A German author and an investigative journalist teamed up in 1973 to publish their experiences after prolonged interactions with the very rich and with members of the working class, respectively. Bernt Engelmann and Günter Wallraff wanted to shed some light on the sizable discrepancy of accumulation of riches and power on one side, and the dependency and exploitation of workers on the other side. It was called You Up There – We Down Here, and the title came back to me when thinking through today’s blog observation, half a century later when that discrepancy has reached unimaginable proportions

(Wallraff went on to write one of the most famous and all-time translated non-fiction books in Germany a few years later, in 1985. Lowest of the Low (link leads to free English translation) describes his years of working disguised as a Turkish guest worker and the racism and unequal treatment he experienced, like for example not being provided with safety gear while working in a nuclear plant, even when his German colleagues did. He provided shelter for Salman Rushdie when the novelist was threatened, and is still actively doing undercover investigations, now in his eighties.)

“Up” and “Down” were prominent when I chanced at a perfectly beautiful spot at the North Umpqua River recently, looking for a break off I 5 on my drive to Southern California. A dam created a rushing waterfall, with a smooth lake on top and the entrance to a fish ladder on the bottom, presumably helping fish to get to their spawning grounds upstream.

You could watch the fish and read about fish counts, with some educational bits around you to inform about the life cycle of the salmon, should you have forgotten your 5th grade curriculum. 80.000 visitors a year pass through here. One wonders how many of them hear about the real story. As always, it pays to look a bit closer.

Winchester Dam was built in 1890 as a hydropower dam to provide hydroelectricity to the city of Roseburg. Fish and tribal nations be damned. The dam changes hands among various power companies, with a fish ladder being built in 1945. In 1969 the dam is sold for $1 (!) to the Winchester Water Control District (WWCD) owned by private citizen and offering no transparency for their decisions and meetings despite being required by law. Condemned in 1976, the dam provides no hydropower, irrigation, or flood control. Its sole purpose is to create a private water ski lake for the 99 members of Winchester Water Control District (WWCD), some of the state’s wealthiest citizens and owners of the condemned Winchester Dam.

DEQ inspects over and over and finds multiple hazards, leveling fines for millions of dollars and insists on an emergency plan. After 34 years of stonewalling, WWCD comes up with one three years ago. The dam is now rated “high hazard, a rating based on downstream hazard to people and property, not just on the condition of the dam. 

Calls for removal are ignored, even though the dam poisons the drinking water for Roseburg and impedes migratory native fish, the fish ladder being rated one of the worst in the country. One of the owners of WWCD was paid $ 3.000.000 to do the repairs for the leaking structure required by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife last year. He made grievous mistakes when draining the lake for the repairs (Ref.), with ODFW watching and not interfering (the agency director was forced to resign due to his mismanagement this April). Water was released way too quickly from the lake, killing 550,000 Pacific lamprey. There is speculation that the faulty drainage was undertaken to remove evidence of illegal application of herbicides to the lake, toxic to fish and the humans (!) downstream, to kill plants that obstruct waterskiing. The repair disaster resulted in an unprecedented $27.5 million fine brought by the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) on October 7, 2023, against the Winchester Water Control District and their contractors. Since this is now a lawsuit, ALL discussions of the future of the dam, including possible removal, are tabled.

If anyone of us from below tries to contact the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Oregon Water Resource Department, or the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, with concerns about the Winchester Dam, agency officials respond by explaining that, because of the DOJ’s $27.5 million lawsuit, they cannot questions pertaining to the condemned dam or discussing the matter.

Those above have years of waterskiing safely ahead of them.

Roseburg is located in Douglas County, considered to the right of Attilah the Hun, when it comes to politics. Further South is Josephine County, competing for the description. You might not have heard of Josephine Country, but you have heard, I presume, of Grants Pass, the city that has been given green light by last week’s decision of the Supreme Court, to criminalize public sleeping by those who are houseless, even if no shelter or other options available. Talk about the lowest of the low. And yes, it is ambiguous if I am referring to the houseless or the radical majority of the Supreme Court.

“In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court ruled that cities enforcing anti-camping bans, even if homeless people have no other place to go, does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Gorsuch was joined by the rest of the court’s conservatives, including Chief Justice John Roberts.”

For the history of how we got here and the future implications, read here.

Grants Pass has a larger than life cave man statute. I assume those were permitted to sleep outside without being condemned to life in a hole….

Three things stand out for me: By criminalizing people now, people who have nowhere to sleep other than the park or the street, you will make it harder for this population to land housing at any point in the future, given their criminal record. So the claim that it is about decreasing homeless populations is logically fallible.

Secondly, if you have the option to crack down punitively, you will likely ignore more structural remedies, since they would cost you more money. Building housing, the ONLY way out of the catastrophe we are experiencing here on the West Coast, will take a backseat. So will upping universal rental assistance, repairs to public housing, and funds for eviction prevention.

And last but not least: this is about the ability to make our city centers attractive for business and commerce again, with people feeling free to spend and consume without the – however irrational – fears for their safety, and with pleasant views that don’t disturb their curbside dining.

Here is the website of the National Homeless Law Center where you can find more details.

Music today is a song from the Three Penny Opera, sung by Brecht himself. Text translated into English on the video, not the best translation, but you get the gist.

I just bought a screen print at Just Seeds about one of Brecht’s lines I have cherished my whole life: In the dark times will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times.” (Two PDX artists I have reviewed before, Roger Peet and Thea Gahr, are members of this cherished artist cooperative as well.)

A good daily reminder of practicing hope. If we sing together, we are not alone in this. And France has just shown us that coalitions can still hold the bad guys at bay. At least for now!