10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2015
How to spot
a fake review
By SARAH
SKIDMORE SELL
AP Business Writer
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
From left: Capt. Daniel Travers, Capt. John Healy, Mayor Arline LaMear, Lt. Cmdr. Christiane Weber, Jim Wilkins, Gabe
Duus of Integrity Structures, Tony Ewing of Columbia River Excavations, and Mike Gabe, with Integrity Structures,
stand for a portrait with ceremonial shovels during a groundbreaking ceremony for a Coast Guard housing expansion
project in April. It is increasingly difficult for Coast Guard families to find places to rent.
Housing: Many solutions were proposed
Continued from Page 1A
Cannon Beach is somewhat
land-locked and the avail-
able land is mostly considered
oceanfront property, which in-
Àates its value. Seaside has high
system-development charges.
Gearhart is facing an inÀux
of short-term vacation rentals
that appeal more to landowners
than long-term rentals. Warren-
ton is ¿lled with property clas-
si¿ed as wetlands and Astoria
presents some topographical
and geological challenges to
development.
The housing shortfall
Don Lee, the U.S. Coast
Guard’s housing supervisor for
Sector Columbia River, said
it is increasingly dif¿cult for
him to ¿nd places for Coast
Guard families to rent, and that
includes the of¿cers, which
seems to indicate the housing
shortfall “is pretty much across
the board.”
“There are just not enough
multi-family rentals, or single
rentals, in this area to accom-
modate the need,” he said, add-
ing if private and public part-
nerships focused on the lower
“end of the stick, it would give
breathing room.”
Some said once more af-
fordable housing is available,
people staying in cheaper plac-
es, who could afford more,
would be able to do so, and vice
versa.
“Our market is not breath-
ing,” Lee said. “It’s going up
like a rocket.”
Ideally, occupancy rates
should be at about 95 percent
to allow landlords and manage-
ment companies to do main-
tenance on rentals, “You have
two people waiting for every
one that comes open,” Steve
Olstedt, president of Olstedt
Construction, said.
Pinpointing
the obstacles
The commonly accepted
standard for affordable housing
is families who pay more than
30 percent of their income to-
ward housing are considered
cost burdened and may have
dif¿culty paying for other ne-
cessities, according to the U.S.
Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
Randy Stemper, a general
contractor, said he is involved
in a development underway
in Seaside that will offer 26
two-bedroom units at a cost of
about $1,000 to $1,150 per unit.
That is what it takes for devel-
opers to make a return on their
investment — at least in Sea-
side, he said.
Developers won’t build
new facilities at a loss, he said,
which leads to the question,
“How do we lower the costs to
the investors?” Olstedt agreed
there is land available to devel-
op, particularly in Warrenton,
but securing a good interest rate
is key because costs are ulti-
mately passed to the end users
— the renters.
Developers need to be able
to “build cheaper, so we can
offer (housing) for cheaper,”
said Ben Johnson of Sunrise
Homes.
Solutions
around the state
Richard Krueger, of Krueger
Property Management, shared
viable solutions he has found
in other Oregon cities. In Pend-
leton, the state backed a loan
for the developer to get a better
interest rate and the city helped
provide land. For the trade, 30
percent of the units had to be
low-income housing, and the
rest could be rented at market
value, Krueger said.
“That’s an example of the
state and the city’s involvement
with the private sector, which I
think would be nice to have,”
he said.
In Tigard, he is working on
a 118-unit apartment complex
with a 19-year tax abatement
that must provide 40 percent of
the units for low-income hous-
ing. Additionally, 1 percent
of the development must be
owned and operated by a non-
pro¿t agency.
A number of potential solu-
tions were proposed at the
meeting, including:
• Identifying possible build-
able lands on Clatsop Plains,
between Seaside and Cannon
Beach or Seaside and Warren-
ton
• Cities offering relief from
system-development charges,
tax abatement and incremental
¿nancing
• Communities collecting
funds to use for gap ¿nancing
• Local governments leg-
islating and enforcing control
mechanisms to limit short-term
vacation rentals
• Helping homeowners utilize
garages and basements or build
tiny homes to offer for rent
• Finding areas for potential
accessory or in¿ll housing
• Forming housing equity
partnerships
• Institutions and businesses
helping to provide housing to
their employees and
• Increasing mix-use struc-
tures, such as libraries or other
public buildings that provide
housing on upper stories, which
might require cities to grant
zoning variances.
“There are lots of tools out
there, you just have to agree as
a community what those tools
are and see if those work,” As-
toria Community Development
Director Kevin Cronin said. “If
they don’t work, you go back
to the drawing board and try
something else.” .
Next steps
At the end of the meeting,
participants were asked to sign
up to participate on one of four
unof¿cial committees.
One committee will take
inventory of buildable lands
in the region and quantify the
need, or determine the true sup-
ply and demand. Another will
research best practices or solu-
tions being used in other cities,
such as the examples Krueger
provided.
The third committee will
craft a model budget of what it
would take for a developer to
build a multi-family dwelling.
The fourth group will research
and generate ideas for nontra-
ditional solutions, such as tiny
houses or accessory housing.
Do you trust online re-
views? Now that Amazon is
suing more than 1,000 peo-
ple who allegedly offered
to write glowing product
reviews for cash, you might
reasonably be concerned.
Turns out, deceptive
reviews are commonplace
online — and so are doubts
about them. The research
organization Mintel found
that 57 percent of surveyed
consumers are suspicious
of companies or products
that only have positive on-
line reviews. And 49 per-
cent believe companies
probably give incentives
for online reviews.
Fortunately, there are a
few good techniques that
can help you tell truth from
¿ction.
Don’t trust yourself
A team of researchers
at Cornell University cre-
ated a computer algorithm
for detecting fake hotel
reviews by analyzing the
language used in legitimate
and phony write-ups. The
computer program, Review
Skeptic, is accurate about
90 percent of the time, but
humans alone performed
poorly at determining the
truth teller.
“People are terrible,”
said professor Claire Car-
die, who helped develop
the system. “I was very sur-
prised. We just cannot tell
the difference much more
than chance.”
Listen to the language
Beware of extremes —
overly enthusiastic or neg-
ative reviews are red Àags.
False reviews tend to use
more extreme language to
get their message across.
So if someone says “It is
the most comfortable bed
ever,” perhaps in all caps,
take pause.
Additionally, the Cor-
nell researchers found that
when it comes to hotels,
fake reviewers tended not
to talk about the spatial
details — such as the Àoor
or bathroom. Instead, they
focused on the reason they
were there, such as describ-
ing a recent fake vacation
or business trip. In practice,
this makes sense because
someone who has never
been to a location might
have a tough time describ-
ing it accurately.
Junk the jargon
On the Àip side, beware
of recommendations that
read like product manuals.
Reviews that repeat the
full product name or model
number may be an attempt
to game the search engine
system. And if they use
excessive technical or mar-
keting jargon, odds are they
aren’t providing a genuine
review — most real people
don’t talk like that.
Review the reviewer
Check out the pro¿le of
the person providing the re-
view, said Louis Ramirez,
senior features writer with
online deal site DealNews.
If they only write reviews
for a particular company,
that’s a huge warning sign
they could have a vested
interest in that business.
Some sites let people up-
load pictures of the item
they bought, which can
help add credibility.
Amazon veri¿es some
of its reviewers, indicating
they actually bought the
product (although some
of the people it’s suing al-
legedly found ways around
that). Some other sites only
allow posts from people
who’ve made a purchase
there. Look closely on the
site for their review poli-
cies.
Pay attention to
detail
If you think about your
own experiences with an
unpleasant experience or
product, you can probably
explain exactly why it was
bad. Ramirez suggests if
you’re unsure about a re-
view, put more stock in
someone who provides de-
tails of why they didn’t like
a product (“Oh, the battery
only lasted four hours”)
that in someone who com-
plains more generally (“I
hated this laptop. It was
horrible”).
Marriott: Hotelier wants hotel on Port of Astoria property in Uniontown
Continued from Page 1A
The 20-year lease has four
20-year renewal options. Hol-
lander will pay the Port $2,000
a month during a 120-day fea-
sibility study period, which can
be extended. After Hollander
receives a certi¿cate of occu-
pancy for a hotel, the lease says,
he would annually pay the Port
7.5 percent of the fair market
value of the land, which will be
appraised every 10 years.
The proposal by Hollander
ran into opposition from Com-
missioner Stephen Fulton, who
said he was concerned over po-
tentially tying up the property in-
de¿nitely in the feasibility study,
paying only $2,000 a month.
Using Clatsop County’s
property system, Fulton said
he found the value of the prop-
erty Holiday Inn is on to be $1
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Hotelier Mark Hollander wants to build a Marriott Hotel on Port of Astoria property in
Uniontown between the Red Building and Astoria Bridge.
million, comparing it to what
Hollander might erect. Using
that value and the 7.5 percent
¿gure from the lease, Fulton es-
timated the Port stands to make
$75,000 a year once a hotel is
built.
Fulton said $75,000 a year
is not much revenue, and add-
ed the Port should advertise the
property, just like it is doing
with theRiverwalk Inn, which
is being operated by Fulton’s
brother-in-law William Orr and
Chester Trabucco while Port
staff develop a request for pro-
posals for a long-term operator.
Cliff Fick, an Astorian who
worked in the hospitality indus-
try and is consulting on the Riv-
erwalk Inn for Orr and Trabuc-
co, spoke against the lease. He
said leasing the land to Holland-
er could negatively impact the
Riverwalk Inn and fragment the
Port’s ability to create a master
plan for its Uniontown property.
Before the commission vot-
ed to accept the lease with Hol-
lander, Fulton made a motion
to table the issue so staff could
bring back comparable data on
the value of other hotels. He
and Bill Hunsinger, phoning in
from Salt Lake City, voted yes,
while commissioners Robert
Mushen, James Campbell and
John Raichl voted no.
“Here we are once again
with ‘hot paper,’” Hunsinger
said, using a term for documents
he feels he did not have enough
time to review. He said Hol-
lander’s proposal lacked public
input, could impact the nearby
Maritime Memorial and that the
proposal came out of nowhere.
“Didn’t I say three months
ago I was going to build a hotel
in Astoria?” asked Hollander,
who previously said he was
interested in both operating
the Riverwalk Inn and build-
ing a new hotel. Hollander
was at times visibly perturbed
by Hunsinger’s and Fulton’s
comments against his proposed
lease.
Hunsinger had also op-
posed Hollander’s attempts to
lease the Riverwalk Inn on a
short-term basis, even though
Hunsinger was part of a con-
sensus reached in a closed ses-
sion to go with Hollander.
Gearhart: Verdict expected in November
Continued from Page 1A
After two violations this
summer, one in June and one
in August, she was ticketed
under the city’s zone code for
operating as a business with-
out a conditional use permit,
and pleaded not guilty to the
charge last month.
Two more $500 zone code
violations were delivered in
September.
Since 2012, Smith has
racked up an additional
$30,000 in civil administra-
tive ¿nes issued by the city’s
%uilding 2f¿cial Jim %rien
for using the barn without a
permit.
At the continuation of the
trial hearing Monday, Watts
said Smith failed to meet con-
ditions needed to use the barn,
primarily a certi¿cate of oc-
cupancy issued by a building
of¿cial.
If she did have an active
conditional use permit, it
would have expired anyway,
Watts said.
One of her 13 conditions
² certi¿cate of occupancy
— has not been met and is re-
quired for her to “rent the barn
for remuneration,” Watts said.
Complicating Orr’s deci-
sion is a Land Use Board of
Appeals ruling earlier this
year. The board sent Smith’s
request for an extension of her
expired conditional use permit
for construction at the barn
back to the city for “remand.”
Lawyers disagreed over
the meaning of remand, and
whether the lack of a condi-
tional use permit even mat-
ters. “In order to have a con-
ditional use permit, it requires
a certi¿cate of occupancy, and
she doesn’t have one,” Watts
said. “How can she have com-
mercial events? She can’t.”
“If an occupancy is re-
quired for weddings in Gear-
hart, I’d say that everybody
who holds weddings at their
house in Gearhart is in vio-
lation of that,” Kearns said.
“I think, at the minimum, it’s
highly unfair how many peo-
ple advertise their homes as
wedding venues as Gearhart.
“My client is the only per-
son in Gearhart who needs a
certi¿cate of occupancy and
a conditional use permit,” he
added.
Orr closed the proceedings
after asking for both parties to
address legal issues. Respons-
es are due by end of day Mon-
day. Orr said he expects to
render a verdict in November.
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