OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 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
OUR VIEW
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Port of Astoria
The industrial facilities at north Tongue Point have long been re-
garded as having great economic potential for Astoria. Exactly what
that potential consists of has been a subject of intense debate.
Tongue Point vote
ends quest for bulk
and container cargo
R
eality prevails over wishful thinking. This is the lesson
from decades of on-again, off-again plans for the former
naval base at Tongue Point.
Tongue Point’s unsuitability as a maritime transportation hub
really comes down to one thing: The cost of moving goods by
water versus by rail or truck. By allowing freight to be efficiently
moved between ports far inland and the ocean, the Columbia
River navigation system makes Astoria nearly irrelevant from
the standpoint of direct participation in marine shipping.
The Port of Astoria Commission voted 4-1 last week to hand
north Tongue Point back to the company that owns it, so that
it can in turn be sold to Delaware-based tug- and barge-builder
Hyak Maritime.
Unless Astoria evolves into a major metropolis in some dis-
tant future, this vote effectively ends any official aspiration to
compete for bulk and container cargo — even though there is
certain to be ongoing second-guessing by understandably disap-
pointed longshoremen and some others.
It’s worth briefly reexamining the facts. Most pivotal is that
the Columbia is virtually an industrial canal between the Pacific
Ocean and the Pacific Northwest’s industrial heartland along
the I-5 corridor. Deepening the channel — hard fought a dozen
years ago — was only the latest in many regional political deci-
sions that institutionalized the Lower Columbia’s canal-like fea-
tures. Even though the channel is little more than a stone’s throw
from Astoria’s shoreline, when it comes to cargo handling we are
like a market town located 10 miles off a new interstate.
The huge investment in the Columbia’s channel was locally
irritating, but it wasn’t irrational. Especially after factoring in the
large cost of drastically upgrading the rail corridor and highways
between here and Portland, there is a stark advantage for water-
borne shipping. On the simple level of average energy costs, a
gallon of fuel can move a ton of cargo 514 miles by ship, 202
miles by train and 59 miles by truck. It’s sensible to carry cargo
as far as practicable by water.
Although we are victims of
The Port
geography and economics as far
of Astoria
as becoming a major cargo hub,
there’s no reason to feel victim-
faces a
ized. We can greatly benefit from
daunting
supporting Columbia River trans-
portation. By picking our goals
challenge in
more strategically, we can reason-
the form of
ably aspire for Tongue Point as a
whole to become an increasingly
more assets
important source of new jobs.
than it can
Clatsop Community College’s
afford to
expanding maritime-science pro-
gram, the Tongue Point Job Corps
repair.
Center, existing business WCT
Marine, and ongoing efforts to
restore the Tourist No. 2 ferry and the Salvage King all point to
Tongue Point’s overall potential as collaborative educational and
business campus.
The Port of Astoria faces a daunting challenge in the form
of more assets than it can afford to repair. Major grant provider
Business Oregon is right to push for carefully honed planning
for a sensible and sustainable future for the Port.
Shedding its Tongue Point liability is a good first step, among
several that may be required. The wishful thinking of past
decades will require careful pruning. Thankfully, we appear to
have intersected with a time when regional growth is driving pri-
vate industry’s interest in locating here.
It is becoming possible to discern a “right-sized” port that
is a central contributor to Astoria’s well-being by letting pri-
vate industry do what it does best: assessing risks and rewards to
determine an appropriate level of investment. The Port commis-
sion should play the role of midwife in this process, while look-
ing out after the public’s interest in enhancing a beautiful, active
waterfront.
A bus ticket to Seaside
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
I
stumbled on this article from
1930 that shows the scope of
Seaside’s homeless problem
over time.
An
itinerant
cook with three
children, ages 7, 8
and 11, got off the
noon train from
Portland on a char-
ity ticket on the
impression she was going to be given
a job here. But when met by police,
she was unable to explain who was
expected to employ her.
“She was given food by the Sea-
side police force, allowed to occupy
one of the cells at the police station
and was sent to Astoria the next day,”
the Signal reported.
Today of course there are no
trains — the last passenger train
came through in 1952 — but visitors
of varying means continue to make
their way to the Coast.
Portland’s “Ticket Home” bus
program, modeled after a simi-
lar program in San Francisco, gives
bus, plane or train tickets to peo-
ple who have places to live in other
cities.
A pilot program in May and
June 2016 got $30,000 and gave
53 homeless people tickets out of
Portland. According to the Port-
land Housing Bureau, clients in 40
households were assisted with trans-
portation costs to return home, pro-
vided with six airplane tickets, 42
bus tickets, and five train tickets.
I’m not suggesting that we ship
our homeless problem elsewhere.
But there is a problem. The transient
population has grown an estimated
19 percent in the past year. There
has been a 6 percent increase in
housing assistance for children, 18
percent for senior citizens. Helping
Hands now sees 190 people a month
seeking housing options.
With increased numbers comes
some more aggressive visitors, espe-
cially around the holidays.
“We see the wave everywhere
around the state,” Alan Evans of
Helping Hands Re-Entry said at
a breakfast meeting of the Sea-
side Downtown Development
Association.
Clatsop County is ranked in the
top three of homelessness per cap-
ita in the state, he said, and the prob-
lem is going to get worse before it
gets better.
“We are dealing with much
deeper issues,” Evans said. “The
steady increase over the last four
years is scary.”
As housing becomes scarcer, the
problem is going to get worse before
gets better, he added. “I think every
community struggling with the
same thing we are. It’s a very tense
conversation.”
City struggles to cope
In Seaside, the problem spills
over into our everyday lives. Par-
ticipants at the downtown associa-
tion breakfast spoke of aggressive
and rude panhandlers who camp out
on city streets, block sidewalks and
harass passersby.
City Manager Mark Winstanley
commented that the public library
has been a place where homeless
issues are growing, especially as
homeless seek a refuge from the
area’s wicked winter weather. “This
is something they don’t teach you
about in library school,” he said.
Ordinances, while in line with
those of other cities, are limited.
“We do have an ordinance on
the books that talks about begging,”
Jeff Ter Har
This van parked in Seaside for several nights, with passengers seek-
ing handouts, merchants said.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
At the Nov. 13 City Council meeting,
Wahanna Road resident Tim Man-
cill sought action to curb a home-
less encampment near his home.
‘The steady
increase over
the last four
years is scary.’
Alan Evans
Helping Hands Re-Entry,
speaking about homelessness
Police Chief Dave Ham said. “But
court rulings tell us that we are very
limited how we can interact with
these folks.”
Anything that is open is city-
owned and open to the public pro-
vides a “pretty wide berth” for inter-
pretation, Ham said.
Darren Gooch of the Bob
Chisholm Community Center said
people — not just the homeless —
come into the center looking for
a place to sit or talk on their cell
phones or use the center’s courtesy
phones.
“We are dealing with issues now
that we never dealt with in the past,”
Gooch said. “For some people,
‘community center’ is a buzz word
for something for free.”
While the homeless may find
temporary shelter at Helping Hands
or through other charitable groups,
there are few options for manag-
ing the activities of aggressive
panhandlers.
Loitering around an ATM
machine is enforceable, Ham said.
But laws are more difficult for those
holding signs saying “God bless.”
“You can’t say someone ‘looks
like a doper,’” Ham said. “You’re
not going to be able to pick and
choose which one is going to be
OK.”
When incidents are reported,
complainants are asked to serve as
witnesses.
“And the answer often is, ‘I’m
not going to get involved in this,”
Winstanley said. “And that’s very
frustrating for police officers. They
want to be able to do something.”
Police don’t have the resources
or justification to jail offenders,
Ham said, and citations are often
ignored. “If they do appear the judge
will say you are fined $150, which
they do not have the ability to pay.
So the cycle continues.”
A designated area for transients
— a pocket park was suggested —
could be a possibility, Ham said. But
rules for the area would be problem-
atic as well.
“Some of these people come
with a lot of gear,” Ham said. “You
could say you can have a acoustic
guitar you can’t get real loud, but if
you’re coming in with five different
duffel bags and leaning against the
wall and people trip over them that’s
not really great.”
The communities successful in
this issue right now are those where
everyone works collaboratively,
Evans said.
Town hall discussion?
Winstanley said the solu-
tion could be simple — don’t give
handouts.
“If panhandlers see an opportu-
nity to make money, they will stay,”
Winstanley said. “One of the rea-
sons they are there is because they
are making, and in their business,
they are making good money.”
Another proposed solution is a
free permit for those coming to Sea-
side, to be administered at city hall,
enabling officials to track transients.
But the permit process would
have “some challenges,” not least of
which, constitutionality and the right
to assemble. “You have the right to
be in public places,” Ham said.
A downtown association com-
mittee will seek a solution, possibly
in a town hall discussion.
“This is a community discussion,
not just a downtown discussion,”
said the association’s director, Sarah
Dailey. “We want to work with the
Seaside Police Department, the city
and the businesses to find a solution
that works for everybody.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astori-
an’s South County reporter and edi-
tor of the Seaside Signal and Cannon
Beach Gazette.