8-8-22 Emerald Media - Monday Edition

AUGUST 8, 2022 Monday Edition

Emerald Media

THE THE WORLD WORLD DID DID NOT NOT SEE SEE THE THE

REAL REAL EUGENE EUGENE

Opinion: Our city's image as a picturesque small town was painted by systems of police brutality and forced displacement

NEWS

INFLUENCE OF THE WORLDS ATHELTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS SPREADS TO THE CLASSROOM PG 5

OPINION FIGHT FOR YOUR NIGHT PG 9

SPORTS

SAM PARSONS' DREAM COMES TRUE AT WORLD ATHLETIC CHAMPTIONSHIPS PG 10 MO N D AY

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LOOK ONLINE Instagram poll: Have you tried Nelson’s Taqueria?

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Related arts & culture story:

Oregon basketball head coach Dana Altman reeled in a five-star commit for the third straight year.

Combo forward Kwame “KJ” Evans Jr announced on ESPN’s Paul Biancardi’s Instagram live, on Tuesday, August 2, that he will suit up for the Ducks in the 2023 season. Evans is the modern athlete that every program desires with his ability to move like a guard at his size. He can play on the perimeter and down in the post, which should give Oregon its most potent frontcourt of all time, that’s if 2022 5-star signee Kel’el Ware doesn’t elect for the draft after this season.

“Nelson’s Taqueria at the Whit”

by Melvin Bravo

NEWS EDITOR

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DISCOVER ALL OF EUGENE’S HIDDEN EXHIBITIONS

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Aaron Heisen Joseph Hill OPINION EDITOR

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BY KEYRY HERNANDEZ

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Liz Blodgett

If you’re a bored college student floating through summer or an art enthusiast, you’ll definitely want to participate in Visual Arts Week 2022. This exciting week is hosted by the City of Eugene Cultural Services, Lane Arts Council and Maude Kerns Art Center between August 5-12. Visual Arts Week is full of free activities for the local community, so come on out and enjoy an agenda full of creative events, galleries, workshops, art installations and mural tours throughout downtown Eugene.

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BUSINESS

PROCTOR: WANT TO MAKE REAL CHANGE? VOTE.

BY IAN PROCTOR With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and other recent events, young people are as disillusioned with the government as ever. In the 2020 election, various student groups — many of whom were unrelated to each other and weren’t votingcentered — came together to get the vote out. Now it’s time to do it again. Every student group should be putting in more effort to encourage students to vote, not only is it the right thing to do, but many of their collective interests (like climate justice) involve pushing for legislative action. So for those of you reading this: vote. Please. Just vote. C’mon, I’m begging you.

(Skyler Anderson/Emerald)

Most read new story in the past week: “Russia and Belarus banned from World Athletics Championships”

by Brady Ruth

(DL Young/ Emerald)

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Scan here or visit the Emerald’s social media to participate in our next Voices of UO. What do you think is the summer album of the year and why?

ALBUM RECOMMENDATION: “CAVE WORLD”

Riley Valle Keaton Roberts Max Goldenberg Josh Delapena

Summary: “Cave World” is a dirty, danceable punk record, the third from Swedish group Viagra Boys.

Inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, the album’s biting criticism of misinformation, conspiracy theories and vaccine hesitancy is cut by a raucous sense of humor. Lead vocalist Sebastian Murphy sings, rants

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and curses through half-serious stories about stealing your grandmother’s jacket (“Ain’t No Thief”) and

We want to hear from you:

devolving back into apehood (“Return to Monke”).

We want to hear from you: Email editor@dailyemerald.com to submit a tip or a letter to the editor. The ideal length for a letter is 200-500 words, but we publish letters of various lengths online.

Like its contemporaries, the album finds that a frantic saxophone is just as punk as a guitar, while synthled interludes space out the intensity. The listening experience never gets too blown-out and alienates a casual listener; rather, it straddles that edge by

ON THE COVER

Hayward Field hosted the World Athletics Championships for the first time on U.S. soil from July 15-24 in ten days of track and field events garnering global attention.

(Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald)

always introducing a new instrument or a witty turn of phrase.

Recommended by:

Ethan Frolov, a fifth year architecture major.

“It embodies this anger and frustration, put into absurdism, that I feel right now.

And I can laugh at something that I have no control over.”

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(Maisie Plew/Emerald)

NEWS

AS 4J BANS GUNS,

STUDENTS STUDENTS DEMAND DEMAND ACTION ACTION COMES TO UO

BY SIMON SCANNELL

As the number of mass shootings continues to rise, gun violence prevention groups are coming together to create change in the Eugene community.

Gun control has become an increasingly contentious debate in recent years as mass shootings have been on the rise. As of June, 948 school shootings have taken place since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December, 2012, according to Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit organization aiming to prevent gun violence. The recent shootings, including the May 24 Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas and the May 14 shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, have further entrenched these debates.

After the Uvalde shooting, Gisela Rivera, a UO sophomore with a major in psychology, designed a poster in memory of the victims and installed it in front of the EMU. In the weeks following, she saw people place flowers and candles by it.

“I knew that there was a community within our school that [does] feel emotions for this and do want that community. And I just think [the response to Uvalde] was really the start of [me] wanting to make the community on campus,” Rivera said.

Rivera is a founding member and group leader of the UO branch of Students Demand Action, a national nonprofit organization that aims to prevent gun violence. The organization is aimed at high school and college students who want to enact change in their communities. The UO branch is not yet an official club, but it anticipates approval before fall term.

Rivera is currently focusing on building a community but is looking to work on policy in the future.

In 2012, UO enacted policy IV.05.05, which bans all firearms on campus with few exceptions such as for the UOPD and research purposes.

While shootings at colleges are not unheard of, K-12 schools are more likely to get attacked. The 4J School Board decided on June 22 to enact the KGBB policy.

The policy institutes a ban on firearms on all school grounds with the exception of when they are unloaded and placed securely in a locked vehicle.

“Earlier this year the [Oregon] legislature passed a law that allowed school districts to now disallow concealed carry from being permitted on school grounds. And almost like dominoes, districts across the state enacted policy that prohibited concealed carry. We weren’t necessarily close to amongst the first, there were quite a few ahead of us. Portland, Beaverton, folks like that,” Maya Rabasa, 4J school board chair said. “In between that happening and us passing [the policy] there was the tragic – I have no better word for it – massacre that happened in Uvalde, Texas, but it wasn’t a decision or a motion that started because or in reaction to that. It was something that was already in the works.”

The policy was first proposed at a school board meeting on May 18. According to Rabasaa, there was a disruption at the meeting due to a lack of knowledge

Lynette Slape // Daily Emerald

regarding the public input process. To ensure community members had time to voice their opinions, the decision was delayed a month.

Rabasa moved to the Eugene area in the 1990s, a few years before the 1998 shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield which killed two students and injured 25. She saw the impact of that event on the local community and still sees it today; the students who were in the cafeteria at Thurston are now parents with students in public schools.

Rivera’s mom works as a school counselor, which has informed a lot of Rivera’s life. She hopes to use her degree in psychology to help students who may be more vulnerable to gun violence and to provide resources for those who are struggling.

“This is definitely something in the realm of prevention and a desire to mitigate any potential risk… with guns there’s multiple varieties of risk involved,” Rabasa said. “There’s intentional harm and there’s also accidental harm. When you remove the medium by which accidental harm even is inflicted, then you raise the possibility for a safer environment.”

Rivera suggested following these organizations on Instagram for more information about gun violence prevention: @studentsdemand, @ marchforourlives, and @everytown.

For more information about the UO branch of Students Demand, visit its Instagram @studentsdemanduo.

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A&C Keyry Hernandez/ Daily Emerald

TERRITORIAL WINERY: AN INDEPENDENT COMPANY WITH A QUIRKY SPOT

BY MELVIN BRAVO Picture yourself sitting in the corner of a room, where people are drinking wine and listening to good music. The atmosphere is peaceful but vibrant. You can almost see everyone simultaneously stimulated and deeply engaged. You’re surrounded by colorful rooms and walls, dim lights, small tables and stools, wine barrels and of course, wine.

This cozy spot is known as Territorial Vineyards & Wine Company, located in the fermentation district of Eugene. At the heart of Whiteaker, you’ll find this winery on West 3rd Avenue and Adam Street, nestled in a black, vintage building, surrounded by red-framed windows. From the outside, the place reminds one of a speakeasy, housing creative individuals from another time.

Territorial Winery was opened back in 2001 by Alan Mitchell. He and some of his associates were able to obtain a building that would make Boyd’s Coffee. Back then, the Whiteaker wasn’t the place it is today.

“When we came down here, there was nothing here,” Mitchell said. He said all the breweries, distilleries and restaurants that characterize the area now weren’t yet established. “We were definitely one of the first ones doing that down here.”

Territorial Wine has a tasting room with a variety of wines made in Eugene. The company is known as an estate winery — meaning it is able to farm its own grapes, instead of getting them from other farms. This provides them with better quality wines that go into each production. They have two farms in Eugene, Equinox and Bellpine Vineyards, that grow different strains of grapes. This allows for the grapes to grow in two different climates, one high and cool (Equinox), and the other lower and warmer (Bellpine), giving them a unique mixture of fruit to work with.

The winery also has an uncommon — but quirky — stage for live music. According to the band, it almost blends with the place, meaning the stage could be

anywhere and adds to the individuality of the place.

Artists like Concrete Delta Trio, John Crain Band, John Shipe and Patrick Kevaney are some of the ones headlining.

So if you're ever in the Whiteaker area, come check this business out Wednesday through Saturday from 5 p.m to 10 p.m. Some noteworthy bottles to try are the 2019 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, which has a perfect blend of sweetness and dryness as a wine $17 bottle; 2018 Equinox Vineyard Riesling $17 bottle; and The Mongrel: non-vintage red blend. If you're not into wine, they also offer ciders on tap that taste just as good. Food is not currently offered due to COVID-19 regulations, but right next door, there's a food truck with a full pizza menu that pairs well with their wine.

With its quirky, cozy atmosphere and good wine, Territorial Winery is well worth a stop.

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NEWS

INFLUENCE OF THE WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS SPREADS TO THE CLASSROOM Following the World Athletics Championships, students and faculty reflect on the global perspectives gained and get ready to bring them to the classroom.

BY ALICIA SANTIAGO • TWITTER @_AALICIAA03_ With UO being a global host for the World Athletics Championships this summer, opportunities for students and faculty inspire reflections on the impact it will have throughout the school year. In July, the UO community hosted many highly ranked athletes from various countries at the World Athletics Championships, bringing a new level of cultural diversity to campus. Now, professors and students are aiming to apply the impacts of the championships to rich conversations in the classroom.

The World Athletics Championships are an athletics competition held biennially for track and field. The event has historically been held in major cities around the world linking sport and culture through the integration of nations and identities through competition. For the first time ever it was held in the United States here in the comparably small town of Eugene, Oregon at Hayward Field.

Eugene, renowned as TrackTown USA after pioneering the way for training methods and world records, became the first U.S. city to host the championships. The event hosted 180 plus nations and according to the Sports Business Journal, brought over 54 thousand spectators within the first three days to watch top-tier athletes compete. In the end, the event exceeded 146 thousand in ticket sales as reported by The Oregonian.

While study abroad programs, internships, and global perspective courses on campus build students’ cultural knowledge throughout the year, what goes unrecognized is the impact the large sport's presence on campus brings to the table. The Student Envoy Program, hosted through the UO Department of Global Engagement, serves to train students to be local hosts and guides to visiting athletes.

Julia Frank, a sophomore double majoring in Public Relations and Advertising, worked as an envoy this summer at the championships, serving as a local guide for athletes from Botswana. As an envoy, Frank was attached to her delegation and ready on call if they needed guidance around campus and Eugene. Working in the residence halls where the athletes stayed, she saw firsthand the connection of cultures brought to campus through communication barriers, guidance with public

transportation, and overall hospitality.

“Of course, there were cultural barriers, but overall it integrated different cultures and gave me a global perspective,” Frank said. “This is the closest people will get to an Olympic event in Eugene, Oregon.”

She said that this experience both opened her eyes to the behind-thescenes work that went on bringing 180plus nations together on campus and the impact track has around the world.

Along with the international coverage brought to UO following the WCH, these students gained international relations experience and a level of cultural perspective not as accessible throughout the year.

Following the historic US win, professors and faculty look ahead to the potential new conversations to be held in the classroom over the lessons learned with the championships. Chris Chávez, UO associate professor and director of UO’s Center of Latino/a and Latin American studies, gave his perspective on how the track event impacts the university further. He discussed the benefits that come from mixing cultures on a wide scale. He talked about the important role media plays in global events like these in giving people who couldn’t attend the chance to see the impact. Chávez emphasized the role students have as consumers when transferring lessons learned during the WCH to conversations in the classroom.

“In an apolitical kind of way, it was a beautiful mix of cultures,” Chávez said.

“From an intercultural aspect, we have physical assets and materials (from the event) we can use in the classroom.”

Chávez said that business classes should use the championships as an example of global economic interactions, while international relations classes could talk about the intercultural sensibilities UO was responsible for as a global host. Going forward, the championships appear to be an event that can be referenced in the classroom with respect to tourism, economics, culture, diversity, among other topics.

UO will continue to bring in top-tier athletes from around the world as well as host events that amplify the cultural diversity of campus and Eugene. While the next World Athletics Championships will be held in Budapest, the cultural footprint created this summer will enrich students and faculty continually.

Day eight of the championships included three finals: Mens 400m, Womens 400m, and Womens 400m hurdles. The World Athletics Championships continue onto day eight at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on July 22, 2022. (Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald)

American distance runner Athing Mu gives an autograph to a fan between events. (Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald) MO N D AY

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COVER: OPINION

WHEELER: HOW EUGENE SANITIZED

ITSELF FOR OREGON22

BY PORTER WHEELER • TWITTER @DOCBATTINGTON

Stickers around Eugene talk about how the World Athletics Championships impacted houseless communities leading up to and during the events (Ian Enger // Daily Emerald)

Opinion: Our city prepared for the Championships by pushing the impoverished out of sight and putting Eugene on a trajectory that serves elite interests.

The world has come to town

The city of Eugene is plastered in promotional posters celebrating the 2022 Track & Field World Championships. (Ian Enger/Emerald)

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But what it saw was not Eugene. The 2022 World Athletics Championships brought over 200 countries, 50,000 daily visitors and prominent government officials. The city they witnessed was a quaint Oregon town — Tracktown, USA, if you will — of bike lanes and vegan cafes.

Our guests did not see the city with the second highest number of chronically homeless individuals and the highest number of homeless families in the United States. The city where you have to work 1.5 full time jobs to afford rent. The city whose police use more force during arrests than 68% of all departments, the city where the life expectancy is 13 years shorter on one side, nor the city where 68 people have died on the streets in the last two years.

Those systemic issues were swept away with the cruel policies that our city and police have been employing for years; however, the rate of violence increased to make things presentable.

Thus, in a twisted sense, the Eugene the world saw was the “real” Eugene — mechanisms of state oppression that script forced displacement to allow development which ignores the struggles of the working and exploited classes.

Don’t get me wrong, it was certainly neat to see the World Athletics Championships’ first time in the United States. I mean no offense to the athletes; they did a great job running in circles. Rather, the event’s inclusion in Eugene only exacerbated our community’s problems by hiding them, making any progressive reforms more unlikely. It prompts the city to expedite construction of areas that act as exclusion zones segregating the population along class lines, forcing complicity to the brutal structures that drive development.

I’m not promoting an isolationist Eugene that is unfriendly to visitors. No, the Eugene I want has vast public resources and commons available to all, understanding it is post-scarcity and the only obstacle is distribution. I am opposing a socioeconomic model that prioritizes the development of high-end luxury infrastructure and draconian enforcement, which caters to the out-of-town rather than the actual people of Eugene that live and work in this city.

COVER: OPINON Nike’s Phil Knight may have brought the championships to Eugene through a sketchy private bidding deal, but his blood money did not host it. The working class — the real people of Eugene — did.

The $40 million Oregon paid for the event could’ve actually addressed the material problems that burden our community, instead we got a sporting event which causes our houseless neighbors increased harm.

The visibility of the problem is the problem Eugene joins the prestigious halls of other worldly cities who’ve sanitized national images upon hosting sporting events. Just as the Brazilian government prepared for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro by pushing out all homeless from tourist areas, according to Reuters at the time.

Kelly McIver, the communications manager for Eugene’s Unhoused Response, was adamant that there is no linkage between removals of encampments and Oregon22.

“Never at any time was Oregon22 part of our planning,” McIver said. “There is no support for activist’s claims other than conjecture.”

McIver did confirm that there was an increase in enforcement starting March of this year — three months before the Championships — but he is right: there is no way to conclusively prove correlation between the city’s unhoused response and a desire to sanitize Eugene’s image. But that’s a burden of proof I don’t need to meet because it does not matter what motivated the sweeps; the city’s response was consistent with the goal of rending the unhoused invisible.

It is a distinction without a difference. The actions and outcome are the same regardless of intention.

The city’s strategy of addressing the houseless crisis is obfuscation; moving those already living in precarity to the physical fringes. An approach orchestrated by the city council, the Eugene Police Department and Parks and Open Spaces, created a cycle of cruelty that only increased in anticipation for Oregon22. Rending the houseless invisible manifests in three ways: sweeps of encampments, relocation to city-sanctioned camps and establishment of exclusion zones.

Sweeping is the act of physically clearing an encampment, usually for the justification of cleaning the site. The sweep of Washington Jefferson Park, the largest recent camp, was carried out on March 16, 2022. The 78 campsites moved with many belongings left behind and trashed — leaving the former residents on the streets with even less.

Anya Dobrowolski, a member of Stop the Sweeps Eugene, spoke to me about why the Washington Jefferson sweep was different.

“The day before the city fenced off WJ so no one could go in and help,” Dobrowolski said. “It was very dystopian, like a refugee camp.”

Chance McCartney, an unhoused person who has been swept 22 times in two months and been banned by the city from all Eugene parks, recounts how the demeanor around sweeps has changed.

“In this last year, they’ve gone from allowing you some time to grab necessaries to straight up ‘Get out of your camp and start moving,’” McCartney said.

“They don’t even hand you a property tag anymore for your stuff.”

The neglect of procedure and lack of compassion defines the city’s responses to unhoused encampments. EPD or Parks and Open Spaces are supposed to give 72 hours eviction notice, but this is rarely the case, especially because many have outstanding warrants or citations simply for the crime of being unhoused.

“EPD will come and say, ‘Move right now without the 72 hours notice or I’ll arrest you.’” Dobrowolski said. “They get 15 minutes to pack their lives up.”

I reached out to EPD via email about the usage of warrants to which they relayed that “if it [a site] gets posted to be cleaned, the property can be seized without a warrant.” Moreover, EPD does not need a warrant if the tenant fails to assert their fourth amendment right to protection from search or seizure.

However, McCartney has observed eviction notices postings either mere hours before a sweep or even after a sweep has been completed. Furthermore, only giving the unhoused their constitutional rights if they remember to assert it while their lives are being upended is cruel and exploitative.

She has also seen firsthand the tactics EPD uses to coerce people into moving.

“The cops will buy people cigarettes and beer now,” McCartney said. “It's been slowly gaining in implementation for the past 12 months as a physiological manipulation tool.”

Whether or not these tactics are disjointed and confusing on purpose does not matter. All departments of the city are siloed so as to not take accountability, according to local advocate Sam Yergler.

“Everyone loves to pass the buck,” Yergler said.

“You can’t get them in the same room; it really shows they don’t care.”

The city doesn’t care that sweeps are dangerous;

but they provide the most limited resources,” Dobrowolski said. “They’re taking away people's dignity and autonomy.”

Dobrowolski, Yergler and McCartney all independently and unprompted used the term “concentration camps” to describe the Safe Sleep Sites.

The sites have been extended at least until 2024, with more locations on the way. These systems of relocation display a paradigm of banal brutality, of uncaring bureaucrats using the police to inflict undue harm. Regardless of your personal grievances and experiences with those lacking a house, understand that this treatment is a humanitarian crisis, especially in a city that has so much money for sports. The funding of city developments like the Riverfront Park may look nice, but like UO’s campus, it will only serve as another exclusion zone for the unhoused — even if it's marketed as a “welcoming place for all people.”

My problem is not that the city has band-aid resources — of which I can’t say with certainty are better or worse than the streets — rather it’s the lack the will to do what is required to break us out of this cycle.

You are significantly closer to being houseless than you are being anything beyond middle class.

Have solidarity with your neighbors; advocate for progressive housing policies and stop being complicit in the brutal tactics of our state.

Not for us

“A sparkling athletic event does something for real estate owners, but nothing for the common people.”

ZONDIE ZINKE Former Eugene mayoral candidate

camps were still swept against CDC COVID-19 guidelines in 2020 and during the heatwaves in 2021. Scattering people to the wind so a park under a freeway looks nicer causes bodily harm and stops advocates from being able to deliver aid and supplies.

A few weeks after Washington Jefferson, an unprecedented early morning weekend sweep of an RV encampment occurred in West Eugene.

Thirty people died while houseless in 2020 in Eugene and 38 in 2021. While it is impossible to prove if a sweep contributed to these deaths, these people would still be alive if our city enacted policies that actually helped this population.

How many will we sacrifice on the streets the next time we want to fill Hayward Field?

The camps The Safe Sleep Sites were constructed in 2021 by the city to provide “safe and lawful places for people to sleep.” However, it's clear that visibility was a motivator. Almost all of the Safe Sleep Sites are located in West Eugene, as far as possible from Hayward Field or anywhere people would visit during their stay. Further, these sites only provide one meal a day and disallow cooking, as reported by Double Sided Media.

At time of writing all Safe Sleep Sites are at capacity with waitlists hundreds long. So the city’s response is also legally dubious, as under the 2019 Martin v.

Boise ruling, homeless persons cannot be punished in absence of alternatives.

While non-residents are not allowed into the sites, according to McIver, it is clear from the outside that these sites function like open-air prisons: there are daily bed checks and 24/7 camera surveillance.

“These sites might have looked more humane,

The rhetorical argument that brought the World Athletics Championships to Eugene was that it would be good for the community and local businesses; it would put the city on the proverbial map. However, these claims need to be seriously interrogated.

Zondie Zinke, a former Eugene mayoral candidate, spoke to me about the city’s priorities.

“It's egregious that $40 million of public funding went for this non-priority to the people,” Zinke said.

“A sparkling athletic event does something for real estate owners, but nothing for the common people.”

If a retail store gets more business, those profits go solely to the owner; the workers still get paid the same wage. But this discussion is moot because, as was reported by Eugene Weekly, restaurants flopped during Oregon22, with some eateries losing thousands of dollars.

The investment in tourism and sports instead of tangible local problems with real material care is vile. The Eugene Chamber of Commerce conducted a report on homelessness of 150 stakeholders in 2021, finding that the prevailing desire is to shift from managing the crisis to actually solving it.

This is more frustrating because the solutions are known; invest in healthcare and mental health services, not $15 million for cops. Fund affordable housing, not $20 million tax breaks for riverfront development.

The best way to reduce houselessness, crime and the need for mental health responses is to ensure that everyone has access to adequate housing, a well-paying job and healthcare. Reactionary forces — like law enforcement — will never solve anything; a proactive, progressive change is needed.

A progressive overhaul would not be some radical transition, but a shift in values. The current order of things makes value judgments every day by failing to respond to suffering it is aware of — allowing 68 deaths was a value judgment.

The only way to reverse course is with grassroots mobilization of the average working people of Eugene, housed and unhoused. Only then can we understand that we are not a small town anymore, and a better world is possible. One that can be built by our hands in our backyards for our interests, so the next time the world comes to visit we don’t have to hide who we are.

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A&C

UO’S ESPORTS LOUNGE WILL START CHARGING THIS FALL.

WILL PLAYERS RETURN? UO’s Esports Lounge will start charging students $2.50 an hour for computer use this fall. Some staff members anticipate a drop in attendance.

Pay increase aaer a couple weeks

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BY NATHAN WILK UO’s Esports Lounge fostered a community by providing capable computers to students for free. But with the switch to a paid model this fall, some staff are worried that users won’t come back.

Located on the ground floor of the EMU, the lounge offers consoles and desktops installed with popular competitive games, including “Valorant” and “League of Legends.” During the school year, they averaged around 700 players and 100 sign-ups each month, according to internally collected data.

Many users don’t have access to fast internet or hardware at home, said community manager Judy Shu, while others seek a social opportunity.

“It allows those who would normally only game without any in-person interaction to meet up with friends and game side-by-side,” she said.

Starting this fall, students will be charged $2.50 an hour for use of a computer, $20 for ten hours, or $60 for a term pass. Faculty will be charged $3.50 an hour, while community members will pay $5. Esports Program Director Billy Katsigiannis said management is trying to keep prices as low as possible, but they need money to maintain the space.

When the lounge launched in early 2020, it was pitched as a revenue source, with fees almost double what they will be come September. But because of COVID-19 lockdowns, organizers were unable to test that model long-term. Instead, the lounge reopened for free last year, while staff measured public interest.

Free access was never intended to be permanent, said Katsigiannis. In addition to paying employees, the lounge will need to replace every computer in two years to meet competitive standards. They are also building a server for hard-drive space, which Katsigiannis said is necessary to offer additional games to different audiences.

Instead, organizers are trying to create flexible payment options. For computer use, they will accept Duck Buck, which are built into University Housing plans.

Home consoles will also remain free. Still, Katsigiannis believes some exclusion is inevitable.

“Even if we were to charge a dollar, that puts up a barrier,” he said. “You charge a penny, that's going to put up a barrier.”

Katsigiannis is particularly worried for international students, who have difficulties bringing their computers from overseas.

“At a university, international students sometimes just get forgotten about,” he said. “We want to be able to make sure that they can at least play games with their friends.”

Employee Grace Herr expects a drop in attendance. She said gaming sessions regularly reach five hours, and struggling students will likely be unable to pay.

“I don't know if I would be able to pay $2.50 an hour to play at the lounge, or even for a term pass, because of financial difficulties,” she said.

Herr believes the Esports Lounge will need strong, free events to get students through the door. Those are planned frequently — when UO’s esports teams compete, spectators are encouraged to cheer them on. Student clubs can also host in the space.

Moving forward, lounge staff will closely monitor attendance for any user trends.

Katsigiannis said this will guide future decisions.

“We'll see the data from last year and look at the data this year,” he said. “I think that will speak volumes.”

Members of the University of Oregon's Valorant teams pose inside of the EMU, where the esports lounge is located. The University of Oregon is home to a thriving esports scene, including a growing number of players joining Valorant teams on campus. (Will Geschke/ Emerald)

OPINION sites’ disruption of noise FIGHT FOR YOUR NIGHT Construction ordinance laws calls into question why we have them in the first place.

BY CALE CRUEGER

Mia McCall/Daily Emerald variance, including the required notification of all persons living within 300 feet of the activity, the prioritization of property and public health, a fee and more.

None of this actually matters, though, because construction sites may just operate anyway, variance-free.

One night, in a state of sleep deprivation and desperation, I forgot my fervent mistrust of lawmakers and called the non-emergency police line as construction raged on at about 2:30 a.m. I gave my location and explained the situation, and was told I'd be called back shortly. Still awake, of course, an officer called back at around 4 a.m. He explained that the construction company had been issued a “special permit” to construct in these hours and I, delirious, agreed. Sure, I yawned. That makes sense. Perhaps my upstairs neighbors also received this so-called special permit to be egregiously loud through the wee hours of the night.

It wasn't until the Beastie Boys appeared to me that I realized how wrong and wronged I'd been.

I phoned the Permit Information Center and learned that, according to them, the construction site next to my apartment had never applied for a variance, and the permit the policeman had referred to did not exist. If construction companies and police alike can simply say they’ve obtained permits to bypass noise ordinance laws, then why even have these laws at all?

Now, my Beastie Boy-anointed third eye calls for Oregon Ducks to fight for their rights, together. If construction can go on until 5 a.m., then so can we! Never before did I think I would advocate for a frat live-out to be able to play early 2000s music as late as they want, but it's only fair. Why should the people of Eugene be prosecuted or warned off nightly noise-making by police when construction companies aren't? This double-standard of noise suppression will not stand!

Given an increased police presence and citations of students, I doubt many are feeling up for the challenge of fighting for our right to party. Still, what's stopping students from applying for a variance to be as loud as we freaking want? Drown out the construction, I say!

If your right to party isn't fight-worthy, then maybe your right to sleep is. There seems to be little information shared by police and the city’s online presence on what measures people should take against illegal, nightly construction. The Permit Information Center offered me the phone number of Eugene’s Code Compliance office, who you can call to issue a stop work order next time a construction site keeps you

BY ANTONIO MORALES up through the night: 541-682Devon Allen, a University of Oregon 5819. alumnus and current wide receiver for the I would think the annoyance Philadelphia Eagles, was disqualified of listening to a voicemail from the men’s 110-meter hurdles final for hardly compares to 4 a.m. a false start during the World Athletics bulldozing, so leave a message Championships. According to Robert if they don’t pick up! In fact, Johnson, Cornell University’s former track the only thing worse than the and field coach, he learned from Allen’s agent that “the reaction times being sound of construction might measured during the meet were faster in just be the Beastie Boys. I general than usual.” However, the most think next time I'll just blast interesting piece of information from the them until I receive a noise same source was that “the measured average ordinance warning of my reaction times in all three races in 2022 were Antonio Morales is an editorial own — they're hard to get, considerably faster than in any other year cartoonist for the Daily apparently. since 2003…[and] the odds that all three

Some time ago, I had a spiritual calling to speak out against Eugene’s construction practices. In a dream, the Beastie Boys, clad in chains and oversized snapbacks, hovered down to me from glowing, parted clouds. A blissful mix of calm and purpose filled my soul. One had a harp. He began to softly strum and another screeched, "Kick it!" The third put his oily hand on my forehead. His palm burned my scalp and when he pulled away I knew my third eye had been opened; my chakras aligned. I've never seen the band members' faces before — they are more of a kitschy radio presence to me — but I knew it was them from the familiar chords of their 1986 hit "Fight For Your Right." Only then did I understand the vision’s meaning.

Except, of course, this didn't really happen. How could it? I don't dream. I don't sleep.

Why not, you may ask? The answer can be heard nearly every morning on Eugene's Broadway Street, where three apartment buildings have been under construction for some time. Construction at the upcoming Union on Broadway apartment complex has been in the works for nearly two years. It begins as late as 12 a.m. and goes on until 5 a.m. some days. There have been several weeks where the construction noise would last through the night, every night.

I know this because I lived, sleeplessly, right next to this particular site. I took videos, sent texts to friends and family, and lay awake in my bed as the sound of machinery blasted through the thin walls and windows of The 515 apartment building. I tried different types of ear plugs that varied in sound cancellation and comfortability, but at the end of the day the fact remains that the ever-growing construction presence in Eugene does not just exist; it exists loudly.

All. Night. Long.

I admit, the sounds of construction do not affect all equally. Even my roommates, while situated a bit further down the hall from the incessant sounds of construction, have only been bothered by the near nightly noise a few times this year. And, yeah, I’ve been called a “light sleeper.” But we’re talking about a bigger issue here! We’re talking about the sanctity of laws; the sanctity of sleep!

College age people need seven to nine hours of sleep a night, which is no easy task for UO students given the rampant construction across our town and campus.

It should similarly not be commonplace to require construction workers to work through the night without necessity. With the undertaking of many major building projects across Eugene, I am far from alone in construction-noise victimhood.

The nightly construction is not limited to off-campus residences, either. As a freshmen, I lived in Living Learning Center South, right next to the Hayward field construction, which at times similarly began as early as 5 a.m. It was one morning when — after being awoken by the sounds of drills, beeping machines or what have you — I wondered: how is this legal?

Eugene's city noise ordinance laws state that between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. the following day, it is unlawful to knowingly create any noise disturbance.

Per Eugene's Environmental Noise Disturbance code, this law indeed extends to the "constructing (including excavating), demolishing, altering or repairing any building."

Here is where the line of law blurs. There is a lengthy application process for a variance, whereby noise disturbers may contest and advocate for their right to, well, disturb. The code lists the many steps for attaining and retaining such a

EDITORIAL CARTOON: Devon Allen was cheated

events in 2022 would randomly have the quickest reaction time out of 13 different competitions equals 1 in 13 cubed, or 1 in 2,197, which is 0.00046 percent.” Meaning, that there is a 99.95% chance that the timing system was flawed at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. In other words, Devon Allen was cheated. (Antonio Morales/ Emerald)

Emerald. He is a third-year student studying history and anthropology. Antonio's cartoons emphasize the important cultural and social significance of current events and their direct impact on the UO community.

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SAM PARSONS’ DREAM COMES TRUE AT WORLD

ATHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIPS A heart set on Hayward

BY ELLIOTT DEINS

German runner Sam Parsons shakes a member of the crowds hand after competing in the mens 5k. Day seven of the 2022 World Athletic Championships takes place at Hayward Field on July 22, 2022. (Maddie Stellingwerf/Emerald)

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Sam Parsons grew up idolizing Steve Prefontaine and watching “Without Limits'' every weekend on the way to high school meets. While toeing the line before his qualifying 5000-meter heat at the World Athletics Championships, Parsons looked at the Hayward Tower, saw Pre’s face and “couldn't believe that some five-foot nothing kid from the middle of nowhere in Delaware gets to run on this track.”

The qualifying round was Parsons first time competing at an outdoor world championship.

Nervous, he called his girlfriend to tell her that he shouldn’t even step on the track.

“It might’ve shattered my confidence and belief in myself for the rest of my career,” Parsons said. “I wanted to skip the qualifier all together and make sure I was 100% for the European championships. At this level, if you’re not 100% you’ll be exposed.”

Through hard work and self-belief, world ranked No. 33 Parsons finished ninth in his heat. His time was fast enough to earn a little q for Sunday’s final with the top distance runners in the world.

“This is an absolute dream,” Parsons said after his qualifying race. “ I can’t believe I did it. It’s unreal.

This is something I’ve never dreamed I’d be able to do. I’m going to run a final at Hayward.”

To deal with the pressures of racing, Parsons practices mindfulness. Therefore, being bumped, cut off, or tripped up by others doesn't bother him.

During the semifinal race, two runners took a

tumble and almost took him out. Those moments can lose a race, but he’s practiced it all beforehand. He knew what he was going to do, because he ran the race 50 times in his head before it started.

“I lived this whole race already,” Parsons said.

“Those things like pushing and shoving, or you look up at the screen and see Jakob Ingebrigtsen passing you, they’ve already happened. So they weren’t anything.”

“ This is something I’ve never dreamed I’d be able to do.

I’m going to run a final at Hayward.”

SAM PARSONS American distance runner

It was 90 degrees on the track at Hayward field on the final day of the World Athletics Championships.

The men’s 5000 final featured one of the most talent rich startlists of the entire meet. The final fifteen featured monsters like; Olympic 1500 champ Jakob Ingebrigsten, American record holder Grant Fisher,

and reigning Tokyo 5000 gold medalist Joshua Cheptegei.

Ingebrigsten won the gold in the 5000. He stayed in the lead pack until the final lap, and turned the race into a final 400 meter sprint. Parsons finished 15th of 15, but was happy to just be out there with some unreal runners.

Parsons said this level of competition is like a different world. He’s stronger for it, and he’ll learn from it. People experience growing pains every time they move up a level in competition, he explained.

“You’re on the first high school team at a varsity race,” Parsons said. “You get your ass kicked.

Everyone is so much faster than you. Slowly but surely you start to figure it out. You win states, set records, and go to college. You get your ass kicked at college. That’s what happened today.”

His nerves were pretty level, Parsons said. It was a new experience for him. He wasn’t planning on making the final, so he didn’t know how to prepare or recover.

“I learned these guys are world class runners,” Parsons said. “There is a lot more training I need to do to raise myself to this level.”

Parsons now looks ahead to the European Championships in Munich in August. He is happy he’ll only have to run one race in Germany.

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