4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 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
Avoiding Portland traffic at all costs
t doesn’t take a traffic engineer to
determine that Portland is high-
way-impaired. Traffic in Oregon’s
largest city is slow.
How slow is it, you ask?
A few years ago, the state Department
of Transportation estimated that 34,600
hours a day were wasted in Portland traffic
jams. That’s nearly four years of people’s
time that was wasted each day. We’d bet
the number is much larger now.
And just think of what all that stalled
traffic does to the climate. A car or truck
stuck in Portland traffic is producing
carbon dioxide but getting zero miles per
gallon. By that standard alone, Portland
must be a major contributor to climate
change.
Portland traffic is so bad people headed
for the airport often have to factor in an
extra hour of drive time just to avoid
missing their flights.
I
Getting goods to market
Portland traffic is so bad the state
Legislature set aside $25 million to
help agricultural shippers in the nearby
Willamette Valley avoid it.
The plan is to build an “intermodal
facility” somewhere in the Willamette
Valley south of Portland. Trucks will haul
containers full of hay and other agricultural
commodities from farms and processors
to a loading terminal where the containers
can be loaded onto railroad cars. From
there, trains would go to ports in Tacoma
or Seattle for export overseas, thus
avoiding Portland traffic snarls. The Port
of Portland handles only a tiny number of
container ships, making the trip to Tacoma
Associated Press
Traffic in Portland is a challenge for North Coast drivers looking to get anywhere else fast.
and Seattle necessary.
It should be noted that there are already
three such intermodal facilities in the
region — including one at the port —
but all are in Portland. Trucks hauling
containers to those facilities are just as
likely to get caught in traffic.
If Interstates 5, 205 and 405 had
adequate capacity, and if traffic not bound
for Portland could avoid its multi-lane
parking lots, many problems could be
solved. But, for whatever reason, that is
not to be.
Having a $25 million intermodal facility
in the valley represents the next best thing
for valley growers and processors who still
have to get their crops and goods to ports
for shipment to overseas customers.
In the running are two proposals. One
would be built in Brooks, a few miles
north of Salem. The other would be a
repurposed paper mill in Millersburg, a
few miles south of Salem.
tabend, who gave us a very exciting trip
across the bar to see several pilot boardings
and retrievals of both Capt. Christian and
Capt. Chris Farrell. Capt. Christian also spent
a lot of time with us showing their facilities
and a full tour of the Pilot Boat Columbia.
This was a trip of a lifetime, and again,
saying thank you is not nearly enough for all
we were given. This group of people are true
professionals, and a privilege to have working
in our community. Thanks, bar pilots.
DONALD C. ROESSLER
Astoria
ducting of the New York Philharmonic and
other great orchestras, his articulate, imagi-
native, sometimes poignant “Young People’s
Concerts,” his movie scores (“On the Water-
front,” “West Side Story,” et al), Broadway
hits (“Candide,” “On the Town”), and numer-
ous compositions like “Mass.”
Bernstein’s reply to violence, always, was
to make music more intensely, more beauti-
fully, and more devotedly than ever before.
Hailed as a hero, Bernstein was able to popu-
larize the classics in a way that no other musi-
cian had ever done. No musician in the history
of America touched so many people so deeply
and in so many ways.
Winner of 17 Emmys and many other
awards, Bernstein was a flawed genius, but
a prolific performer who represented what
was truly great about America. And that’s
worth remembering, when so many Ameri-
cans believe we need to “Make America Great
Again.”
ROBERT BRAKE
Ocean Park, Washington
What about the rest of us?
North Coast drivers have to make hard
decisions when planning trips to points
east. Do we try to avoid the ever-growing
rush hour time windows, just brave the
traffic, or plan lengthy detours that can add
hours to a journey?
Any solution appears to be years away,
and expensive to boot.
The Oregon Transportation Commission
voted unanimously recently to seek
federal approval for tolling Interstates 5
and 205 through the Portland area and to
study creating a seamless loop of tollways
around the city. Those tolls might also
extend to Interstate 405, Interstate 84, U.S.
Route 26, State Highway 217 and sections
of U.S. Route 30.
Unless there’s a massive national
investment in public transportation
networks, such as passenger rail — highly
unlikely — we will have to rely on our
automobiles for decades to come. And
tolls may be the only way to get new roads
built.
Those of us who have experienced
East Coast traffic snarls sincerely hope the
Portland planners take to heart the lessons
learned there. Any toll road that forces
drivers to stop and make change creates
miles-long backups.
Only systems like EZPass that allow
vehicles to whiz by and record the toll
electronically have any hope of reducing
congestion. Drivers without passes could
have their license plates scanned, with
automated bills arriving in the mail, much
as camera speed traps operate. It smacks of
Big Brother, but it works.
Any solution that allows us to travel
around Portland, rather than through it, is
worthy of pursuing — even tolls. No one
likes to pull out their wallet just to get from
point A to point B in their automobile.
But to do nothing, and allow our roads
to become ever more unusable, isn’t an
option.
We need to think big for the future.
President Eisenhower thought big in the
1950s when he built the national interstate
system. It transformed our nation. What
will transform travel in the 21st century?
LETTERS
Vote Herman for
Astoria City Council
oan Herman has long been a quiet force for
good in our community and will be an out-
standing Astoria city councilor representing
Ward 3.
Joan has been a calm and thoughtful vol-
unteer for many community organizations,
including our beloved KMUN radio, Indi-
visible North Coast Oregon (INCO) and the
Lower Columbia Diversity Coalition. She has
the capacity, compassion and empathy needed
to listen and then help to build a consensus for
moving forward.
She knows small business ownership, and
what makes Astoria so special to us. I do,
without reservation, support Joan Herman for
Astoria city councilor, Ward 3, and encourage
your vote for her in November.
TESSA JAMES SCHELLER
Warrenton
J
US shouldn’t bail out
energy producers
he question, “Should the U.S. bail out
failing energy producers?” (The Daily
Astorian, Aug. 10) can be answered in one
word: No. While the harm is less than bailing
out failed banks it, like other bailout schemes,
is bad business.
The true cost of things should be known to
the consumer, even if it means the consumer
cannot afford these things. If the consumer
does not know the true cost, the resources will
be largely wasted — something that is not in
the best interest of the world and succeeding
generations when it comes to energy.
Happiness is not necessarily the destiny of
the human race. Ask the man on any Ethio-
pian street.
BENJAMIN A. GREAVES
Seaside
T
Thank you for bar pilots trip
e attended the Astoria Rescue Mission
Talent show earlier this year, and were
lucky enough to buy the winning raffle ticket
for a trip with the Columbia River Bar Pilots.
What a blessing that trip has been.
Growing up in Astoria, I have always
respected the bar pilots group, having many as
neighbors. Besides doing the tremendous job
they do with moving ships across the bar, they
do many wonderful things for the community.
They drop the golf balls for the Assistance
League’s annual Golf Ball Drop, and you will
see their name all over town on things that
they sponsor, from a bench at the Maritime
Memorial to donations to Clatsop Community
College and many, many more.
I want to especially thank bar pilot Capt.
Nick Christian and Boat Operator David Fas-
W
Celebrate centennial
of Bernstein’s birth
n Saturday, Aug. 25, we celebrate the
centennial birthday of Leonard Bernstein
(1918-1990) — America’s greatest conductor,
one of our finest composers, an accomplished
pianist, an influential teacher and writer, a
notable humanitarian, and our most famous
native-born musician.
He insisted that it is the artists of the world
— not the politicians and business barons
— but the thinkers and feelers who will ulti-
mately save us by articulating, educating,
defying, insisting, singing and shouting the
big dreams.
I’ll always remember his energetic con-
O
A journey in time
ime is with us — no matter what. When
one is young, life is exciting but you
can’t wait to grow up. Then it is hard to wait
to get to what we think is adulthood. When
we are an “adult,” we can’t wait to accom-
T
plish … whether it’s the military, advanced
training, a job, college, marriage or what-
ever. Time goes on. This is what the uni-
verse is.
Now I wake up, blink my eyes and real-
ize the last 20 years has passed like it was
yesterday. I think of the journey in time in
20-year periods.
Twenty years ago I was beginning the last
of my professional life as a rehabilitation
consultant. I stopped, having moved to Asto-
ria in 2015. Stopping was not easy.
From the beginning, around age 4, I recall
worrying about toys I may have left outside
during a nighttime rain storm. I also remem-
ber my good mother disciplining me for mis-
behaving in church. She sat me in my high-
chair — and did I cry.
Some 20 years later, after the military, my
first teaching job was at Edwards Air Force
Base in the Mojave desert. I never did sports
in school. At Edwards, a boy’s junior high
school coach was also needed. That was me.
Then, I was married with one child.
Again, some 20 years later, after years of
teaching and casework, I was on faculty at
the University of Texas Health Science Cen-
ter in Dallas with six children.
So here we are today — a journey in time.
Enjoy the journey.
NORM HOOGE
Astoria