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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 8, 2015)
OPINION 4A 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 Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers Courtesy of the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, Ilwaco, Wash. Members of the Gypsy motorcyclists gather at the Long Beach Hotel in this 1934 photo. 10 years ago this week — 2005 Lucy Fleck, Miss Portland 2005, has been a runner-up many times in her ¿YH\HDUVFRPSHWLQJLQSDJHDQWV ,QDQGVKHZDV¿UVWUXQQHUXSLQWKH7HHQ0LVV2UHJRQ86$ competition, and in 2003, she was the third runner-up for Miss Oregon. So, WKLV\HDUVKHZDVPRUHWKDQKDSS\QRWWRKHDUKHUQDPHFDOOHGIRU¿UVWUXQ- ner-up. Her thought was, “No way! It’s actually me this time!” “I’ve been runner-up many times,” she said Saturday at the Seaside Civic DQG&RQYHQWLRQ&HQWHU:HDULQJKHUQDY\EOXHÀRRUOHQJWKHYHQLQJJRZQ she was crowned Miss Oregon by Miss Oregon 2004 Brook Roberts. It was a rip-roaring, horn-tooting, down-home, clapping, cheering, good time. The Warrenton Fourth of July parade involved loud mu- sic, candy and many calls of encouragement as the spectators crammed on the sidewalks and shoulders of the road spotted their friends. Music came from all directions, ranging from what may have been accordion music to vintage tunes from a vintage FDU:LWKDIHZ¿UHZRUNVWRDGGSHUFXVVLRQ The Oregon Board of Maritime Pilots is being asked to approve rate changes today that would reduce fees for Columbia River bar pilots. The action is designed to save Columbia River shipping operators rough- ly $1 million annually. Bar pilots, who guide about 3,500 vessels over the Columbia River Bar each year, would lose income from a proposal to reduce the number of li- censed pilots and the pay pool they share. “Some of the players in this seem to have lost sight of the potential for a catastrophe on the bar,” said Robert Johnson, a bar pilot from Astoria. 50 years ago — 1965 Some of the biggest crowds in history of the Sunset Empire EHDFKUHVRUWVÀRRGHGDOOWRXULVWDFFRPPRGDWLRQVWRWKHLUFDSDFL- ty during the three-day Fourth of July weekend. Thousands were turned away from motels, cabins and camps that were full to capacity by Friday night and stayed that way until Monday night. Despite the enormous crowds, it was generally an orderly ZHHNHQG7UDI¿FZDVFRQJHVWHGDWWLPHVEXWWKHUHZDVQRVHULRXV accident and minor collisions were scarce. No rioting occurred nor was there even any approach to it. No one drowned. 7UDLOHUKRPHVEHJDQUROOLQJLQWRWKHXQ¿QLVKHG.QDSSD0RELOH&RXUW early last week and were installed in their permanent spaces amid top speed construction work. A dozen have arrived with more expected as fast as fa- cilities are available. According to President I.I Vanderburg, of Knappa Development com- pany, owner and builder of the mobile court, completion is being rushed because people moving into the area are so desperate for housing that they DUHZLOOLQJWRXQGHUJRWKHLQFRQYHQLHQFHVRIDQXQ¿QLVKHGFRXUWLQRUGHUWR have a place to stay. State and county police agencies and the Coast Guard were credited with organizing an orderly evacuation of danger areas during Friday’s two-hour tidal wave alert. $OHUWZDVUHFHLYHGE\&ODWVRS&RXQW\VKHULII¶VRI¿FHDW p.m. and the entire department as well as several reserve deputies were immediately put into action evacuating resort beach areas, camp grounds and rural homes near beaches. 75 years ago — 1940 The biggest crowds of the summer thronged Clatsop beach resorts yes- terday for the Fourth of July, and records for several years back were report- ed broken at both Seaside and Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach reported all cottages taken, with milk trucks making three trips to supply the vacation hordes. Seaside conditions were similar, and crowds there were further enhanced by a July Fourth celebration climaxing in VSHFWDFXODU¿UHZRUNVGLVSOD\VRQWKHSURJUDPODVWQLJKWDW/RQJ%HDFKUHVRUW (QRXJKSHQQLHVWRPDNHDVWDFNQHDUO\IHHWWDOOKDYHEHHQ taken in by city parking meters during the month from June 3 WR-XO\ Eighty-one thousand, three hundred and seventy-eight pen- nies have been collected, according to City Treasurer Oswald *XVWDIVRQ 6HYHQWHHQ WKRXVDQG VL[ KXQGUHG DQG ¿IW\VHYHQ nickels were taken in over the same period. The total amount was IRUWKLVSHULRG The works progress administration has approved a grant of $5,100 for improvement of Tapiola Park at Smith’s point, according to a telegram from Rufus Holman, U.S. senator from Oregon, received at the city managers RI¿FHWKLVPRUQLQJ THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2015 Baseball draws us back to D.C. O UR ANNUAL SUM- mer baseball trip took us to Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. We saw three contenders for the National League pennant. In Baltimore, the Orioles played the Texas Rangers. In D.C., we saw a collision of the Nationals and the San Francisco Giants. Baltimore’s Camden Yards was the first of the new ballparks designed to resemble the best old parks. It benefits from a huge old brick building that is the back- drop of its outfield. Washington’s stadium makes no attempt at recapturing early 20th century charm. But it is a very nice stadium. Unfortunately our team, the Giants, were blown away by the Nationals in the July 4 afternoon game. The bad news began in the first inning when Giants ace Madison Bumgarner’s first pitch was knocked out of the park. źźź UPON OUR ARRIVAL IN Washington last Wednesday, we walked up East Capitol Street to see our old neighborhood. Twice we were caught in a deluge and sought refuge under dense tree foliage. D.C. has enjoyed a spate of cloudbursts in the past 30 days. Standing outside our two-sto- ry row house on 10th Street, a couple approached and asked if they could help us find what we were looking for. When we told them we used to live there, they said they were the current res- idents. The young couple had their 2-year-old in tow. They invited us in. The home had been spiffed up considerably by an intermediate owner with enthusiasm for historic archi- tectural details and considerable means. Our children were 18 months and 4 years old when we left that house in 1987. Seeing its rooms — where they slept and played, where I worked and where we entertained friends — was a re- minder of how full those days were. źźź IN JUST FOUR YEARS since our last visit, this town has changed remarkably. D.C. has always benefited from massive infusions of investment capital, because it is a very safe bet. ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things; Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages —and kings —’ Through the Looking-glass of Cabbages and Kings AP Photo/Gail Burton Baltimore Orioles’ Chris Davis follows through on a two-run home run against the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday in Baltimore. We revisited the spot where our marriage agreement was sealed Driving in from Dulles Airport, one quickly sees the region’s booming economy. It is a high- way lined with government con- tractors. źźź THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT Gallery is one of our favorite sites. In honor of B.B. King’s recent death, an evocative photo of the King of the Blues is in the gallery’s first hallway. Another addition is a giant portrait of the four women who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor is the portrait’s focal point. Jus- tice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sits next to her. Standing are Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. The painting is a powerful state- ment. źźź SOME OF WASHINGTON’S most compelling attractions are hidden away. We visited one of our favorite sites — the Jefferson Library of Congress building. In its Music Division is a gem. In the center of a small room is George Gershwin’s grand piano and the desk he designed for music com- SRVLWLRQ ([KLELWHG DUH KLV ¿UVW drafts, the score of Porgy and Bess, handwritten correspondence, photos and a small metronome that traveled with Gershwin. źźź OUR VISIT REMINDED ME of how much of my life and our married life happened in this city. At the Library, I showed my wife the spot in the Main Reading Room where I did my high school homework as a Senate page. The majesty of that room motivated a 16-year-old to learn. We also revisited the escalator of the Capitol South Metro sta- tion, where our marriage agree- ment was sealed. — S.A.F. 7KHJRRGMREVVWUDWHJ\HPSRZHUPHQW ly. Sure enough, she found in a book she published last year titled The Good some. Jobs Strategy — her thesis The two companies she talks about most frequently t the Aspen Ideas Festival comes out of research she in this regard are a Span- — an annual summer gab- did early in her academ- ic career on supply chain ish grocery chain called fest in Colorado that presents all management in the retail Mercadona and QuikTrip, sorts of interesting ideas, from industry, focused especial- a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based ly on inventory manage- chain of convenience store/ the improbable to the important ment. What she and her fel- gas stations that competes — one of the big themes this low researchers discovered with the likes of the 7-Elev- Joe year was jobs. is that while most compa- en chain. Nocera How will America close the nies were very good at get- :KDW ¿UVW VWUXFN KHU skills gap? Where will the good ting products from, say, China to their about Mercadona is that the annual middle-class jobs of the future come stores, it was a different story once turnover was an almost unheard-of the merchandise arrived. Sometimes 4 percent. Why do employees stay? from? a product stayed in the back room “They get decent salaries, four weeks I heard pleas for infrastructure instead of making it to a shelf where of training that costs the company spending as a job strategy, and cre- a customer could buy it. Or it was $5,000, stable schedules ... and the ating jobs by unleashing our energy in the wrong place. Special in-store opportunity to thrive in front of their resources. There were speakers who promotions weren’t being executed customers every day,” Ton said in a believed that innovation would bring a surprisingly high percentage of the speech she forwarded to me. The gro- good jobs, and speakers who feared time. She saw this pattern in company cery business is low margin, where that some of those innovations — in after company. every penny counts. If Mercadona As she took a closer look, Ton says, couldn’t keep prices low with this robotics, for instance — would de- she realized that the strategy, it would have abandoned it stroy good jobs. problem was that long ago. And then there these companies was Zeynep Ton. QuikTrip, an $11 billion company ‘The viewed their em- with 722 stores, is a prime example of A 40-year-old assumed ployees “as a cost what Ton means by “human-centered adjunct associate that they tried to operations strategies.” Paying em- professor at the trade-off minimize.” Workers ployees middle-class wages allows the Sloan School of were not just poorly company to get the most out of them. Management at between low paid, but poorly Employees are cross-trained so they MIT, Ton brought trained. They often can do different jobs. They can solve one of the most rad- prices and didn’t know their problems by themselves. They make ical, and yet one of good jobs is schedule until the merchandising decisions for their own the most sensible, last moment. Mo- stores. The ultimate result of the high- ideas to Aspen this a fallacy.’ rale was low and er wages QuikTrip pays is that costs year. Her big idea is turnover was high. everywhere else in the operation go that companies that provide employees a decent living, Customer service was largely nonex- down. At QuikTrip, Ton says, products which includes not just pay but also istent. don’t remain in the back room, and in- Yet when she asked executives at store promotions always take place, as a sense of purpose and empowerment DWZRUNFDQEHHYHU\ELWDVSUR¿WDEOH these companies why they put up with they’re supposed to. as companies that strive to keep their this pattern, she was told that the only Ton’s interest in the good jobs labor costs low by paying the mini- way they could guarantee low prices strategy is more than academic now; PXP ZDJH ZLWK QR EHQH¿WV 0D\EH was to operate with employees who she has become a proselytizer, trying HYHQ PRUH SUR¿WDEOH *HWWLQJ WKHUH were paid as little as possible, because to spread the word that every com- requires companies to adopt what Ton labor was such a big part of their over- pany would be better served by this calls “human-centered operations head. The problems that resulted were approach. “The assumed trade-off strategies,” which she acknowledges an unavoidable byproduct of a low- between low prices and good jobs is “neither quick nor easy.” But it’s price business model. is a fallacy,” she says. As we wor- Unconvinced that this was the only ry about where middle-class jobs worth it, she says, both for the com- panies and for the country. Surely, approach, Ton decided to search for are going to come from, Ton’s is retail companies — the same kind of a message that needs to be heard she’s right. As Ton explained to me last week companies that needed low prices to not just in Aspen but all across in Aspen — and as she has written succeed — that did things different- America. By JOE NOCERA New York Times News Service A