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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 2017)
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2017 FRIDAY EXCHANGE 5A Gearhart repeal I have received a lot of questions on the short-term rental repeal and replace ordinance that will be on the ballot this fall, which is financed by a political firm out of California and a vacation rental management corpo- ration. I want to be perfectly clear on what Measure 4-188 will mean for the residents of Gearhart. A yes vote will allow unlimited short-term rentals in our single fam- ily residential zones, no septic regu- lations, and will get rid of state-cer- tified safety inspections for fire and life safety. A no vote will continue our cur- rent laws which include: a bal- anced and responsible cap allowing all short-term rental owners to con- tinue to rent, adequate septic regula- tions to protect neighbors from high commercial use, and certified safety inspections mandating legal fire escapes to keep children, families and visitors safe. Our current laws also allow citi- zens to rent multiple rooms or their entire homes for 30 days or more at any time, and allow funds from short-term rental permits to go toward our police and fire depart- ments, through proceeds from our general fund. I campaigned last year on keep- ing Gearhart the quiet residential community we all know and love. As your mayor, I made a vow to pro- tect our citizens and I will continue to fight along side you. Our residen- tial property values, quality of life, and sense of community are at stake. With a no vote on Measure 4-188, we have the opportunity to end the divisiveness, keeping Gear- hart from becoming an investment property community that would allow outside corporations to buy unlimited properties on any neigh- borhood street. Please contact me any time, and I will go over our current law next to the repeal and replace ordinance with you, line by line. I won’t try to convince you how to vote, but will give you the facts so you can make the best choice for our future. MAYOR MATT BROWN Gearhart Gearhart = residential he word community has many definitions, as it can refer to peo- ple, birds, insects, animals and such. To us, the word refers to a group of people with a common inter- est, living in one town, in a pictur- esque seacoast village, known for its friendly residents. When we decided to buy prop- erty in Gearhart in March, after look- ing at several coastal towns in Ore- gon, we thought that we had found that little picturesque seacoast vil- lage, and were looking forward to becoming one of the friendly residents. We were not wrong. Within one week, we knew the names of all our neighbors, because most stopped by and introduced themselves. Since it was springtime, many of them were working diligently in their gardens, and by the time summer came, their homes could have won prizes in House and Garden magazine. “Oh yes,” I said to my husband, “this is the place where we will hap- pily spend the rest of our years.” Unfortunately, in our opinion, a dark cloud lurked on the horizon, attempt- ing to destroy our Shangri-La. We were extremely knowledge- able of the term short-term rental, before we moved to Gearhart, and referred to it as the neighborhood monster: a creature large, ugly and frightening, which destroys resi- dential communities. For those who have never experienced living in a community with short-term rentals, this neighborhood monster will dam- age and destroy any neighborhood if let loose on the streets. We experienced the effects of this neighborhood monster while living in Las Vegas. We had to keep our doors locked at all times because of robberies attributed to transient rent- ers. We witnessed increased garbage on the streets, people not picking up after their pets, multiple vehi- cles parked in neighborhoods where it was mandatory to keep your cars in the garage, and several noise vio- lations, all due to this neighborhood monster. Our community laws meant noth- ing to the short-term renters, as they were on vacation and did not care to respect the community. Worse yet, many property owners were not nearby, so these short-term renters did as they pleased. Out of all the coastal communi- ties, we chose Gearhart because it has an ordinance in place regulat- ing short-term rentals. We implore the voting residents to keep it this way. Do not invite neighborhood monsters into Gearhart. Let us keep Gearhart residential. Please vote no on Measure 4-188. MALCOLM and JENNY BARBIER BRUCE Gearhart T More on watershed L ogging vernacular is rife with euphemisms. Under adaptive management, clearcuts masquer- ade as thinning. My favorite term is applied ecology, wherein a run-of- the-mill clearcut mimics a cataclys- mic event, such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens. To this skeptic, the removal of non-native and disease-prone trees would imply Douglas fir are not endemic to the Bear Creek drain- age. Poppycock. I would submit that the harvest targeted Douglas fir for removal because this specie had been infested, and its annual growth stunted by Swiss needle cast. Also, by pure coincidence, the Douglas fir are the highest value tree in any watershed. Of course, all this is unadorned conjecture on my part, because I will never learn all the facts by read- ing The Daily Astorian, where it was reported with unblinking guile that the “thinning” really wasn’t about the money (“Astoria keeps close eye on timber in Bear Creek watershed,” The Daily Astorian, Aug. 29). Also, many thanks to Bud Hen- derson for his letter, “Watershed thinning” (The Daily Astorian, Sept. 15). In a few paragraphs, I learned more about the Astoria watershed and growth and volumes as these measures apply to commercial har- vests than I did in the entire article of Aug. 29. I have been called by many names, but never a casual observer. GARY DURHEIM Cannon Beach Support DACA resident Donald Trump’s recent action to phase out the Deferred Action for Children Arriv- als (DACA) program was a heart- less way to use these 800,000 young people as a political bargain- ing chip. They must now live with the extreme anxiety of not knowing whether or not they will be deported from the only country they have known, while waiting to see if Con- gress will pass legislation to grant them a protected status. Although 16 state attorneys gen- eral have filed a challenge to his action in a federal court, giving five reasons why they think the original DACA program was constitutional, other legal scholars have given them a less than fifty-fifty chance of being successful. That is why it is so import- ant that citizens who support these young people, 95 percent of whom are working or going to school, and who will be a significant boost to our economy, urge Congress to pass the Dream Act (S 1615/HR 3440) promptly. CAROLYN EADY Astoria P Unintentional harm I n response to “Pope blasts climate change doubters: cites moral duty to act” (The Daily Astorian, Sept. 11): Pope Francis is right to be con- cerned about the moral aspects of climate change. However, he is unin- tentionally encouraging the greatest moral travesty of all. Across the world people are suf- fering due to the effects of dangerous climate change. Yet aid agencies are unable to secure sufficient funds to help them because: Of the more than $1 billion spent globally every day on climate finance, only 6 percent of it is goes to helping vulnerable peo- ple adapt to climate change today. The rest is spent trying to stop cli- mate phenomena that might, or might not, happen in the distant future. As demonstrated by dozens of open letters and other public lists, many experts do not agree that we face a man-made climate crisis. Con- sider our Climate Scientists’ Register (http://tinyurl.com/2es3rqx) which, in only a few days in 2010, attracted over 100 expert endorsers to the statement: “We, the undersigned, having assessed the relevant scien- tific evidence, do not find convinc- ing support for the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing, or will in the foresee- able future cause, dangerous global warming.” By promoting the belief that we know we can control earth’s cli- mate merely by reducing our carbon dioxide emissions, Francis is unwit- tingly encouraging governments to put more importance on the possible problems to be experienced by peo- ple yet to be born than the real prob- lems people are suffering today. That is the real moral issue that should most concern His Holiness. TOM HARRIS Executive director, International Climate Science Coalition Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Disrespecting redheads S hame on Natalie St. John for writing a discriminatory and dis- paraging comment against children with red hair. In her article “Hot rods roar: End-of-summer car party mostly safe, successful” (The Daily Astorian, Sept. 13), in the “Younger, wilder” section of the article, she talks about the different classic cars, describing the pristine, well taken care of cars. Then she talks about the cars that are jalopies, and old rust- ed-up dented classic cars, commonly known as “rat rods,” and refers to those cars as “the redheaded step- children of the hot rod world.” Why is it that people continue to use this outdated and racist phrase against people with red hair? Its wrong and demeaning to make dis- paraging remarks toward anyone because of their hair color, skin color, race, religion, weight, gen- der, etc. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and respect and compassion. I am the proud wife to my hus- band, who has strawberry blond hair, and mom of my son, who has red hair, and they are both amaz- ing people. It broke my heart when my husband and son read the article — thinking they were going to be reading an article about the hot rod show in Long Beach, Washington — only to read it and have a dis- criminatory slur against them, just because the color of their hair. Shame on The Daily Astorian for allowing their writers to write discriminatory slurs against oth- ers because of the color of their hair, and to think it is all right to insinuate that if you have red hair that you’re a “stepchild,” and that you’re not considered a valuable person in society, and that people with red hair are like the jalopies and damaged cars of society. If people tried to lift up all human beings, instead of tearing them down, the world would be a better place to live. Instead, Natalie St. John and The Daily Astorian chose to tear others down in the article that should have been fun. KINDWYN HOGE Seaside Shine on solar power I n response to “Glimmer of light for solar power” (The Daily Astorian, Sept. 12): Solar Power International began on Sept. 10 in Las Vegas with a panoply of participants and technology in the industry. Over 20,000 attendees, 700 booths and 19 countries dis- played its availability. Solar works in Western Oregon and Washington. The physics of photo voltaic cells have advanced so rapidly, that even with over- cast, they transmit power. Computer controlled, tracking and develop- ments from the U.S. space program have morphed into the business. Solar arrays, like Shoals Technol- ogy Group, can now track the sun, increasing cell collection. Many companies have “plug and play” units, so solar cell assembly, transformer and inverter functions are combined with batteries in a seamless interaction. Some of those businesses are ABB Group and LG. Making it easier for the con- struction industry is Quick Mount (http://quickmountpv.com), secur- ing safe secure mountings of solar displays. Other developments come in the make up of batteries. Eliminating the use of cobalt, a nasty child labor industry, these new lithium, iron and phosphate battery technologies offer high power and energy den- sity, excellent safety performance and extensive life cycling. Compa- nies such as SimplPhi and others are leading the field. The sun is our new energy system. PAMELA MATTSON McDONALD Astoria Sobering documentary he new Netflix documentary “Heroin(e)” is a sad and sober- ing film, but one I believe every- one must watch. I served on a grand jury a few years ago as an alter- nate one day here in Astoria. Five of the seven cases we heard were for heroin possession. I’m certain that since then the problem has grown exponentially. There are many layers to the onion of this tragedy. Bad parent- ing, lack of parental discipline or boundaries, lack of a quality educa- tion or skills for good jobs in small and large cities. This creates a need for government entitlements of all kinds, and way too many peo- ple with no moral code of conduct nor a belief in any form of a higher being. Drug addiction can consume anyone from any background, but without these issues being honestly addressed people are more likely to fall prey to addiction. Anyone who thinks pot legal- ization, or lax laws for possession of other controlled substances are a good thing live in a bubble, are in denial and don’t consider the dark side of this crisis. Legalizing mari- juana was the first small step into the rabbit hole. Legalization will have long-term effects on future genera- tions, especially young children — it’s a mathematical certainty. For people with addictive personali- ties, not all of course, pot is a gate- way drug. The human costs are heartbreak- ing, but the financial costs are just as staggering. One of the emergency medical technicians said in the film that if left unchecked, it could bank- rupt the entire U.S. Colorado, Oregon and Washing- ton may believe that the tax revenues created by legalization of marijuana are a risk verses reward scenario, but eventually that well will run dry with higher dropout rates, criminal activ- ity, increased incarceration and drug rehab costs and sky-high entitlement spending. There are no easy answers. Long jail sentences may not be the answer, and of course drug rehab funding T must increase, but enabling people and not having any consequences is no remedy either. We must begin to condemn drug use, just as we have cigarettes, or Astoria could follow in the same footsteps of Huntington, West Virginia, in “Heroin(e).” JEFF JACQUES Astoria Voting is the answer ’ve been a member of the Indivis- ible North Coast Oregon move- ment in Astoria since its inaugural meeting earlier this year at the First United Methodist Church. As some- one who isn’t a huge fan of the cur- rent president, I was inspired by the idea of “resisting” the new admin- istration’s agenda. I was optimis- tic that maybe — just maybe — a grassroots group of real people with shared ideals could somehow fight to protect our democracy and values if we all just banded together and shouted loudly enough. Now, eight months into the new administration, I still found myself feeling powerless. I’d gone to meet- ings, rallies and hounded my mem- bers of Congress, but the threats were (and are) still there. After some thought, it finally occurred to me that my high school civics teacher was right: Yelling isn’t the answer. Silence is. In fact, the real answer is the very easiest, and something our country is woefully inept at: Voting. While our Canadian neighbors have had an average turnout of 70.7 percent since 1867, Americans have forgotten that voting is the only way to exercise individual power in a society. It’s a right people fought and died for, that racial minorities have only had since the 1800s, and that women have had for less than a century. Though the presence of the Electoral College has discour- aged many, the truth is that the elec- tion could have ended differently had more people only shown up to cast a ballot. National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday. And though the near- est election isn’t until 2018, this is an issue we need to discuss now. I would implore everyone to take Tuesday as an opportunity to regis- ter, if you haven’t already. Talk to your neighbors, friends and family in other states about voting. Impress upon them the importance. It’s a lot quieter than yelling, and way more effective. TIFFINY MITCHELL Astoria I Teeing off on women V iolence against women is a widespread, tragic reality in this country, and the numbers are stag- gering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 4 women will experience physi- cal and/or sexual violence during her lifetime. The resulting physical and psychological scars left by this abuse brand these women forever. For those of you who are chuck- ling or even guffawing at Presi- dent Donald Trump’s re-tweeting of “Trump’s Amazing Golf Swing,” a doctored video featuring Trump tee- ing off, and his golf ball slamming Hillary Clinton squarely between her shoulders and dropping her to her knees, please substitute your daugh- ter/wife/mother/grandmother/sister in Hillary’s stead. If this optic leaves you mind- blind and still in the throes of hyster- ical laughter, comedian Kathy Grif- fin has just the video for you. Google it. It’s a real knee slapper. KATHLEEN ZUNKEL Warrenton