The May West University Neighbors General meeting will focus on the proposed City of Eugene fee, to go on the ballot on May 21st. This would cost up to $10 per month per household and probably be collected through EWEB billing. According to the Eugene Register Guard, the ordinance says that “all fee revenues shall be deposited in a separate fund that only can be used to pay for ‘fire and police service, homeless and human services, and quality of life services such as libraries and pools.’ It also says fee revenue can be used to establish reserves for these purposes and to pay for the billing and collection of the fee. The council also may designate a portion of the revenue to provide financial assistance to low-income residents” (Russo, Eugene Register-Guard, April 19, 2013).

Come and hear both sides of the discussion at the meeting.

Also on the agenda: Debriefing from Campus Day of Service in Neighborhoods, where UO students and community members helped beautify West University.

Refreshments will be served.

Title: Day of Service in Campus Neighborhoods
Location: West University Park, 14th and Patterson
Description: UO and West University residents work together to improve their neighborhood
Date: 2013-04-13

Title: WUN General Meeting March 7, 2013
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, 555 E 15th (enter via the alley)
Description: General Meeting
Draft Agenda
Discussion of Unruly Gatherings Ordinance – what it means, staying safe; UO and Eugene Police Department representatives expected to attend
Start Time: 07:30 PM
Date: 2013-03-07
End Time: 08:30 PM

WUN General Meeting February 7, 2013

Present: WUN Board members D Healey, S Baker, Pete Knox, S Bennett, Drix; Others: Clark Cox, Karen Hyatt, Leslie Graves, Reggie Frumpkin, Christine Gerron (CommUniversity Assistant), Ken Weed (CommUniversity Assistant), Ray Grant (CommUniversity Assistant) – all three CAs are based in West University

Karen Hyatt, UO Community and Government Relations: Saturday April 13 Day of Service in Campus Neighborhoods. Time is TBA. Maybe 9:30 or so, then lunch.
What does WUN want to do? Campus fraternity (Alpha Omega) is doing some cleanup; we could coordinate. Fairmount, SUNA may do parks work.
CAs will help as well. WUN: Maybe tree-planting if it’s not too late – Lyle may donate some trees. Could do a cleanup in the park – with help from Parks identifying native species.
Celebration and lunch afterward; could do it here if the weather isn’t good. Park if the weather is good.
UO will pay for the food; businesses could donate trash bags; maybe cups and plates from Neighborhood Services
Conversation on campus on arming police on campus going on now. Next  Monday is the next forum, and more are happening. People can also have small-group conversations with the UO and EPD police chiefs. There’s a FAQ that’s being developed, that’s online.
Neighborhood Services is putting on NUSA conference in 2014; there will be a town and gown track that the UO is involved in.

Lesley Graves, CommUniversity Program Director: The group did a few neighborhood walks last term and some late-night outreach, mostly with students. This term will be more on-campus events – resources the program has available to students, such as living off campus, safety and other off-campus issues. The Housing Fair is planned for March 6. They’re looking at how to do more outreach to students about unruly gatherings – they’re doing some preparation for it. We have plans to do tabling on campus throughout February, developing materials for Ss, offering options to contact CA program. We want to emphasize that we’re out there to help students.

Getting more people to meetings
Drix: We’d like to get more people to come to meetings. We need to offer them something they want. Tablet party?

Karen: SUNA is not having meetings, they’re having an open house where people can come and bring things. They’re having Edison Choir come to sing, other groups coming to sing.

Ray: Students forget that they’re living in a neighborhood. Educating them that the meetings exist and that they’re an opportunity to take advantage of. Most students would come if they knew about the meetings.

Christine: Advertise more. Talking about the unruly gatherings ordinance, gang violence meeting. Ad in the Emerald – promote the agenda; postcard in the mail. Anything relevant to the neighborhood – safety, well-being, daily living in the neighborhood

Pete: Bicycle safety in general

Karen: Would a service project be interesting? Doing something at a meeting, like putting together a food box?
Ray: Plenty of Ss are looking for volunteer opportunities.
Leslie: Maybe building some service activity into a meeting
Christine: Reaching out to groups on campus – joint cleanup with Alpha Omega and WUN
Steve Baker: One project we never finished was getting the City to let us have a vendor in the West University Park. That might be something people could get involved with. The University District SBA oversees the carts; they agreed to help. The City was the stumbling block. There’s a new Parks person and we could start up again. Maybe the CAs would help.

Steven Bennett: recap: let Ss know there’s a neighborhood group; put out an agenda early; get more publicity
Leslie: We’ve tried to integrate information about neighborhood events in the off-campus NL. We aren’t sure how much Ss read the NL. It would be good to use other media, like the Emerald. I can give you a heads up if you want to put something in the off-campus NL.
Drix: How about a class in how to throw a party without having trouble
Steven Bennett: It’s a big deal because some people prey on student parties

Reggie: Try reaching out to professors. Think about 3PM, Poli Sci; architecture (Arch431 is community design, where one requirement is to attend one community meeting).
Steve Baker: Maybe put together a list of relevant profs and have people add to it.

Drix: If a tag is gang-related, take a photo and call Greg Harvey

Steven Bennett report: Neighborhood Services General Report is in progress – we need attendance numbers for 2012. Deborah will check for more reports.
New development in the neighborhood happens; we don’t have a chance to talk with developers much any more without MUPTE. We could ask if they want to present to the neighborhood. Steve Bennett will follow up.

Pete Knox will contact the ODE about getting an ad that’s neighborhood-related, including a possible discount online.

Unruly gatherings (Sgt David Knatt with EPD) – ordinance begins the 1st March, but EPD will start with enforcement in April.
Maybe a future meeting: UOPD guns on campus as a future subject; Karen can invite a UOPD speaker here (Captain Pete Despande maybe). 1st opportunity to go to the State Board of Higher Ed would be in April.

Ray: As a student, I’d be most interested in the unruly gatherings ordinance
Reggie: I can see how it would be expensive to have a police officer talking to people. They’ll be targeting the more likely offenders. It’s more unlikely to have a lot of parties during March.
Karen will check into getting David Knatt to come March 7.

Drix: Suggested name for the ordinance – UGH: Unruly Gatherings in Houses

Steven Bennett: Having fewer meetings might encourage better attendance – August, November, February, May
Leslie: You could put more energy into fewer meetings
Steven Bennett: Agenda item for March – fewer meetings

Elections:
Pete Knox for Chair
Steven Bennett for vice-chair
Clark Cox for member at large
Drix for vice-chair
Steve Baker for member at large
Deborah Healey for secretary

Minutes by D Healey

WUN General Meeting November 1, 2012
(PDF version)
Present:
WUN Board members Steven Bennett, Pete Knox, Deborah Healey, Drix, Steve Baker; WUN residents Clark Cox, Ethan Jacot, Kenny Weed (CommUniversity Resource Assistant), Ray Grant (CommUniversity Resource Assistant), Reggie Frumkin, Pricilla Cheung; visitors Karen Hyatt (UO Community and Government Relations), Greg Harvey (Eugene Police Department), Neva Becker (University District Business Association), Lesley Graves, Mariah Kohles (CommUniversity Resource Assistant), Nick McCain (ASUO), Kelly Putnam (Eugene Police Department)
Notes by Deborah Healey

Announcements: Eugene Police Department (EPD) is doing a crime series (see announcements)

Lesley Graves and CommUniversity Resource Assistants (CRAs):
One goal is to increase the amount of outreach directly in neighborhoods, making contact. Last Tues they did a walk around WU – making direct contact with residents and seeing if they have information about getting to know your neighbors, safe parties, and the like. 2 teams did the initial walk – CRAs and UO staff (like Karen) – talking with 38 residents. They’re thinking of doing this monthly as a regular outreach.

Friday before school started, UO VP for Student Affairs Paul Shang and Community and Government Relations people walked through the neighborhoods with Fairmount and SUNA residents from 10pm-midnight or so. They’re thinking of inviting Judge Allen to do the walkalong.

Gang report: Officer Greg Harvey
He’s from Eugene; working on the gang issues for past 5-6 years. The last few years there has been quite a bit of activity in WU with fights and such. You’ll be in contact with them on a daily basis and you won’t necessarily know it. Less than 25% of the graffiti is from gangs. When you see Bs, C, Ss, Kn and numbers like 13, 14 – those represent the gangs. Arrows are also gang signs. We’ve had 3 shootings in the last 3 years in Eugene Springfield out of disrespect. Ckrabs, Slobs.
Video shows someone about 300 pounds – he was in the university area, beating up on people. Many in the video are now in jail. Getting beaten up (blood in) and beating people up (blood out) is how you become a member.
Gang stereotypes – bloods and crips in Eugene Springfield are often white; Surenos are now mostly whites in Eugene Springfield. The gangs all wear different things now. LMV 13 Local Mafia Varrio Trece – bank robbers. 13 = 13th letter of the alphabet – M for Mexican Mafia.
Wide variety of gangs in Eugene Springfield, from East Coast, West Coast, Chicago, elsewhere. Playboy gang  may wear playboy shirts. Largest gang in N California is Fresno bulldogs, wearing Fresno football paraphernalia
Houston Astros hats for Hoovers, Pirates hats for Piru, B for bloods, W for Westsides, UO O = the Oaks; white supremacy gang
Gangs started as neighborhood based, but now it’s spread out. Areas are no longer controlled by a specific group. Gang members will associate with each other if it’s financially lucrative. Gangs from 38 states and 10 countries are in Eugene Springfield. We’re seeing 2nd and 3rd generation gang members. They stay in communication with their friends when they migrate to new places. 3-digit numbers on tags are often the area code of where the people came from.
Portland area gang members routinely travel to Eugene Springfield to commit crimes – and often to go to parties.
We don’t know of any current UO members who are gang members – though there were UO football players who were gang members. Cordell Stewart is a Piru gang member.
After the initial blood in, then there’s an initiation where the potential gang member commits a crime. It could be a robbery, assault, burglary.
Gangs have sets within them, and sets can fight each other.
Gangs are involved in anything where there’s money to be made – including mortgage fraud (California). Several assaults in WU; Eugene Springfield has seen attempted murder, robbery, burglary
LKM graffiti, WSG graffiti – done by convicted felons
Cleaning up graffiti isn’t disrespect – crossing it out or writing over it is a problem
Shoes on wires are almost always not gang-related.
Dots on graffiti can be used as part of gang tags – different number of dots for different gangs.
Send graffiti to Officer Harvey; report an assault that you see – it will probably be followed by a random assault for an initiation
Greg Harvey: 541-682-5172; look for Eugene Graffiti Reporting on Google – send pictures if possible. It’s best to tell Greg before painting it over.

West University is getting better – one gang lived at 14th and High, but is no longer there – several have been locked up. Still have gangs operating and Portland gang members come down. It’s easy to go to a college party here. There are fewer assaults now.
It’s mostly males, but there are three female gangs and there are some women who are members of the male gangs. There are 3 different ways to get into a gang. Jump in/blood in; blessed in = a vote (you have something they want); sexed in/banged in for women getting into male gangs. Some very violent acts by female gangs. They’ve seen gangs cold-cocking a woman – but none of the victims came forward. If they had, the police would have been able to charge the assailants.
If you’re having a party, be aware of who’s coming. The gangs will try to take over the party, and it’s not a good thing.

Social Host Ordinance discussion: Kelly Putnam, West University Police Substation Manager
Started a couple of years ago – Neighborhood Livability Working Group (City, NH leaders, property managers, UO, some students, others). SUNA and Fairmount were most interested in resolving livability issues. The neighborhoods were changing from family neighborhoods into apartments and student rentals. The noise, parties, large groups of intoxicated wanderers were the main issues for families, especially with small children. Parties start Weds or Thursday and go the whole weekend. There are livability and noise issues in every neighborhood, but it’s greater in the university neighborhoods because of the density. There are parties every weekend, all year.
The group came up with some different strategies. Kelly, Karen and others went to a conference in Boulder and came back with some ideas about ways to deal with the issues. The Social Host Ordinance was one thing the group decided to pursue. City Council has a public hearing on November 19 at 7:30 in Harris Hall. Anyone can testify; it’s usually 3 minutes, though could be less if there is a lot of testimony.
Kelly has been looking at the data for the last 3 years and has a good grasp of what is going on. As far as the students are concerned, there’s not a strong likelihood that this will have a huge impact. Enforcement won’t be any greater – there won’t be more officers available to respond. This is just another tool to try and help out with the issue.
For property managers, there’s concern about a single-family vs multi-unit addresses. Large apartment managers are worried that it’s not fair. There was only one address last year that had more than 3 citations – there were 5 citations, but not every one would have been a social host citation. The data show that it’s unlikely to be a problem for property managers.
It probably will not have a lot of impact. The primary goal was to ensure accountability above and beyond the people who were giving the parties. Some people think that getting an MIP is the cost of being a student. We’re trying to avoid the large, unruly gatherings. People don’t realize what can happen. You have a party and some of your friends advertise it on Facebook, and you have 300 people in your house. Bad things happen. Things get stolen; you can’t control the movements of people when there are more than 100 in your house. I hope it makes people stop and think. Don’t advertise it on FB; don’t let people in that you don’t know. Don’t serve people under 21. Try to keep the volume to a reasonable level, and you’ll probably be fine. If you’ve got 3 people in your front yard with red cups, you’ll probably get a citation. If you’re in your house and not affecting the neighbors, the police aren’t going to come knocking on your door.
The problem isn’t just here; the volume is more here. There are smart ways to party.
Karen Hyatt: This is really only about illegal behaviors. Drinking under 21 is illegal. City Council had concerns about the ordinance as it was initially. Now it includes the affirmative defense – if you call the EPD to ask for help, it’s a defense against the SHO. Students were part of the process and they did testify at City Council, helping to make this more workable.
Kelly: Getting a warning is not a crime, so getting a warning isn’t a problem. It’s a citation and you can go to court and argue it.
If this ordinance is put into effect, it will replace the first response ordinance which was put into place to collect response costs. There have to be 5+ people, alcohol has to be served, and there have to be 2 or more crimes occurring on the property. The crimes need to occur before the police arrived – not interfering with the police.
Living at the house and not being present and not facilitating the party means you aren’t a host. If you organized and advertised the party, you might be considered a responsible party. You don’t have to be a resident – if you facilitate or organize, you can be affected by this.

Nick McCain from ASUO:
The ASUO Senate met to talk about the Social Host Ordinance. They had concerns about the additional fines – you can be fined for the noise, for MIP; students are already paying a lot to go to school. The focus is supposedly on improving the neighborhood – by imposing the fine, you’re putting a burden on a component of the neighborhood. Why not make community service be a requirement rather than a fine? One of the issues is trash – this might be a type of community service.
Michael Kinnison from City of Eugene Neighborhood Services mentioned that there are 22 problem houses that this ordinance is directed at.
This is a broad-reaching policy. Five feels like too small of a number, since many houses have 4-5 residents. Even though we have been told we won’t see a change in enforcement, we wonder. We see a lot of police handing out MIPs when there are a lot of assaults on campus – the perception is that the police are looking for revenue.
After the fourth time, the burden falls on the owner. Does that incentivize the owner to increase the rent? It already feels like the near-campus properties are very expensive.
Calling the police on the party is difficult if your roommates and friends are the ones throwing the party. It’s going to be difficult to do. It’s also not a guarantee that you won’t be held responsible.
The fine is up to but not exceeding $1000 at the discretion of the judge. You still need to make time to go downtown to argue your case. The $1000 seemed very expensive on top of the other fines.
Several senators have been trying to get together to propose changes to the ordinance.
Mayor Kitty Piercy and City Councilor Alan Zelenka came by ASUO to talk about this.

UO Conflict Mediation Service is working with Municipal Court to set up restorative justice as an option – not for SHO, but for other things.

Additional business:
Elections -moved to the December meeting
December meeting will include tree and tree planting information

We’d like to get more students involved on the Board. Deborah will send information to Richie Weinman about the Board -emphasize that students can help improve their living situations and create change in the community by serving on the WUN Board.

The November/December 2012 UO Campus Community Contact with campus events that may impact neighbors is available at the following link:

http://gcr.uoregon.edu/sites/all/files/gcr/uploads/CCC%20November%20December%202012.pdf

Thanks to Karen Hyatt of UO’s Government and Community Relations for the link.