Recently the Emerald published a commentary written by the editorial board critical of the UO “housing crisis”(Dec. 4, 2008). On July 17 of this year the Emerald covered a story about a new UO dorm project to be sited at 16th and Moss on the east side of the street that would supposedly be completed by fall of 2010. The UO planning department has shown that it is reckless and fractured in terms of serving the interests of the students. The Emerald’s commentary about the UO housing crisis should really have been directed at the Emerald’s coverage of housing related issues. Failure to thoroughly scrutinize secretive planning efforts around the UO has resulted in the housing crisis. Perhaps now is the time for the Emerald to take another look at the Moss Street dorm proposal to see whether it is actually being built or has disappeared altogether. I feel like I am the right person to urge harder work on investigating the UO housing issue since I brought the Moss Street dorm to the Emerald’s attention in July in the first place. If the Emerald editorial board does not like the housing crisis, it needs to work on covering housing-related issues at UO adequately.
Zachary Vishanoff Eugene
[email protected]