Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Summary, Break

SUMMARY....a must read from EugeneAdvocates.....

EugeneAdvocates for a Clean City was initially created to draw the deplorable condition of downtown to the attention of public officials and key administrators. We accomplished that with Pictorial 1 and 2 found on our web site listed below. The dramatic conditions were a wake up call not only for the public officials and key administrators but also for the people of Eugene who do not go downtown because of the condition they witnessed when they use to attempt a trip to town and also to reinforce those that use downtown regularly. The City acknowledged the valid concerns of EugeneAdvocates with their numerous comments and the media finally climbed on board. EugeneAdvocates felt the need to present the taxpayers comments to the City (these can be found on the blog listed below). Even the Mayor acknowledged the deplorable condition of downtown and the Chief of Police acknowledged the deplorable and growing crime rate for Eugene.

Since the first edition there have been some advancements in programs that are designed to assist in cleaning up downtown. The solutions EugeneAdvocates supported were not totally enacted by the City even though they could have been implemented without major budget impact. However, the Council with minor exceptions appear to be working toward some solutions. Thus EugeneAdvocates will take a break to allow the process to unfold. We will be curious to see the measuring sticks to be used to gage success and will see what this summer brings. The Mayor and Council need to remember that just enticing more people to come to town will not clean up the City. As one of the commentors pointed out: " Business won't move in if they don't have customers--customers won't come downtown if it isn't safe." Therefore we will all take a break and ask the City to continue to immediately implement the work of the Police Chief's task force and the financial suggestions of the City Manager and then maybe, just maybe, we will see an improvement by summer. A word of caution must go to supporters of a Clean Eugene--be very careful if in the time ahead you are asked to sign a petition which will slow down any well intended efforts by the City Council to clean up downtown. Read the petition carefully and think of how it will effect the immediate clean up of your city.

All of us should be very observant of the actions of each of the Councilors, the actions of the Budget Committee, and the actions of the Mayor. Remember we as taxpayers and voters are the responsible parties to this City's atrocity given we have or have not voted appropriately. Several of the Councilors are up for re-election and we need to be observant on how they have addressed the downtown problems and vote accordingly. The same holds true for the Mayor in a couple of years. In addition we need to be very observant of the budget committee and voice our concerns to the Mayor, Council and Budget Committee. Here are a couple of email addresses that will allow you to do that: One email to the Mayor and Council is sufficient to reach each of them: mayorandcc@ci.eugene.or.us. One email to the Budget Committee is sufficient to reach each committee member: eugene.budget.committee@CI.Eugene.OR.US. You need not sign them to be effective.

Emails are easy and please remember it is each of our responsibility to let these folks know how we feel. Lack of doing this will result in more atrocities in the downtown area. Remember we are all in this together as in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8h_v_our_Q. Eugene and its taxpayers deserve better. Thank you to each of you for your support and we will look forward to some positive results by summer.

EugeneAdvocates for a Clean City

email: eugeneadvocate@aol.com
web site: http://sites.google.com/site/eugeneadvocates/
the blog: http://eugeneadvocates.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 8, 2010

Focus On Solutions Now

PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS.......FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS NOW.......


DO ANY OF THESE STATS ASSIST OR HINDER OUR SOLUTIONS TO DOWNTOWN???

Hoping for Change

Reoccuring Problems still.....hopefully changing....

"Amen! My sister works at the U Of O. She has been telling me things that go on there. One big problem is they do not do drug testing of anyone. I think it's the unions and the professors that don't want it because it could expose their own drug abuse. Three workers last year went on break together and were caught on a bench on campus smoking dope of some sort. It took them a while to fire them because they are union. Unions should not have anything to do with whether these workers are tested. People could get injured or killed while on these drugs. The U of O could be sued big time. What would happen to the state budget then? The way these kid's are allowed to dress is unbelievable, they wear lingerie during class time even a street hooker would be embarrassed to wear. Then there is the promotion of promiscuity with condom fashion shows, free condoms necklaces they wear around proudly. They also have seminars on sexual positions and this in under the category of safe sex. This only promotes disease and unwanted pregnancy since condoms don't always work. Then of course there is planned parenthood to the rescue. This murder of children can and does destroy the girls lives as well as the child. These kid's future is at stake, we need to change things NOW. We need to stop drugs from coming into this country to keep them away from our kids. Drugs lead to crime when they are addicted. Many of them start using in our schools. Evenually they drop out with no job and mom and dad have left them to fend for themselves on our streets. This is a tragedy. Thank you for listening. "

Friday, March 5, 2010

Grassroots Thoughts

Grassroots thoughts.........What do you think?????

"WAKE UP EUGENE" We are getting state and national recognition for the wrong reasons. How do you feel about the trending curve toward the top for identity theft, illegal drug use, and the crimes against person and property. The clock is ticking and the bad guys are laughing!

I have said it before that we need to get tough on crime and start REALLY supporting our criminal justice system. I am mad and you should be mad too!

Advocate for the return of the decent and law abiding and well governed Eugene and Lane County that we can have back".
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"I was born on the 4th floor of the old Sacred Heart. My parents lived here as well as my grandparents and I'm getting sick seeing what is becoming of Eugene. We are becoming SO liberal that "anything goes" and there are no consequences. We need to enforce the laws that are already on the books or otherwise, they're not worth the paper they're written on.

Concerned taxpaper"
___________________________

"There is an iron law of economics: Subsidize something and you get more of it. Our programs subsidize the homeless..."
___________________________

"One of the biggest problems we as a society have is that too many of us expect “someone else” to take care of the things we don’t want to deal with. Case in point--children. As a soccer coach, Cub Scout Leader, Boy Scout Leader, and member of a school district board-related function, I repeatedly saw parents expecting/asking/hoping that someone else help raise their children. Why? Because they are too busy at their job/personal lives/working out to take a personal interest in the rest of what goes in to raising a child. First it was day-care, then the sports team, then first grade, then high school and so on. Many were single-parent households.

Several community organizations and school programs sprouted to fill these needs. As a result, parents spent too little time raising their own children and not enough time with their kids. That left little time for teaching household rules, right and wrong, and ethics. Teachers spend huge amounts of classroom time dealing with what should be family issues. We even teach non-English speaking people how to do that—at tax-payer expense! Wonder why test scores are low? Ask a teacher. The schools have become the surrogate parent. They feed kids, they test for eye sight and hearing, they provide after school care, they discipline (but not the wrong way—of course.) Our society has gone soft. Why? Some blame it on the numerous television hours (and computer gaming) time that kids are allowed (and questionable entertainment based values.) Instead of the parent deciding what the child should watch, we expect the movie industry to label each one. And when the child misbehaves or doesn’t perform as expected, it is now “someone else’s fault.” Welcome to the no-fault society.

These young people grow up and repeat the same pattern with their own children. Or, some never grow up and live on the streets. Many of these folks fail because they can’t figure out how to fit in to society as an adult. Their parents were afraid to spank them, and as they grow up they don’t understand that they are in charge of and responsible for their own actions. If we don’t start telling our kids what is right and what is wrong, we can never expect them to turn out any different. So, part of the solution starts years before they become adults.

Even our leaders (corporate, political, community) set questionable examples. We worship sports figures, and then they get arrested. Our own President lied about having sex with a woman. Right and wrong are blurred lines these days.

Compounding the problem is the fact that today’s version of punishment means nothing. Commit a crime? No big deal; you’ll be out in no time. The prisons are full—or underfunded, so they can’t hold the recently arrested. And as a result cops are laughed at; they spend huge portions of their days tracking down offenders who fail to even show up for their hearing. Until we have laws that have teeth, and meaningful punishment, crime will continue. Watch what happens to the east. With Springfield’s new jail—which does keep prisoners locked up—their crime rate will certainly fall. The bad news is that some of these offenders will move to the west and continue their un-punished crimes in Eugene. Meanwhile the rest of us are supposed to feel guilty, pay more taxes, donate more to the food bank, and live with the consequences of a too-soft-on-crime society.

These folks have become a huge burden on our society. 38% of costs incurred by hospitals are attributable to the uninsured. So, those of us who actually budget for and pay our medical costs are taking up the slack for those who we call “unfortunate.” In reality, many of these folks choose to live the lives they do.

Continuing the trend of our anti-responsible society, we now want to regulate what type of liquor is sold in a particular area? This is to me akin to distributing “clean” syringes to drug addicts—another practice I dislike. Rather than addressing the true problem we’d rather take sensitivity classes, feel guilty that some of these parasites don’t have it as good as the rest of us, and regulate their (and our) environment. Come on folks, wake up. Regulation only costs the law abiding segment of our society and not the others. Until you get stern with the offenders, eradicate the root problem, punish the law breakers, they will continue to adapt to our lame efforts to accommodate their behaviors. If you believe Darwin, this is a form of evolution. We’re just simply training these folks to become more cunning criminals.

“No,” we should not be banning any type of liquor sales in Eugene.

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:38:01 EST