SEASIDE BOYS RALLY FOR VICTORY ON BUSY HOOPS WEEKEND SPORTS • 10A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 140
Price talks
delay crab
season’s
kickoff
ONE DOLLAR
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY
KEEPING THE
LIGHT ALIVE
INSIDE: MAKING HER OWN MLK DAY IN MANZANITA • PAGE 3A
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Crab boats loaded with pots sat at the
docks all weekend while fishermen and pro-
cessors remained in a gridlock over prices.
The commercial Dungeness crab season
was set to open today in most of Oregon and
Washington state, but price negotiations and
ocean conditions are keeping boats at home.
The fishery is off to one of the latest starts
that fishery managers can remember in over
a decade.
The season traditionally opens Dec. 1, but
was pushed back because crabs did not have
shells full of meat.
At one point major processors had offered
crabbers $2.30 a pound — not nearly enough
to convince them to go out, local crabbers said.
The price inched up during the state-spon-
sored negotiation period in Oregon, but by the
time those negotiations ended the processors’
price still remained under last season’s aver-
age starting price of $2.89 per pound.
Processors had extended an offer to Coos
Bay and Newport crabbers for around $2.75
per pound since crab meat there had already
hit the required limit, but argued that crab off
Astoria still had not filled out to the required
23 percent meat recovery. The last test in the
area had the crab at 22.8 percent, according to
John Corbin, chairman of the Oregon Dunge-
ness Crab Commission. A local boat went out
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
See CRAB SEASON, Page 7A
ABOVE: People gathered at the Liberty Theatre Sunday in Astoria for a candlelight vigil and a walk downtown in cel-
ebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. BELOW LEFT: People light candles in front of the Liberty Theatre
in Astoria Sunday ahead of the walk. BELOW RIGHT: Dozens of people showed up in downtown Astoria Sunday for a
candlelight vigil and other events to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Dollar General
moves ahead
in Gearhart
Parking in rear waives
need for review
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — After denial of a park-
ing variance in September, Dollar General is
back with plans for a store in Gearhart along
U.S. Highway 101.
Now that designs show the number of
parking spaces required by city code, the retail
store is considered an outright use in a com-
mercial zone. The application will be reviewed
by Building Official Mark Brien, said City
Administrator Chad Sweet, but will not
undergo further Planning Commission review.
Parking and traffic issues were at the
forefront of the September Planning Com-
mission denial. At the time, Cross Develop-
ment, the Dollar General developer based in
Texas, sought a parking variance to reduce
the number of spots from 46 to 27, argu-
ing the business would not generate enough
traffic to warrant that many. By designating
a rear area of the building to accommodate
shoppers’ parking, owners bypassed a sec-
ond commission review.
Approximately 50 people participated in a walk through downtown Astoria Sunday in support of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
See DOLLAR GENERAL, Page 7A
Silicon Valley transplant becomes active in local politics
After decades working in the tech
industry, Bronstein moved to Astoria
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
s Steve Bronstein set-
tled in to his new abode,
he was struggling to abide by
the results of the presidential
election.
Bronstein, 57, spent much
of his working life develop-
ing technology for corpora-
tions and law firms in heavily
Democratic areas. On Nov. 9,
2016 — one day after Donald
Trump’s seismic election vic-
tory — he moved to Astoria.
The day marked a personal and
A
political crossroad.
“It was actually kind of
depressing,” Bronstein said.
“Not the arrival here, but the
outcome of the race.”
Bronstein spent 25 years in
the San Francisco Bay Area.
Soon after moving to Asto-
ria, he joined Indivisible North
Coast Oregon — a grassroots
organization dedicated in
part to stopping Trump’s pol-
icy agenda. Bronstein said he
quickly noticed that the area
is not as politically homoge-
neous as others he’d lived and
worked.
“Leaving my vote in Cal-
ifornia was not a problem,”
Bronstein said. “It was just a
blue vote in a bunch of other
blue votes.”
Bronstein grew up in a Chi-
cago suburb. With no formal
training, he went to work in the
mid-1980s as a data processor
at Medline Industries — an
Illinois-based hospital supply
manufacturer.
See BRONSTEIN, Page 7A
Steve
Bronstein
moved to
Astoria from
the San
Francisco
Bay Area
in 2016.
Steve Bronstein