Posted on 10/21/2002 6:01:28 PM PDT by Glutton
Nearly a week has passed, and the man calling himself Traveler remains perched high up in a cedar tree at Park Street and Eighth Avenue downtown.
He took up residence in the tree on Saturday and remained up there late Thursday. His friends and supporters bring food and supplies that he hoists upward with rope, and they take away waste that he lowers in a bucket.
Traveler says he won't come down until the city repeals its camping ban and creates a legal campsite for Eugene's many homeless.
But business owners have started to complain about Traveler and about his friends who loiter in the park all day, scaring away customers.
On Thursday, Eugene police visited Traveler to discuss the situation. From atop a fire truck, officers said that if Traveler agreed to accompany them back down to the ground, they would let him go with just a citation, instead of an arrest. They also asked if he needed any medical assistance, but he didn't.
Traveler's tree-sit violates a laundry list of park rules and city ordinances. Among them: being in a city park during the hours between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., erecting a temporary structure without permission, erecting a sign without permission, littering, and damaging tree limbs to erect a structure.
But he declined the officers' offer to come down, choosing instead to roll the dice with fate.
On Wednesday, police cited an 18-year-old woman who was helping feed Traveler. An officer confiscated a box the woman was attaching to a lowered rope and wrote her a ticket for aiding and abetting Traveler's illegal activity.
People associated with the Eugene Homeless Initiative, of which Traveler is a member, have accused police of trying to starve their friend out of the tree.
"We're not starving him out," Eugene police Capt. Steve Swenson said Thursday. "We're just encouraging him to come down."
The homeless campers have been protesting downtown since Sept. 4, when they say city employees rousted them out of camps along the Willamette River near Skinner Butte. The group has organized into the Eugene Homeless Initiative, headed by 26-year-old Gene Mooney.
For about a month, the group, made up primarily of people aged 15 to 25, has been spending the day on the Park Blocks downtown and spending the night at Growers Market, 454 Willamette St. The market let them stay there from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. as long as they followed a list of rules and kept the place tidy.
The market provided a portable toilet for a week until the group raised enough money to provide one for themselves, said Megan Kemple, a member of the nonprofit Growers' Market board.
But the loading dock and five of the parking spaces are owned by Jenova Land Company, which leases them to the market. On Tuesday, the market received a notice from the city warning that Jenova would be fined if the campers did not relocate. Not wanting to lose their lease, the market asked the campers to move on, and they did, Kemple said.
It's not clear where the group has been sleeping since then.
Also unclear is whether Mooney, who uses the name "Khi," and longtime advocate for the homeless, John Hubbird, 58, will be charged following their Oct. 8 arrest for interfering with police, disorderly conduct and second-degree criminal trespassing.
The two were arrested after a group of protesters occupied a hallway at the Lane County courthouse after deputies confiscated some of their belongings. Mooney refused to leave. Hubbird was arrested as he left the building.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Mortimore said the office is waiting for several reports from deputies before it will decide whether to formally file charges against the two men.
City crews fence in downtown tree sitter
Citing potential dangers to people below, Eugene parks crews on Friday erected a 6-foot-high chain-link fence around the base of a cedar tree occupied for the past week by a man demanding repeal of the city's camping ban and the creation of a legal campsite for the homeless.
Workers also built a temporary wheelchair ramp to replace the one now enclosed in the fencing, which is posted "No Trespassing."
People have reported items such as water bottles falling from the tree, said Jan Bohman, spokeswoman for the city manager's office. And because Saturday Market and Farmer's Market return today, the presence of human waste in the Park Blocks poses a health concern, she said.
A man calling himself Traveler took up residence in the tree last Saturday in violation of several park rules and city ordinances. Eugene police offered several times this week to release him on a citation if he left his perch, but he refused.
Police said they will cite or arrest anyone who provides Traveler food or water or removes his waste. One woman has been cited so far.
The craftspeople of the Saturday Market are irritated as many of them have seen sales lighter this season, and this guy, the fence, and minions rallying around him are making things worse economically for them, and many business folks downtown.
They have not kept complete control of the protest. There has been one OD, many fights, and the downtown drug rade tha keeps many kids in pocket change flurishes.
This sort of thing has police worried. They do not want tree-sis and tri-pods to become the norm or potests across the spectrum. They are araid to go up and drag someone out. They do not want anymore sitters to fall and possibly die, as nearly happened to a fellow calling himself "Ferret" fuor years ago.
The police are agressively citing anyone going in the fence to supply his guy. Of course, they don't watch it at night when he does get re-supplied. They are hoping the cold and rain will dislodge him.
But seeing how forest tree-sits locally are many years old to the point they are counter-culture villages, this migh not be wise.
I don't know - if more leftists climbed a tree and stayed there, the world would be a better place. Quick, somebody threaten a leafy giant dear to Robert Fisk!
Some of the tree's neighbors have scars where some of these regrown ops have fallen. His banner is also printed in muted colors hat didn't show up in his picture in the article aout him. (Not to mention you can't see him or it well at all.)
He says he will stay until the city gives in, but with so little room to move around to stay healthy, I don't see how he can do this.
I think he goes by the name "Glutton" now.
What say ye, blackie?
Now, at Tenth and Willamette there is the New Odyssey Juice Bar next to the Kesey Family's McDonald Theartre. Chez Ray's used to be there too, but the old hippie cook of the Greatful Dead has a better head for highs then finance, and he is bankrupt.
The only other restaurant is West Brothers on Olive near Broadway a block west of Willamette, which is the deviding street for east and west Eugene, just to help orient you.
Hope that helps.
You know, it took our species a long time to work up the courage to come down from those trees. It's a shame to see people scurrying back at the first sign of trouble.
LOL!
That as good as the "I didn't fight my way to the top of the food chain....."
According to the article on that one, they hated the heat the sit brought down to the river. Now, kids dislodged from that area along the river are doing a sit themselves. This is ironic as heck, n'est-ce pas?
Interestingly enough as well, the sitting congressman, Peter DeFasio has been honored by naming the bridge after him though he still sits in Congress.
Who says pork barrel fical gains don't get rewarded in yellow dog Democrat districts.
That someone thinks that none of Ferret's carload has returned. And someone is still ferret-sitting for his pets too, so that is good indication he is likely out in the redwoods playing around.
We just had another student drunk-fest riot that cause a great deal of pepper spray and tear gas to be cooked off. This was near the hospital that cause emergency and other sick people great distress.
Another problem is that I doubt Traveler smelled all that great before clinbing on up. There is already a bath needing to happen up there as it is.
I know I wouldn't want to share an elevator with the guy currently.
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