OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Astoria should
re-examine the
parks master plan
A
storia city councilors made two smart moves this week in
taking steps to provide stable funding for the Parks and
Recreation Department. Their work, however, isn’t over.
For years, the parks department has been underfunded while
its costs and responsibilities increased and its staff downsized.
That dynamic came to a head earlier this year when the city had
to transfer $100,000 from other areas for parks operations, and
then more recently with continued maintenance complaints about
Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton, which Astoria owns and
the parks department maintains. A Warrenton city commissioner
recently described the cemetery’s conditions as “shameful.”
Astoria city staff had told the City Council the cash-strapped
parks department needs at least $425,000 to sustain it going for-
ward in what they called a “life-raft scenario,” and had advocated
closing the popular Astoria Aquatic Center and shutting down
sports programs if the council couldn’t provide the money.
The decisions
With a standing-room only crowd Monday night at City Hall
and two options on the table for additional funding, Astoria coun-
cilors chose to raise the city’s lodging tax from 9 percent to 11
percent. They also postponed making a decision on whether
to impose a fee on water customers of $3 a month and instead
adopted a plan to seek voluntary donations that will also be used
for parks programs and maintenance.
Both decisions were smart. The lodging tax increase, which
will begin in January, is expected to generate $411,000 and is
borne primarily by visitors, and the donations from residents could
raise the rest of the money while the council ponders other short-
and long-term funding and examines efficiency options.
Although the city has a parks master plan, it should be
re-examined.
What’s happened over the years is that the department has had
to do more with less and it can no longer do that. The parks bud-
get has been cut from 12 percent of the general fund to its cur-
rent 7 percent level even though its maintenance responsibilities
increased with additional park acquisitions. The city now has 69
parks sites, including the cemetery. It maintains them with a small,
overburdened crew. Those sites contain more than 300 acres of
park land, 11 miles of trails and multiple facilities including the
Aquatic Center. Parks staff also organize and oversee a variety of
recreational events and programs.
The cemetery
At the cemetery, the department is charged with preparing full
and cremation burials, disinterment services, selling graves, locat-
ing graves and caring for the
grounds. Since 2013, there
hasn’t been a full-time worker
‘We really
assigned to it, and mainte-
need to look
nance has drawn repeated com-
at how this
plaints from loved ones about
overgrown conditions around
happened
its plots, which is especially
and how we
troubling.
Established in 1897, the cem-
avoid this
etery includes more than 16,000
happening in
plots across 100 acres. Perpetual
care of the gravesites is guar-
the future. We
anteed as part of the cemetery
don’t want
deed purchase. An oddity is
to be back
that while everyone in Clatsop
County is able to use the cem-
here in two
etery, none of the other cit-
years having
ies or the county contribute to
its maintenance, Astoria City
the same
Manager Brett Estes said.
discussion.’
The city funds cemetery
maintenance through interest
Bruce Jones
from an irreducible fund to pro-
Astoria city councilor
vide perpetual care. That money
is augmented by taxpayer dol-
lars to supplement what the interest doesn’t cover.
When city councilors re-examine the parks plan, it would be a
worthwhile discussion to consider whether the upkeep of the cem-
etery should continue to be a service of the parks department or
a different department such as public works, or even whether the
cemetery maintenance should be outsourced to a private company.
No matter what option is chosen, a contract is a contract and the
gravesites deserve better care.
As for the overall parks department, City Councilor Bruce
Jones was right Monday when he said, “We really need to look at
how this happened and how we avoid this happening in the future.
We don’t want to be back here in two years having the same
discussion.”
Councilors should heed Jones’ suggestion and begin that
re-examination.
TV’s wonderful women
Wikimedia Commons
Shailene Woodley, left, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman starred in HBO’s “Big Little Lies.”
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
I
worship Charlize Theron, the
“Atomic Blonde” trailer is a
hoot, and I love the story she
keeps sharing with
interviewers about
training so hard for
the fight scenes that
she cracked several
teeth.
But please stop
telling me that
“Atomic Blonde,” on the heels of
“Wonder Woman,” amounts to some
hinge moment for movies, which are
henceforth going to shower us with
female action leads. I’ve heard that
joke too many times before.
Let’s talk instead about all the
wonderful women — brawlers,
bawlers, schemers, dreamers — on
the small screen, a nickname that we
have to retire because television is
proving infinitely bigger in spirit and
more in tune with the moment than
most of the loud schlock shoveled
into multiplexes.
And let’s trade the usual, sadly
necessary outrage about how poorly
a given group of Americans is being
represented for a hearty cheer about
some heartening progress.
The Emmy nominations came out
last week, and they affirmed not only
that television is indeed enjoying a
golden age but also that part of that
is its juicy opportunities for female
actors. In terms of gender parity, it
puts corporate America, the Trump
administration and the U.S. Senate
to shame.
A Times television critic, James
Poniewozik, pointed to the “mur-
derers’ row” of actresses nominated
for best lead performance in a
limited series: Jessica Lange and
Susan Sarandon in “Feud: Bette
and Joan,” Reese Witherspoon and
Nicole Kidman in “Big Little Lies,”
Carrie Coon in “Fargo” and Felicity
Huffman in “American Crime.”
Five of them are over 40. Two
(Lange and Sarandon) are over 60,
playing roles that speak expressly
to sexist double standards and the
derision women face if they do
something as audacious as age in the
limelight.
Yes, there’s a negative spin on
this: Why have Lange, Sarandon,
Witherspoon and Kidman, all win-
ners of the best actress Oscar, fled to
television?
Also, the disproportionate crowd
of men nominated in the writing and
directing categories this year sug-
gests that despite the recent successes
of such female writers, directors and
show runners as Shonda Rhimes
(“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal”),
Lena Dunham (“Girls”) and Jill
Soloway (“Transparent,” “I Love
Dick”), women still don’t get enough
opportunities behind the camera.
But television is hardly a last-re-
sort medium anymore. And what’s
happening in front of the camera
really does warrant celebration.
Often, in the wake of Oscar
nominations, there’s talk about how
tough it was to fill the five slots in
the best actress category credibly.
Emmy categories accommodate
six or seven nominees, and the
chatter this year focused on how
many deserving women couldn’t be
squeezed in. No Dunham for “Girls,”
no Oprah Winfrey for “The Immortal
Life of Henrietta Lacks,” no Claire
Danes for “Homeland” and no crime
in any of that, because there was so
much else that deserved — and got
— recognition.
To compare the nominees for best
supporting actor and best supporting
actress in a comedy series is to
be reminded that women rule the
“Saturday Night Live” roost. From
that show, only one recurring male
performer, Alec Baldwin, got an
acting nod, while three female per-
formers — Kate McKinnon, Vanessa
Bayer and Leslie Jones — did.
It’s not just that actresses are
giving television’s greatest perfor-
mances but that many of the top-tier
shows — “The Handmaid’s Tale,”
“Better Things” — tackle gender-re-
lated issues.
The most recent season of
“House of Cards” was in some
ways about the tricky algebra of
effacement, assertion, subservience
and ingenuity behind many women’s
paths to power. It ended (spoiler
alert!) with two triumphant words
from Claire Underwood, played by
Robin Wright, that pointedly evoked
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign:
“My turn.”
There’s a world of fascinating
women and fierce actresses on tele-
vision now. Britain, which long ago
conjured the miracle of Helen Mirren
in “Prime Suspect,” recently tripled
down with the messy, mesmerizing
sleuths played by Sarah Lancashire
in “Happy Valley,” Gillian Anderson
in “The Fall” and Anna Friel in
“Marcella.”
And finally, this week, the pro-
ducers of the BBC series “Doctor
Who” announced that the role of the
Doctor, which has changed hands
repeatedly over decades, would next
be played by a woman, actress Jodie
Whittaker. That’s a first.
But to watch Lancashire in
“Happy Valley,” Lange in “Feud” or
Viola Davis in “How to Get Away
With Murder” isn’t to applaud social
justice. It’s to savor phenomenal
artistry. Television proves what has
been observed about all walks of life:
For the best talent, cast the net wide
and don’t ignore any of the available
pools.
Theron long ago worked on a
movie with Tom Hanks, who signed
her script with words that, she told
Variety, “I bet he’s eating.” They
were these: “Promise me you’ll
never do television.”
I want her to promise that she’ll
do lots of television. She’ll get meat-
ier parts that way, and might not even
need dental work afterward.
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