby, Cindy, Chainsaw, and Toxic Al are mean-spirited cretins with no
regard for the health and well-being of the working people of Oregon. How many more
men, woman, and children have to die before you folks stop smoking in ALL public
places including bars? ... Chainsaw, Toxic Al, Bill, Bobby, Ana, and Cindy have their
collective heads so far up the Corporate Ass they see only greed, hear only greed,
feel only for the greedy, and it is 'business ober alas.'"
An initial response from Commissioner Bill Dwyer was, "You know what you can
do with this kind of approach? You figure it out?" Commissioner Bobby Green's
response was less specific, saying, "Isn't this a great country?"
"Chainsaw," presumably Rep. Tony Corcoran, and "Toxic Al," presumably
Rep. Al King, did not respond publicly, nor did Commissioners Pete Sorenson or Anna
Morrison.
But Commissioner Cindy Weeldreyer did respond on a more positive note, commending
Opus for his "passion and commitment to ban smoking in all public places,"
and talking about how a countywide ban would not override smoking regulations within
city jurisdictions.
Weeldreyer wrote that she would be "willing to work with Commissioner Sorenson
to explore that option with the board, but he would have to be the commissioner to
lead the effort since he's been the board's liaison on public health issues."
Opus, in his letter to the board, cited recent wire stories on California's successful
anti-tobacco measures, and asked, "Do anti-smoking measures save lives? Yes!
Doesn't stopping smoking in public places work? Yes! Yet the corporate stooges have
done nothing."
Weeldreyer responded that she resents being called a corporate stooge, and suggested
to Opus that "the offensive, confrontational tone of your e-mail is not going
to help you achieve your goal in a timely fashion with the people you want and need
to win over to your side in this controversial issue." -- TJT
Obscurity
Sells
To close its run of "Art" and raise funds for its upcoming, first ever
Shakespeare production, The Comedy of Errors, Willamette Repertory Theatre
held a benefit Dec. 3 in which it raffled off original works of art by seven local
notables, heretofore unnoted for their artistic talent. Some will remain in artistic
obscurity, while others, such as Mason Williams and Eugene's Slug Queen 2000, Accordianna,
didn't embarrass themselves. It was all in good fun.
In addition to the raffle and entertainment by Unstuck in Time, the benefit included
auctioning off the painting "White on White," which was featured in the
play as selling for 200,000 francs (almost $30,000 -- this week). It went for $325.
For those who missed the benefit, the good news is that theater companies will always
take your money, 'though you missed out on the champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries.
If you care to support the upcoming run of The Comedy of Errors, Jan. 24-Feb. 11,
and/or Lost Highway: The Music and Legend of Hank Williams, April 11-29, call The
Rep at 343-9903. --AS
'Shroom
Boycott
Workers from one of California's largest mushroom producers are taking their recently
called boycott of Pictsweet mushrooms to consumers in Oregon during visits this week
to Portland and Eugene. This is the first time mushroom workers have taken their
boycott outside of California. The boycott, sponsored by United Farm Workers (UFW),
officially kicked off last September.
Two workers from Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura, Calif., north of Los Angeles,
joined supporters in the heart of downtown Portland Tuesday, Dec. 5, for a "human
billboard" line holding signs urging motorists and passers-by to back the boycott.
The group was scheduled to join a rally of Eugene supporters Wednesday.
More than 350 workers at the California Pictsweet plant earn up to 15 percent less
than mushroom workers employed at other California fresh mushroom ranches where UFW
contracts are in place. Most have not seen a significant pay raise in four years.
Pictsweet workers also want an end to on-the-job favoritism and a better medical
plan, says organizer Brendan Greene.
Negotiations have gone on since January with Pictsweet refusing to respond to the
workers' basic demands, the UFW says. The Cesar Chavez-founded union has contracts
representing about 70 percent of the mushroom workers on California's central coast.
Looking
Ahead
The holiday season brings our annual two-week issue, which will be published Thursday
Dec. 21. Our offices will be closed Dec. 21 through Wednesday, Dec. 28. We will re-open
Thursday, Dec. 29, which will be our regular 5 pm deadline for Calendar items and
an early advertising deadline for our Jan. 4 issue. Our offices will be closed Monday,
Jan. 1. For more information, call 484-0519.
Back to Top
 
German Nieto-Maquehue
When Pinochet seized power in Chile, public school education ended for
16-year-old German Nieto-Maquehue. "Things changed completely -- our family
suffered," he relates. "I quit school to go to work." Two years later,
Nieto-Maquehue left Chile to escape the military draft. In Brazil, he joined with
friends to build a successful weaving collective based on his grandmother's Mapuche
Indian traditions. He married an exchange student from Oregon -- in 1980, the couple
moved to Portland "for a year." But work was scarce -- the return was postponed.
Nieto-Maquehue moved to Eugene to play charango (armadillo-back lute) with the band
Sandunga. He learned English, sold weavings at the Saturday Market, eventually earned
UO degrees in recreation and Spanish literature. Two years ago, he became director
of Amigos de los Sobrevivientes, a refuge house for survivors of torture, founded
by Eugenean Gordie Albi. Nieto-Maquehue has expanded Amigos, adding an outreach program
for survivors living quietly in our midst. "German has also been skillful at
grant writing," says psychologist Beth Hunt, a longtime Amigos volunteer. "He's
brought a great deal of intelligence and commitment to helping survivors."
-- Paul Neevel
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