‘Inspired by
the Column’
FRIDAY EXTRA • 1C
Warriors win
‘Match of the Year’
WEEKEND
EDITION
143rd YEAR, No. 83
SPORTS • 7A
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Great
gun
divide
In the West,
heritage and
landscape shape
rural and urban
views of guns
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Belongings line the ground in the bushes near the Astoria Riverwalk .
The homelessness dilemma
Police, public
seek solutions to
problems caused by
some on the street
By KATIE WILSON
For The Daily Astorian
N
early every day in the last
two weeks, Clatsop Coun-
ty law enforcement has
responded to at least one call in-
volving homelessness, respond-
ing to everything from transient
camps discovered on private and
city property to complaints about
homeless individuals who are
drunk and wandering the streets.
All summer , police in Astoria
and Warrenton have dealt with
more homelessness-related calls
than of¿ cers can ever remember
— and more complaints about
public defecation and urination
than Astoria Police Chief Brad
Johnston and Deputy Chief Eric
Halverson can recall in all their
years here.
In Astoria, a mayor-appoint-
ed committee formed in August
is working on a list of recom-
mendations about how to address
homelessness broadly across the
community, but it may have al-
ready landed on at least one small
solution to one particular problem:
Public bathrooms.
While bathrooms in downtown
businesses are open to paying cus-
tomers, there are few actual bath-
rooms available for the homeless
to use. There is the bathroom at
the transit center on Marine Drive,
the public bathrooms on 12th and
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The Astoria public restrooms on Exchange Street.
‘... Things happen to good
people that cause them to
become homeless.’
Elaine Bruce
director of social services for Clatsop Community Action, an organization
that works with the poor, homeless and near-homless
Exchange Street and the bathrooms
under the Doughboy Monument at
the corner of Columbia and Marine
Drive. And beyond these, the great
outdoors.
Now, the coalition, led by John-
ston, hopes to place at least three
porta-potties along the Astoria Riv-
erwalk, an area that sees a lot of
foot traf¿ c by homeless and tran-
sient people.
Johnston is very supportive of
the idea, but says the city will need
to think carefully about where and
how it will place these bathrooms.
“That seems like such a com-
mon -sense solution, but over my
career, I’ve seen a lot of vandalism
to porta-potties,” he said .
Still, it is clear, he added, that
homelessness and all the issues
that come along with it — large
and small — are now a community
dilemma.
The 5 percent
“The concept of homelessness
is very vast,” said Elaine Bruce,
director of social services for Clat-
sop Community Action, an orga-
nization that works with the poor,
homeless and near-homeless.
Groups like the mayor-appoint-
ed coalition are primarily focused
on a small percentage of that over-
all population: the ones who prey
on the community and other home-
less people . Those are the 5 percent
who are “actually causing the is-
sues,” Bruce said.
“The other 95 percent are usu-
ally just ¿ ne behaviorally,” she
explained. “They may be down on
their luck. They may have entered
the homelessness cycle. … Things
happen to good people that cause
them to become homeless.”
In Warrenton, Chief Mathew
Workman and his of¿ cers deal
every year with illegal campsites
in city limits. The campsites ar-
en’t allowed under city code and,
as in Astoria, the garbage and hu-
man waste that gets left behind
can quickly become a community
health issue. Most of the campers
are homeless or transient people,
who, when an of¿ cer stops to chat,
move along without any fuss.
“They aren’t necessarily trying
to cause you any trouble,” Work-
man said. “There are people who
take care of themselves and their
stuff and that’s just the lifestyle
they choose.”
In other instances, though, po-
lice encounter aggressive individ-
uals, men or women who don’t
want to move, who suffer from
severe and often untreated mental
illnesses, who are grappling with
substance abuse issues. This is the
5 percent Bruce is referring to, and
this is also who have kept police
busy in both cities as an unusually
warm and sunny summer has mor-
phed into a mild fall.
See DILEMMA, Page 3A
In Hermiston, 184 miles east of
Portland and 180 degrees politically
turned, gun shop owner Nick Goit
engages almost daily in “open carry,”
meaning he wears a holstered pistol
on his hip as he walks about town.
He said it doesn’t raise eyebrows, al-
though it helps to carry yourself in a
professional manner.
“Over here, if you see someone
coming down the street with a gun,
you don’t automatically assume
they’re going to shoot things up,”
Goit said.
Do that in Portland, however, or
Seattle, Eugene or other urban ar-
eas, and people would most likely
be alarmed. There is an urban-rural
divide over ¿ rearms that seems ev-
ery bit as stark as the divisions over
farming practices, wildlife, land and
water use and natural resources.
With guns, however, the disagree-
ment sharpens in the wake of yet
another mass murder, this time the
See DIVIDE, Page 8A
Outsiders
may buy in
to Oregon
weed biz
Liquor commission
OKs temporary
marijuana rules
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Investors from outside Oregon
may be able to join in the state’s na-
scent recreational marijuana industry
under new rules by the Oregon Li-
quor Control Commission.
In deference to legislative lead-
ership plans to lift residency restric-
tions on marijuana operations, the
rule allows the commission to keep
license applications by non-residents
under review until 30 days after the
2016 session.
See WEED, Page 9A
From cancer survivor to state ambassador
Seaside woman
lobbies in D.C. for
cancer research
By KATHERINE LACAZE
EO Media Group
SEASIDE — When Lois Fitz-
patrick heard the fateful words “you
have cancer” in 1995, she worried
she would not even get to see her
daughters, then 9 and 14 years old,
advance from elementary school
and graduate high school.
“It just tore my heart apart for
fear of them,” said the 63-year-old
Seaside resident.
Now, two decades later, she is
the proud mother of two daughters
with graduate degrees, a cancer sur-
vivor and Oregon’s l ead a mbassa-
dor for the American Cancer Soci-
ety’s Cancer Action Network.
Fitzpatrick said she is embold-
ened in her advocacy work by “a
¿ re in my gut. ”
“It’s just the right thing to do,”
she said. “I feel I speak for those
who cannot speak for themselves:
those who are too sick, too afraid,
too worried, who are dead and those
who do know yet that they may
have cancer.”
Becoming cancer-free
Fitzpatrick’s journey started in
1995 when she was diagnosed with
stage 1 breast cancer — although
her tumor was closer to the size of
a stage 2 tumor. Physicians told her
she needed a double mastectomy,
but she declined , since the research
she did convinced her she did not
need the surgery. She went through
See RESEARCH, Page 9A
Lois Fitzpatrick (second from left), of Seaside, the lead ambassador from Oregon for the American Cancer
Society Cancer Action Network, met with Oregon Rep. Suzanne Bonamici in Washington, D.C., for ASC
CAN’s signature event, the annual Leadership Summit and Lobby Day in September. Fitzpatrick was ac-
companied by Cancer Action Network staff member Noe Baker (left) and volunteer Paula Messenger (right).
Submitted Photo