Talk:Medford, Oregon

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Contents 1 Picture 2 Marijuana 3 Methamphetamine 4 Schools 5 Order of sections 6 Notables section 7 References / Cleanup 8 State Park 9 Kyle Singler 10 Crime info moved from main page for discussion 11 Travis Wong 12 Merge proposal of Hedrick Middle School 13 Snow updates 14 Andy Kautz, again 15 Notable residents work

[edit] Picture

I'm kinda new to this whole wikipedia thing, but I live here and it's a great place but needs a picture or two. Once again I don't know if this would work, but here is our public libary, it is located here: http://www.downtownmedford.com/Images/ImageManager/February_012.jpg

--Steven91 05:46, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Marijuana

Why do people keep removing the data on the vast marijuana crop grown each summer? Just because it's illegal doesn't mean it should be removed. Hmoul 05:07, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Please see WP:CITE. Wikipedia does not accept original research, the information must be verifiable and published elsewhere. The most problematic sentence is likely "It is not unusual for arrested growers to be graduates of nearby Southern Oregon University in Ashland, OR, which offers degrees in agriculture," but the entire paragraph is uncited. On SOU's website I was unable to find information about an agriculture program at all. The closest thing I found was this, which indicated that SOU only offered introductory agriculture courses through the Biology department, and that one would need to transfer to another school to get a degree in agriculture (likely OSU). If you can find news articles that verify the information please add them to the article and re-introduce the paragraph. —Jnk^[talk] 14:00, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

That is funny - 25 years ago, when it was SOSC, a bachelor's in agriculture was quite common. Reading that the year's worth of arrested dope growers were mostly SOSC alumni, with degrees in agriculture science, was common fodder for the papers. As I have introduced the paragraph in numerous forms relating the substantial marijuana trade in the business and how it impacts the local economy only to have it deleted, I can only assume that the real reason for such actions is an attempt to hide/ignore such "scandalous" information. Hmoul 04:24, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Funny, I don't remember SOSC having an Agriculture degree 25 years ago. It doesn't have one now. This is an article on Medford, by the way. The discussion of marijuana cultivation would be more appropriate in a regional category like the Rogue Valley.Javadane 21:31, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Based on my extensive experience on the subject spanning the last 13 years, the "vast marijuana crop" is not nearly as vast as it used to be, and most local marijuana comes from the Cook and Green area, Crescent City and surrounding areas outside of the city limits, which is not really a Medford thing (like Javadane said). The social-political spectrum has changed immensely in just the last 10 years, so unless you have some recent sources (Mail Tribune Online Archives?) then I don't think the topic of marijuana is useful or beneficial to a City of Medford page. Zab 12:51, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Methamphetamine

In the interests of full disclosure and to prevent censorship accusations: I took out the paragraph about meth. Is there any evidence Medford has any more of a meth problem than anyplace else in the state? If so, that would be notable, and with citations, could be placed back in the article. Otherwise, this "meth in Oregon" discussion, which seems to have crept into several Oregon articles, might be better addressed in the Methamphetamine article or perhaps an article titled something like "Methamphetamine in Oregon". Katr67 04:35, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The meth problem that was here (and whoa boy it was) has been largely reduced thanks to programs like Meth-Watch and some stricter enforcement. There is no reason to have it on the city of Medford page anymore. Zab 10:57, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Schools

I'm a student at south, I tryed to add a little information about the small schools but i dont think i cited it right —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.216.255.24 (talk) 07:27, 30 March 2007 (UTC).

Actually all that should probably go in an article about the school district... Katr67 14:39, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Order of sections

I'm slowly trying to put all the Oregon city article sections into order per the guidelines at WikiProject Cities in order to achieve some consistency across the Oregon articles, so at some point I put the sections in this article in that order. Just curious about the recent rearrangement--why demographics over geography? Other than it being sort of a dry section to feature first, I think it looks fine, but like I said consistency is good. Thoughts? Katr67 02:59, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

My reordering was for better placement of the images and was without regard for any guidelines, nor did I consider the content of the sections. I apologize, and concur with you that they should follow a consistent order. Also, my choice of section for the image was arbitrary, and again based on my aesthetic pov. I am open for suggestions there. Zab 04:35, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

I rearranged the images a bit, see what you think. Got any more? Katr67 23:40, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Looks good. I don't have any others yet, but I am working on it. I have the camera, just hard to decide what is worth taking a picture of, then finding the time to go out and do it. I am not a photographer in any sense. Zab 02:27, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Am going to attempt to get some pictures of the Art in Bloom festival this weekend. My work schedule doesn't permit but I think I can sneak away for a few. Zab 05:55, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notables section

If this Todd Taylor is notable, he needs an article. What software did he develop? If this doesn't get an article in the next few days, I'll delete it again, per the note at the top of the section. Thanks. Katr67 23:17, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Editor admitted this was a hoax. Katr67 16:29, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] References / Cleanup

I think it's time to review the cleanup message and the references needed message and come up with specific areas that need attention. If the references message is to stay, then we need some {fact} templates in the article. Couple things I note:

• The record temperatures box needs to be improved, updated, or simply dropped. A few sentences about the record temperatures may be better than a chart anyway, and easier to maintain. However, for all I know the chart is part of some obscure wikipedia guideline, so let's think improve.
• The seal background should be transparent. I am working on this one myself.
• We still need a true skyline image and some better pictures of the community. Unfortunately, the only time we get together is during the festivals. Maybe I can get some shots of the growers market on Thursday.
• The economy section needs real work.

This should be a start for discussion. Zab 03:52, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the above except the temp infobox is present in a bunch of the city articles, perhaps not "officially" but you might check the diffs and see which editor has been adding those. Yes I think there are enough refs now that the overall cleanup message can be replaced with individual {{fact}} tags. (The danger with doing this too soon is the effect of "carpet bombing" the article with fact tags which is ugly and seen by some as a violation of WP:POINT). Another area of cleanup would be to convert the references from their "naked url" form to full citations. For example change <ref>http://www.example.org</ref>^[1] to <ref name=example>[http://www.example.org Example from example.org]</ref>^[2].

1. ^ http://www.example.org
2. ^ Example from example.org

For more info see WP:CITE and WP:CITET. Thanks for all the hard work on this article. It's come a long way from August, when I tagged it for cleanup. Katr67 16:29, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

The reference links look alot better now, I hope. Zab (talk) 01:30, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] State Park

I'm curious why a park 35 miles away is included in this article? Should we also include Ashland into the article, it's even closer? I'm thinking a link from Prospect, Oregon to the park would be more apporpriate and a link from the article to that town. I understand many in Medford may spend much time at the park, but it is not part of Medford. Aboutmovies 00:36, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I live in Medford, and I agree with your comments about the park. I don't think Ashland should be included in a list of Medford points of interest. We could, however list businesses headquartered in Medford: Bear Creek Corporation (Harry and David's), Lithia Motors, Sabroso, Inc., Musician's Friend, Asante (Rogue Valley Medical Center), Providence Hospital,as well as Rogue Community College, if we want more to go into the Medford article.--DaKine 05:25, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Kyle Singler

I have invited the anon who keeps deleting Kyle Singler from the article to dicuss the issue here. So far no reason has been given for why he shouldn't be included in the notable residents section. I should also point out that edit warring can get an editor blocked. So far, in my opinion, this looks like a violation of WP:POINT and vandalism. Latr, Katr 19:54, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

Singler should stay. He is a highly-touted incoming freshman to one of the nation's top college basketball programs (Duke). Yes, he might turn out be a total washout, at which point his notability may disappear; but for now, he is notable.--Sprkee 22:19, 22 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crime info moved from main page for discussion

Previously commented out section:

This Section is not to be tampered with by either wikipedia bots or editors seeking to "gloss over" this section, including arbitrators that do not live here and thus do not know anything about the area. Everyone has a right to full information about a city without needing to resort to the local bureaucracy, That is all. Resident: James T

Unsourced info moved here:

Although many of these gangs are of a biker affiliation (roaming), there are also pseudo inner city "sets" who opperate at parallels within the city (i.e. the Barnett B-Riders on the Southside and Rolling 30's Boyz on the Northside). Medford has long since been the subject of much controversy in Oregon, primarly surrounding it's pervasive attitude towards methamphetamine usage and distribution. As of 2007, it was estimated that there were more methamphetamine users and distributors in Medford per capita than any other city in Oregon.

To the anon/James T.: it's all well and good to request your work not be "tampered with", but it is not a matter of "glossing over" anything, it is a matter of uncited, original research, which need reliable sources. If these can be found this info can certainly be returned to the article, hopefully with improved spelling and grammar. Please also see WP:OWN and the note below the edit box, which says, "If you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed for profit by others, do not submit it." Let me know if you need any more help with Wikipedia policy and guidelines. Thanks. Katr67 (talk) 23:28, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm with Katr on this, and I do live in Medford. Please provide citations for the info. Zab (talk) 01:32, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Travis Wong

I don't think Travis Wong should be included in "Notable residents." According to Baseball-reference.com, it doesn't look like he's played in the majors. The claim about his home run record might make him notable, but would need a source. -Pete (talk) 18:38, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I see enough on google to assume notability, but still looking for a solid source that says that the same Travis Wong who played baseball is currently living in Medford. There is, of course, the question of references as well. Zab (talk) 08:21, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

No sources after 15+ days and no articles created to support the new links, so I removed them. Zab (talk) 06:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal of Hedrick Middle School

Conditional support I agree this should be merged, as individual middle schools are rarely notable. See Category:Middle schools in Oregon for a couple that (barely) merit their own articles. It's preferable, however, to keep info about individual schools out of the community articles. Instead I suggest merging to Medford School District (Oregon). Katr67 (talk) 17:52, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Oooh.. I like the Medford School District (Oregon) idea. Zab (talk) 18:33, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Far better choice to move it to the SD, but only if it becomes sourced. Aboutmovies (talk) 19:03, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

This is a dreadful example because of the embedded external links directory aspect, but Greater Albany Public School District shows how the basic info about a school can be merged into the SD article. The "largest middle school" bit definitely needs to be cited; the remodeling details aren't necessarily notable. Other than that, I think bullet points are fine, YMMV. Katr67 (talk) 19:32, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

As Medfordite, I agree with Katr67's suggestion of merging Hedrick into the Medford School District (Oregon) page. It's the best place for it. DaKine (talk) 20:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

RESOLVED by merging Hedrick Middle School with Medford School District (Oregon) with redirect. Zab (talk) 12:11, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Snow updates

Any weather updates need to be cited using reliable sources and not be based on personal observation or be blog-like. Generally the climate sections in encyclopedias should note general weather trends and not exceptions. Katr67 (talk) 18:36, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Yes our weather down here has been exceptional, to say the least. Many Medfordians will want to comment on it, so I added Template:Refimprovesect. It's needed there anyway. Zab (talk) 18:04, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Andy Kautz, again

That mysterious Andy has appeared in the Notable residents section again. Does anybody have any notoriety with sources? Zab (talk) 01:51, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Aboutmovies took care of the problem. Zab (talk) 06:59, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Notable residents work

I have been expanding the notable residents list and in the process I have discovered two that don't go in this article. I removed the following:

• Tee Corinne, lesbian photographer, artist, writer, and activist - actually lived in Sunny Valley, Oregon (unincorporated Josephine County, Oregon) per Varble, Bill. "Lessons", Mail Tribune, 2006-04-09. Retrieved on 2008-02-25. . She taught art classes at Rogue Community College, which is probably where the confusion comes from. Since the Sunny Valley article does not exist, I just deleted her from Medford without moving her anywhere.
• Kirstie Alley, actress - Has a home somewhere in the Applegate valley, which is not very specific in terms of which city. Depending on perspective, both Ruch, Oregon and Applegate, Oregon qualify. Since sources typically claim the Applegate valley, I went ahead and moved her to the Applegate article. The Mail Tribune says "near Jacksonville". See Landers, Meg (2004-10-12). Where will Bush sleep?. Mail Tribune. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.

I would also like to take this moment to gloat a bit about how freaking huge the reference list is. Take a look at the reference list in this revision. Good job to all those who took part in improving. Zab (talk) 09:16, 26 February 2008 (UTC)