With a Ninkasi beer in hand, Christopher Gadsby and his neighbor sat on the curb watching a fire engulf his home. Years of memories burned up in flames.
“Whenever I’m talking to people, I don’t know what to say. All I do is grin,” Gadsby said. “It’s amazing that, you know, you put your heart, soul, life, all the things about this community into your home and then it’s all taken away.”
As founder of the Whiteaker Block Party, Gadsby’s home, colloquially known as “The G-Spot,” was a fixture of Eugene’s Whiteaker neighborhood. It’s the house on the block with a round table of hair-drying salon chairs in the front yard, a place to stop and rest for a kickback…