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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2018)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 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 Astoria needs clearer waterfront vision Developers willing to invest money in our city shouldn’t have to guess what we want mall towns define themselves in many ways. Design is one of them. Some towns muster the gumption to insist on architectural design that responds to the neighborhood for which a building is proposed. Other towns roll over and let anything happen. When towns give developers carte to respond to its setting, and that company blanche, they quickly become a monot- followed through. onous version of national franchises you There are many ways of describ- may observe in many other cities. ing architecture. Lack of personality in a That choice lies at the heart of building is what generated the communi- what Astoria’s Historic Landmarks ty’s judgment on the proposed hotel. Commission and Design Review Good, innovative design is not neces- Committee accomplished on June 25. sarily expensive. The essential ingredi- They denied an application for the pro- ent is corporate imagination and corpo- posed Fairfield Inn and Suites on the rate will. waterfront at Second Street. If you look at franchises in towns that really push developers — such as Carmel, The two panels said “no” for differ- California, and Port ing reasons, including The community’s Townsend, Washington its size and appearance. But the essence of the voice is anything — you see how the likes of McDonald’s and project’s shortcomings but clear. So we Costco are capable of was nicely expressed by Loretta Maxwell, owner have standards. committing the resources imagination. of the Grandview Bed What are they? to show Astoria is a singular and Breakfast, who said: place — because of its “This building could be history, its culture and its physical setting. anywhere.” Online, critics referred to the Our leaders would be fools to demean that hotel as a “box.” richness with architecture that is mediocre Astoria has a recent history of push- to bad. Astoria deserves better than what ing national brands to do better. When the two panels were given. a Holiday Inn Express was proposed near the Astoria Bridge, the Uniontown ‘A nebulous vision’ Historic District Association — led by The problem going forward is that the the late Rae Goforth — insisted that the community’s voice is anything but clear. hotel respond to its surroundings. And the So we have standards. What are they? project’s developer did. The same pro- A hotel is an outright allowed use in cess played out with Kentucky Fried the area in which Hollander Hospitality Chicken. The city also leaned on Safeway wanted to build. The company has S Carleton Hart Architecture Hollander Hospitality has appealed the city’s rejection of a proposed four-story hotel on the Astoria waterfront. appealed the rejection, saying the Design Review Committee “turned otherwise objective standards into subjective stan- dards in violation of the express language” of the city’s development code. “The nature of the process is if we want more information, we need to go through an appeal,” said Sam Mullen, vice presi- dent for Hollander Hospitality. Mullen is right, in that developers will- ing to invest money in our city shouldn’t have to guess what we want. Many com- munity members were vocal in their crit- icisms of the company’s plans, but that’s not the same as rules in writing. The timing of this is instructive, as the city has just commenced what is expected to be 10 months of discussions about the Urban Core, the final piece of the Riverfront Vision Plan that will guide future development along the Columbia River from Second Street to 16th Street. The hotel is part of Bridge Vista, a section of the riverfront plan adopted in 2015 that covers Uniontown. If we don’t want ugly hotels that block the public’s view of the river, we should find nonsubjective ways to codify that. Elizabeth Menetrey, who served on the city’s Riverfront Vision Plan commit- tee, allowed that the hotel is allowed under city code. However, it was in opposition to an overall city goal of maintaining sweep- ing, open vistas along the water’s edge in that area, she said. For the Urban Core, the city has an opportunity to “make a nebulous vision firm,” she said. “I think here you have a chance to be a little conservative in what we allow.” 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 johnson@state.or.us Web: www.bet- syjohnson.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. WRITER’S NOTEBOOK Buehler’s real task is his party’s rebirth The state GOP was Oregon’s progressive party for most of the 20th century. Candidate can become the voice of a new Oregon Republican Party W e may not like them, but political parties are central to our national dynamic. At their best, the parties evolve to something that more clearly represents our aspirations. At their worst, they ossify and become irrelevant to our real needs. Ever since Oregon’s last Republican governor, Victor Atiyeh — one of the state’s best postwar chief executives — the Oregon GOP has languished in a religion-based miasma, in which abortion and homosexuality have been litmus tests. Now state Republicans have nominated a credible candidate for governor, Knute STEVE Buehler. So this is a moment of promise, for FORRESTER the GOP and for our state’s political well-be- ing. That is because the state’s Democratic party has become a Portland-centric value system that often is blind to the rest of the state. Because statewide Democratic candidates can roll up big majorities in Multnomah County, the party easily becomes smug and predictable, while being the captive and servant of the public employee unions. It could be said that President Donald Trump complicates any attempt by the Oregon GOP to redefine itself. But Oregon history contains at least two scenarios that are relevant to the task in front of Buehler. It is hard to imagine today, but prior to the mid-1950s, Oregon Democrats were the minority party –— without a U.S. Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian Republican gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler gath- ered with supporters in Wilsonville during the May prima- ry. Buehler, a doctor and state representative from Bend, will face Gov. Kate Brown in November. senator since 1921 or a state legislative majority since 1878. That changed because of a liberal braintrust whose marquee name was Richard L. Neuberger — a state legislator and also one of America’s most prolific magazine writers and liberal voices. When Neuberger won an Oregon House seat in Multnomah County in 1941, he became one of 24 Democratic represen- tatives, outnumbered by 39 Republicans. Elected to the state Senate in 1949, Neuberger was one of 10 Democrats, outnum- bered by 20 Republicans. In 1952, Neuberger wrote: “No aisle divides the two parties, for the nine Democrats are heavily outnumbered by the 21 Republicans.” One of Neuberger’s contemporaries whom I interviewed for biographical research said the Oregon Democratic party of the 1940s was “inarticulate.” And it was Neuberger who gave the party a voice. By 1959, Democrats had majorities in both the state House and Senate. The second useful truth for Buehler is that for much of the 20th century, Republicans were Oregon’s progressive party. Mark Hatfield, while a state representative, authored a Civil Rights Act in 1953. Statewide land use planning was authored by two Republican farmers — Stafford Hansell of Eastern Oregon and Hector MacPherson of the Willamette Valley. They were aided and abetted by a Republican governor, Tom McCall. Political parties change their faces over the years. While today’s Oregon Republican Party has been stymied by reli- gion-based barriers for more than a decade, it’s essential for today’s Republicans to realize that their party was once the engine of progress in this state. So it’s Buehler’s moment. Like Neuberger some 60 years ago, Buehler can become the voice of a new Oregon Republican Party — laying out values that appeal to a broad swath of Oregonians, beyond the ideologically pure. Steve Forrester, the former editor and publisher of The Daily Astorian, is the president and CEO of EO Media Group.
