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