Shouldn’t Eugene City Council ask residents about decisions such as the land swap with UO?

An honest slate of legislators?

I used to be a reader of newspapers and watch TV news. I have scaled way back because of all the "fake news"! With Biden in office, I realize he doesn't accept blame for anything. When has he ever fired someone from his administration? He blamed the border patrol officers on horseback for whipping the illegal immigrants. This was before he checked the facts. They didn't whip any of them, but he won't apologize to the officers and still wants to suspend them.

Hopefully in November, we will have a new honest slate of legislators to choose from! What a blessing that will be.

Jim Pilling, Eugene

Does council represent our views?

Shouldn’t the Eugene City Council ask the people to represent their views when it comes to decisions such as the land swap with the university?

I question when I read the council voted of 7 to 1 was taken to further negotiations without the public knowing.

This is a reminder of the bag tax. There is no bag tax since the city did not know how to collect it, so it is a service charge and the stores keep the money.

This is a reminder of the payroll tax that had no vote of the people. When the city first collected the money, it did not know how it was going to use it. It was for safety and last I heard that is how they finally decided to use the tax.

What else is going on we do not know about?

Steven E. Hunnicutt, Eugene

Track athletes teach us how to lead

As the World Athletics Championships wrap up and the streets, buses and jogging trails of Eugene filled with athletes and visitors from around the world, it’s a good time to reflect on global interconnectedness.

Beyond our admiration for athletic skill and commitment, we share a responsibility to safeguard our climate. Elite athletics or not, we all need breathable air. The U.S. must lead in reducing emissions. If we don’t lead, we’ll barely play catch up. We must stop subsidizing fossil fuels — and letting the public bear the costs of carbon pollution while fossil fuel companies rake in record profits at the pump represents an enormous subsidy. The E.U. and Canada — our biggest trading partners — are poised to enact a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a tariff on carbon-intensive products.

To stay competitive, the U.S. must adopt a similar mechanism. U.S. manufacturing is generally more carbon efficient than manufacturing in many other places. A CBAM would reward U.S. companies for cleaner production and encourage international players to reduce emissions. President Biden has committed to reducing U.S. emissions 50% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Supreme Court has reduced the EPA’s ability to regulate air pollution. Congress must act.

Amalia Gladhart, Eugene

No friends of renters

Congratulations to the Eugene Tenant Alliance for organizing support for the first phase of renter protections and to the Eugene City Council for passing it.

Unfortunately, city councilors Mike Clark and Randy Groves voted against it. They are no friends of the 52% of Eugene residents who rent. I hope renters will remember their votes when they come up for reelection.

Landlords' objections to these mild reforms strike me as invalid. A drastic shortage of rental housing has created a seller's market. Landlords have taken advantage of that by jacking up rents and move-in fees to outrageous levels. They need to be controlled, and Eugene desperately needs to create more affordable housing.

Lynn Porter, Eugene

SCOTUS made the right call on Roe

Art Farley got things upside down (Letters, July 10). He says “the Supreme Court has become essentially an appointed, de facto legislature of nine people.”

In fact, the court of some 50 years ago was the one that became essentially an appointed de facto legislature. The current court corrected that by taking itself out of the picture. This court did not rule that abortion was legal or illegal. They said the subject was not within its jurisdiction. The 10th Amendment says that all powers not delegated to the United States (executive, legislative and judicial) are reserved to the states respectively.

Because abortion is not found in the Constitution, it should have been left to the states. The court of 50 some years ago erred in making a ruling that was not within its jurisdiction. The present court rectified that error by taking itself, as well as the other two branches of the federal government, out of the picture.

Louis Bowers, Eugene

Beltline woes

As I got on the Beltline heading east, I took the dedicated exit on Delta Highway to head toward downtown and immediately had to slow to 10 mph as traffic backed up. I thought there was an accident but was surprised to see that the light that had been placed with constant green guiding cars going south to town was red. It’s been months since this intersection was finished and never has that light been red.

As I sat stopped with 12 cars in front of me, I noticed that behind me the backup was now backing up traffic on the Beltline going east. It’s only a matter of time that a horrendous accident occurs at that location. Why? Is that light even there? I noticed a crosswalk sign like the bridge to nowhere. This crosswalk ends in the ditch behind the concrete barriers against the concrete sound wall that winds along the intersection.

The death of a homeless person trying to get downtown on Delta Highway is also inevitable. Poor planning and lack of foresight, especially at night, means more chaos and injury or death. Please take a look and bring back green sanity.

Terry Duddy, Eugene

The party of climate-change denial

Chief Justice Roberts put his vast ignorance on display when he referred to global warming as “... the crisis of the day.” He implies the climate crisis, much like the soup of the day, will be replaced with a different crisis tomorrow.

Contrast this with the full-page ad in Eugene Weekly written by Professor Emeritus Al Urquhart, who founded the Environmental Studies program at the University of Oregon. The 91-year-old professor, a true expert, references the nonprofit environmental group Job One for Humanity when he says that our Earth is rapidly approaching a tipping point beyond which “... any realistic or practical control of future global warming to prevent mass extinctions is impossible.” They project that once that tipping point is passed, half of humanity will die by mid-century.

While there is plenty of blame to go around, the Republican Party is the only major party on Earth that has embraced global warming denial. It won’t be long before the decreasing numbers of humanity can refer to the Republican Party as the party that destroyed the Earth. And Chief Justice Roberts can be their poster child.

Chuck Areford, Eugene

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Why'd Mike Clark, Randy Groves vote against renter protections?