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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Homelessness not a license for misbehavior
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enewed discussion about
low-level crime in the Astoria
commercial district and how it
interfaces with the issue of homeless-
ness was inevitable.
Not only are there obvious viola-
tions of accepted community standards
at some times and places, but similar
annoyances are a common issue in met-
ropolitan areas and some smaller towns
along the entire West Coast. It would be
more surprising if Astoria did not have
these problems than that it does.
As our stories last week reported,
neither police nor city leaders regard
homelessness as a crime. By now most
Americans are well-aware that housing
insecurity is caused by an array of fac-
tors — running the gamut from men-
tal-health issues to personal economic
disasters.
Few would desire to go back to the
old days of arbitrarily enforcing laws
against vagrancy that in effect made it a
crime to be very poor. These laws were
often selectively enforced against people
of color or anyone who rubbed police
the wrong way. The U.S. Supreme
Court in 1983 outlawed such “arbi-
trary enforcement,” with Justice Sandra
O’Connor writing that a California law
allowed innocent people “to continue
to walk the public streets ‘only at the
whim of any police officer’ who hap-
pens to stop” them. Astoria has no inter-
est in repeating this old, reprehensible
mistake.
The real issue
The real issue in Astoria, as else-
where, isn’t that unkempt people lack-
ing reliable dwelling places spend time
in public spaces. Astoria famously cher-
ishes the gritty along with the pretty. A
port town without some component of
colorful characters would be poorer for
the lack of personality.
The actual issue are people — home-
less or not — who flout laws and social
norms by relieving themselves in inap-
propriate places, being obnoxious
toward others, allowing their pets to
run loose, and engaging in other forms
of unsavory behavior. This kind of
wrongdoing can make others — resi-
dents and tourists alike — feel unsafe
or unwelcome. This is unaccept-
able. Homelessness is not a license for
misbehavior.
Astoria police correctly note that they
have a broad range of responsibilities.
There is always more to do than time
and money allow. Without more man-
power, something else would have to
give. The citizens who came to the City
Council requesting more emphasis on
this problem reflect a broader consen-
sus, one that a majority of council mem-
bers agreed to address. With luck, peri-
odic “emphasis patrols” may manage to
make a strong enough point to offend-
ers that they must mend their ways or
relocate. Otherwise, citizens, downtown
businesses and the council will need to
find more funds for active enforcement
all the time.
Positive news
It is quite extraordinary that a city the
size of Astoria may soon benefit from
converting the former Finnish boarding
house in Uniontown into a dormitory for
homeless people looking to get back on
their feet.
Helping Hands, a nonprofit with sig-
nificant experience in helping peo-
ple find jobs and housing, has entered
a purchase agreement with Northwest
Oregon Housing Authority to buy the
large yellow house on Marine Drive
next door to Motel 6. The facility could
provide beds for 60 or 70 people.
Most homeless people aren’t trou-
blemakers, so this housing is unlikely
to have a downside for the up and com-
ing Uniontown district. Nor, by itself, is
it likely to address problems downtown.
But it would go quite a long way toward
addressing the growing need for short-
term housing for those in the process of
recovering from difficult life circum-
stances. We would all do well to support
such an effort.
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to
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250 words and must include the
writer’s name, address and phone
number. You will be contacted to
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All letters are subject to editing
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sion, factual accuracy. Only two
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Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Thank you for remembering
Seaside Sgt. Goodding
n behalf of the Seaside Police Depart-
ment, we would like to thank those
who attended the remembrance gathering on
Feb. 5 to reflect on the two-year anniversary
of Sgt. Jason Goodding’s line-of- duty death.
Several members of the community
came out and braved our coastal driz-
zle, while paying respect to Sgt. Good-
ding’s life and legacy. We would also like to
thank those police officers from other com-
munities who were gathered with us. We
thank you for your continued dedication
and service to others.
The SPD knows and appreciates the sup-
port our community has shown over the
years. Our department would not have been
able to begin the healing process without
the help of many professionals and the over-
whelming support our citizens have given to
us. Your understanding and patience has
allowed us to know that your support is
always there, even when we cannot see it.
As a member of the department which
had to personally face this horrific event, the
shock and recovery thereafter, I know that
our journey is far from over. However, we
will continue to grow from this and become
even stronger in our service and dedication
to our profession, and to those we swore
to protect. Thank you to our community
for being there for us. We do need you and
greatly appreciate your unwavering support.
BRUCE HOLT
Lieutenant, Seaside Police Department
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Business disruption
just starting in Astoria
egarding The Daily Astorian story “Sev-
eral Astoria businesses come and go
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amid downtown retail ebb, flow” on the front
page Feb. 1: Well, all of you folks who think
Walmart is a good idea, it’s just starting. I’m
not saying that these closings are a direct
response to the new supercenter opening soon
in Warrenton. All I’m saying is this is what
happens when that billion-dollar corporation
comes to town.
Quote: “With competition from the inter-
net and larger retailers, Latham sees an inex-
orable march toward a more tourist- and ser-
vice-oriented economy downtown.” Think
Broadway in Seaside. Tourist T-shirt shops,
tchotchke stores galore, and bumper cars at
the old Astoria Event Center.
Looks like that’s what downtown Asto-
ria could look like in the near future. But then
again, as long as Walmart keeps ponying up
those $5,000 checks to the local food bank, I
guess it’s all good.
Well, not really.
KEN MARSHALL
Warrenton
Regarding abortion, ‘legal’
doesn’t mean ‘right’
he Daily Astorian’s Jan. 23 edito-
rial, “Abortion is a woman’s choice,”
laments the ongoing struggle to protect
the “right,” discovered 45 years ago, for
women to destroy their unborn progeny
free of any state interest to limit that right.
The editorial uses its specious defense of
this right largely to discredit the president
for his political expediency.
Leaving that subtext aside, the editorial
dredges up justifications for its position that
are eerily similar to those of the Supreme
Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, affirming
the constitutional rights of slaveholders.
After all, slavery was legal under the Con-
stitution, and had been for 70 years.
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The only question about it at the con-
vention was whether slaves were persons
or property. The compromise written into
the constitution assigned slaves a value of
three-fifths of a person. Today, an unborn
child is deemed to have the value of a wart.
Dante’s Inferno, an allegory of human
redemption, lays bare the fallacy that
“legal” translates into “right,” when speak-
ing of the schemes of the Assyrian Queen
Semiramis to license her fall from grace.
Today we seem equally determined to
destroy not only the lives of unborn chil-
dren, but our culture, as well.
ROBERT JOHNSTONE
Astoria
Bring science and faith
together with Carbon Fast
n our fragmented world where things
seem so divided, we are pleased to find
unity of purpose in a project that brings
science and faith together. Scientists have
called for greater respect for creation and
sustainable behaviors to protect the earth,
and churches have seen springtime, the
Lenten season, as a time for prayer, fasting
and charitable giving. Combine those two
and we have the Carbon Fast.
With a Lenten Carbon Fast Calendar and
a Carbon Fast Report Form, we can take
action in simple ways to reduce our carbon
footprint and reduce the greenhouse gases
that are changing our climate and earth for
the worse.
Fasting is an ancient practice calling us
to review our lives. Scientific knowledge
also moves us to review our lives. Faith and
science embrace the idea of stewardship,
that we have a responsibility to care for that
which we are blessed with, the earth, the
atmosphere, the creatures of the earth.
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To grow in that stewardship, and for
more information, please go to Eco-
FaithRecovery.org/carbonfast. It is open to
all.
JOHN and JACKIE WECKER
Astoria
Show some love for parks
he city of Astoria continues to move
toward selling our parks/historic sites
for housing and perhaps parking lots ,
totally opposite from what the public told
them in the city’s own park survey. This
Wednesday at 9 a.m. our City Council will
hold a special meeting to consider selling
four sites: First Post Office, Tidal Rock,
Custom House and Birch Field.
Their push for more housing sites may
cause them to select the one - acre Birch
Field, located at Birch and 50th streets. The
staff report reads that either eight houses or
16 multi-family units could be built there.
More housing means we need more parks,
not fewer — especially for multi-family
units without their own yards.
If the city required new stand alone busi-
nesses to include a second story of hous-
ing units, we could save our parks/histori-
cal places.
Nearby businesses that want more park-
ing may pressure the city to sell all or a
portion of the Tidal Rock. Have they had
formal talks with local and state historic
boards? If people knew, during the park
survey, that the money would go to the
city’s general fund and not to the parks
department, even more people would have
opposed selling.
Let ‘s hope our city councilors show
some love for all our parks and historic
places on Valentine’s D ay.
GEORGE (MICK) HAGUE
Astoria
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