OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
OUR VIEW
Trolley fare too
much of a bargain
T
he Astoria Riverfront Trolley is one of the city’s signature
attractions, one that adds to Astoria’s ambiance even
for those who never set foot in Old 300, the well-loved
103-year-old matron of the system. It’s important to chart a sensi-
ble business strategy that will keep it running long into the future.
Charging $1 a ride is not going to cut it any longer. Just as leg-
acy phone operators no doubt felt it was traumatic to boost the
cost of a local pay phone call from a dime to a quarter in the
1980s, volunteer conductors are attached to the simplicity of a
buck a ride. But the system’s long-term survival — including
building a fund for major maintenance and replacement of trolley
components and infrastructure — must take precedence over this
particular tradition.
San Francisco cable cars currently charge $7 a ride, a sum that
has not caused rebellion or loss of ridership. It is, admittedly, a
much different operation than Astoria’s, for example paying con-
ductors an annual average of $70,548. However, the ability to
offer even some compensation during Astoria’s peak tourist sea-
son — something a higher fare might allow — would go quite
some way toward addressing the chronic need for more drivers.
A higher fare, coupled with other possible steps like partner-
ship with local civic groups and businesses, will keep the trolley
charming guests and residents for many decades to come.
Immigration reform
remains necessary
I
mmigrants around the mouth of the Columbia River and their
employers are expressing increasing anxiety about Trump
administration rhetoric on deportations. It’s important to place
these worries in context, separating truth from myth as the nation
feels its way forward toward a new equilibrium on this most
fraught of issues.
Some Northwest coastal industries are more reliant than oth-
ers on immigrant workers. But it’s fair to say first-generation
Americans — documented and undocumented — are widely dis-
persed within our economy. Agriculture, shellfish and the hospi-
tality sector particularly depend on hardworking immigrants. In
some instances, these jobs pay considerably better than minimum
wage, but have undesirable hours or working conditions that don’t
appeal to native-born Americans with wider options.
While there are few indications that last Thursday’s “A Day
Without Immigrants” jobs walk-off resulted in serious business
disruptions in the Columbia-Pacific counties, there’s no doubt
that permanent removal of these workers and their families would
have serious negative impacts.
Is there reason to be concerned about such a disruption?
Rumors to the contrary, there has so far been little match
between the intensity of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant
language and on-the-ground actions by U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. For exam-
We must
ple, in the week of Feb. 5-11, ICE
says it arrested 680 individuals in
find ways to
“targeted enforcement operations.”
address labor
None of these publicized arrests
occurred in Oregon, Washington
needs while
state or elsewhere in the Pacific
making sure
Northwest. (There may have been
we know and
other minor arrests here that ICE
doesn’t consider to be a “commu-
control who
nity arrest,” the kind of large-scale
enters the
bust that creates a corresponding
level of hard feelings.)
country.
The 680 number is remark-
ably consistent with the number of such arrests made in President
Barack Obama’s first year in office — 675 a week. However,
Trump’s order targets even those who violated a misdemeanor
law against crossing the border illegally, while Obama focused on
immigrants convicted of serious crimes, those considered threats
to national security, and recent arrivals.
It’s possible to believe the U.S. should regulate who comes
in and stays here, and yet also believe it would be inhumane and
economically self-sabotaging to kick out productive immigrants
who hold down jobs and raise kids here. Pragmatically, low-pop-
ulation counties like ours lack the excess workforce to fill the
vacancies that would be created by wholesale deportations. Even
with its undocumented immigrants, Clatsop County has close to
full employment.
There has to be a middle course.
Level-headed Republican and Democratic U.S. senators devel-
oped such a compromise years ago — a path to normalization for
immigrants committed to decent, long-term lives here. It’s time
for the nation’s business leaders to press our businessman presi-
dent to recognize the reality of this situation. We must find ways
to address labor needs while making sure we know and control
who enters the country.
GUEST COLUMN
Some never make it past
the emergency room
By JOSHUA MARQUIS
Special to The Daily Astorian
W
e have been too eager to
declare victory in a war
on drugs that never really
started.
A recent
editorial in The
Daily Astorian
correctly pointed to
the dismal state of
Oregon’s response
to deaths directly
caused by illegal drugs.
Another article chronicled the
sad journey of Dave and Kerry
Strickland, who lost their son,
Jordan, to heroin and have had the
courage to speak about a battle that
touches so many families.
Not coincidentally, another arti-
cle documented the rigors of getting
a new police officer on the road at
the Astoria Police Department.
While there has been some
progress, together the three articles
outline the imperative need for local
governments to even more effec-
tively and aggressively address drug
abuse and illegal drugs.
Over-prescription of some drugs
has been dramatically reduced.
Pseudoephedrine was a common
off-the-shelf cold medicine that
was also crucial to the manufacture
of methamphetamine — perhaps
the worst of all the drugs. Its
catastrophic health consequences
include near-immediate addiction
and psychotic behavior. Meth cooks
bought larges batches of the drug
from local stores, until Oregon
passed legislation making a doctor’s
prescription necessary for purchase.
The “Beavis and Butthead labs,”
as law enforcement called them,
declined to almost zero.
We assumed that meant meth
was gone. But that wasn’t so. Meth
now comes into the United States in
55-gallon drums from international
cartels.
The opiate that is killing people
now is heroin. Heroin used to cost
about $20 a dose and was far less
potent. Today it is sometimes laced
with illegally-imported quantities of
the super-potent fentanyl, another
opiate which has, when medically
administered, brought tremendous
relief to many (including my own
mother) who suffer from severe
chronic pain. “Recreational use” is
the most ironic of terms for fentan-
yl-laced heroin, which now sells
from $3 to $5 a dose and could be
potent enough to kill the first time.
And so, another geopolitical
aspect to our drug problems.
Many people addicted to drugs
don’t end up in the court system.
Some people never make it past the
emergency room. Clatsop County
is exceedingly fortunate to have
Dr. Joann Giuliani to serve as our
county’s medical examiner, not
only being on call literally 24/7,
but also working with police and
the community when tragedies like
opiate overdoses take someone’s
life. Often, she answers the difficult
questions families often have about
how their child died.
With heroin
and meth
being bigger
business than
ever, there is
no reason, and
no sense, in
not addressing
both the supply
and demand
sides of the
drug problem.
A solid drug policy would
address and provide: low-cost and
long-term mental health and drug
treatment; a law enforcement team
dedicated to drug enforcement; and
a practical, viable drug court backed
up by the potential of real sanctions
and real rewards. All three elements
need reinforcement.
Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare
has made real progress. Still, mental
health treatment is scarce, and
Clatsop County has no detox or
secure mental health beds. In-patient
drug treatment is operated entirely
by private providers and remains
out of reach for most without bet-
ter-than-average insurance.
The path to sobriety is not
easy, which is why we do not seek
revocation of the second chances
we extend on most drug possession
cases the first few times they admit
relapsing. But the threat of even
a few days in jail may prompt
someone to stay sober, to attend
treatment, and to make it to the next
stage in recovery. The people who
complete drug court graduate with
their case entirely dismissed.
After having founded Clatsop
County’s Drug Court, Judge
Philip Nelson has retired, turning
drug court over to our newest
judge, Dawn McIntosh. Because
of sentencing guidelines, which
judges are required to follow, it is
literally impossible for someone to
face prison for drug possession, no
matter how bad their record or how
many prior similar convictions they
have racked up.
Not that most drug addicts
belong in prison. Oregon has one
of the lowest rates of imprisoning
drug felons, at less than 10% of
the state prison population. There
is even a badly-conceived effort in
this legislative session to reduce all
possession cases from felonies to
misdemeanors, further minimizing
the actual harm done to users, their
family, and the community. If the
possibility of “earning away” a
possible felony conviction, even
without the threat of prison, is
further eroded, then we can expect
drug court applicants to dry to next
to zero, as they have in California
and other states that took this ill-ad-
vised step.
With heroin and meth being big-
ger business than ever, there is no
reason, and no sense, in not address-
ing both the supply and demand
sides of the drug problem.
The Clatsop County Drug
Team allows police to focus on
higher-level dealers, cutting off
the supply much more effectively.
It would have vanished long ago
but for the determination of Sheriff
Tom Bergin, who once ran the
team as a detective. In its best years
there were detectives from Astoria,
Seaside, the Sheriff’s Office, and
even the Oregon State Police.
Draconian budget cuts have worn
down the State Police for years and
took away OSP’s detective. The
years that Astoria Police participated
were among the most productive.
The City of Astoria should dedicate
an officer to the drug team, in addi-
tion to its current needs.
We owe it to Dave, Kerry and
Jordan Strickland, and the many
others who have suffered under
what The Daily Astorian called “this
blight,” to do these basic steps to
make Clatsop County a better place.
Joshua Marquis is the Clatsop
County district attorney.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Shared housing
n light of the recent discus-
sions around housing in Clatsop
County, I would like to put forth
an option, whose origins extend
back to neolithic times. Namely,
co-operative housing. Which can
be defined as three or more peo-
ple, unrelated by blood, who share
a domicile.
Astoria itself has a rich history
of boarding houses, which could be
considered a form of co-operative
housing. There are many very suc-
cessful examples of co-ops from
around the country we can look to,
from co-op apartment buildings in
Manhattan to co-operative mobile
home parks in Montana. Work-
ing people banding together to cre-
I
ate housing for themselves. Another
common example can be found in
student co-operatives, which have
been creating affordable housing on
campuses nationwide — from Bos-
ton to Eugene — for a century.
Shared housing has many bene-
fits. They can be set up with just a
handful of people, or be on a much
larger scale as seen on university
campuses with co-ops that house
30 or more students. When paired
with land trusts, co-ops can remove
property from the speculative real
estate market, thereby guarantee-
ing affordable worker housing into
the future. Within co-ops, residents
have a stake in the game, shared
ownership encourages stewardship
of the house — which can some-
times be lacking in rental units.
When properties come into the
possession of the county perhaps
we, as a community, might consider
using them as a resource to create
housing for our workers, rather than
auction them at below market rate
to investors.
I invite anyone who might be
interested in pursuing, or support-
ing, co-operative housing in Clat-
sop County to a brief event at Blue
Scorcher Bakery & Cafe from 5:30
to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. The goal
of the gathering is to define the
next steps in the pursuit of grass-
roots affordable housing in Clatsop
County.
IRIS SULLIVAN DAIRE
Astoria