SUSTAINABLE EUGENE?
Eugene Sustainability Quiz
Eugene Sustainability Commission
sustain-a-bull (at oilempire.us)
steps toward sincere sustainability
City Manager or democracy?
Regional Transportation Plan: $817 million for roads
2010-2015: Cities & County $186.5 million for roads
EWEB's $85 million new maintenance yard
U of O Arenas - Bus Rapid Transit - big box stores
hospitals - disasters - intelligent urban design - trains
grass seed to grains - food security, no more field burning

WEST EUGENE PORKWAY
Much Ado About Nothing: West Eugene Collaborator report wants $250 million to bulldoze West 11th businesses
WEP alternative - WETLANDS: West Eugene Transportation, Land and Neighborhood Design Solutions
Mayoral Election bypassed highway history
Jim Torrey wasted money promoting WEP after June 2001 "No Build" consensus by Fed, State, County & City
the 2001 City vote for the WEP - a federal, not local, decision
WEP violated laws signed by Nixon and LBJ
Lane County: Bobby Green vs. Rob Handy

related websites: forestclimate.org - oilempire.us - permatopia.com - road-scholar.org - sustaineugene.org
feedback to mark at permatopia dot com

Greenwashing: public relations boosterism

What is greenwash?
Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Tenth Edition
greenwash (n):
"Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. Derivatives greenwashing. Origin from green on the pattern of whitewash."

Ecocentrism: Eugene not "number one Green City"
"World's Greatest City of the Arts & Outdoors" world's most absurd slogan

TREES:
Transportation, Energy,
Environment, Sustainability

TRANSPORTATION after Peak Oil

WETLANDS Alternative:
West Eugene Transportation, Land and Neighborhood Design Solutions

West Eugene Collaborators:

Bypassing Sustainability:
Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Green Building & Boondoggles


ENVIRONMENT
Protection and Restoration

  • ecoforestry: selective logging to restore tree farms to forests
    no clearcuts or biocides,
    value added products
  • green business, clean industry
    myco and bioremediation,
  • zero discharge
    ban toxics to protect public health
    carbohydrate economy, no petrochemicals
  • reduce garbage: waste is a terrible thing to mind
  • intelligent (urban) design:
    beauty
    not ugliness

    (prevent strip mauls, billboards)

Polluted Air and Water

  • Clearcutting the Cascades & Coast Range
  • Aerial Herbicides blanket our forests
  • Slash pile burning - a huge waste of trees
  • Toxic Eugene:
    Plywood glue factories
    Railroad pollution
    wood preserving
  • Grass Seed Capital of the World: Pollen and Smoke Pollution
  • Nano-pollution info at oilempire.us

ENERGY
for the Year 2025

Region 2050 & limits to growth

  • build solar panel and wind turbine factories
  • convert grass seed farms to grow biofuels
  • require passive solar design in building codes
  • relocalize production to reduce consumption
    (fewer delivery trucks)
  • retrofit buildings: conservation & renewables
  • initiatives for sustainable jobs after Peak Oil

SUSTAINABILITY
is not efficiency, it is zero petroleum

  • paradigm shifts: psychological and political
  • beyond boom and bust: steady state economy
  • local food security,
    more community gardens,
    teach gardening skills at neighborhood levels,
    protect farm soils from "development"
    regional inventories of food production and processing
  • economic stability needs democratic decisions,
    Campaign Finance Reform
  • public health: single payer health care
  • support local economy:
    strengthen local businesses,
    build downtown Farmers Market
    not Whole Foods predator,
    ban big box megastores & franchises

Human Rights City?

  • Chinese Olympics
  • June 1, 1997: pepper spray used on peaceful protestors
  • rapist cops convicted of felonies
  • scaring toddlers
  • tasers

greenwash groups:
Activist Malpractice


Disasters: preventative, permaculture perspectives

Disaster Mitigation and Land Use:

  • Eugene needs intelligent (urban) design
    Hospitals, Earthquakes, Floods, and Lahars
    Troubled Bridges Over Water: the I-5 bridge crisis
    West Eugene sprawl in floodplains: WEP, Target megastore, Royal Node subdivision

The Long Emergency:
Peak Oil and Climate Collapse require paradigm shift

Katrina disaster shows the Federal government response: we are on our own


Eugene: the bubble

 

this page is under construction

 

Ugliness and Beauty

driving on the WEP would be more visually pleasant than driving past the West 11th strip malls ... but would ruin the landscape

"little boxes on the hillside"

 

West 11th strip mauls

Gateway / Beltline

Coburg Road

Springfield Main Street / Springfield lighting

 

Billboard Bans

Former Mayors Jim Torrey and Brian Obie were in the billboard industry, and the landscape of Eugene suffers as a result. Late in Torrey's second term, a large billboard (with Torrey's corporate logo at the bottom) magically appeared facing the Washington-Jefferson bridge off ramp.

Now that Eugene has a mayor not connected to what is euphemistically called the "outdoor advertising" industry, the City has the opportunity to prevent further uglification. Here are several suggestions for coping with this problem.

1. Ban Billboards

The State of Vermont prohibits billboards, since their natural beauty is an important asset. The highway department allows small signs to provide public notices for upcoming shops is sufficient to indicate destinations for motorists.

2. Moratorium on more billboards

A less controversial, but less effective approach would be to ban further construction of more billboards -- we already have more than enough.

3. Ban lighting of billboards

It is absurd that non-renewable coal and natural gas are being burned so that billboards can be lit, forcing everyone to see their messages (whether you want to or not).

4. Dark Sky Association recommendations for lighting

The least intrusive restriction on billboards would be to mandate the guidelines from the International Dark Sky Association (www.darksky.org), a group of astronomers fighting light pollution. These standards require lights to be pointed downward, not upward, so that pointless light pollution of the heavens is prevented.

 

uglification - Wal-Mart / Target / Home Depot