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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2015)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 T HE D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager Rejoice! Flavel mansion is soon to reawaken A person almost fears to mention the prospect for fear of jinxing it, but the long and terrible saga of the Flavel house may soon have a happy ending. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that watching the classic home at 15th Street like seeing a prisoner rot away been especially evident in the housing stock has become more cherished, with hundreds of homes gradually restored to something like their original glory. Meanwhile, the Flavel house Winkle, growing steadily older and more care-worn as a new city has blossomed around it. Walking by and scaring one another with ghost stories, or daring one another to peer through cracks in window coverings, has been a virtual rite of passage for a minor thrills will be joyfully forgotten if we see a new owner begin to bring this community asset back to life. Whoever buys it will have quite a task ahead. Fortunately, our community is well stocked with top professional experts at home restoration, along with craftsmen, suppliers and sympathetic homeowners who have ventured down the same paths before. B eing the news junkie that I am, at the beginning of every January, I can’t help but wonder what the biggest news stories of the upcoming year will be. Unfortunately, most all of the national and international stories topping the list at year’s end are bad news: natural disasters, wars, serial murders, plane crashes and celebrities gone awry. Even in our own region, the top sto- ries in Cannon Beach and Seaside were bad news. In Cannon Beach, taking top spot was the murder of a 2-year-old girl and the attempted murder of her 13-year- old sister, allegedly by their mother. the pursuit and denial of a charter for deaths of some well-known residents, including Cannon Beach Book Co. owner Val Ryan, also were among those stories on the list. In Seaside, the recent death of an- other 2-year-old girl and an accident last spring when a family nearly drowned after their car went off a boat ramp and into the Necanicum River headed the “top story” list. Other stories include an effort to re- call Gearhart Mayor Dianne Widdop, a controversial adolescent sexuality con- ference and the inundation of anchovies onto the banks of the Necanicum River. But there were happier stories, too. • The South County Community Food Bank successfully found a new will occur soon. This was a story about the cooperation between the Seaside School District, which gave away two portable buildings from the former location for the pantry. Beach Food Pantry found itself in the same position: It had to move from its present location. Once again, the school minimum wage O Still recovering from recession, Oregon must exercise caution regon’s minimum wage increased 15 cents today. INFO BOX MINIMUM PERCENT OF The new rate — $9.25 per hour WAGE JOBS TOTAL JOBS — remains the second-highest Oregon: 102,485 5.7% Clatsop Co.: 1,215 6.9% in the nation, behind only our Umatilla Co.: 2,113 6.9% neighbor to the north, Washington. Morrow Co.: 256 4.7% Yet several Oregon politicians Grant Co.: 170 8.1% Wallowa Co.: 142 6.2% already are ginning up support for Source: Oregon Employment a $15 minimum wage. Department. Estimates are for Q1 of 2014 We’re pleased to read that Peter Courtney, president of the state Senate, is lukewarm to the idea. He cautioned fellow Democrats not to disagree on the potential response. overreach on the issue, saying it Oregon’s minimum wage is majority in Salem. This has kept it at half the median Courtney’s advice is wise for hourly wage for all Oregon more than reasons of political workers. That is a sound level for a wage for unskilled workers minimum wage in a state that is still compared with employees with recovering from a brutal recession is risky. There is scant evidence skills. The $15 minimum wage state or local economies. appears to be the new gold The economic impact of hiking standard for activists, unions and minimum wages is unclear. There others doing battle in the name of economic equality. The city the subject. Their conclusions are the leap, though its City Council Some argue that minimum tempered the impact by phasing wage increases boost consumer the increase over several years. spending. Others say the impact is San Francisco soon followed short-term, encouraging low-wage suit. workers to take on more debt for Oregon legislators should big-ticket items such as cars. at least wait to see how those Much depends on how jurisdictions fare under the $15 employers would react to a large minimum before following their increase in the minimum wage. They could hire fewer workers. Or raise prices. Or lay off higher-paid them as you please.” Minimum vs. median wage in Oregon $20 (Hourly wage, first quarter of each year) Median wage Minimum wage $15 $17.53 $10 $9.10 $5 helped out, and the Cannon Beach pan- try is busy remodeling another portable building at the former school site and will move in soon. • While the retirement and departure of former Seaside Police Chief Bob Gross was a sad occasion for many, the city made an easy transition by pro- moting Seaside police Lt. Dave Ham, who has been with the department since 1995. • The city of Seaside is anticipating other changes in the future, with a 20- year “visioning” campaign completed and the purchase of a former church building that could become another event space. 0 2000 ’02 ’04 ’06 By FRANK BRUNI New York Times News Service P ’10 ’12 2014 Then there are experiences that ar- en’t stories but are pretty memorable for me, anyway: B Y N ANCY M C C ARTHY • Cannon Beach’s Sandcastle Con- test celebrated its 50th anniversary. Or was it the 50th? There may be more to this story in 2015.... But there are stories that resonate personally with me that wouldn’t nec- essarily make the Top 10 list or any list for that matter: • The invasion of elk in Gearhart and Seaside. Photos emailed to me by busi- Gearhart administrative assistant and treasurer Gail Como generated more than 30,000 hits from all over the world on the Seaside Signal Facebook page. story that captured the interest and imagination of news outlets across the country. • The tussle over ownership of the south half of the Cannon Beach Ele- mentary School property. The school district owns it, and the Cannon Beach City Council wants to buy it, but not for the $1.2 million the district is request- the school district chairman and the Cannon Beach mayor, then (apparent) silence. • It wouldn’t make anyone’s list of top news stories, but when Cannon Beach reporter Erick Bengel decided to accompany City Planner Mark Barnes on a bicycle ride from Seaside to Can- non Beach, I also had to take the trip — by car — to take photos. I didn’t know Festival allowed me to listen to won- derful music and watch dancers get into the “beat.” • I appreciated the sense of peace and true connection felt throughout the room during the “Welcome Home Salmon” celebration in Cannon Beach. • There was the thrill when the Sea- side Signal staff was awarded the Sea- side Chamber of Commerce’s “Busi- ness of the Year” award. • I very much enjoyed the enthusi- astic performance of “Grease” put on by Seaside High School students last spring. There are truly talented youth — and instructors — on the North Coast. • It was fun to be part of the cama- raderie among friends at the Seaside and Seaside Chamber of Commerce morning breakfasts throughout the year. If you want to know what’s going on in the South County, that’s where to go. Every day we are on the lookout for news, seeking stories that intrigue, en- tertain, inform and inspire. Then there are the stories that take us by surprise, that overwhelm us, disappoint, alarm and bring us to despair. Sometimes we become so inundat- ed with the news and with deadlines that we don’t have time to pause and take a look back. I guess that’s what the turn of the calendar page on Dec. 31 en- ables us to do. deep breath and plunge into the next year, ready to explore what comes next. Nancy McCarthy covers South County for The Daily Astorian and is the editor of the Cannon Beach Gazette and the Seaside Signal. Her column ap- pears every two weeks. them less fruitful than re- minding them that they, too, have a profound stake ROVIDENCE, R.I. — With the New Year comes a new with a fairer distribution careers warrant close attention and whose fates could have broader political implications. Put Gina Raimondo near the top of that list. of wealth and more social mobility. “I fall into the camp that income inequality is the biggest problem we face,” she said Monday night over eggplant parmigiana in a Providence restaurant. Frank Bruni ed governor of Rhode Island, and grew up just outside the city and when she’s inaugurated next week, lives here now with her husband and she’ll become, at 43, one of just two their two young children. Democratic women, alongside Mag- She said that she has told Wall gie Hassan of New Hampshire, at the Street titans point blank that they helms of their states. should be paying higher federal But it’s another taxes and leveling the prominent female Dem- She takes ocrat from New En- this message: “I need gland who provides a you to double down on risks, more interesting point of reference for Rai- We need your brains, colors we need your money, outside the beth Warren, the sena- we need your engage- tor from Massachusetts. ment — not because lines and it’s Wall Street versus excited the left wing of Street, but be- seeks a tone Main her party, Raimondo cause you’re some of has enraged them. all her own. the smartest, richest She just wrapped up people in the world, and four years as her state’s you need to be a part of treasurer, during which she success- fully pushed an unusually ambitious overhaul of the pension system for country in the world.” state employees. It suspended cost- She said that Democrats must of-living adjustments, raised the re- unions boiling mad. They opposed her in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. She marched to the gover- nor’s job in tension, not harmony, with a key element of the party’s base. Some in the party cast her as a big corporations, partly because she once worked in venture capital. She EO Media Group graphic ’08 I MPRESSIONS whether to laugh at Erick’s attempts to climb the Canon Beach hill or worry that the 25-pound backpack he was A Democrat to watch in the new year She doesn’t talk about plutocrats Source: Oregon Employment Department JEFF TER HAR — For The Daily Astorian Looking to make a goal, an elk herd spends time munching the grass near the goal post at Seaside High School Jan. 31. she thinks they’re above reproach but because she deems vilifying ly of Warren: “She says things that make people uncomfortable but need to be said.” But, she added, “My own rhetoric is not so ‘us versus them.’ I don’t like al concerns, such as the Democratic labor and its reluctance at times to shake up the status quo in order to spending. Her pension-reform campaign was fascinating for its blunt talk of investments in tomorrow. She framed the cutbacks as progressive — as the only responsible liberal- ism — because without them, education, infra- structure, transportation and more would suffer. She thus provided a template for how politi- cians in Washington could try to rein in Social Securi- ty and Medicare spending, in National Journal framed her efforts and the pushback against them as “a battle for the Democratic Party’s fu- ture,” and Matt Miller later wrote in The Washington Post that she could transform the “national conversation about how to achieve progressive She sometimes speaks a language of metrics that makes her as stirring to some business-minded centrists as manages to improve Rhode Island’s famously beleaguered economy, she’s teed up to be a national player, thanks to her youth and back story: a working-class upbringing followed by Harvard, then a Rhodes Scholar- ship to Oxford, then Yale Law. She’s small — just under 5-foot- 3 — and intense. When she mentions that she played rugby in school, it talking about more than sport. “It’s good to be little and fast,” she said. In focus groups, some Rhode Is- landers called her “too harsh,” she said, a judgment seemingly connect- ed to her wardrobe of suits. “Then you show them pictures of me in casual clothes and they’re like, ‘Oh, she seems nice.’ It’s, like, if you’re a strong woman, you can’t also be nice. It’s really that simple.” Will she be a strong governor? She starts out dogged by a sweeping court challenge to those pension re- forms. But this much is clear: She takes risks, colors outside the lines and seeks a tone all her own. That’s wor- thy of note.