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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2016)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2016 FRIDAY EXCHANGE No to Mo’s M any of us make our home in Astoria because of this town’s beauty, original character and unique identity, and also because of the way all Astorians work together to make this community a bet- ter place. I, and many others here, are alarmed at the idea of any kind of generic chain restaurant on Astoria’s historic waterfront. The Mo’s “saltwater taffy” chain restaurant design in the space where Vintage Hard- ware was located does not it with Astoria’s historic water- front identity and character. If you think Mo’s will hurt our small mom and pop restau- rants, create terrible trafic problems on that narrow track (which is not even a dedicated “right of way”) and create a carnival atmosphere in a town where authenticity is our trade- mark, please, please come to the Astoria Planning Commis- sion meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall. We need to let our local leaders know that granting a conditional use permit for Mo’s in that location will take Astoria in a direction most folks here say they do not want to go, and set a precedent for more chains to take over our valuable spaces. I am currently research- ing the city of Astoria’s crite- ria for a conditional use permit for Mo’s Restaurant. We need a large group of engaged and concerned citizens at the Plan- ning Commission meeting on Tuesday. If you have ideas and thoughts to share about this, please call me at 503-389-5336. DANIEL O’DONNELL Astoria Terrifying W e disapprove of Hil- lary Clinton’s ties to corporate money and Amer- ican imperialism. Nonethe- less, we recommend to those who may be considering vot- ing for Donald Trump, or con- sidering not voting at all, that they read Jane Mayer’s arti- cle about Trump in the July 25 edition of The New Yorker, “Donald Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All.” In it she describes the expe- rience of the person hired to Kids will languish with second-class library W hen the City Council voted to increase the sewer surcharge to pay for a necessary upgrade to our sewer system, I grudgingly went along. After all, it’s part of living in a city with multiple infrastructure problems. Now we are being asked to accept a second-class library to go along with our irst-class sewer system. Three members of the City Council (Councilors Cindy Price, Zetty Nemlowill, and Russ Warr) bowed earlier this week to a few citi- zens’ complaints over the issuance of a bond measure to pay for a new library, and opted to consider only a bare-bones, scaled-back renovation of the existing library — quite possibly at a cost equal to, or greater than, that of a new state-of- the-art library at Heritage Square. Nobody asked me if I would be will- ing to pay a bit more in property tax to pay for a new library to help make Asto- ria the truly great city it deserves to be. ghostwrite Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, and the picture that emerges of Trump is of a “sociopath” (deined in Web- ster’s Collegiate Dictionary as a psychopath). When one remembers that our president has the inal word about using nuclear weapons, the possibil- ity that Trump could be elected is terrifying. ROBERT and KERSTIN ADAMS Astoria Shame on you I was very disappointed in the City Council meeting this week. We have a chance toward making Astoria a bet- ter city. Libraries are such an important part of any city, to be used for reading, research, computers and enjoyment in good times and bad. But the City Council once again shot themselves in the foot with indecision, using supposedly the cheapest way to redo the library. Astoria seems to always just do what’s necessary to get along instead of actu- ally accomplishing something good. They want to continue in the dark ages instead of the 21st century. If there was interest, and that hasn’t been checked out as yet, we could I would gladly help pay for a state-of- the-art library, an art center, a conven- tion center, a public plaza at Heritage Square, and, yes, even improvements to the trolley trestle system. Even though it might put a strain on my meager income, as a taxpayer I feel they would be worth it. But I didn’t speak up at the last City Council meeting when the vote was taken to renovate the existing library. I didn’t speak up because I am preparing to leave Astoria, in part for health rea- sons, but also because I am disappointed in the political leadership in this city. Astoria seems to have become a city of small visions and low expectations. When I arrived here seven years ago I was astounded at the vast potential of the place. Years later, I see that the city is still grappling with a crumbling infra- structure resulting from years of neglect and deferred maintenance, the sorry leg- ind a way to get the money. Shame on you council members Cindy Price, Russ Warr and Zetty Nemlow- ill. The only thinking people wanting to improve the future of Astoria are Mayor Arline LaMear and Councilman Drew Herzig. SYLVIA DAVIS Astoria Clearcut question F or years now, I have been trying to show others why our native forests are valuable, how they are composed of an intricate and interwoven com- munity of plants and animals forming a diversity and bal- ance that is a living forest. I could understand cutting trees, but why would anyone want to kill the whole forest? It was with a jolt that I recently discovered how big timber companies (who own 70 percent of Oregon’s for- est land) can destroy forests and leave the scraped hillsides we see all around us — above Wheeler, along Oregon High- way 53 — wherever you live. The reason is they do not care. They do not care about what happens to the earth and waters, animals and birds, plants and trees in the area they manage. Nor do they care acy of the previous mayor’s long tenure at the helm. The current library, in its deplorable condition and lack of inancial support from the city, is just one example among many of serious deiciencies in city planning. The sewer project is a shining exception, the result of excellent plan- ning on the part of an exceptional engi- neering department. One would have hoped that the City Council, the city manager, and the Com- munity Development Department were equally up to the task of creating a 21st century library for the citizens of Asto- ria, including the children — the ones who will suffer most from the lack of an adequate library. This decision, effec- tively a dumbing down of the commu- nity, will have disastrous consequences for generations to come. CHARLES SCHWEIGERT Astoria about what happens to the adjacent communities. That is not their purpose. Their pur- pose is to make money for their investors. Of course, their investors do not work or live in the local community. They are more likely connected to inancial centers in Hong Kong, London, Wall Street or Panama. Nor can we say that local jobs are generated by the log- ging, since huge machines, not loggers, are used to bring down the forest. Nor are other jobs given to locals, but rather workers are brought in who will take the lowest possible wages. The goal is to gener- ate as much money as quickly as possible, and with as little expense as possible. Hence, clear cut. Nor do these big corpora- tions that use and pollute our resources contribute to local, state, or federal taxes. Set up as a Timber Investment Man- agement Organization, if they give 90 percent of their proits to their investors (who do not live locally), they are exempt from federal Income taxes. In addition, they pay almost no property tax in support of county government for local services. Let’s see. How does that add up? Barren hills; no con- tribution to the community through jobs, business, or taxes. Degradation of the land- scape through clearcutting, herbicides, burning. Increased pressure on state managed for- ests to produce income needed for local services. The question is: Why are we so quietly letting this happen? GWENDOLYN ENDICOTT Nehalem Police, irst I read the article “LaMear bears witness to a public health epidemic” (The Daily Astorian, July 21). It has to do with banning assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines. I am a widow in my late 70s. My husband had sev- eral guns, and we used to go hunting. I have always been against assault weap- ons until now. Here is the rea- son: Many local police depart- ments throughout our country now are equipped with com- bat-ready military hardware. According to The New York Times, former tools of com- bat — M-16 riles, grenade launchers, silencers and more — are ending up in local police departments, often without cit- izen knowledge (“War Gear 5A Flows to Police Departments,” June 8). According to Penta- gon data, police departments have received tens of thou- sands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition maga- zines; thousands of pieces of camoulage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft. Today, apparently, police shoot people and don’t know why. There has been a lot of that going on lately. They could easily blow us up with drones and say “whoops,” it was a mistake. They could blow up my walker and then shoot me while I am lying in the street facedown, my gray hair blowing in the wind, with my hands up. It is conceivable. When police give up their military hardware, the citizens can give up theirs. DIXIE GAINER Nehalem Dam lies W hy have Kurt Frisch, the Columbia River Estu- ary Study Taskforce (CREST) and the Skipanon Water Con- trol District been working so hard to hide the true impact of removing the Eighth Street dam? There are three differ- ent engineering reports critical of the applications CREST has submitted. These reports were not made available to the com- mission or the public. I am very disappointed by our local media, who continue to support CREST and the Skipanon Water Control Dis- trict while their wrongdoing is clear. The media has a profes- sional responsibility to report the facts. Questions that need to be answered: • What is the extent of CREST’s corruption? • Who knew about these reports, and when? • Who is involved in hiding and lying to this commission and the public? • Why are whistle blowers on this issue being attacked? I look forward to a com- plete investigation regard- ing the dam, and to make sure that all wrongdoers are held accountable. PAT O’GRADY Astoria S A Y G O O D B Y E to Steve Forrester WEL C O M E David Pero Come to The Daily Astorian 5 – 7 pm • Wednesday • August 3 Light refreshments S E E I N G YO U T H R O U G H A L L O F YO U R V I S I O N N E E D S At our Astoria clinic, exper t treatment is always right at hand. From comprehensive eye care to cataract surger y to our newly expanded optical shop, our team of providers is here to ser ve you. Call 5 03 33 8 - 3 8 03 to make an appointment or visit www.ohsu .edu /astoria. T HE D AIL Y A STORIAN