Music keeps writer in tune Opinion • 4A
143rd YEAR, No. 127
A madcap kind of year Extra • 1C
ONE DOLLAR
FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2016 • WEEKEND EDITION
Marchers stand with candles outside the Liberty
Theater before taking part in a candlelight walk to
honor Martin Luther King Jr. in January. More than
75 people participated in the event.
Attendees watch as hundreds of kites take flight
into the fog during the fourth and final Mass As-
cension event at the Washington State Internation-
al Kite Festival in Long Beach, Wash., in August.
YEAR IN IMAGES
Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Mike Campbell, left, and Paul Gascoigne, right, are pursued by two other boats as they prepare to round a
buoy on the course during a fall series race on the Columbia River in Astoria in September.
City wary
of building
on unstable
Uppertown
hillside
Worries triggered by
previous landslides on
neighborhood slope
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
The city scraPbled in DecePber when
a coPPercial developer asked about build-
ing on an Uppertown slope with a history
of landslides.
The property, Must south of nd 6treet
and Marine Drive, was the subject of a
three-year legal ¿ght after e[cavation work
in caused land PovePent that dis-
turbed nearby hoPes. A rock buttress has
since stabili]ed the slope and slowed if not
eliPinated what .en Cook, the city¶s 3ub-
lic Works director, describes as the “histor-
ic creep´ in the neighborhood.
%ut city engineers and planners reali]ed
in DecePber that if a coPPercial develop-
er provides geological expertise that build-
ing on the slope is safe, there is little the
city can do under the developPent code to
stop another project.
AlarPed, city staff brieÀy Àirted with
asking the City Council for a PoratoriuP,
an ePergency stopgap that would have
bought the city tiPe. The situation was dif-
fused before it reached the council because
the coPPercial developer did not iPPedi-
ately Pove forward with a purchase.
“We need to be looking out for the
health and welfare of all the folks who live
on that hillside,´ City Manager %rett (stes
said.
The Daily Astorian
Geologic hazards
oshua %esse[, The Daily Astorian¶s photographer, pored through Pore than 1, photos
froP the past year to coPe up with his favorite iPages.
³6oPe, like the Martin /uther .ing Jr. Candlelight :alk, were froP quiet PoPents, of-
ten the hardest but Post powerful photographs to take,´ he said. ³2thers, such as the capsi]ing
of the fake orca, were spectacles that brought national attention to our coastal city.
³)inally, there were those that were siPply serendipitous, a result of walking around and
Paking conversation.´
City engineers and planners are now
drafting an ordinance for the City Council
that would address potential developPent
on property with geologic ha]ards such as
landslides.
In hilly Astoria, where there are several
hot spots for slides, unPistakable risks pre-
vent new building. But in gray areas, where
the earth Pight be sculpted to brace a proj-
ect, the city could need greater regulatory
tools to protect property owners.
J
See more photos from 2015, page 8A
The Lady Washington sails up the Columbia River
on its way to the East End Mooring Basin in June.
See SLOPE, Page 7A
Marika Cowan hugs CeCe, a 10-year-old purebred
Jersey cow, as cows make their way back to the
milking parlor from the field at the Cowan Dairy
Farm in March.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The land across from 32nd Street and
Marine Drive is prone to landslides.
:est Coast transplants ¿nd rooP to grow
Doe + Arrow proprietors brew new life in Astoria
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Austen Conn and Chelsea Johnsen are co-owners of Doe
+ Arrow in Astoria.
Chelsea Johnsen and Aus-
ten Conn both ¿nd theP-
selves at the forefront of both
young entrepreneurship and
craft brewing in downtown
Astoria.
2riginally froP 6an Diego
and the Twin Cities, Minneso-
ta, region, Johnsen and Conn
transplanted froP 3ortland to
Astoria in May to open their
TuirNy Pen¶s and woPen¶s
clothing and accessory bou-
tique, Doe + Arrow, in the cor-
OUR NEW
NEIGHBORS
HIGHLIGHTING PEOPLE WHO ARE NEW TO THE COMMUNITY
ner of the Astor Hotel building.
Conn said they were both
looking for personal growth,
he in brewing and she in their
business.
After working in retail
since age 16, Johnsen said she
was tired of Must being an eP-
ployee. ³, was Paking other
people successful, and , wasn¶t
getting ful¿lled,´ she said.
6everal years ago, Johnsen
started plotting Doe + Ar-
row, a play on fePininity and
See NEIGHBORS, Page 7A