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.