Where to put a hospital?
That has become one of the most contentious questions here in Eugene, and it has seemed to further polarize the two local political blocks.
While it’s a quite simplified view, one could say that here in Eugene the “pro-business” moderate conservatives are pitted squarely against the “anti-sprawl” progressive liberals. Although every conservative in Eugene is not for sprawl and every liberal is not against business, this does hold true to some extent.
And one can see that recently in how some in Eugene want PeaceHealth to be able to develop where it needs to and others refuse to let the health-care provider out of the downtown area.
Like a fearful lover who knows their partner wants to leave them, the Eugene City Council is resorting to frantic and questionable tactics such as re-zoning and offering to help pay for a downtown site to keep the hospital close to its present location.
Despite what the company says it needs, city councilors want their own way. Granted, not just the City Council but also several local residents, business owners and even doctors and nurses have campaigned for keeping PeaceHealth close to the city center.
But we as a community must realize we cannot force a hospital into an area that its owners argue will not work. We should be able to assume that PeaceHealth knows what is best and not impose any restrictions to fit the hospital to some fixed agenda.
Some councilors continue to argue they are only trying to preserve Eugene’s downtown core. But it does not make sense how any new business would be interested in coming to Eugene in light of PeaceHealth’s experience. The council’s message appears to be: “Come to Eugene and your business will be left victim to city planners, councilors and activists who decide for you where and how you run your business.”
It is unreasonable to argue that any business should have free reign in any community, but there is a certain point at which local governments need to back off if they want continued development in their cities.
There are many people in Eugene who do not want any development here, and they are welcome to that opinion. But that is a little unrealistic because Eugene is not some sleepy hamlet in the which the quality of life would be severely degraded with development. This is the second-largest city in the state, and it’s about time the City Council realized that. Eugene is going to get nowhere by trying to keep this city in a box. Let PeaceHealth develop in North Eugene, and let’s have some new development downtown. The hospital’s moving should only open up some prime real estate.
No one enjoys sprawl, but at the same time, by allowing the best development we can avoid the wrong development.

Smoking ban flawed from the start
So despite a ban, people still want to smoke? Well, that is interesting. One would think that with such a progressive and well-minded action like the City Council’s ban on smoking, we would all put down our cigarettes.
But we haven’t. In fact, it appears that some bar owners’ fears have come true, and smokers are heading to other establishments that still allow them to light up. Tom Fieland, a manager of three local bars in which one can’t smoke, told the council Monday night the ban was hurting his businesses. Especially because some managers were able to receive a reprieve from the ban with the promise they would start building a smokers’ patio.
City Manager Jim Johnson will begin looking into the ordinance, and let’s hope that some sanity will soon come to Eugene’s tobacco laws.
If Eugene is really serious about banning smoking, then the City Council should make the law as fair as possible. This opportunity for an exemption from the ban was not well-publicized, and now some bar owners are hurting because of it. Councilors should open up the application process now, for all business owners, to solve this imbalance.
It’s a safe bet that every bar will probably go for an exemption, and Eugene will be right back to where it was before the ban.
It just goes to show prohibition politics do not work.

Praise to all of Oregon’s

little creatures
It appears now that our great state may have earned its name because of smelt, a tiny, innocuous bait fish that Native Americans ground into oil. Two University graduate students have published an article describing a link between the Native American word for the fish, “ooligan,” and “Oregon.” This discovery just continues Oregon’s great connection with friendly little critters. There’s a beaver gracing the back of the state flag, this University’s mascot is the harmless little duck and Eugene even celebrates the banana slug with a parade.
There’s nothing wrong with it, and it actually is somewhat refreshing. When animals such as bears, cougars and wolves are so often used as mascots and such, it is nice to see Oregon taking a different route.