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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 2017)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JUNE 5, 2017 NBA FINALS Curry, Durant lead Warriors to 2-0 lead By JANIE MCCAULEY Associated Press OAKLAND, Calif. — Ste- phen Curry dribbled every which way and ran a circle around LeBron James, then drove left through the paint and beat him to the rim for a right- handed layup over the star’s outstretched arm in a move reminiscent of his recent MVP magic. Steve Kerr got a front- row seat again for the show, delighted to be back on the bench witnessing those signa- ture moments he has seen so many times before. Kerr watched his Golden State Warriors grab a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals by downing the Cleveland Cavaliers 132-113 Sunday night in another rout, returning to the sideline with a warm welcome from the sellout crowd after a six-week absence. Their leader and reigning NBA Coach of the Year assum- UP NEXT: GAME 3 • Golden State Warriors (2-0) at Cleveland Cavaliers (0-2) • Wednesday, 6 p.m. TV: ABC ing his usual courtside seat, Curry received a special request from Kerr: “to play with pas- sion and play with joy,” Curry shared. “That’s what everyone wants to see, some of the best players in the world go against each other,” Klay Thomp- son said. “Steph made a great move, got by him and finished. That’s what he does.” Curry and Kevin Durant tag- teamed the Warriors within two victories of another champion- ship. Curry recorded his first career postseason triple-double with 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, while Durant con- tributed 33 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and five blocks and is suddenly on the cusp of his first ring. SPORTS 7A Oklahoma beats Oregon 4-2 to reach softball title series By CLIFF BRUNT Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY — The Women’s College World Series dream matchup is set. Shay Knighten singled in two runs in the fifth inning to help defending champion Oklahoma beat Oregon 4-2 on Sunday in the semifinals. The Sooners (59-9) will play top-seeded Florida on Monday night to start the best- of-three championship series. The teams have combined to win the past four national titles, but are meeting for the first time in the championship series. Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso has great respect for Florida’s program. “They’re good, well- coached, very complete team,” she said. “Again, we’re going to have to play really, really well, give all we’ve got, and we’re looking forward to it.” Paige Parker (26-5) earned the win and Paige Lowary got the save against Oregon. The Ducks would have Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman Oregon’s Danica Mercado, left, and Jenna Lilley walk off the field as Oklahoma celebrates following the Women’s College World Series softball game at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Sunday. needed to beat Oklahoma twice on Sunday, and for a while, it looked like they might at least force a second game. Danica Mercado’s two- run homer in the top of the fifth put the Ducks (54-8) up 2-0. Oregon’s Megan Kleist (21-4), who earned a win and a save in elimination games Saturday, took a shutout into the fifth against Oklahoma before unraveling. Oklahoma got its rally started when Lea Wodach reached on an error. She bunted, and though the ball was moving towards foul ter- ritory, Oregon catcher Gwen Svekis picked it up and made an errant throw to first. Wodach ended up on second. Oregon coach Mike White thought the ball went into foul territory, and he thinks there should be a way to find out. “One thing I’d like to see going forward, and I think this tournament has really illus- trated it, is the need for an instant replay, a need for the ability to make a challenge,” White said. “There’s been so many games decided by some calls that could have gone — I think were incorrect calls to be quite frank, and that made a big difference. This game is played at a high speed. Umpires are human. You should have the ability to chal- lenge a call.” Pinch runner Raegan Rog- ers stepped in for Wodach and scored on a fielder’s choice. Knighten then dropped the ball lightly into right field to score Nicole Mendes and Kelsey Arnold. Knighten had hoped to make better contact. “I’ll take it,” she said. “It worked. All I wanted to do was just put the ball in play, come into the right side, and just give my team a chance to score.” Building: Online debate showed tensions that exist in Astoria Continued from Page 1A uses it for dance and exercise classes and community events, said this idea was never com- municated directly to her. Webb said she was advised not to have contact with tenants while the sale of the building was pending. She and West have communicated about Webb’s plans, but West said she recently asked Webb not to contact her anymore. Naomi Pena, who owns Sea Gyspy Gifts in the build- ing, said Webb visited with her and the owners of Down- town Coffee Shop next door on Friday. Webb told them she had no intention of kicking out tenants, and that if she were interested in the spaces they occupy, she would offer to buy them out or help them find new locations. Pena said she wants to trust and believe Webb but would be more comfortable if she could get this promise in writ- ing. “Something we could bank on,” she said, thinking of the 25 artists represented in her store and their families. “I’m a single mom entre- preneur who wants to relo- cate her family here,” Webb told The Daily Astorian. “And that’s it. I’m on a budget, I need those rents. I can’t have those tenants leave and, what is more, I love all of those shops.” Petition circulates Since hearing about the pending sale of the building, tenants have worried about what it could mean for their future, and some in the com- munity have expressed con- cern about whether or not Astoria needs another bar and music venue. An online petition addressed to Webb and other potential buyers circulated throughout the community soon after word of the sale spread, seeking to “preserve local businesses, art and com- munity in Astoria’s historic Odd Fellows Building.” As of Friday, 537 people had signed it — not all of them from Asto- ria, but many of them either lifetime, longtime or recent residents of the city. “Although we understand that real estate changes hands and new owners may do what they wish with their property, we also believe that communi- ties have a voice that deserves to be heard — in particular regarding what is best for the community itself,” the petition stated. An article about the pend- ing sale in The Daily Asto- rian, and an item about the online petition and back- lash against Webb in Willa- mette Week, prompted a fierce debate online about gentrifica- tion. The discussion showed the tensions that exist in Asto- ria between protecting the city’s historic character and gritty self-image and nurturing a tourism-friendly economy. ‘Sense of space’ Webb said she grew up in a small community in the San Juan Islands in Washington state. “ … We’ve always been fighting to save our sense of space,” she said, “and I abso- lutely get that and feel that and I respect the way that … the scrutiny that I’m coming under.” She said she later moved to Seattle and established a business there and said she was heavily involved in the community. The city changed, quickly. “Seattle got so big so fast, and I moved to this vibrant city full of artists and it was grunge rock Seattle and it was excit- ing,” she said. “It went from grunge rock Seattle to Bill Gates Seattle and everybody got a haircut and put on a business shirt.” The cost of living went up and Webb said she wasn’t able to afford to buy a building up there. She said she moved to Port- land and saw the same story play out again. “When I moved to Port- land, I was escaping that,” she said. “And Portland broke my heart in the same way Seattle has.” She has since moved to Oregon City, but, she said, “I can see that Oregon City is becoming a lot like Port- land, and all of the surround- ing traffic nightmare and the growth of Portland is coming into Oregon City. That’s hard for me. I grew up in a fishing family. I love the waterfront. And Astoria is, in my opinion, the most special place on the Oregon Coast. It has the most history. I am obsessed with the history.” Commentators Online, commentators have latched onto statements Webb made on her Facebook page in April and May, including where she joked about being crowned “Queen of Asto- ria” and called the Odd Fel- lows Building’s ballroom “unloved.” “A lot of my remarks about it being romantic and dreamy and bringing my friends and my artists friends from Port- land, it’s hard to watch your friends work constantly and not be able to afford to live in the city that they loved,” Webb said. “That’s difficult and peo- ple are being displaced, and a lot of them will end up here, and ultimately, we don’t get to say who those people are. But I wanted my friends and creative people to be with me, for sure. I did — I still do — and I think all of those people are active in their community, they’re givers, they’re caring people like I am.” She said she wants to be in a community where people know each other. “I would be arrogant if I said I know what Astoria needs,” she said. “The com- munity knows what it needs and I’m anxious to be a part of the community. I definitely think there should be a lot of scrutiny with the sales of buildings in the downtown.” Before settling on Odd Fel- lows, Webb said she looked at a number of buildings downtown. “This isn’t a new thing,” she said. “I’ve been trying to relocate to Astoria for a long time.” Wood: Parks help ‘recharge our batteries’ Continued from Page 1A Paris Achen/Capital Bureau Nicole Maher, left, president of Northwest Health Founda- tion, interviews Gov. Kate Brown during the Portland City Club’s Friday Forum at the Sentinel Hotel in Portland. Gov. Brown: Democrats push for commercial activity tax on corporations Continued from Page 1A “I don’t think that is my approach. I think it is criti- cally important that we all have really good access to a good public education because I see education as an elevator. It enables us all to rise,” Brown said. When pressed by inter- viewer Nicole Maher, presi- dent of the Northwest Health Foundation, about shortcom- ings in Oregon’s education funding formula, the gover- nor said now is not the time to fix it. “It’s really hard to change a funding formula when we don’t have enough resources coming in,” Brown said. “… I think our first priority as a state must be to get more resources into our education system as a whole. Then I think we can have that con- versation about the funding formula.” The Ways and Means subcommittee on educa- tion approved a $8.2 billion biennial budget for kinder- garten through high school on Thursday. Oregon educa- tion officials have said that amount will require reduc- tions in staff, programs and school days. Democrats in the Legis- lature are pushing for a com- mercial activity tax on cor- porations that could help boost education funding for the state’s next budget for 2017-2019. “I took a trip to the Grand Canyon when I was in col- lege and it was a very central moment in my life, that really kinda set the course for a lot of things. (It was) over five days down in the canyon with a good group of friends when the Hale Bopp comet was cir- cling. And it really gave me a better sense of what I wanted to do. It was working parks, whatever way I could. My academic adviser in college was actually well-known in the field of (park) interpreta- tion. He got me my first job with Wind Cave National Park. I was also an interpre- tive ranger in the Black Hills of South Dakota and loved it.” What does your job at the park consist of on a normal day? “What’s a normal day? And that’s one thing I love about my job, it’s so diversified. On paper, I’m responsible for vol- unteers at the LCIC, out at the North Head Lighthouse and the Fort Columbia Interpretive Center, which are open sea- sonally. I also coordinate the Waikiki Beach concert series. This will be our 12th summer, and we’ve only ever had to cancel one show. It’s a really unique opportunity to provide in a park setting, especially in the setting we have. You’re staring out the mouth of the Columbia River. And when the weather is nice, when the sun comes in at those angles, it’s just magic. It’s like from 7 to 8:30 and it’s just that magic light hour, especially in June. It meets the mission of what it was originally intended to do — bring more locals into the park.” I get the sense that you love your job, and you previ- ously told me that your pas- sion these days is “ensuring that people leave the park with a smile, and see the value in all that parks do — especially kids.” I was won- dering what you personally do to help accomplish that? “I try and do my job to the best of my ability as my job was intended to be done. Create positive, memora- ble experiences. Just be avail- able. (Parks) recently issued us flat hats (Smokey Bear hats). When we get busy on week- ends, when the weather is nice, I like to say, ‘it’s a good day to go walk around in the “flatty,”’ and just go walk around. It’s amazing what that hat does from a public perception. Peo- ple see you so much easier. And when you get people and look them in the eye, it goes a long way. That’s an expec- tation people have when they come to a park.” Parks are constantly in financial trouble and don’t receive the kind of govern- mental support they once did. Why do you think parks are so important? “Parks offer everyone, in some aspect, the opportunity to walk away from their day- to-day existence and breathe, walk around, listen to the birds, lose yourself in a forest. What- ever it may be. Parks offer us a break, literally. They give us a chance to kind of escape every- thing that might be weighing us down. Recharge our batter- ies as much as we can, before we have to go back and face the music again. That’s one thing I’ve discovered in parks, for myself. From a very young age there was a city park that I loved that had a little stream and patch of woods. And I could just forget about school, chores, home life. Parks offer that. And while parks have been called America’s best idea — I mean America has had a lot of great ideas — this is definitely one of them. And it’s worth fighting for.” I know that you have done some acting, is that what originally appealed to you about doing living history? “Absolutely. It’s funny, when I interviewed for Wash- ington State Parks I did this little five minute bit that I had created — which I don’t do anymore because it is in no way historically accurate. It was loosely based off of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow (his character from the ‘Pirates’ movies). And I would also be myself (like a split personal- ity). And I was telling the his- torically factual story of Rob- ert Grey finding the Columbia River. And then I’d pull out this little paisley rag and I would become John Boyt, this low-raking mate (on the Grey ship) and I would employ this character. It turned a few heads, for good or ill. I enjoyed the opportunity that living his- tory gave me. Living history is a very difficult program to pull off, because you need to have a few pieces in play. You need people to kind of set the stage so that hopefully you don’t get those hecklers. It does make you think on your feet and be witty and somehow work your way through it. But it takes a lot out of you by the end of the day.” You used to perform as a living historian at the North head Lighthouse, what character did you play and how did you land on that character? “Carl Leick was the archi- tect of the North Head Light- house, and was an architect with the 13th district of the United States Lighthouse Ser- vice, so he designed light- houses in Alaska, Washing- ton and Oregon. This was at a time when they were build- ing a lot of lighthouses, so his signature is on so many in the Northwest. Before I chose my major of park management in college, I studied architec- ture for about two years. And I’m still fascinated by it, but it was not something I could do for a profession. I put in the research and came to really appreciate the man. Before he designed lighthouses, he was an architect in private prac- tice and designed the Flavel House (in Astoria). That’s one of what many would consider his crowning achievements. I saw a master. Someone who had honed their craft to this razor sharp edge. And I was really drawn to that creative genius.” If you were recruit- ing someone to work for parks, what would your pitch be? “There would be some harsh truths. You’re not going to get rich doing this so you better enjoy it. But if there’s even a scrap of you that enjoys it, I think you’ll find that it’s a very redeem- ing line of work. I can, most of the time, feel pretty good at the end of the day for the work that I’ve done. Also, be ready to work with people. If we don’t have people coming to parks, then we’re a wildlife refuge or something. Parks and people go hand in hand. That goes back to its original allure for me.” — Damian Mulinix
