WINTER WHALE WATCH WEEK
ON THE NORTH COAST »INSIDE
AY
THURSD 26
DECEMBER
2019
I SPY SA
NTA
PAGE 4
DiVe In
WINTER
TCH WEEK
WHALE WA
ON THE NO
RTH COAST
FROM
BUBBLY
TO BRIE,
A
HOSTING R’S
NEW YEA
PARTY
PAGE 14
EK
THIS WE
— THE
ONLY STE
OF
TA
TRAVEL
PAGE 8
PA GE 10
O $2,020!
147TH YEAR, NO. 77
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2019
$1.50
Population
growth
slows with
economy
Jobs, housing costs are
contributing factors
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Astoria is looking into a chronic nuisance ordinance and an exclusion zone ordinance.
Astoria looks to address
chronic bad behavior
Two proposals go
before City Council
By NICOLE BALES
The Astorian
T
wo ideas are expected to go
before the Astoria City Coun-
cil in the new year to target
the small number of people who
make up a large portion of 911
calls .
A chronic nuisance ordinance
and an exclusion zone ordinance
would serve different purposes,
Police Chief Geoff Spalding said,
but both are designed to address
repeated bad behavior .
“Our goal here on both of these
is to gain compliance. It’s not to
impose fi nes on people or try to put
people in jail ,” the police chief said
at a December work session.
C ity M anager Brett Estes said
the city adopted a derelict build-
ing ordinance nearly a decade ago
to deal with run-down properties,
including several owned by the Fla-
vel family that had been neglected
for years.
See Astoria, Page A6
Population growth in Clatsop County
has slowed with the economy.
The c ounty reached 39,330 people
as of July 1, according to fi gures from
Portland State University’s Population
Research Center, up one-third of a per-
cent from last year and 6.1% from a
decade ago.
The state grew by about 1%, or
41,000 people, from last year, and nearly
400,000 people over the past decade, a
growth rate of more than 10%. Migration
of people into the state has accounted for
the vast majority of growth.
Charles Rynerson, interim director
of the Population Research Center, tied
the slowing growth rate to a dampening
economy and expensive housing market.
“Obviously, the economy is doing
well,” he said. “But in terms of the num-
ber of jobs being added in Oregon, it’s
down from a few years ago.”
Clatsop County’s growth rate was at
0.2% in July 2011, when unemployment
peaked around 10%. The county’s growth
rate grew with the number of jobs, peak-
ing at nearly 1.6% between 2016 and
2017, when unemployment bottomed
out around 4%. Unemployment has since
leveled out around 4%, while the growth
rate has dipped below 1% annually.
Much of the job growth on the North
Coast has been in lower-paying, less-
skilled jobs in the service sector and
hospitality. Housing, meanwhile, has
become more expensive, driven in large
part by people from outside the county
with more money to spend.
“If some of the job growth at the coast
is in, say, the tourist economy, but peo-
ple with second homes are driving up
the cost of housing, then there’s a mis-
match,” Rynerson said. “It’s a problem
not only at the c oast, but all over the
state.”
More than half of the state’s popula-
tion growth was in the Portland m etro
a rea in Multnomah, Washington and
Clackamas counties. Deschutes County,
home to the quickly growing city of
Bend, was the fastest-growing county in
the state over the past decade, increasing
in population by 22%.
Coastal counties nearer to Portland
have faired better economically and
grown at a faster pace than their neigh-
bors to the south. Clatsop County’s 6.1%
growth rate was the fastest on the Oregon
Coast over the past decade, compared to
4.9% in Tillamook County and 4.6% in
Lincoln County. Coos and Curry coun-
ties grew by 0.4% and 2.9% over the past
decade.
Astoria, at 9,690 people, continued
slowly shrinking, down fi ve people from
the year prior and 80 from its peak of
9,770 in 2016. The city, bound by water
and steep hills, has hovered just below
10,000 people since the 1990 census.
See Population, Page A6
Coastal towns confront rising sea levels
Flooding fears in Wheeler
By ERIN ROSS
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Scientists agree that sea levels
are rising. The question is: How
much and how fast? That’s an
important question for communi-
ties along the Oregon Coast.
For marina owner Jim Niel-
son, occasional fl oods are the
price you pay for shorefront
property .
His shop, the Wheeler Marina,
sits in an estuary where the
Nehalem River opens into the
eponymous bay. It’s sheltered
from Pacifi c waves by a nar-
row spit of sand dunes. Stacks
of colorful kayaks border the
dirt parking lot. An aging black
L ab greets visitors’ pets before
escorting them up the stairs to
the boat rental and tackle shop,
which takes up the second fl oor
of the old wooden building.
Nielson has owned and oper-
ated the shop with his wife, Mar-
gie, for 40 years. He thinks it’s
the most low-lying property in
Wheeler, and for a long time,
fl ooding was a way of life.
Erin Ross/Oregon Public Broadcasting
See Sea levels, Page A6
The Wheeler Marina used to fl ood a few times a year, until the shop owner raised the building 4 feet. Now, water
laps at the retaining wall.