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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2016
‘Where the artsy liberals came’
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
SOUTHERN
EXPOSURE
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
TAKE THE SURVEY
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You can live, work or just visit the city to have your thoughts heard. Feedback will
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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
10 years ago this week — 2006
A piece of local history was among the casualties of last weekend’s storm.
A century-old building that was part of the cannery complex in the Alder-
brook neighborhood was knocked off its pilings Saturday morning and
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The building came loose at about 8 a.m. Saturday during the “last big
gusts” that rocked the North Coast with gusts of up to 77 mph and sent
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7KHVWUXFWXUHVWD\HGPRVWO\LQWDFWDVLWÀRDWHGDIHZKXQGUHG\DUGVHDVW-
ward through the slough, but after it struck ground the walls buckled and
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washed up all around the edge of the slough, marking the high point of
Saturday’s storm surge.
CoQtessa 6turJell had ¿elded calls Ior help Irom her cousiQ
beIore
AQd 0oQday QiJht’s Zas Qo diIIereQt thaQ the others Irom
CraiJ /arseQ oQe oI tZo ¿shermeQ missiQJ aQd presumed dead
aIter the body oI their creZmate Zas IouQd oQ a Tillamook beach
Also IouQd early Tuesday Zere three uQused survival suits aQd aQ
empty liIe raIt
³, asked him iI somethiQJ Zas ZroQJ ‘This boat’s JoiQJ
to be the death oI me it’s alZays brokeQ’ he said´ recouQted
6turJell
6he Zas the last oQe to speak Zith /arseQ oI WarreQtoQ
WreckaJe oI his boat the 4Ioot crabber CatheriQe 0 Zas
IouQd streZQ across a Tillamook beach
Strong currents pulled a local surfer out to sea near Cannon Beach
Tuesday morning.
Around 10:30 a.m., the U.S. Coast Guard received a call from Seaside’s
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U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard diverted a patrolling HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter to
rescue the surfer, Matt Heyward, 37, of Cannon Beach, who was safely
hoisted by basket into the aircraft.
Motorists descending the Asto-
ria bridge approach will encoun-
ter this sign and start fishing for
pocket books. Highway depart-
ment has not yet announced
what tolls will cost, however.
Erection of traffic signs on and
around the bridge approach
was in progress this week, but
all signs along the highway will
be kept covered until the bridge
is open. “If a motorist started
to follow a sign ‘to Washington
points’ he’d soon hit a dead
end,” said Project Engineer Rob-
ert Ellison. (Daily Astorian Photo
by Gordon Clark)
50 years ago — 1966
0r aQd 0rs 5olI .lep have returQed Irom three moQths
iQ NeZ <ork City aQd the (ast Zhere .lep presideQt oI
Columbia 5iver 0aritime 0useum associatioQ visited maQy
maritime museums aQd called oQ heads oI various IouQda
tioQs to solicit support Ior the Astoria museum
³, had much eQcouraJemeQt´ .lep said ³Wherever ,
ZeQt people Zere eQormously impressed that a toZQ oI
could do so much iQ maiQtaiQiQJ a Jood maritime museum´
he said
.lep had a check Ior JiveQ the museum by Corpora
tioQ Trust )ouQdatioQ iQ NeZ <ork
Kristine Lindberg arrived by plane Tuesday night at Clatsop airport
with a grant for $10,000 awarded by the Paul Getty foundation for a
musical scholarship.
News of the scholarship, awarded at the Metropolitan Opera Touring
association auditions in San Francisco last weekend came out of a clear
sky for the 18-year-old daughter of Dr. Oscar Lindberg, who represented
her state as the only winner from Oregon in Primary auditions held in
Seattle last month.
75 years ago — 1941
(stablishmeQt oI a halImile horse raciQJ track Zith JraQd
stand and dog track in connection is contemplated by Leland
6haZ 3ortland attorney and 5obert Bovey also oI 3ortland
at the Munction oI coast highZay and the *earhart road
The tZo men Zho have been discussing the subMect Ior
some time Zith *earhart and 6easide business men put the
matter beIore the Astoria +unt Club at a meeting 6aturday
Zinning that organi]ation’s support
Assurance of a civilian pilot training course for the Clatsop airport by
next fall and possibly as early as this spring was given members of the
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\HVWHUGD\WRFRQIHUZLWK:LOH\:ULJKWGLVWULFWFLYLODHURQDXWLFVRI¿FLDO
A tentative list oI Clatsop County selective service regis
trants has been draZn Ior induction into the army on )ebruary
date oI the ne[t Tuota call Irom this county according to
,ra White selective service administrator Ior the county
still people. I still respect
putting up McMansions.
Carmel restricts that.”
their views.’ Whether they
In the ’80s and ’90s,
respect mine, I don’t know.”
people who came to Cannon
Beach with money sought
‘True believer’
same comforts they had in
Over the years Ayres has
“a big house in Portland,” or
worked for Head Start in
Seaside, along with stints in
ANNON BEACH — With wherever they were coming
from, Ayres said.
land use planning, as a motel
Betsy Ayres, who needs a
“Oregon’s gotten more
maid, librarian and an assis-
survey?
and more popular, because this
tant to a clinical psychol-
Betsy
The city of Cannon Beach is is such a stunningly beautiful
ogist. She has a grown
Ayres
daughter,
Meadow,
measuring public opinion in eight key place, so people wanted
to
come
here,”
she
said.
who
lives
in
Manza-
areas of community livability
‘I don’t
“I don’t begrudge their
nita. Today Ayres
watching city politics
“I can understand why Oregon’s creature comforts. Not
want
from a different role as
gotten more and more popular,” Ayres everyone wants to live
a member of the North
said over coffee at Sea Level Bakery with a woodstove and be
Cannon
Coast Land Conser-
in Tolovana. “It’s a stunningly beau- like ‘Little House on the
Beach to vancy Board of Direc-
tiful place. The lifestyle, the access to Prairie.’”
Serving as city coun-
tors, a spot she has held
the ocean, the clean air, the safety, the
be like
cilor, member of the
amazing beauty ...”
since 2010.
An essential detail about Cannon Planning Commission, Beaverton.’
“I do a lot of
Beach, Ayres said, is that most of the Emergency Prepared-
outreach, fundraising,
residents moved here because they ness Committee and
which I enjoy, because
Betsy Ayres
wanted to be here, not like most places, Budget Commission,
I’m a true believer,” she
where people live because that’s where Ayres soon realized
said. “I want to make
some new residents held little regard for this place as wonderful as it was when
they were born.
Ayres relocated from Portland in environmental regulations or the design I was a child.”
1969, a time when, she said, Cannon review process, and they came up with
Ayres said she thinks the city is
Beach was making the transition from some “pretty crazy ideas.”
“pretty solid,” but wishes more people
A former Chamber of Commerce at City Hall had a greater personal
a quiet, out-of-the-way logging town to
RI¿FLDO ZDQWHG WR SXW OLJKWKRXVHV WKH history in Cannon Beach.
a getaway destination.
“A lot of people in the ’60s moved length of Cannon Beach.
“I wish there were more institutional
“She thought that would bring memory about what built this place into
here because the rent was cheap and the
environment was beautiful, and it sort people to Cannon Beach,” Ayres the fantastic place that it is, and that
of began its identity as an arts colony,” laughed. “The City Council wouldn’t there were more focus on the services
she said. “Cannon Beach was the place go for it. She stormed out of the for the people who live here,” she said.
meeting: ‘You’re trying to ruin the busi-
where the artsy liberals came.”
Ayres said she thinks there should
Between family, a long history of nesses of Cannon Beach!’”
be discussion of a senior center and
Ayres recalled plans to pave affordable housing. She’s bitter that
civic service and a glittering person-
ality, Ayres soon “knew everybody, and wetlands behind Spruce Street for more 70 percent of the room tax goes to
everybody else knew everybody,” she parking.
tourism, and is frustrated by efforts by
³7UDI¿F LV WKLV ORQJ NQRFNGRZQ the “real estate lobby” to stymie land
said.
Her grandmother’s name — Lottie GUDJRXW ¿JKW´ VKH VDLG ³,W QHYHU preservation.
Anderson — is on a plaque by the changes.”
She wants people to “squawk” when
In the summer, Ayres stays home, or the city starts cutting down trees in the
checkout desk at the Cannon Beach
if she does go into town, rides her bike right-of-way, “and not pave every road
Library.
Anderson, incidentally, survived or walks. “If I don’t try to drive through and have glaring searchlights every-
San Francisco’s Great Earthquake and town, I’m good with that,” she said.
where. I don’t want Cannon Beach to
After years of service, Ayres shied be like Beaverton, and it’s getting more
Fire of 1906. She moved to Cannon
DZD\IURPSXEOLFRI¿FHDIWHUUHDOL]LQJ that way every day.”
Beach in 1945.
it was not necessarily a good way to
“I love living in a small town, I love
make friends.
living in a small area,” Ayres said. “I like
‘Carmel North’
³,I\RX¶UHLQSXEOLFRI¿FHWKHUHDUH the web of connections when you stay in
A real estate agent named Richard
Atherton — “a real promoter,” says people’s wishes who are thwarted when a community your whole life. For some
$\UHV²¿UVWPDUNHWHG&DQQRQ%HDFK you’re on the council, and ‘Hi, how are reason that gives me a lot of comfort. It
as “Carmel North.” “That was his idea you’ relations became really hostile,” just has a tremendous appeal to me.”
as the way to draw people,” Ayres said. she said. “I don’t have the bound-
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
“It didn’t seem to stick, especially when aries for that. If you want to keep your South County reporter and editor of
people began buying and tearing down friends, you have to be able to just go the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
all the wonderful beach cabins and home, shrug it off and think, ‘They’re Gazette.
B Y
R.J.
M ARX
C
The revolt against decadence
By 5266 D28T+AT
New York Times News Service
Americans, who grew up
So what are Trumpistas
and Bern-feelers rebelling
amid the post-World War II
against?
boom, the vaulting optimism
One answer might be that
of the Space Age, the years
ne of the puzzles of the 2016
they’re
fed
up
with
exactly
when big government and
campaign,
unexpectedly
this — the politics of “it
big business were seen as
GH¿QHGE\WKHDVFHQWRIDELOOLRQ- could be worse,” of stagna-
effective and patriotic rather
aire reality TV star and a septua- tion and muddling through.
than sclerotic and corrupt.
They
aren’t
revolting
against
Trump is offering nostalgia,
genarian Vermont socialist, is why
abject
failure,
or
deep
and
but it’s not a true reaction-
now? Yes, voters are angry, yes, swift decline. They’re rebel-
ary’s lament. He wants to
Ross
they’re exhausted and disgusted ling against decadence.
take us back to a time when
Douthat
Now it may sound
the future seemed great,
and cynical about everything. But
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amazing,
fantastic.
why is everything boiling over in
Trump, the much-married prince of
Likewise Sanders, except that in
this particular cycle, in this presi- tinsel and pasteboard, as a scourge of his case the glorious future is more
dential campaign?
decadence rather than its embodiment. mid-century Scandinavia than Space
But don’t just think about the word Age America. After Obamacare became
Consider: The economic picture
is better than it was in 2012, when in moral or aesthetic terms. Think of it law, it seemed to many people that the
Republican primary voters settled for as a useful way of describing a society welfare state project was basically
that’s wealthy, powerful, technologi- complete, that the future of U.S. liber-
Mitt Romney and an incumbent pres- FDOO\ SUR¿FLHQW ² DQG \HW VHHPLQJO\ alism mostly involved tweaking enti-
ident was re-elected pretty easily. (In unable to advance in the way that its tlements around the edges to keep them
both Iowa and New Hampshire, the citizens once took for granted. A society solvent. But Sanders is telling liberals,
where people have fewer younger liberals especially, that the
unemployment rate is
children and hold dimin- heroic age of liberalism isn’t over yet,
under 4 percent.) The
ished expectations for that they can have a welfare state that’s
It’s
hard
foreign policy picture is
the future, where institu- far more amazing and fantastic than the
grim in certain ways, but
for a
tions don’t work partic- one their forefathers constructed.
America isn’t trapped in
well but can’t
The fact that both of these
decadent ularly
seem to be effectively messages — Trump’s “Make America
a casualty-heavy quag-
reformed, where growth great again” and Bernie’s “Why not
mire the way we were in
society
is slow and technolog- socialism?” — involve essentially
2004, when Democratic
ical progress disappoints. recycled visions of the future is a sign
to
escape
voters played it safe
$VRFLHW\WKDW¿JKWVWRD of how hard it is for a decadent society
with John Kerry and the trap of stalemate in its foreign to escape the trap of repetition.
George W. Bush won
even as domestic
But more important, the fact that
repetition. wars,
debates repeat them- both men are promising the implau-
re-election.
selves without any reso- sible or the impossible — and the fact
As Michael Grunwald argued lution. A society disillusioned with that Trump is openly contemptuous
recently in Politico, the worst-case existing religions and ideologies, but of our ragged republican norms — is
scenarios of the post-Great Recession lacking new sources of meaning to take a reminder that there are worse things
than decadence, grimmer possibilities
era haven’t materialized. Obamacare their place.
This is how many Americans, many for the future than drift and repetition.
is limping along without an imminent
death spiral, and health care costs aren’t Westerners, experience their civili-
The disappointment and impa-
ULVLQJDVIDVWDVIHDUHG7KHGH¿FLWKDV zation in the early years of the 21st tience that people feel in a decadent
IDOOHQ D ELW DQG LQÀDWLRQ LV H[WUDRUGL- century. And both Trump and Bernie era is legitimate, even admirable. But
narily low. The stock market is wobbly, Sanders, in their very different ways, the envy of more heroic moments, the
but we haven’t had a double-dip are telling us that we don’t have to settle desire to just do something to prove
for it anymore.
recession.
your society’s vitality — Invade Iraq to
With Trump, the message is crude, remake the Middle East! Open Germa-
On the cultural front, out-of-wed-
lock births are no longer rising. Abor- explicit, deliberately over the top. Make ny’s borders! Elect Trump or Sanders
tion rates have fallen. Illegal immigra- America Great Again. “We will have so president! — can be a very dangerous
much winning if I get elected that you sensibility.
tion rates are down.
The state of the union isn’t all that may get bored with the winning.”
There are pathways up from deca-
But it resonates because the diag- dence. But there are more roads leading
one might hope, but it could clearly be
nosis resonates — especially with older down.
a whole lot worse.
2