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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2019
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Rita Goldfarb
Kindergartners get a tour of Haystack Rock. What a treat in Cannon Beach!
From editor to civilian in Cannon Beach
Note: Country Media has acquired
the Cannon Beach Gazette newspaper
from EO Media Group, effective May 1.
Gazette editor R.J. Marx will continue to
edit EO Media’s Seaside Signal.
I
t’s hard to write a farewell column
when I’ve only been here four years.
That’s less than the lifespan of some
razor clams.
My fi rst experience in Cannon Beach
was at Bill’s Tavern.
I was sitting at the bar after an inter-
view in Astoria for the job of editor of the
Cannon Beach Gazette and Seaside Sig-
nal. A gentleman was sitting next to me;
we struck up a conversation. I told him I
was thinking of moving here to edit the
paper. He said, “Do it!” As I was leaving,
I was informed that “Jim”
was the owner of Bill’s.
My fi rst City Coun-
cil meeting in Cannon
Beach owes a great deal
to Police Chief Jason
Schermerhorn. As the
R.J.
meeting was about to get
MARX
underway, I heard a voice
address the room: “Does
anyone in the audience
have a car parked in front with New York
plates? Your lights are on.”
Yes, that was my late, lamented Audi
A4, vintage 2004 that somehow sur-
vived the cross-country trip. I grate-
fully thanked the chief for saving me the
opportunity of meeting the Moons of
Gary’s Service Center that same night.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
I’ve got to number this beached whale in Falcon Cove as a highlight in my Gazette career.
local scene to the national stage — from
Puffi n to Pelican to Public Coast.
Whether in Cannon Beach for a life-
time or if you’ve come for a few days,
everyone has the feeling that the city is
“their own.” People will make “must
stops” at galleries, bookstores, boutiques
and now, cannabis shops. I’ll be able to
say, one day, “I remember when Cannon
Beach voted to permit dispensaries.”
Looking ahead
Insider knowledge
I was lucky to have some real live
Cannon Beachers to show me the ropes.
Primary among them was my predeces-
sor, the brilliant and accomplished Nancy
McCarthy, now a city councilor.
She was, and is, tuned in to almost
everything in Cannon Beach. From the
start, she gave me the 4-1-1 on the “pres-
idential streets,” Tolovana bunnies, the
Coaster Theatre, dory fi shing.
Nancy introduced me to the local
scene at Wave Crest and informed me the
real dialogue was happening at Cheri’s.
Elaine Murdy at the Cannon Beach
History Center and Museum made avail-
able her archives and her considerable
wisdom, helping to bring the charac-
ters alive outside of the bound volumes
of back issues I pored over those fi rst
months.
Rex Amos, the city’s very unoffi cial
artist-in-residence (and that’s going some,
considering the great talents in town) pro-
vided an ongoing angle on the characters,
customs and styles of this unique city —
including the great author Ursula K. Le
Guin, whom I was fortunate enough to
have corresponded with before her death
last year.
I love Sleepy Monk’s Rachel and
Rebecca and Jason at Sea Level. For any-
one to get the fl avor of the community,
Lady Gaga
Rex Amos
Lady Gaga and friend in Cannon Beach, as
posed on Twitter.
Rex Amos, among the artists and literati
that make Cannon Beach great.
get a cuppa.
My friends Laura and Gregg intro-
duced me to all the great restaurants
in town and provided convivial dinner
dialogue.
Of course I’ll still be eating with them
and in the same restaurants, I just won’t
be snapping photos of the appetizers.
My wife says it will be a relief walking
into Cannon Beach and not having to hear
someone say, “This is off the record.”
But it’s not like I’m moving away.
I’ll still be in the same offi ce on North
Roosevelt in Seaside as the Signal goes
weekly on May 10.
I see that as a tremendous opportu-
nity, a goal from the start — I believe that
community newspapers are best served
with a weekly continuity.
Santa Fe, Aspen or Jackson Hole.
And like those cities it carries with
it an international cachet and its own
branding, courtesy Mother Nature: Hay-
stack Rock. No wonder “Lady Gaga slept
here.”
But that’s just Cannon Beach from the
outside. The only way to get to know a
community is to cover it on a day to day,
week to week, year to year basis. I had
the rare opportunity of following this for-
ward-thinking community as they led the
way — and lead the way — in addressing
threats posed by the Cascadia Subduc-
tion Zone.
I have watched the struggle to provide
affordable housing for an ever-growing
workforce in the midst of a countywide
crunch. I’ve witnessed the Cannon Beach
Academy grow from the seed of an idea
to a full-fl edged, accredited elementary
school program meeting a critical need
for families in the community.
I’ve seen the city’s status as a haven
for craft beer, wine and spirits from the
Lady Gaga slept here
What is best about Cannon Beach is
its level of discourse, quality of life and
community, with a citizenry as eloquent,
elevated and inspired as the denizens of
It was cool to experience it from the
inside. But like an open-ended drama,
what’s next?
Will Cannon Beach build a shadow
city at the Southwind site or elsewhere?
What will be the result of dune grad-
ing discussions — a topic debated since
the 1980s?
How will Cannon Beach’s popularity
with tourists balance with critical envi-
ronmental concerns?
Of course these questions won’t be
answered tomorrow and probably not the
next day.
That said, it’s going to be bittersweet
for me. I know the Gazette is in good
hands with Country Media publishers
Steve and Carol Hungerford, editor Joe
Warren and his mighty team.
They do a stellar job in Tillamook
County and newspapers throughout
the Northwest. Joe’s a longtime news-
man and understands the community’s
heartbeat.
The Hungerfords owned the Gazette
previously — they know and love Can-
non Beach. They’ll be taking stewardship
of this beat — and it is a stewardship —
as the city moves forward. You’ll see new
faces holding reporter’s notebooks at the
meetings and maybe some of the familiar
ones as freelancers or staff.
As a newsman, I can’t help but wonder
what I’ll be missing.
But then I can always read about it, in
print and online, in the Gazette!