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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 22, 2016)
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2016 144TH YEAR, NO. 37 ONE DOLLAR Seaside, Hood to Coast hope for brand-new start After calamitous year, organizers want blue skies By KATHERINE LACAZE For EO Media Group SEASIDE — Hood to Coast organiz- ers and city offi cials are crossing their fi n- gers this year. High winds and rains all but stymied last year’s Hood to Coast, a treacherous mess when winds of up to 85 mph hit the North Coast. Some tents were completely knocked over. O rganizers were forced to cancel the traditional fi nish party on the beach . Runners crossed the fi nish line, but the storms continued. The Seaside City Council threatened to sever ties to the 200-mile relay event after complaints of bad behavior and traf- fi c nightmares. Dozens of local business owners signed a letter expressing discontent “that the overall impact of hosting this massive event during the busy summer tourist sea- sons is negative.” Organizers made it clear they could not accommodate a date change, and their only alternative was to alter the route so the race ended in a different city. Not EO Media Group/File Photo See HOOD TO COAST, Page 10A The scene on the beach after high winds dismantled the Hood to Coast stage and tents last year. BLIND PILOT ROARS AT LIBERTY THEATER Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Blind Pilot played their new album, “And Then Like Lions,” during sold-out shows Friday and Saturday in Astoria’s Liberty Theater. From left to right are bassist Luke Ydstie, trum- peteer and keyboardist Dave Jorgensen, lead singer Israel Nebeker, drummer Ryan Dobrowski, percussionist Ian Krist and multi-instrumentalist Kati Claborn. The Daily Astorian Hometown indie folk band Blind Pilot packed the Liberty Theater Friday and Saturday, playing their third album, “And Then Like Lions,” released earlier this month. ¶ The performance kicked off a nationwide tour for the band and was part of the Liberty Theater’s Sunset Series, an effort to attract younger audiences with independent folk, pop and rock acts. The series will run once a month, with acts announced on astoriasunsetseries.com ‘White Out’: Talking about race is still a challenge Professor prompts lively exchanges By LYRA FONTAINE The Daily Astorian Lyra Fontaine/The Daily Astorian Willamette University associate professor Emily Drew encourages the au- dience to discuss racial diversity at the Astoria Library event. Talking about race can be dif- fi cult, but uncomfortable discus- sions were encouraged at the Asto- ria Library on Friday. Emily Drew, a Willamette Uni- versity associate professor in sociol- ogy, led a community conversation “White Out? The Future of Racial Diversity in Oregon,” hosted by the Lower Columbia Diversity Proj- ect and Astor Family Friends Asso- ciation and sponsored by Oregon Humanities. Discussion prompts from Drew — such as what people are willing to do to interrupt systematic rac- ism — led to lively exchanges about personal experiences or challenges dealing with race. Both history and recent events informed the conversations. Over the summer , police shootings of Afri- can-American men — and attacks on police — have led to unrest . “If we’re going to survive as a country, we have to start looking at institutionalized racism,” said Astoria City Councilor Drew Her- zig, a leader in the Lower Columbia Diversity Project, which recently prepared a brochure on what to do when stopped by police. “There’s no avoiding it … If you’re a person of color and you get pulled over, you could die.” Race after the Civil Rights era lynching was a spectacle, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote the problem of the next century would be “the problem of the color line.” The U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Fergu- son made racial segregation lawful under the “separate but equal” doc- trine until 1954. Drew said racism today is illegal, but institutionalized. “Racism isn’t just the egregious racial rhetoric of politicians; it isn’t just the poisoning of water in Port- land public schools, disproportion- ately schools that people of color go to,” Drew said. “It is actually about a system in place that we all collude in and participate in.” Drew said past approaches to solving racism — 1980s multicultur- alism and 1990s “colorblindedness” More than 100 years ago, when See ‘WHITE OUT’, Page 10A From looking backward to making things happen Marketer makes his home in Cannon Beach C ANNON BEACH — Though he moved to Can- non Beach just last summer, Kevan Ridgway is already a key part of the local business community. For more than 20 years, Ridgway was president and CEO of a regional destination marketing organization for Van- couver, British Columbia . His job included helping organiza- tions, such as different market- ing groups in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, work together to achieve goals — like a hotel tax to fund tourism initiatives. Now, as the Cannon Beach Chamber of Commerce mar- keting committee chairman, Ridgway hopes to bring some of that cooperation to festivals and events. “When you look at those doing promotional work, they’re all using Cannon Beach in dif- ferent ways,” Ridgway said. “We need a solid brand that we can all get behind.” The committee is also expanding its marketing to social media — including posts by visitors themselves. The c hamber’s market- ing committee uses a plan that focuses on visitors, not busi- nesses, Ridgway said The “visitor economy” is an important part of Cannon Beach, he said, but the mar- keting plan takes residents into account as well. “One of the other key princi- ples is we won’t do anything for tourism that isn’t good for our residents,” he said. Ridgway is also a c ham- ber board member and trea- surer for the Cannon Beach Arts Association. He owns a small business, Minds Aligned, which provides consulting and marketing services to tourism industry clients. Ridgway was born near Coventry, England. “I still support Coventry C ity football,” he said of the soccer team. “I can watch three football matches on a Saturday.” He misses pub culture, which did not revolve around drinking when he was growing up. “It was where all the families congregated,” he said. “When you went to the pub with your mum and dad, the kids had a play area. It became a real fam- ily outing.” See RIDGWAY, Page 10A Kevan Ridgway