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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. Highway 99 in Northwest Eugene can be described as a no frills, even hard scrabble commercial area. The road is dotted with retail, industrial and manufacturing businesses. It's not pretty, but it's a vital economic zone for the city and a true incubator of small to medium sized businesses, which make up a huge percentage of the city's tax base, but a growing problem is lurking on 99 that of property crime and businesses in the area are very concerned. Today on the show, you'll hear a special report from a U of O Masters student who dove into the numbers and talked to the businesses directly impacted. They want more policing, but may have to fight to get it. Then in the last half of the show, we'll check in with an environmental organization concerned about how federal action might harm Oregon forests. Abby Snethen, who is a recent graduate from the University of Oregon with a master's degree in journalism, really appreciates you coming on and talking with us.
ABBY SNETHEN: Michael, thank you so much for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You did a great piece for us recently. “Unheard on Highway, 99 businesses along a busy Eugene corridor say their public safety concerns aren't being taken seriously.” Abby, just go ahead and give us kind of the major overview of your article.
ABBY SNETHEN: So, my article focuses mainly on local businesses in the West Eugene corridor, mainly on highway 99 and how those local businesses are being affected by local crime which involves, you know, theft, trespassing, sometimes burglary, sometimes physical altercations. It really just depends on the business and the location on highway 99 and just what those businesses are having to do for themselves to make their business and their employees and customers feel safe. And so, this story took me about a year to write and report. I did it for my terminal project slash thesis for my master's program. And this involved, you know, door to door, reporting so kind of going to different businesses on the spot and asking them questions, having interviews with local police department, the chief of police, making phone calls and talking to the Chamber of Commerce or talking to realtors, local security businesses as well. And just, you know, trying to get a good sense of what it is that people are going through and how they're trying to combat this, you know, potential, long term issue.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Tell us maybe some of the comments you talked about. This is a very exhaustive research project, and you talk to a lot of people, what were some of the comments that they made to you and maybe contextualize it around, you know, is the problem getting worse?
ABBY SNETHEN: So, a lot of the people that I spoke to said that they believed it was getting worse, versus, say, five years ago, and this could have a lot of or this could involve a lot of factors. You know, COVID happened about five years ago, which could affect how crime is rising in that area, or how businesses are flourishing, or, you know, having to shut down. I've seen multiple businesses, you know, shut down within a day, and that could be because they aren't, you know, getting enough revenue, or, you know, enough people wanting to come into their shops and buy stuff. A lot of people were saying that they saw specifically criminal trespassing increasing in that area. You know, everybody has their own theories of why this could potentially happen. And you know, each business kind of differed on why they thought this was happening, but they definitely did explain that things were not getting better. You know, some didn't say it was getting worse, whereas some did say it was getting worse, but it was pretty consistent with people saying that it is not getting better.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Obviously, 99 is such a major corridor, and so I'm wondering if. You've already kind of illustrated what some of those crimes are, what kinds of crimes tend to be happening in this region? I'm wondering, and you also teed up the fact that some people have their theories. I'm wondering, obviously, it's a tremendous ease of access, especially if a criminal has a vehicle, a car. And I'm wondering, does that kind of line up with what they told you in terms of, yeah, these are crimes of opportunity, where people are able to get it kind of that classic smash and grab type crime?
ABBY SNETHEN: Most of the businesses did talk about the large homeless population in that area, but I do just want to clarify and specify that causation does not always equal correlation and vice versa. And so, one of the biggest talking points in my story was near the end, talking about how you know, the shelters and the resources that are available on 99 are helping people rather than, you know, trying to make life and business harder for businesses. I hope that answered your question.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm wondering, you know, obviously you talk to a lot of people, including the police, what did they tell you about this corridor, but also the rise in crime, at least as seen by the businesses along 99?
ABBY SNETHEN: So, I had multiple conversations, I would say, about maybe four or five interviews, as well as a plethora of emails with the Eugene Police Department. And, you know, at first, they were talking about how, you know, if there is an uptick in crime, it's not being shown through their numbers and through their data. And I had requested quite a few data points that I was able to obtain from the Eugene Police Department. And you know, it's not. I think I need to be a little careful with my wording here. It's not. It's not so much a, you know, a police issue as it is a city of Eugene issue, if that makes sense, it's not 100% the police's fault for all of this crime happening as they only have so many resources. But I mean, the beginning interviews, they talked about how, you know, again, if there is, you know, a lot of crime happening, it's not being shown through calls or through data. And then later on in the interview process, they kind of switched up. And we're talking about how, oh, like, we have a couple police officers, you know, that are going to be stationed in these specific places, because we've been getting a lot of calls and a lot of complaints, you know, the police department is, you know, launching this drone program that they're it's already up and starting, I was able to go in and look at how they're using these drones, and how they'll be able to, you know, make quicker calls to service and get out to those places quicker. There wasn't so much a solution, more as ideas that are in motion, such as, you know, the drone program, or, you know, getting police officers stationed in that area, making sure that all businesses have criminal trespassing papers on file. So, it'll make the process easier when cops are called to a scene of a crime. But no, no set-in stone, perfect solution of how you know this is going to get better or be resolved more just we're kind of thinking about things that we can do, and hopefully those things will be set into motion and things will get better.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm wondering too, you talked about a lot of the data that you collected, and we've been talking about certain types of crime, trespassing, burglaries, those sorts of things in your data analysis, has violent crime gone up in the same area?
ABBY SNETHEN: So, one of the pieces of data that I had requested was violent crime, burglary and whatnot in all of Eugene. And I actually had to not go through with it, because the fee was too high for me to pay for that data. Um, the very first piece of data that I had collected was criminal trespassing in all of Eugene. And then I was able to obtain zip codes for all of those calls, and then divide it up by zip code and see which zip code had the most calls for criminal trespassing. And it was my zip code. I lived in the West Eugene area, 97402, that was the highest volume for calls to service for criminal trespassing. And so, I tried to do that process again and look at data for, you know, violent crime, burglary, shoplifting, petty theft, car break ins, stuff like that. And I was not able to go through with it, because the fee to get the information was just too high, whereas it wasn't the first time. So, a little confused on how that happened, but honestly, I'm not entirely sure it is technically public information. You can go and look at police call records, but they only go back a certain number of days, so it'd probably take an extensive amount of time and hours to look through all of that data, which I personally did not have the time to do.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. What did some of the local business owners tell you in terms of, you know, obviously calling the police is certainly an action that's necessary. Did they talk about other steps? Maybe, you know, looking at strategies to both harden their businesses against crime or just other things that they could kind of do outside of calling the cops when there's a break in or whatnot?
ABBY SNETHEN: So that was definitely my biggest focusing point in my story, was seeing how businesses were using their own resources to remain safe, rather than resorting to calling the cops. And you know, some businesses, like the value in motel, put up a very large fence that, you know was to potentially keep people from going into the hotel and taking showers and open doors or breaking into Windows, breaking into cars or Putters Family Fun Center, they have a bunch of security cameras all over their business, in the parking lots, you know, in the back, in the actual establishment itself. And there are a couple businesses who have private security guards, like one of the dispensaries that I had talked to, they have a security guard that walks employees out to their cars at night, because employees feel unsafe to walk alone, and so those are, like, some of the things that businesses have had to resort to in order to feel safe, rather than calling the cops every time that they feel unsafe. So, you know, fences, security guards keeping doors locked at all times, training employees to keep an eye on the front door and understand who is not allowed into the establishment, you know, who looks kind of unsafe, what to do when that happens, how to de escalate situations, kind of just stuff like that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, Abby, my last question for you is this, you know, in terms of, you know, when you talk to these business owners, what did they say?
ABBY SNETHEN: The businesses kind of were on a spectrum when it came to talking about the police. Some people, you know, were upset with the police and were like, we really want another police department down here in West Eugene so people can respond to our calls quicker and faster. Others were like, the cops are doing the best they can. Like, now that we've put up certain defense mechanisms, we feel safer. You know, others have, you know, completely stopped calling police in general and try to, you know, deescalate the situation or handle it themselves, which, you know, can be proven difficult depending on the situation and if it gets violence. So, it wasn't so much a black and white answer of, yes, we want the police. No, we hate the police. It's it honestly, just differed from business to business, and I think that that differs based on how much that business has had to deal with when it comes to crime, and if they're just tired at this point of having to call it in, or, you know, if it's just now happening to this business, and you know, they want to start calling the police and get on top of it, and, you know, see if anything will happen. But, yeah, it's not so much cut and dry, but it really just depends on the business and what they're going through, and their own personal relationship with the police.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Interesting. Abby Snethen, thanks so much for your reporting.
ABBY SNETHEN: Thank you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now, we’ll check in with the leader of an environmental organization that has looked at some research proposals from the federal government that could be very damaging to Oregon. Senior Northwest Program representative for Defenders of Wildlife, Joseph Vaile. Joseph Vail, thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.
JOSEPH VAILE: Thanks for having me Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Joseph, I know that there is sort of two big things happening right now that could directly impact forests in Oregon. One is congressional action going on right now and then one is also an executive action. Why don't you just go ahead and describe at your own pace, how they could create a dramatic impact to the forest that we all love here in Oregon.
JOSEPH VAILE: Well, the thing that's really happening right now is the reconciliation bill that is moving through Congress. I think it's passed the Senate at this point; it's going back to the house. So, this is a bill that does a lot of things. It's like 900 pages long. So, it's a bill that people have called Big and some people have called beautiful, but it certainly will have a lot of impacts. And while the sale of public lands was included in that bill originally, a lot of effort went into removing the sale of public lands, so that's actually gone from that bill, but unfortunately, what they do with those public lands is still going to be very damaging. So, it does a lot of things, including stripping funding from key programs. It would mandate oil and gas and coal leasing on public lands, discourage clean energy, cut the National Park Service staff here in Oregon, one of the things that it would do that is very concerning is it would prioritize timber volume over other public values of our national forests. So it would mandate that there is an increase by 250 million board feet annually for every year for national forests timber targets, and really force land managers into cutting bigger trees, going more aggressive with industrial logging on national forests, and that would be very damaging. This is at the same time that this administration has really gutted the National Forest staff, so we're really concerned that increasing the timber targets while decreasing the staff is going to mean, you know, that we're going to really see some damaging impacts from the logging program on the National Forest. So, you know, obviously the public input and the oversight that would probably be sidelined in this process, as these land managers are scrambling to meet their timber targets, it will increase the damage that logging does to our habitat, to our fish streams, to recreation and to all the other values that people hold dear about their National Forest. So we're really concerned with what's going on in the reconciliation bill.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And then also, why don't you give us a brief overview of just what executive action from the White House might impact our force as well?
JOSEPH VAILE: Well, we've seen several from this administration. The latest one is the roadless rule that they have decided to rescind. Now we hear that they might develop a process for that. We haven't seen that yet. But what's really at stake here is 58, million acres of national forests that are the most undeveloped, the wildest national forest lands in the country, that since 2001 have been protected under the roadless rule. That was a rule that was very popular. Over a million people commented on that rule. And all it does is it protects those areas from new roading and from aggressive development. And so these are really important places for hunting, fishing. There's over 9000 miles of hiking trails on our roadless lands, on the National Forest biking routes, climbing these are incredible places, like the Pacific Crest Trail goes through many of our roadless areas. They're also key for our drinking water and our imperiled species like grizzly bears, wolves. There's native trout and salmon that are all really reliant on these areas, so we're very concerned that they're going to open up these roadless lands and increase development, which will damage these really special wild places. And that's something that, you know, we really need people to speak up on. We really would like it if folks would take some action and contact their representatives to make sure that they understand that there's people out there that really care about these special places on public lands.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I know that this, this might be a difficult question to add to answer, but, but I'm wondering, it just seems like the administration and leadership in Congress, I. It kind of like looked out and said, we're making, you know, what a 180 degree turn when it comes to our wilderness areas.
JOSEPH VAILE: I think for some in positions of power, that is the case, and those are the people that perhaps see dollar signs when they look at trees instead of habitat, but there's so many people that don't want that. I mean, over and over again, polls show that people love their public lands. They love to hike; they love to hunt and fish. They love mountain biking, and they love taking their families out to these places. These are not places that can just be sold off for development. Once they're gone, they're gone forever. And so, I think that what we've seen also is a big groundswell of opposition, and that's why we saw opposition to public land sales, and that's why we're going to see a lot of opposition to efforts to just completely develop our public lands into clear cuts and oil and gas fields. You know this, these are special places. There's so few of them left, you know, I mean, we're talking about just a fraction of what's left after so many other places have been developed. So, I think that you see a groundswell of support for public lands, for wild places, for habitat, for at risk species. And, you know, hopefully Congress can weigh in here and kind of undo some of the damage that's being done by some of these late actions that we've seen.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, I really appreciate you coming on and giving us an update on what's happening in Washington. We've been speaking with Joseph Vaile; He is the senior Northwest program representative for Defenders of Wildlife. Thanks for taking time out to talk with us.
JOSEPH VAILE: Thank you so much, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, we'll check in with the Greenhill Humane Society. With Friday being July 4, we want to take some time to help pet owners prepare their animals for fireworks and loud noises. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon On The Record from KLCC. Thanks for listening.
