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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 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 E ach week we recognize those people and organizations in the community deserving of public praise for the good things they do to make the North Coast a better place to live, and also those who should be called out for their actions. SHOUTOUTS • Dr. William Armington, Willis Van Dusen, Michael Autio and Randy McClelland, who were each honored recently by the Columbia Memorial Hospital Foundation. Armington received the foundation’s first-ever Caduceus Award, which recognizes a physician or provider who has gone above and beyond to advance philanthropy at CMH and in the community. Van Dusen, a long- time mayor of Astoria and community leader who led the fund- raising for the new cancer center, was honored with the Terry Award, which recognizes a volunteer for advancing philanthropy at CMH and in the community. Autio, last year’s Terry Award recipient and immediate past chairman of the foundation, received the new Columbia Award. Autio has been actively involved with the foundation and hospital for more than 22 years. McClelland, director of CMH’s strategic initiatives department, received the President’s Award. The honor is named for the hospital’s current president and CEO, Erik Thorsen, and recognized McClelland for his work in coordinating the artwork in the new Knight Cancer Collaborative. • Ryan Snyder, president of Martin North hospitality com- pany, who organized last weekend’s inaugu- ral ’Stackstock Music Fest in Cannon Beach. The outdoor event, held at Haystack Gardens, drew about 600 people and included an eight- Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian hour concert featuring five The OK Chorale PDX — represented prominent Portland-area here by, from left, Cardioid’s Lizzy Ellison, Pure Bathing Culture’s Zach bands and was headlined Tillman and Wonderly’s Jim Brun- by Colin Meloy, the front- berg — play “Purple Rain.” man of The Decemberists. Attendees described the event as “relaxed,” “intimate” and “breezy.” Snyder said some of the proceeds from the festival will be used to start a local music scholarship. • The hundreds of local volunteers who participated in the annual SOLVE Beach and Riverside Cleanup last weekend in Gearhart, Seaside and Cannon Beach to remove trash and debris. Statewide, volunteers picked up more than 72,000 pounds of trash from 140 project sites along all 362 miles of Oregon’s coastline. Common items found were cigarette butts, fishing rope, glass and plastic bottles and other plastic items. In Gearhart, the debris included a car exhaust pipe. • Astoria Downtown Historic District Association organiz- ers and the hundreds of volunteers who planned and staged the 16th annual Pacific Northwest Brew Cup festival last weekend by the riverfront. The three-day event was family friendly and fea- tured craft brews from more than 40 brewers from the Northwest and California, along with live music, food and fun and games for children. • Neil Branson, director of the 28th annual 3-Course Challenge, a grueling cross-country meet that is hosted by Seaside High School each year at Camp Rilea. Last weekend’s meet fea- tured 2,107 runners from 77 high schools, 22 middle schools and two running clubs who finished the course. Teams came from as far away as Southern California and British Columbia. Branson retired last year as the Gulls longtime cross-country coach, but is continu- ing his association with running as the meet’s organizer and director. • Conductor John Buehler and the Cannon Beach Chorus, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The community choir has more than 60 members from all walks of life across the North Coast ranging from high-school age to more than 80-years- old. The chorus performs regularly throughout the community. Buehler has been the conductor since 2010 and said in honor of the anniversary the chorus will have a piece commissioned espe- cially for them to premiere next spring. CALLOUTS • The state Department of Revenue, which despite being told to improve and increase debt collection five months ago, still can’t say if it’s worked. As of mid-2016, the state was owed about $3.3 billion and in April Gov. Kate Brown ordered the department to step up efforts. Audits have revealed a number of issues at the agency during the past decade. While the department says it has initiated new programs, has increased collection efforts and has been recruiting and filling vacant positions, it’s still too early to judge the impact of those efforts. Suggestions? Do you have a Shoutout or Callout you think we should know about? Let us know at news@dailyastorian.com and we’ll make sure to take a look. Creative Commons Are entrepreneurs a dying breed? By ROBERT J. SAMUELSON Washington Post Writers Group W ASHINGTON — Maybe we’re not “’Shark Tank’ nation” after all. The incredibly popular cable business program, which features budding entrepreneurs pleading for back- ing from wealthy investors (the “sharks”), seems to define us. We’re a nation of hungry go-getters, eager to start our own business on the way to becoming multimillionaires. Everyone wants to strike it big. There’s a huge gap between perception and reality. Just recently, the Census Bureau released its latest figures for business startups, and they paint a picture strikingly at odds with the conventional wisdom. Instead of a boom in business startups, there’s been a long-term decline. In 2015, startups totaled 414,000, “well below the pre-Great Recession average of 524,000 startup firms,” as Census puts it. To be sure, the slump reflects the lingering adverse effects of the recession. Venture capital firms, which provide funds for new busi- nesses, “are more risk averse,” says economist Robert Litan. But that’s not the whole story. A 2014 study by Litan and Ian Hathaway found that the startup decline dates back to at least the late 1970s, affects all major industries and has been present in 365 out of 366 metropolitan areas. What’s going on? The answer is important not only because it alters our national self-image but also because it affects the economy’s job-creation capacity. Business startups are constantly priming the employment pump with new jobs. If startups continue to decline, overall job creation may suffer. ‘Entrepreneurs need three things: great new ideas; the talent and money to pursue them; and few distractions.’ John Dearie head of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, a newly formed advocacy group Take 2015 — the subject of the Census report — as a case in point. Net job creation totaled 3.1 million, Census says. But that figure emerged from a more confusing process: the addition of 16.8 million jobs minus the loss of 13.7 million jobs. Moreover, of the 3.1 million new jobs, roughly four-fifths (2.5 million) were created by startups, Census reports. As these numbers indicate, many companies were hiring and firing. But the two often canceled each out. Consider companies aged 1 to 5 years old. In 2015, they created 2.11 million new jobs and lost 2.32 mil- lion jobs, for a net loss of 212,000. Without the impetus provided by startup jobs, total employment growth might have been much slower. Although we tend to think of startups as high-tech — the next Google or Facebook — most new firms are more mundane: plumbers, electricians, restaurants and the like. The breadth of the startup slowdown suggests that the underlying causes do not apply to just one industry or company age. Still, there is no agree- ment as to causes. Slower population growth is one pressure, says Litan. Cities and regions are expanding less rapidly than in the past and don’t need as many new hairdressers, construction companies, health clubs and doctors’ offices. Regions dominated by a few big employers may also have fewer startups. People lack a “startup culture,” says Litan. They depend too much on the mega-employer. Growing market power of exist- ing firms is a newer theory. “You’ve got rising market power,” Marshall Steinbaum, an economist from the left-leaning Roosevelt Institute, told The New York Times. “In general, that makes it hard for new businesses to compete with incumbents.” This has long been true, but in the past, it hasn’t prevented startups from displacing powerful industry leaders. (See, for example, Microsoft and IBM.) Still others argue that entrepre- neurship is being strangled by hostile government policies. “Entrepreneurs need three things: great new ideas; the talent and money to pursue them; and few distractions,” says John Dearie, head of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, a newly formed advocacy group. Government, he argues, frustrates all three. Federal research and devel- opment, as a share of the economy, is less than half its post-World War peak, stifling new ideas. Immigration policy keeps out talented workers; and complex regulations and taxes distract entrepreneurs from their businesses. “Shark Tank” rests on the premise that the dream of starting your own business and getting rich through hard work and satisfying some mar- ket demand is still thriving. Many candidates on the program fit that mold. They’re passionate about their products. But the evidence from the outside world suggests a more som- ber question: Are they a dying breed? LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. Letters should be fewer than 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone numbers. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar and, on occa- sion, factual accuracy. Only two letters per writer are printed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Discourse should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Submissions may be sent in any of these ways: E-mail to editor@dailyasto- rian.com; online at www.dailyas- torian.com; delivered to the Asto- rian offices at 949 Exchange St. and 1555 N. Roosevelt in Seaside or by mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103.