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Letters to the editor: Thanks for the all-night party To the Ashland community: I would like to thank every parent, community member, and business that contributed energy, time, or money to the Senior All-Night. This final party for the AHS seniors provides such a wonderful opportunity to be together in a safe environment. Both parents and students, I believe, are relieved as well as excited to have a positive setting to celebrate together for the last time. I have been away from Ashland since last fall and was unable to participate in any aspect of the party. I have been involved in enough activities to know the immense amount of work that must be required for such an event. Your effort is so greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much! Julie Boyles, Mexico Guest forum: DeBoer: No new rules needed for historic districts By Sid DeBoer Ashland This letter has been sent to homeowners in the Historic District - those most affected by the proposed ordinance limiting home sizes. "Our Fellow Home Owner: Karen and I were both raised in Ashland and as long time Rogue Valley residents care deeply about our community and its Historic District. We have recently applied for a permit to build what we consider an architecturally significant large home on land that we have accumulated over the last 10 years. The home covers a little less than 4000 square feet of our 22,000 square foot lot. It is two stories and has been designed to express the Greene and Greene movement of the Arts and Crafts period. Since we have already applied for a building permit the proposed regulations will not apply to our new home. We are however concerned that our new home is being used as a rallying cry to pass the new size limitations. As proposed, the new rules may limit your ability to add a room, expand into existing unused attic space, or generally use your property. Current regulations allow you to cover between 40 percent and 50 percent of your lot without concern for how much living space you actually have. They currently limit your building height to 35 feet. The new rules will substantially reduce the potential square footage of living space by a complicated formula based on your lot size and reduce your maximum height to 30 feet. Generally, being in an historic district enhances your property values, but limiting the potentially available living space in your home may devalue your property. If you should choose to sell your home, any buyer may be restricted in their ability to add onto the home and that could lower the price they will pay. The case has not been made why we need the new rules. The new rules would not encourage a diverse historic district as it has in the past with homes of all sizes representing all the types of citizens that live in our community. Many of the current historically significant homes that were built years ago would not have been permitted under the proposed new rules. On another point, no one has proven the claim that limiting home sizes will mean more people with children will live in Ashland and thus prevent the closing of schools. In fact, a case could be made that larger home sizes would encourage people with children to move here. A case could also be made that limiting home sizes would increase the risk of tear downs and accumulations of adjoining properties. The rules could force people to gather enough land so they can build the house size they want. Our Historic Commission has done a fine job of ensuring that homes that are historically significant are preserved and that those that are built are within the scale and character of the historic neighborhoods. Our historic district has many fine large homes and balancing the scale with large and small homes is within that character. We have always been a diverse society with many levels of need, and any attempt to deride or limit the needs of people with means should be challenged as prejudiced. We feel that the city has many more pressing needs and this issue is using up valuable staff and community time and should be abandoned as unnecessary. We hope you can join us in opposing the proposed changes." Pity our cilia, whither our lungs By Leif Joslyn Ashland While the prices of homes in Ashland may have increased by 200 or more percent in the last decade, the same cannot be said for air quality. More cars, more driving, more barbecues and lighter fluid vapors, more lawns being mowed and belching lawn mowers, more construction, more new houses outgassing toxic pollutants � all add up to one toxic stew. Pity our cilia, whither our lungs. Yes, I have heard of the days when the Rogue Valley had thousands of unregulated "smudge pots" burning diesel smoked rags, bits of tire - anything - to keep the pear trees from freezing. The pall made Los Angeles look like Shangri-La. But what kind of baseline is that? I would like to think we can do better. Consider diesel fumes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency diesel fumes contain 40 toxic chemicals and 15 carcinogens. According to the Minnesota Department of Environmental Assistance diesel emissions increase the risk of asthma, lung and heart disease and are responsible for over 100,000 cancers nationwide. Yes, they bus our children to school. Yes, they truck in the food and fiber we eat and wear, the cement and wood we reside on and under. But diesel burning engines are also poisoning us. And just when all those putrid smelling diesel cars from the 80's had died a natural death, out comes a new fleet of mongo diesel pick-up trucks with three-inch wide exhaust pipes. What can be done? Improving air quality in the Rogue Valley will take considerable effort and a host of measures. Ironically, one of the best ways to reduce personal exposure to bad air is to get a good air purifier for your home and/or workplace, where people spend a third or more of their day. Further, removing one's shoes before entering a home greatly reduces the pollution that gets dragged indoors. As for diesel burning vehicles some measures worth considering are: 1. Trucks just passing through town can be asked to drive around. (Of course the city center should not be a highway thoroughfare, but I won't get too visionary here.) 2. Schools can adopt a no idling policy for buses as well as redesigning bus parking zones to ensure reduced student exposure. 3. Trucks and buses in town can be asked to keep as efficient and clean as possible. 4. Do not buy a diesel pick-up. If you have one, don't use it to haul all of one person around, and do not idle it where people are trying to breathe. Finally, you may have noticed recently the many television and newspaper ads for oxygen inhalers. Some may see this only as a tip to buy stock in companies selling these products. Many are surely grateful for the extra lease on life such products offer. However for society the larger message is that something is very wrong, far outweighing the limited profits and benefits of the oxygen inhaler industry. True, tobacco is the main culprit, but it is a mistake to allow it to exonerate all other air pollutants. We each have a role and interest in reducing emissions and exposure to air pollution. I urge your readers' inspiration to be more proactive for clean air in the Rogue Valley. Artist chides artist for fish deaths at SOU By Charu Colorado Ashland Open letter to Shawn Busse: As an artist I can understand that you had your inspirations and philosophy that went into your "Heaven and Earth" sculpture at the Schneider. But also as an artist and art teacher I am dismayed that you would knowingly in the name of art put the lives of others at risk. And to do so repeatedly, to make your "artistic" statement and serve your "artistry" shows ignorance and heartlessness to say the least. To risk your own life might be understandable. Such as Chris Burden has done at times and I'm sure several others. But to purposefully allow innocent creatures to die for your aesthetic and philosophic pleasure almost smacks of a Roman game. I say purposefully because when one fish died you replaced it in the same poisonous environment with another. This tells me something about your value system and/or your thought processes that is decidedly discomforting - especially so since you are responsible for the education of many young minds. The other thing that bothers me is your assumption that the critique of this "art" piece is coming from people who don't understand art - who don't go to art museums very often. You miss the point, Mr. Busse. There are others out here like Barbara and me who are knowledgeable about art and the processes that go into it's creation who are equally as amazed that a mature artist and art teacher would kill fish for his thesis. I am a contemporary painter, sculptor and performance artist, and Barbara is a nationally recognized published writer and author. I found the installation quite beautiful, but was horrified when I found out that the fish were being put to death. It is of interest that you never once in your "� no easy answer" letter refer to the dead and dying fish in your art piece. You do mention "feeder fish" as part of your thought processes in formulating the piece. It's a shame you didn't take your "thoughts" and "influences " a little deeper. You might have reached the human compassion aspect of your being, if it's not too deeply buried, and come to a consciousness that would have enabled you to create a meaningful artwork without cruelty to another species. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -