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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 22, 2015)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2015 Voodoo, Jeb! Style 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 HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager One step forward ... 3RUW¿QDQFLDOVVKRZPDUJLQDOJDLQ A fter months of delay, the Port of Astoria last week released an audited financial document. These numbers indicate the Port is marginally ahead of where it was one year ago. Edward Stratton’s Thursday article reported that yearly operating losses decreased from $1.5 million five years ago to $105,000 in 2013-14. Stratton’s recapitulation of the Port’s flawed bookkeep- ing evokes the mess that Jim Knight discovered upon be- coming executive director in October 2014. For weeks on end, Knight said he would not release the Port’s finan- cials until it was clear that the books were clean. Auditors listed two materi- al weaknesses and five signif- icant deficiencies in the Port’s financial reporting. The most substantive omission auditors discovered was failure to re- port liability for groundwater pollution. That amounted to a $1.8 million decrease in the Port’s net position. It is obvious that the Port of Astoria has been sloppily managed over the past de- cade. Knight deserves credit for getting down to business by delivering a set of books that can be said to be reliable. Moving forward, the Port Commission must tend to basics. The travesty of the Astoria Riverwalk Inn should be a cautionary tale to com- missioners. In choosing A O Brad Smithart’s Hosp itality Masters to run the motel prop- erty instead of an experienced innkeeper with visibility was a bonehead, costly mistake. Knight cleaned up the com- missioners’ mess by doing a deal with Ganesh Sonpatki of the Param Hotel Group. In this arrangement, Param pays Smithart’s debt to the Port and the City of Astoria. Long-term, the Port is sit- ting on the best hotel site in Astoria. Commissioners should recognize that asset, rather than demean it, as they did by handing it to an ama- teur. At bottom, the cleaning up of Port’s financial mess tells us a lot about the qual- ity of our Port commission- ers over the past ten years. As they have come and gone, none apparently grasped the downward spiral of the Port’s financial documents. This makes a certain point. It is difficult in a small population county to field a commission that includes men and women with deep business experience — or more particularly, deep By DAVID BROOKS maritime and transportation 1HZ<RUN7LPHV1HZV6HUYLFH experience. Commissioners should rec- n a recent column, I asked ognize their limitations by readers if they had discov- paying attention to their fi- ered a purpose in life and, if nancial advisers and execu- so, how they had discovered it. tive director. A few thousand wrote essays. I was struck by how elemental life is. Most people found their purpose either through raising children or confronting illness or death. Hearts broken open I was teaching, I would But, for many people, bound out of bed at 6:15 the purpose of life is sim- every morning. Now I ply to live it fully. Many wake early, but stay under people don’t necessarily WKH FRYHUV ¿OOHG ZLWK D see their lives as pointing world’s worth of anxiety. WRZDUG*RGRUDVGH¿QHG by some mission state- It might have been better ment. They seek to drink had I died while trying to in life at full volume, to teach students with learn- experience and help oth- ing disabilities the basics David ers richly. of geometry.” Brooks Jae Brown was driving Quite frequently pur- after smoking weed and pose emerges from loss. Greg Sunter from Brisbane, Austra- drinking when he was pulled over. He lia, writes: “Four years ago, my wife confessed everything to the cop, who of 21 years passed away as the result saw that Brown was in college and Scott Addington writes, “As is of a brain tumor. Her passage from whispered, “Don’t let your friends get often the case, my purpose became diagnosis to death was less than six you in trouble you can’t get yourself clearly evident after I had stopped months. As shocking as that time out of,” and let him go. “My purpose looking for it. On October 11, 1995, was, almost as shocking was the in life,” Brown writes, “is to mentor, my daughter was born. Beginning sense of personal growth and awak- provide that whisper in someone’s ear ened understanding that has come that changes their life.” with that moment, there has never from the experience for me through The great struggle in essay after been the slightest doubt regarding UHÀHFWLRQ DQG LQQHU ZRUN ² WR D essay is to remain emotionally vital the purpose and source of meaning point that I feel almost guilty about and intellectually alive. Zachary Krowitz, 21, read the in my life. Being a father is the most KRZVLJQL¿FDQWP\RZQJURZWKKDV essays written in response to the been as a result of my wife’s death. meaningful and reward- “In his book ‘A Hid- column and concluded that “this de- ing pursuit a man could den Wholeness,’ Parker sire for something that is surely true ever hope to experi- For many Palmer writes about the LV SUHVHQW LQ DOO RI XV DQG UHÀHFWV ence.” two ways in which our an attempt to know what we really people, Not only in parent- hearts can be broken: the want. ... Unfortunately, based both ing, but also in teaching. ¿UVWLPDJLQLQJWKHKHDUW on the essays written in response to the The essays from teach- as shattered and scat- your column and common experi- ers ring with special purpose tered; the second imag- ence, such meaning is often lost as clarity and force. Many ining the heart broken one travels through life, emotions of life is open into new capacity, become duller and less clear.” of them see clearly how their day-to-day activi- Alayne Crossman, 42, is able holding more of both our to have ties are in line with their own and the world’s suf- WR NHHS KHU HPRWLRQ ÀRZLQJ DW IXOO ultimate end. This has fering and joy, despair pitch. “Without the love of my fam- more its downside after peo- and hope. The image of ily I wouldn’t be who I am today. It ple leave teaching. the heart broken open means I cry during ‘Frozen,’ every life. Carolyn from Mich- has become the driving single time. It means I cry when I igan writes, “Before force of my life in the listen to Van Morrison’s ‘Ancient class, I sometimes would sit in the years since my wife’s death. It has be- Highway.’ I am ridiculously senti- mental because I choose to remain chair of a student who was having a come the purpose to my life.” lot of trouble and pray that I might Some people’s lives organize open to this vast, messy thing we be a blessing to him that day. Yes, around a certain role or calling. “My call life.” For many people, the purpose of for 37 years I was a teacher, the last moniker could be ‘formidable ad- 25 as a high school special education vocate,’” writes Georgian Lussier. life is to have more life. That may teacher. That was my purpose; that After her brother suffered a brain in- QRW KDYH GH¿QHG SHRSOH¶V SXUSRVH was my calling. jury, she learned to help people work in past eras, when it might have had “But now I am retired, and I am through the maze of the health care more to do with the next life, or obe- adrift. What is my purpose now? system. Now she helps older women dience to a creed. But many today seek to live with hearts wide open. I struggle with it every day. When ¿QGZRUN I Astoria’s rebirth continues <0&$FRQYHUVLRQZLOOEHD FDWDO\VWIRURXUHFOHFWLFPL[ storia’s renaissance con- tinues, brick by brick. 7KH 'DLO\ $VWRULDQ has highlighted and encouraged preservation and development during the past 20 years. The latest concept to capture the imagination is the plan to give new life to the former YMCA building. It is fitting that in such a vibrant arts community as the North Coast the building will be converted into a creative design agency and art center. Work on the 1914 structure, at the intersection of 12th and Exchange streets, is expect- ed to begin by the end of the year. Entrepreneur Noel Weber, who runs a design studio in Boise, Idaho, envisions a storefront-type space that will help all kinds of artists devel- op the business side of their work. The building includes 11,500 square feet, and will house a screen printing shop; mold-making and model fa- cility; ceramics studio; wood shop; digital printing system; a letterpress; and audio/video list to suggest that conser- if anything, been slightly vatives possess some kind worse than the national av- of miracle cure for eco- erage. nomic sluggishness. And, The key to Bush’s re- n Monday Jeb Bush — or as many have pointed out, cord of success, then, was I guess that’s Jeb!, since he if Jeb! knows the secret good political timing: He seems to have decided to replace PDQDJHG WR OHDYH RI¿FH to 4 percent growth, why his family name with a punctu- before the unsustainable didn’t he tell his father and brother? DWLRQ PDUN ² ¿QDOO\ PDGH KLV nature of the boom he now Or consider the expe- invokes became obvious. campaign for the White House rience of Kansas, where But Bush’s econom- Paul RI¿FLDODQGJDYHXVD¿UVWYLHZ LF SURPLVHV UHÀHFW PRUH Gov. Sam Brownback Krugman pushed through radical of his policy goals. than self-aggrandizement. First, he says that if elected he 7KH\DOVRUHÀHFWKLVSDUW\¶VKDELWRI tax cuts that were supposed to drive would double America’s rate of eco- boasting about its ability to deliver rapid economic growth. “We’ll see rapid economic growth, even though how it works. We’ll have a real live nomic growth to 4 percent. Second, there’s no evidence at all to justi- experiment,” he declared. And the he would make it possible for every fy such boasts. It’s as if a bunch of results of the experiment are now American to lose as much weight as relatively short men made a regular in: The promised boom never ar- he or she wants, without any need for practice of swaggering around, tell- ULYHG ELJ GH¿FLWV GLG DQG GHVSLWH ing everyone they see that they’re 6 savage cuts to schools and other dieting or exercise. public services, Kansas eventually feet 2 inches tall. KDG WR UDLVH WD[HV DJDLQ ZLWK WKH OK, he didn’t actually make that pain concentrated on lower-income second promise. But he might as well It’s as if a residents). have. It would have been just as real- Why, then, all the boasting istic as promising 4 percent growth, bunch of about growth? The short answer, and considerably less irresponsible. surely, is that it’s mainly about I’ll get to Jeb!onomics in a minute, relatively finding ways to sell tax cuts for the EXW¿UVWOHWPHWHOO\RXDERXWDGLUW\ short men wealthy. Such cuts are unpopular in little secret of economics — name- and of themselves, and even more ly, that we don’t know very much made a so if, like the Kansas tax cuts for about how to raise the long-run rate businesses and the affluent, they of economic growth. Economists do regular must be paid for with higher taxes know how to promote recovery from on working families and/or cuts in temporary slumps, even if politicians practice of popular government programs. Yet usually refuse to take their advice. swaggering low taxes on the rich are an over- But once the economy is near full riding policy priority on the right employment, further growth de- around, telling — and promises of growth mira- pends on raising output per worker. cles let conservatives claim that And while there are things that might everyone everyone will benefit from trick- help make that happen, the truth is le-down, and maybe even that tax that nobody knows how to conjure they see that cuts will pay for themselves. up rapid productivity gains. they’re 6 feet There is, of course, a term for Why, then, would Bush imagine basing a national program on this that he is privy to secrets that have 2 inches tall. NLQG RI VHOIVHUYLQJ DQG SOXWR evaded everyone else? crat-serving) wishful thinking. Way One answer, which is actually kind of funny, is that he believes 7REHPRUHVSHFL¿FWKHQH[WWLPH back in 1980, George H.W. Bush, that the growth in Florida’s economy you encounter some conservative running against Reagan for the during his time as governor offers a going on about growth, you might presidential nomination, famously role model for the nation as a whole. want to bring up the following list called it “voodoo economic poli- Why is that funny? Because every- of names and numbers: Bill Clin- cy.” And while Reaganolatry is now one except Bush knows that, during ton, 3.7; Ronald Reagan, 3.4; Barack obligatory in the Republican Party, those years, Florida was booming Obama, 2.1; George H.W. Bush, 2.0; the truth is that he was right. So what does it say about the thanks to the mother of all housing George W. Bush, 1.6. Yes, that’s the bubbles. When the bubble burst, ODVW¿YHSUHVLGHQWV²DQGWKHDYHU state of the party that Bush’s son the state plunged into a deep slump, age rate of growth of the U.S. econ- — often portrayed as the moderate, much worse than that in the nation RP\ GXULQJ WKHLU WLPH LQ RI¿FH VR reasonable member of the family — as a whole. Taking the boom and far, in Obama’s case). Obviously, the has chosen to make himself a high the slump together, Florida’s lon- raw numbers don’t tell the whole sto- priest of voodoo economics? Noth- ger-term economic performance has, ry, but surely there’s nothing in that ing good. By PAUL KRUGMAN 1HZ<RUN7LPHV1HZV6HUYLFH production space. This is the kind of infrastructure that en- ables growth of a new sector of our regional economy. The announcement fol- lows news that Astoria busi- nessman Greg Newenhof has agreed to buy and restore the former Flavel family home at 15th Street and Franklin Avenue. After more than a quarter century of neglect, it promises to be the ultimate residential remake. Now we look ahead with optimism to another piece of the jigsaw: the downtown Flavel commercial properties. The appalling decay of these buildings — particu- larly their prominent store- fronts on Commercial Street — has been a blight on our community for too long. Now long-running legal is- sues appear to be resolved, and they, too, are for sale. We look forward to an in- novator with a solid financial background investing money and sweat into making these important pieces of our down- town a credit to our commu- nity. Where to write • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District office: 12725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Phone: 503-326-2901. Fax 503- 326-5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 +DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- 3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 'LUNVHQ6HQDWH2I¿FH%XLOGLQJ Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden. senate.gov