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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 19, 2016)
11A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2016 Astoria: City went on demolition binge between 1965 and 1974 Continued from Page 1A On the city’s north slope, for example, pedestrians will encounter dark brass rings set into concrete curbs. These are horse rings, once used to tie the reins of horses. In some spots, portions of old brick streets remain. The 1300 block of Franklin Avenue, Goodenberger said, may represent a compromise between horse-drawn vehicles and automobiles: The cen- ter of the street was laid with brick for the animals, while the sides were paved for cars. “We’re talking about really, really, really small things,” he said. “But it also does matter, because our homes and our cities are alike: The loss of small parts can add up quickly.” Oral history The value of historic pres- ervation extends beyond phys- ical structures. A town’s oral history and urban legends, which can reveal a crucial context for what took place there, are also important. Growing up in Astoria, Goodenberger heard tales of a Chinese encampment in the nearby forest. Some folks said that on a spring day, a hiker could still smell the herbs and vegetables growing in a Chi- nese garden. Though Chinese immi- grants settled in Astoria, Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian John Goodenberger delivers his presentation, “Overlooked Astoria,” at the Historic Landmarks Commission meeting. they were not welcomed wholeheartedly. “Back in the 1920s, we ran many of our Chinese out of town,” Goodenberger said. A handful of them led to the hills above Astoria. About a decade ago, while he was working on a document for the city listing Astoria’s historic resources, Gooden- berger decided to track down the rumored encampment. He knew the general area where the camp would have been situated and, after a failed attempt to ind it unac- companied, explored the area with a city employee. On their hands and knees, they crawled through the underbrush, looking for arti- facts. Eventually, they found part of a Chinese tea cup and other tell-tale objects. (The Komodo dragon rumored to roam the area to the present day was not discovered.) “We were able — we think — to locate about where (the encampment) is,” Gooden- berger said. He and the city don’t make a habit of revealing the archaeological site’s where- abouts to the public, lest peo- ple start raiding it. Vigilance This may not seem like a lesson Astorians would need to learn. But this is the same city that went on a demoli- tion binge between 1965 and 1974. During this period, the city of Astoria demolished, or compelled property owners to demolish, more than 150 problematic buildings to pre- vent the struggling commu- nity from becoming an eye- sore-ridden ghost town. Goodenberger, who teaches a course in historic preservation at Clatsop Com- munity College, said it is easy to justify demolishing or removing an old building when the community’s mind- set declares: “‘There are so many others like it,’ ‘It just doesn’t have any value,’ or ‘No one will miss it when it’s gone.’” “We have a choice: We can be mindful of our homes and our neighborhoods, maintain its character and character-de- ining elements; we can sup- port and promote codes and ordinances which protect our assets; we can vote for candi- dates who share these values, but we must be vigilant — or not,” he said. “Should we choose to ignore our historic resources, so will everyone else,” he con- tinued. “Potential industry, investors, small business, new residents and the next genera- tion will, as well. And we will simply be overlooked.” Port: Knight said Port hadn’t budgeted $129,000 a year for property Continued from Page 1A Commissioner James Campbell said he has seen the property do nothing over the past 50 or so years. “The property will be there for another 1,000 years, and probably nothing will be developed on it,” he said. Although he voted “yes,” Commissioner Stephen Ful- ton said Oregon LNG should still be paying its lease and supporting the Common School Fund, a statewide educational fund supported by the state’s land leases. He said the Port should have investigated assigning the lease back to the state and letting them handle Oregon LNG. “I think staff has got something up their sleeve regarding this property that they’re not telling us,” he said. Fulton referenced an arti- cle in The Daily Astorian in which Knight discussed the possibility of Bonneville Power Administration pay- ing to build higher, federally certiied levees farther inland in Warrenton, creating more off-stream salmon habitat to offset the impacts of the agency’s hydroelectric dam system. The BPA inances such restoration projects, many of them overseen by the Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce. Knight has said he irst learned of the idea from Fulton, who works on wet- lands issues for Warrenton Fiber Co. Fulton is one of the Port’s representatives on the task force’s council of gov- ernments. But he has clashed with the group, whose chair- man, Scott Lee, has ques- Trial: ‘You have to look at it scientiically.’ Continued from Page 1A Wing, who pleaded guilty in January to irst-de- gree manslaughter and two counts of irst-degree crim- inal mistreatment, testiied last week. In exchange for testifying against Roden, she will receive a plea deal that brings her prison sentence down from a life sentence to approximately 15 years. An autopsy found the tod- dler died of battered child syn- drome with blunt force trauma to her head. But Roden’s attor- ney, Conor Huseby, argues that Dorothy Wing caused her daughter’s death through abuse, along with compli- cations from the lesh-eat- ing virus methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infec- tion, which was found on the children. Huseby has sought to have the case dismissed because signs of the infection were never investigated. On Tuesday, Huseby called Dr. Janice Ophoven, a Minne- sota-based pediatric forensic pathologist hired by defense attorneys to provide expert testimony. Ophoven argued that while Evangelina Wing sustained abuse and neglect, she ultimately succumbed to septicemia, in which a bacte- rial infection enters the blood stream. Taskforce. Commissioners Fulton and Hunsinger have been critical of the group. During public comment Tuesday, local business- man Pat O’Grady pointed to a report by the city of War- renton’s lawyer Akin Blitz that raised questions about the task force’s work on the Eighth Street Dam. • The commission voted 3-2 in a largely decorative motion to ratify Knight’s recent decision to accept $390,000 from Bornstein Seafoods in exchange for collateral the agency held in the company’s former ish cannery, now Buoy Beer Co. The commission approved the swap in September 2013, but Bornstein Seafoods had not delivered the money until May. The collateral was to help cover a $10.5 million loan the Port took out from the state in the mid-2000s to help Bornstein build a new ish plant on the cen- tral waterfront. Hunsinger and Fulton, who called for the motion, claim Knight sidestepped the commission in his decision to accept the money. s m a r g o m m Ma ! s e v i l save AP Photo/Ross William Hamilton Dr. Janice Ophoven, speaks to the jury at Clackamas County Circuit Court in Oregon City in 2009. lesions and the heart mus- cles, on which abscesses were found. CMH Imaging Services at 503-338-7525 to schedule your next mammogram. Is this trauma? Burns or lesions? Ophoven disagreed with the state’s autopsy, argu- ing that some of the marks on Evangelina Wing and her brothers identiied as burns were actually lesions from impetigo, a highly contagious skin infection that causes red sores. “In my opinion, these chil- dren were literally covered with these open sores that were infected with bacteria,” she said. If bacteria enters the blood stream from such sores, she said, the toxins they create can inhibit the body’s ability to maintain blood pressure. tioned whether Fulton serves the Port or Warrenton Fiber. Knight said there was nothing up his sleeves, and that the Port had not bud- geted for the $129,000 a year for the Skipanon property. He has also previously said the Port has no legitimate argu- ment against Oregon LNG in a lawsuit, which the agency risked by refusing to termi- nate the lease. In other business: • The commission could decide at a Nov. 1 workshop whether to leave the Colum- bia River Estuary Study Evangelina Wing “Children will eventually get to a condition known as irreversible shock,” Ophoven said. The shock causes the body to lose consciousness, she said, and stops circulation to the brain. “Once you enter irreversible shock, you’re probably going to be gone within a couple hours or so.” Ophoven said the autopsy should have considered infec- tious causes of death, tak- ing more samples from the Under questioning by Dep- uty District Attorney Ron Brown, who is leading the prosecution, Ophoven said her last autopsy was in 2009. She said her last autopsy in a suspected child homicide was in the 1990s. Brown also pointed to an autopsy per- formed by Ophoven in the 1980s in which she concluded a child died of natural causes, before the mother later admit- ted that her boyfriend suffo- cated the child. Brown led Ophoven through a series of photos showing the marks on the bodies of Evangelina Wing and her two brothers, ask- ing her if it looked like signs of trauma. Ophoven said she agreed there was child abuse, and that trauma played a part in Evangelina Wing’s injuries and death. But she maintained that the toxic bacteria entering the blood stream and leading to irreversible shock caused her death. There should have been an infectious autopsy performed, she said, looking at things under a microscope instead of with the naked eye. “You have to look at it scientiically. We (forensic pathologists) are not supposed to speculate.” Saving lives, One person at a time. 5 Things To Tell a Friend October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month 1. Your two greatest risk factors for breast cancer are being a woman and getting older. 2. Get screened. Finding breast cancer early and receiving treatment will increase your chance of surviving breast cancer. • 20-40 years old: Get a clinical breast exam every three years from your doctor. Talk to your doctor about self exams. • 40 years and older: Get a mammogram and a clinical breast exam from your doctor every year. 3. Practice self care. 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