OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Managing Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria, pictured here, and other cities on the North Coast have
struggled with housing.
Strategic steps
afoot to confront
housing crunch
W
hile the region’s housing crunch isn’t going away
anytime soon, several recent events show the North
Coast’s leaders are taking strategic steps to confront
it, regionally and in individual cities.
Last week, for instance, Clatsop County commissioners and
Seaside city councilors each made an impactful decision to join
a $100,000 regional housing study. The comprehensive study
can now proceed and will help all involved understand the type,
size, location and price of housing that the c ounty needs. Seaside
joined Astoria, Warrenton, Gearhart and Cannon Beach, each
signing on with a $10,000 pledge, and the county agreed to foot
the remaining $50,000. The report will be modeled after a study
previously conducted in Tillamook County and its recommenda-
tions have been credited with helping its leaders address some of
the same housing issues.
The regional initiative is an outcome of a rare, but much
needed summit on housing that came at the urging of County
Manager Cameron Moore. Although some may question why
the study is needed when each city has conducted other studies
of their own, none have had a broad, birds-eye view of the situ-
ation across the entire region. Taking a regional approach makes
perfect sense because individual cities can develop strategies
with a better picture of the overall region in mind. It also comes
at a comparatively bargain price for each.
As Jason Schermerhorn, the interim city manager for Cannon
Beach, said, “It’s not just a problem in this county, it’s statewide.
Being involved will help us have a broader idea on how to han-
dle it.”
At the same Seaside meeting, city councilors also agreed to
study system development charges, which are large fees devel-
opers pay the city to connect to essential services like water and
utilities. Developers often cite those charges as an impediment to
housing growth, and the fees in Seaside haven’t been reviewed
since 2008. Much has changed since then with increased housing
demand, infrastructure changes and population growth.
And in Warrenton, which has land available even with some
500 housing units either under construction or in the permitting
stages, city commissioners decided to raise building permit and
planning review fees, but only slightly with an average increase
of $57 per house. They also have given indications they may
look at Warrenton’s system development charges to ensure they
aren’t a barrier.
None of the actions are a solution to the crunch, but refl ect
movement rather than complacency. For the momentum to con-
tinue — and it must to fi nd solutions — it’s vitally important that
once the comprehensive study and the other reviews are com-
pleted that they don’t just sit on a shelf like old books gathering
dust. The recommendations will need close study to determine
what best can be done, and each city must continue taking steps
to remove barriers that may prevent solutions from rising.
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Spicer’s makeover
at the Emmys
Chris Pizzello/Invision
Sean Spicer speaks at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
I
’m an awards-show geek who
usually spends the morning after
the big event nattering about
who was unjustly
robbed, who was
unwisely dressed
and whether
it’s a felony in
Hollywood to
consume more than
300 calories a meal, because it sure
looks that way.
But not on Monday, because what
I and anyone else who tuned in to the
Emmys on Sunday night saw wasn’t
good fun. It was bad news — a ring-
ing, stinging confi rmation that fame
truly is its own reward and celebrity
really does trump everything and
redeem everyone.
Object of ridicule or object of
reverence: Is there a difference? Not
if you’re a proven agent of ratings
and likely to deliver more of them.
Our commander-in-chief took that
crude philosophy to heart and rode it
all the way to the White House. Sean
Spicer took a page from the president
and then a bow on the Emmys stage.
Not exactly a bow, and there
are Emmys production folks and
television industry fi gures who are
telling themselves that during his
fl eeting appearance at the ceremony,
Spicer was being slyly demeaned,
not sanitized.
What bunk. The message of his
presence was not only that we can all
laugh at his service and sycophancy
in the Trump administration, but that
he’s welcome to laugh with us.
For anyone who missed the
show or hasn’t caught wind of the
brouhaha since, Spicer came onto the
stage behind the kind of lectern that
Melissa McCarthy used in her imper-
sonations of him and told the Emmys
host, Stephen Colbert, “This will be
the largest audience to witness an
Emmys, period — both in person
and around the world.”
His words alluded, obviously, to
his fi ctitious claim — at his very fi rst
news conference as the White House
press secretary — about the crowds
for Trump’s inauguration. But that
claim wasn’t merely ludicrous. It was
precisely and perfectly emblematic
The embrace of Trump’s
alumni says that proximity
to power and widespread
exposure are accomplishments
in and of themselves and will
always pay off. One day you’re
trending on Twitter. The next
you’re at the Emmys.
of Trump’s all-out, continuing assault
on facts and on truth itself. And it
signaled Spicer’s full collaboration in
that war, which is arguably the most
dangerous facet of Trump’s politics.
Reportedly, Colbert himself had
the idea to include Spicer in the
Emmys, and that’s especially rich, as
the Brits like to say. On his late-night
talk show, Colbert has fl amboyantly
mined his ostensible contempt for
Trump and outrage over the presi-
dent’s misdeeds to fi nd a spark that
was missing from the program and a
viewership that had eluded it.
On top of which, it was Colbert,
years ago, who coined the term
“truthiness,” pointedly exposing
— and skewering — politicians’
self-servingly cavalier relationship
with reality.
Truthiness was a pale, wan fore-
bear of Trump’s pathology, distilled
in Spicer’s inauguration boast. But at
the Emmys, Colbert abetted Spicer’s
image overhaul and probably upped
Spicer’s speaking fees by letting him
demonstrate what a self-effacing
sport he could be. The moment went
viral, and I suppose that’s the point.
You grab the eyeballs however you
can. Trump taught America that, too.
This is bigger than any one
awards show. More than ever, some-
one who arouses curiosity or makes
you gape can monetize that as easily
as someone who inspires admiration
can profi t from your genuine regard.
Fascination comes in many shades,
and at this morally addled moment
in America, the bright ones and
the dark ones are almost equally
lucrative.
So Spicer and Anthony
Scaramucci and Corey Lewandowski
are all graduating to greater recog-
nition and riches, never mind that
they willingly promoted, ignored or
sugarcoated actions and pronounce-
ments by Trump that went well
beyond the established norms of
partisan politics.
Spicer and Lewandowski will be
fellows at Harvard, never mind their
volitional submission to someone
whose lack of character, grace and
basic maturity was just affi rmed
anew by his retweet of a video of
him hitting a golf ball into Hillary
Clinton and knocking her over.
By teaming with Trump, they
stood at the apex of the government,
in an intense spotlight. By surviving
him, they’re reaping the same divi-
dends accorded the former aides of
far nobler politicians.
Both Harvard and Hollywood
are probably trying to shed the tag
of elitism, and Harvard is no doubt
reasoning that to close itself off from
this president’s enablers is to forfeit
an opportunity to understand why so
many Americans voted for Trump.
But there are other, better ways
to make that gesture and explore
that phenomenon, ways that don’t
play down and pretty up the ugliness
of Trump’s ascent, ways that don’t
bestow rewards on operatives who
stomached stuff and peddled wares
that no responsible patriot, regardless
of his or her political leanings,
should.
The embrace of Trump’s alumni
says that proximity to power and
widespread exposure are accom-
plishments in and of themselves and
will always pay off. One day you’re
trending on Twitter. The next you’re
at the Emmys.