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News: Feds Seek City Subsidy INTERNET SCENE SITE OF SAFE SURFING With all the smut on the Internet and all the children
in Eugene's public library and all the computers with free, unfiltered
Internet access, are youth being No, says Library Director Connie Bennett in a recent written response to a City Council query. "There have been no known incidents of children inadvertently viewing possibly inappropriate sites being used by adults," Bennett writes. The new library and its branches have been open for nine months now with 43 Internet computers running 136 hours per week. In all that time online (90,560 hours), there has been only one report of viewing inappropriate material, according to Bennett. The incident involved adults only on the second floor of the downtown library. A much bigger, though still small, Internet problem the library has is patrons arguing over who gets to go online next on the popular computers. About two such incidents are reported every week. — Alan Pittman
FANS OF FOX NEWS HAVE SKEWED VIEWS Regular viewers of the Fox News Channel are nearly four times as likely to hold inaccurate views on the war in Iraq compared to those who get their news from National Public Radio or the Public Broadcasting System, according to a recent study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, which studies foreign-policy issues. The study surveyed 3,334 Americans who receive their news from a single media source. Each was questioned about whether he or she believed Saddam Hussein was directly linked with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, whether weapons of mass destruction have already been found in Iraq, and whether world opinion favored the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Eighty percent of Fox News viewers held at least one incorrect belief, compared to 23 percent of public broadcast listeners/viewers. Following Fox viewers in erroneous beliefs were CBS at 71 percent, ABC at 61 percent, NBC and CNN at 55 percent, and print media readers at 47 percent. The study is available at www.pipa.org/
I-105 BRIDGE ACCESS PRONE TO CRUNCHING Mayor Jim Torrey and Councilor Gary Papé have asked the city to look into what it can do to make the crash-prone, giant intersection at 6th and 7th avenues and Washington Street more safe, but there may be little that can be done. The intersection at the I-105 on-ramp downtown averaged 22 crashes per year over the last decade, the fourth highest number in the city, according to a memo from city police and traffic engineers. In 2002, the intersection had 38 crashes, which may likely put it in the number one spot when all the data are in. About three-fourths of the crashes were rear-end collisions caused mostly by excessive speed. Drivers weave and merge to get on the interstate at the intersection. When they slow down, mergers are hit by speeding drivers from behind. Police wrote 81 tickets at the intersection last year. In 1999 there were 119 tickets and fewer accidents. But police can't focus on the intersection without decreasing enforcement in other unsafe parts of town. Policing the intersection is difficult and requires two to three officers at once because there aren't safe areas to pull over cars and police have to pursue drivers speeding away up I-105. But police have already stepped up enforcement and will do more as time permits, according to the staff memo. City traffic engineers have tweaked lights to limit speeding but can find no obvious changes to the layout of the intersection that would make it safer. — AP
This year's curbside leaf collection in Eugene runs Nov. 3 through Jan. 16. Dates are subject to change. The dates for the first of two rounds of pickup are Nov. 3-7 for north Eugene, Nov. 10-14 for central Eugene, Nov. 17-21 for southeast Eugene, Nov. 24- Dec. 5 for southwest Eugene, and Dec. 8-12 for west Eugene. For more information about the leaf program, call the leaf hotline at 682-5383. For leaf collection in Springfield and outside city limits, call the county at 682-8565.
COUNTY INITIATIVE TARGETS ENFORCEMENT Lane County residents may get a chance to vote to follow Seattle's example and make marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority, freeing up police resources to go after violent crime. Seattle passed a similar initiative Sept. 16. Sensible Lane County, a political action committee, is working to get an initiative on the ballot that will amend the Lane County Charter. The Lane County Cannabis Initiative prohibits the expenditure of public funds for marijuana enforcement, arrests, prosecutions and county jail time. The initiative "forbids Lane County law enforcement from contracting with the federal government, as is the current practice, for marijuana eradication," says a statement from the PAC. "More importantly, county law enforcement is barred from cooperating with federal raids on medical marijuana patients and caregivers." "You don't have to partake to understand the injustices," says Pam Driscoll of the Lane County Pacific Green Party. Driscoll notes that tobacco kills about 390,000 Americans a year, prescription drugs kill 100,000, alcohol kills 80,000, cocaine kills 2,200, heroin kills 2,000, aspirin kills 2,000, but no one has been killed by marijuana. Sensible Lane County can be reached at P.O. Box 1121, Fall Creek, 97438 or online at http://sensiblelanecounty.tkor e-mail nejc@resist.ca — TJT
In our Oct. 16 Slant column about LCC we wrote about the Legislature's three-year tax hike helping "save the college from massive program cutbacks." Those cutbacks are not likely to happen right away. According to LCC's administration, repeal of the Legislature's tax package would cost the college about $900,000 in funding for the biennium. But because Lane based its 2003/04 budget on a lower allocation, no program reductions are expected this year. LCC's budget and programs would be affected in 2004/05. In last week's story, "Unfettered Expression," we misspelled the name of Suzanne St. Cyr.
Separate
but Equal If you were told you couldn't vote unless someone else came inside the polling booth with you, or punched a mail-in ballot for you, what would you do? Long shut out of casting ballots in privacy, people with disabilities nationwide have typically had to rely on someone else's help to read, write or physically manipulate voting materials. Sometimes, polling stations can't even accommodate wheelchairs, and millions of adults with mobility, vision or cognitive disabilities have given up on the idea of voting. Many have never even registered. "For many of us, voting is something we hear about but haven't done," says Lynnae Ruttledge, a manager for the Department of Human Services and a cofounder of the Lane Independent Living Alliance (LILA). Alicia Hayes tells the story of going to vote soon after becoming disabled at 18. Her father let her off at the curb so she could cast her ballot while he parked the car. But the polling station wasn't wheelchair accessible, and Hayes had to have the ballot brought outside to her. "And there, on the curb, I came out to my (Republican) father for the first time as a Democrat," Hayes says, eyes twinkling. Now the director of the Department of Children and Families and ADA coordinator for Lane County, Hayes says, "So you can understand why I am all for private, independent voting." In Oregon, over half a million people or more than 21 percent of adults have some kind of disability. When specific attempts are made to reach voters with disabilities — such as Marion County's effort since 1997 to provide blind voters with tactile ballots — turnout rates far exceed those of the general population. Change is happening slowly. Last year, prompted by the 2000 election fiasco, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which attempts to overhaul voting systems across the country. HAVA has been called a "civil rights bill" for voters with disabilities, requiring states to improve disabled access, privacy and independence through the use of electronic voting devices. Oregon has received $6 million to date to implement HAVA, with tens of millions more to come. LILA recently organized a summit with state and county election officials to increase awareness of difficulties faced by voters with disabilities, and to obtain commitments in Oregon beyond HAVA requirements. Paddy McGuire, deputy secretary of state, Frank Garcia, Oregon HAVA manager, and Peter Sorenson, Lane County commissioner, attended the summit along with 125 others. Several summit speakers with disabilities, including Hayes, shared their voting experiences to illustrate a long-standing problem. Carole Patterson, the organizer for LILA, said her first experience in advocacy was helping disabled voters at the Texas polls about 15 years ago. She drove a quadriplegic man to the polling station, and remembers an election worker trying to assist him: "Would you like to vote for Bob Smith, or would you like to vote for some woman?" "His experience was certainly not equivalent to other voters' that day," said Patterson. "I realized … that it is often unintentionally that people with disabilities are disenfranchised from voting." Patterson spoke in place of the listed keynote speaker, Jim Dickson, who was in Florida testifying against the city of Jacksonville for purchasing new voting equipment "in clear violation" of the Americans with Disabilities Act. A letter from Dickson, the vice president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, called Oregon "the ideal state" to solve "a problem that affects millions of disabled Americans." Patterson explained ways states could fulfill HAVA requirements: by recruiting people with disabilities to train election workers or to work as election staff and volunteers themselves. She also suggested making election websites accessible to adults with sight problems, and simplifying language in voter pamphlets to help adults with cognitive disabilities. The day's events included side demonstrations of new electronic voting technology. A stubby black computer occupying a back room was actually a $3,600 voting machine by Avante International, of the kind that HAVA requires all states to install. The machine uses extra large displays and spoken word for voters with poor vision. Mary Lee Turner, a rehabilitation teacher and mobility instructor for the Oregon Commission for the Blind, put her white cane aside to try her hand at voting alone using the audio mode. A metallic voice led Turner through the instructions. The gathered crowd burst into laughter at one point when the voice intoned, "If you select the wrong candidate, please do not panic." There would be a chance to verify and change selections before the final ballot was cast, it explained. "That is so cool," Turner said after she was finished. "The voice sucks, but hey." "That was the first time I've ever voted by myself," she added. Before this, Turner said, she would get a free cassette version of the Voters Pamphlet, and the League of Women Voters Guide, "but it's hard to do all that, and to know what's going to be on the ballot," she admitted. Such guides only helped disabled voters who already knew where to look prior to an election, Turner said. For those who may not be able to venture outside their home to cast their vote, the access summit had an experiment of sorts to offer: telephone voting. Deputy Secretary of State McGuire tried out a demo on a cell phone in front of the summit audience. While calling it "way cool," McGuire pointed to some areas for improvement and explained there was a "statutory problem with implementing this system in Oregon." Right now, he said, Oregon defines a ballot as a piece of paper, and a telephone system would not be acceptable under current state law. With $44 million earmarked for Oregon to fulfill HAVA requirements, "We have to have vision to make things possible that others may tell you are not," Patterson concluded at the summit. For more information, call 607-7020.
Feds
Seek City Subsidy The General Services Administration (GSA) gave in to popular demands for a wheelchair ramp at the new federal courthouse last week but then demanded that the city guarantee at least $8 million in roadwork for the courthouse by diverting money from local government services and schools. "It is a diversion of funding the city could use to fund schools and essential services," City Councilor Bonny Bettman objected.
The idea that the federal government, with a $2.2 trillion budget, is forcing the city of Eugene, now struggling to find a few thousand dollars to fund shelters for homeless youth and stray cats, to subsidize a silvery courthouse project may be hard for many in Eugene to swallow. "I don't understand why anyone would consider Eugene taxpayers the deep pockets," Bettman says. But the council majority gave in to the federal demand for a local subsidy of the U.S. courthouse. In a 6-2 vote, the council voted to move forward with plans to subsidize the federal project. The city subsidy will only be used if the city fails to get federal road money for highway and street projects around the courthouse. City Manager Dennis Taylor told councilors "it's highly likely" that the federal money will come through. But the funding will require an act of Congress, which GSA appears to doubt will happen. "In light of the constraints on the federal budget, we cannot assume federal funding to be a guarantee," GSA wrote the city last week. Without city money, "the infrastructure improvements may not be realized for years to come," GSA wrote. With the city now guaranteeing funding, Bettman asked "what incentive do the state and federal government and ODOT [Oregon Department of Transportation] have to fund it?" The city subsidy of the federal government will come in the form of urban renewal money. Urban renewal is a controversial and complex method of funding that boosts tax bills and diverts property tax money from local government services and state school funding. In Eugene, critics have condemned urban renewal as an unaccountable slush fund for pork projects for developers that has destroyed the historic downtown and threatened Eugene's riverfront natural area. Despite the controversy, the city is pushing forward with plans to triple the size of its urban renewal districts and keep them going another 20 years. Bettman warned that the city's subsidy to the courthouse could grow far beyond $8 million to $10 million, $20 million or more. She said the GSA also appears to be demanding that the city build a parking garage, surface lots, a pedestrian bridge, storm water improvements, other infrastructure for the courthouse and cover any construction inflation or cost overruns. "There are a lot of projects here that the GSA says they want," Bettman said. "We can multiply the liability." None of these additional costs will be covered by money from Congress, Bettman pointed out. Councilors Gary Papé and David Kelly shared concerns that the city could be left holding the bill for millions of dollars in federal cost overruns, like what recently happened on the Ferry Street Bridge project. "Are we going to be the backstop?" Papé asked. The impact of so much money diverted to subsidize the federal courthouse could be significant. The Riverfront Urban Renewal District will likely be almost entirely dedicated to funding infrastructure to serve the courthouse. The district now generates about $600,000 a year in diverted revenue from state school funding and local government services. That money will increase in later years with the city's planned 20 percent expansion of the district. To fund the road projects up front, the city will likely borrow millions backed by decades of dedicated urban renewal revenue. "Generations of Eugene taxpayers are going to be paying," Bettman said in an interview. About half the diverted money will come from state school funding, about a third from city coffers and the rest from Lane County and other taxing districts. Dedicating all the urban renewal money to the courthouse will also mean the city can't fund important projects for daylighting the millrace in the area and building a new City Hall or police station with the help of urban renewal, according to Bettman. Bettman says the city should protect Eugene taxpayers by forcing GSA to live up to its contract to buy the property. "We have finished our part of the deal, and now they are asking us to bring additional money to the table at the expense of city taxpayers," Bettman said. "Why isn't the city advocating on behalf of city taxpayers?" City Attorney Glenn Klein said the city could force GSA to pay the $3.5 million it contracted to buy the property for, but the city could not force GSA to actually build the courthouse. Even with the council's move to subsidize the courthouse, it's uncertain whether the infrastructure will ever be built. State law requires a public hearing before the city can actually amend its urban renewal plan to include the courthouse infrastructure in a long, vague list of projects in the district. Even then, a later council could decide not to appropriate the money for the project in favor of a different project on the list. Even if the road projects are funded and built, it's also unclear that they will succeed in reconnecting the courthouse district with downtown. To allow pedestrians an easier way to cross the busy Ferry Street Bridge on-ramp to access the district, the city plans to reduce traffic by building a diverter highway along the railroad tracks. But critics charged during the design process two years ago that the additional road would only add more traffic and isolate the district on an island surrounded by highways. Scott Wylie, a local designer, said instead of a "Mississippi River of traffic," the city will have "two Columbia Rivers of traffic" and an even greater pedestrian barrier. Councilor Betty Taylor said she was surprised that the city would so quickly support subsidizing the courthouse where in the past many councilors have "quibbled" over just a few thousand dollars in city subsidies for services provided by other local governments. But despite the risk of a big bill to local taxpayers, the mayor and council majority appear likely to give in to GSA demands. Mayor Torrey said, "The question we have to ask ourselves is how badly do we want this courthouse?"
Ken Ehler Just inside the entrance to the new Eugene Public Library, take a left turn to find the Second Hand Prose Bookstore, adjacent to the coffee shop. Friends of the Library volunteer Ken Ehler has worked nearly full-time all this year to establish and manage the bookstore, an adjunct to the library's annual sale of donated books. "Ken is energetic and dependable — he's done an outstanding job," reports Friends President Edith White. "In just a few months, the store has made $15,000." A native of Chicago (and still a Cubs Fan), Ehler moved to Arizona at age 10 and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from UA in 1972. He worked as a research chemist from California to Switzerland and points between until 1989, when he arrived in Eugene for a job at Molecular Probes. "They design fluorescent dies for basic biomedical research," he explains. An avid reader, Ehler started volunteering at the library in 2000, and began reading to kids in the SMART readers program at Adams/Hillside School a year later. He retired at age 56 last year to concentrate on volunteer activities. "My focus in life is getting books into the hands of readers," he says, "especially children."
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