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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2017 Founded in 1873 HEIDI WRIGHT, Interim Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Editor JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager Water under the bridge Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2007 Starting Freshman year, students know it’s coming. They might stumble on the stack of bubbly cider bottles as they pile up in a hallway. And they can’t miss the telltale scent as it wafts through the halls. One day each November, roasting turkey signals the final lesson in Turkey 101, a program based half on etiquette, half on budget-friendly food. “You can smell it in the office, you can smell it in the gym. You can’t even imagine,” said Astoria High School Principal Larry Lockett. “I love Turkey 101.” The annual two-day event is part of Senior Transitions, aimed at imparting some practical knowledge to Astoria students before they grad- uate high school. There’s a new kind of storm rolling into the Oregon coast, and it’s driven by conflicting interests in ocean real estate. Nine different wave energy studies are targeting space in the state’s territorial waters, many of them on sandy ocean bot- toms that overlap with productive fishing grounds. Even though most of the proposals are aimed at the central and southern Oregon coast, North Coast fishermen say they’re not too thrilled about the new players rolling in with the waves — especially when coupled with the state’s plans to rope off ocean waters for marine reserves. North Coast commercial fishers often travel down the coast to find their catch. They say the wave parks would not only cost them money in lost grounds, but it would also block central transit routes and crowd North Coast waters with displaced fishermen. America is now an outlier on driving deaths 50 years ago — 1967 The new barge-loading ramp to pier 3 of the Astoria port docks was used for the first time Sunday. The Norwegian motorship Hoyanger discharged 130 tons of general cargo at the new Waterway Terminals, Inc., marine terminal at the outer end of Pier 3, for transshipment to Portland. Longshoremen using fork lifts transferred cargo from the Hoyanger into a barge of Western Transportation company via the new ramp. In this operation the vessel saved approximately 14 hours running time for the transit from Astoria to Portland and return. Work begins at site of Pacific Riviera Development. Plans for a $1 million residential development in Seaside were announced today by Sunset Cove, Inc., an Oregon corpo- ration whose members include William H. Holmstrom, Gear- hart; Lowell M, Lowell W., and George Palmerton of Seattle. The development, which is to be known as Pacific Riviera, will occupy one of the most picturesque sites on the coast. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the east by Necanicum River. This will provide the 160 waterfront and view lots the distinction of having access to both fresh water and salt water, with activities such as swimming, surfing, boat- ing, fishing and beachcombing at the doorstep. Site is at the north end of Seaside. The 400-foot Captaliannes, the Greek freighter pulled free from the Columbia River’s Clatsop Spit by the powerful tug Salvage Chief, may never carry cargo again. Officials of Albina Engine and Machine Works in Portland have been scurrying around the ship in a Swan Island drydock evaluating damage the Mediterranean ship’s hull received in three storms during eight and one-half days on the sands. Hull plating amidships was pushed up about one foot, there is a leak under the water line at the stern, the rudder is missing, one propeller blade is badly mangled, there are several hundred tons of Clatsop sand covering machinery. In addition most of the 400 tons of dried herring meal cargo left on board is damaged by water and beginning to smell badly. 75 years ago — 1942 The nation celebrates its first wartime Thanksgiving in 25 years tomorrow with the holiday theme “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.” President Roosevelt will lead the people in prayer services to be broadcast from the White House over all three major net- works, and War Production Chief Donald M. Nelson has asked workers to “pass the ammunition” by producing war goods as usual on Thanksgiving day. Frank Norris, Clatsop County’s only surviving veteran of the Civil War, died in Portland Tuesday night shortly after his admittance to the Veterans’ hospital there. He would have been 95 years old on Decem- ber 4. Pam Panchak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette A crash last week near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By DAVID LEONHARDT New York Times News Service T his week, millions of Americans will climb into their cars to visit family. Unfortunately, they will have to travel on the most dangerous roads in the industrialized world. It didn’t used to be this way. A gen- eration ago, driving in the United States was relatively safe. Fatality rates here in 1990 were roughly 10 percent lower than in Canada and Australia, two other affluent nations with a lot of open road. Over the last few decades, how- ever, other countries have embarked on evidence-based campaigns to reduce vehicle crashes. The United States has not. The fatality rate has still fallen here, thanks partly to safer vehicles, but it’s fallen far less than anywhere else. As a result, this country has turned into a disturbing outlier. Our vehicle fatality rate is about 40 per- cent higher than Canada’s or Austra- lia’s. The comparison with Slovenia is embarrassing. In 1990, its death rate was more than five times as high as ours. Today, the Slovenians have safer roads. If you find statistics abstract, you can instead read the heart-rending stories. Erin Kaplan, a 39-year-old mother in Ashburn, Virginia, was killed in a September crash that also seriously injured her three teenage children. They and their father are now heroically trying to put their lives back together, as The Washing- ton Post has detailed. Had the United States kept pace with the rest of the world, about 10,000 fewer Americans each year — or almost 30 every day — would be killed. Instead, more people die in crashes than from gun vio- lence. Many of the victims, like Erin Kaplan, were young and healthy. I was unaware of this coun- try’s newfound outlier status until I recently started reporting on the rise of driverless cars. I’ve become con- vinced they represent one of the big- gest changes in day-to-day life that most of us will experience. Within a decade, car travel will be funda- mentally altered. “This is every bit as big a change as when the first car came off the assembly line,” Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan told me. Our vehicle fatality rate is about 40 percent higher than Canada’s or Australia’s. Many people remain afraid of driverless cars, because trusting your life to a computer — allow- ing it to hurtle you down a highway — can feel a little crazy. But the sta- tus quo is crazier, and the rest of the world refuses to accept it. We don’t need to wait for the arrival of futuristic self-driving machines to do better. Other coun- tries have systematically analyzed the main causes of crashes and then gone after them, one by one. Canada started a national campaign in 1996. “The overwhelming factor is speed,” says Leonard Evans, an automotive researcher. Small dif- ferences in speed cause large differ- ences in harm. Other countries tend to have lower speed limits (despite the famous German autobahn) and more speed cameras. Install enough cameras, and speeding really will decline. But it’s not just speed. Seat belt use is also more common else- where: One in seven American drivers still don’t use one. In other countries, 16-year-olds often aren’t allowed to drive. And “buzzed driv- ing” tends to be considered drunken driving. Here, only heavily Mormon Utah has moved toward a sensible threshold, and the liquor and restau- rant lobbies are trying to stop it. The political problem with all of these steps, of course, is that they restrict freedom, and we Americans like freedom. To me, the freedom to have a third beer before getting behind the wheel — or to drive 15 mph above the limit — is not worth 30 lives a day. But I recognize that not everyone sees it this way. Which is part of the reason I’m so excited about driverless technol- ogy. It will let us overcome self-de- structive behavior, without hav- ing to change a lot of laws. A few years from now, sophisticated crash-avoidance systems will proba- bly be the norm. Cars will use com- puters and cameras to avoid other objects. And the United States will stand to benefit much more than the rest of the industrialized world. Until then, be careful out there. WHERE TO WRITE • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 439 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225-0855. Fax 202-225- 9497. District office: 12725 SW Mil- likan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503-326-5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 Hart Senate Office Building, Wash- ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- 3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 221 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden. senate.gov • State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986- 1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/ Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us • State Rep. Deborah Boone (D): 900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432. Email: rep.deborah boone@state. or.us District office: P.O. Box 928, Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone: 503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state. or.us/ boone/ • State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D): State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E., S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone: 503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john- son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy- johnson.com District Office: P.O. Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone: 503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296. Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280. • Port of Astoria: Executive Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto- ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300. Email: admin@portofastoria.com • Clatsop County Board of Com- missioners: c/o County Manager, 800 Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.