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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2018)
6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 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 Preserve and protect occasionally has its limits istoric preservation is a mine- field. It’s fraught with potential conflicts, in part because it involves organizations whose members offer opinions about how private citizens or businesses should spend their own money. When it comes to saving buildings of significance, it’s likely that a community can reach a consensus about an overall desire to preserve its past. But what happens when someone who owns a building that other peo- ple deem “historic” determines the best approach after careful analysis is not to preserve it? That’s exactly the situation with a 110-year-old house on Alameda Avenue in Astoria. The house, in the Uniontown- Alameda National Register Historic District, was divided into apartments many years ago. Knocked off its foun- dation by a slow-moving landslide, it exhibits years of neglect. It’s appraised at $189,000; owner Ted Osborn esti- mates it could cost $690,000 to repair. H Instead, he wants to demolish it. Over the last couple of decades, members of the Lower Columbia Preservation Society have done more than any other group to raise awareness of the desire to preserve the communi- ty’s character. Their passion helped spark and drive Astoria’s renaissance. Many members have contributed testimony or served with distinction on the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission. In January, when that commission split 3-3 on his request to demolish the building in the historic district, Osborn, an architect and former president of the Preservation Society, appealed to the City Council. City Planner Nancy Ferber suggested that Osborn had failed to exhaust every option to reduce the price tag for restoration using tax credits and grants. But the council weighed the evidence carefully and agreed with his contention that the repairs would be too costly, add- ing the building was dangerous and of Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian The view inside a condemned home on Alameda Street in Astoria. questionable restoration value. Ed Overbay, who has demonstrated his commitment to preservation in Astoria in myriad ways, summed up the situation well. “The deadline to save this particular building, in my professional opinion, was a good 30, 40 years ago.” That time has passed. Sometimes, however much it might hurt to lose part of our history, we need to start anew. LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. Letters should be fewer than 250 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar, and, on occasion, factual accuracy. Only two letters per writer are allowed 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 let- ter was published. Discourse should be civil and people should be referred to in a respect- ful manner. Letters in poor taste will not be printed. Send via email to editor@dailyastorian. com, online at dailyastorian.com/submit_let- ters, in person at 949 Exchange St. in Astoria or 1555 North Roosevelt in Seaside, or mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Asto- ria, OR 97103. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Vote Orr for state representative first considered John Orr’s candidacy when asked to help him process the decision to run. I came to realize: John shares many of my values, he possesses the appropriate skills and experience, and I believe he is running for the right reasons. I appreciate his passion and the seriousness with which he made this decision, and I admire the energy and care with which John is preparing, and his willingness to seek the advice of others along the way. During a recent interview, his opponent felt he needed to explain he is “like” a Democrat. Yet, it was obvious — from the moment he opened his mouth — John is a Democrat. His opponent also lamented that legislative tactics and campaign financing are “a game” and, as a career politician, he knows how to “play it.” New to politics, John admits he is an inde- pendent thinker and career negotiator focused on finding solutions to Oregon’s funding prob- lem. John wants to balance timber profit with water protection. He’s passionate about afford- able housing and improving the quality of schools, human services and infrastructure. And, John is asking donations from North Coast folks he’ll represent, rather than from corpora- tions or special interests. Join me in supporting John Orr for District 32 Oregon state representative. BILL VAN NOSTRAN Astoria I Re-elect Bonamici to Congress first met Suzanne Bonamici in late 2011 when she was running for Congress — just days after I started as executive director for the Ore- gon League of Conservation Voters. I Then-state Sen. Bonamici had a strong record in the Oregon Legislature — a lifetime OLCV score of 98 percent — and a keen under- standing of environmental issues. And, climate change played a key part of her first campaign for Congress, with Rep. Bonamici campaign- ing on the issue against a candidate who didn’t believe that climate change is real. Since being elected to Congress, Bonamici has a lifetime LCV score of 98 percent, and earned a 100 percent in 2017. She is the top Democrat on the Environment Subcommittee of the Science, Space, and Technology Com- mittee, co-chairwoman of the House Oceans Caucus, and vice chair of the House Estuaries Caucus. She’s also a member of the bipartisan climate solutions caucus. I’m proud Oregon is represented by Suzanne Bonamici. She’s a longtime environmental champion, and a leader who campaigned on fighting climate change. She understands that climate change is a pressing issue which affects us all, and works every day in Congress to address climate change. We need more leaders like her at every level of government. DOUG MOORE Executive director, Oregon League of Conservation Voters Portland Astoria waterfront losing its identity h great. Another out-of-state developer wants to despoil the Astoria waterfront (“New hotel pitched for Astoria,” The Daily Astorian, March 2). We already have “The Jet- sons Meet Miami Beach” at 39th Street. Isn’t that enough ugliness? Any jobs created are low wage and will be O offset as the small motels on the other side of Marine Drive go out of business. By making Astoria “Anywhere Touristville America,” we are losing our identity and what truly makes Astoria unique and attractive: A working waterfront. Without such, and high- wage jobs, we lose the young and their families. We will become a retirement community. Retirement communities are staid and boring. CHRIS CONNAWAY Astoria Try a little kindness y mother didn’t raise me to be a jerk, suck- ing up to power, and treating others like dirt. Sure, go ahead and prosper, she advised, but mind your manners, and don’t pick on the poor. So I embrace the politics of kindness, believing in decency and public spiritedness, and refusing to hitch my wagon to intolerance. I’d find it hard to live in a country where strangers didn’t talk freely to each other, tell stories, air their grievances and joke about this and that — where taxes were cut, and services stripped, and schools went to a four-day week, and the local library depended on bake sales, and police and fire protection were outsourced, and Americans realized they’re living in the rye on the edge of a cliff. I prefer a country where people come to know and trust each other. Everybody gets knocked around, and failure sometimes seems endemic, and some get dealt a lousy hand, and yet what gets us through the woods is the kindness of others — their small good deeds, unbidden milk and honey. Let’s all extend ourselves to strangers, helping the lonely and the grieving, and not allow shyness to get in the way of charity. As Albert Schweitzer so eloquently put it: “Constant kindness can accomplish much. M As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” ROBERT BRAKE Ocean Park, Washington What horror awaits? fter Gabrielle Giffords was shot, I real- ized our culture’s fetishization of guns still exceeded its capacity for sensible regulations, but I knew inaction only leads to more gun violence. And, that given enough time, a mass shoot- ing so enormous, or cluster of mass shootings so shocking, would wake even Americans from their apathy. It was despairing to understand that while more regulations are inevitable, so many more lives would be lost. Are we there yet? If we’re not, what horror awaits? Locally, the well-attended Rally for Our Lives won’t be as telling an answer for me, as whether or not we continue to accept state Sen. Betsy Johnson’s failure to lead on this issue. How is it that teenagers have more sense in regards to preventing gun violence than our state senator? I was told by our postmaster I couldn’t stand on the postal property while protesting for chil- dren’s safety and freedom from fear. The story of my life — wondering where to plant my feet so that my concerns and regards for others can’t be ignored, but always being told to stand some- where else. To our postmaster and Betsy Johnson: I mean no disrespect, but there is the next dead child between us. Tell me where to stand where that doesn’t happen. MICHAEL A. “SASHA” MILLER Astoria A WHERE TO WRITE • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 439 Cannon House Office Building, Washing- ton, 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, Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 221 Dirk- sen 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/