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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, MARcH 13, 2021
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
Founded in 1873
SHANNON ARLINT
circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Does Portland love itself?
I
have a box of index cards for a book
that I never wrote. The working title
was “Goodbye, Oregon: The Passing
of a Place.” I gathered research material
in the 1980s. The book’s premise was that
various geographical and cultural land-
marks of the state, that I had known since
the 1950s, were being
transformed.
Today, I am wonder-
ing whether that thesis
should be applied to what
is happening to Portland.
Having grown up in
Oregon, I have known
STEVE
many Portlands. The city
FORRESTER
I knew in my adoles-
cence was a middle-class
town with block after downtown block of
smaller, family-owned shops and restau-
rants. I subsequently called Portland my
home from 1968 to 1978. That Portland
was a charming place that fine dining had
not discovered.
I believe it was the economist Jane
Jacobs who observed that, “Great cities
love themselves.” It seemed to me that
Jacobs’ axiom fit Portland in those days.
It was not yet the foodie paradise it would
become. The Trail Blazers won their NBA
championship. The town’s rich architec-
ture was something to study and be proud
of.
These days, I wonder about Portland’s
affection for itself. During an interview I
did with a Portland-based magazine editor
in mid-January, I recited Jacobs’ observa-
tion and asked: “Does Portland love itself
these days?” She answered: “No.”
Following the killing of George Floyd
by Minneapolis police, Portland’s nightly
Black Lives Matter demonstrations — as
the nights wore on — were taken over by
rioters. Among their contradictory dese-
crations was removing the Afro-Ameri-
can Heritage Bicentennial Commemora-
tive Quilt from its display in the Oregon
Historical Society. Created by a group of
15 Portland African American women,
the quilt depicted key moments and per-
sons from the African American history of
America. Among the quilters was Gladys
Gillian Flaccus/AP Photo
Masked protesters by an occupied home speak with a neighborhood resident opposed to their demonstration in Portland in December.
PORTLANd’S RIOTS BEcAME MucH MORE
THAN A STAPLE OF VIOLENT FOOTAGE FOR
TELEVISION NEWS. THEy HAVE TAKEN A TOLL.
McCoy, the first person of color elected to
public office in Oregon.
Portland’s riots became much more
than a staple of violent footage for televi-
sion news. They have taken a toll.
Portland’s preeminent journalist, Nigel
Jaquiss, of Willamette Week, took note in
January. His story, headlined “A key indi-
cator of real estate investors’ interest in
Portland shows a precipitous decline,”
noted that Portland had plummeted from
near the top of a ranking of 80 cities to
near the bottom. He wrote: “That plunge
in confidence appears to stem from fac-
tors that include widely broadcast images
of protests and nearby wildfires. It may
be exacerbated by the documented flight
of businesses from the city’s core and fac-
tors such as the cost of property insur-
ance rising 30% to 50% amid repeated
vandalism.”
Later that week, Forbes magazine took
notice. In a story headlined “Death of a
city: The Portland story?” the magazine
asked: “How long does it take for a city
to die?”
In February, Jaquiss reported on the
observations of real estate professionals in
and around Portland. In a bit of hyperbole,
one of those professionals had written a
paper raising the specter of Pompei. Sum-
moning a different urban decline, Jaquiss’
piece was headlined: “Forget Pompeii. Is
Portland the next Detroit?”
In mid-December, my wife and I vis-
ited downtown Portland on our way to see
her college classmate in Multnomah Vil-
lage. I dropped into Rich’s Cigar Store,
whose Alder Street façade was covered
in plywood. It was dispiriting to see so
many buildings wearing these anonymous
wooden storefronts. On-street parking
was abundant.
For anyone who has known Portland’s
exuberance for itself and its eccentric life-
style (think “Portlandia”), this is a major
turn in the road. When I have spoken
with Portland friends, they cite the weak
mayor, Ted Wheeler, as one reason for
the city’s being like a sailing ship adrift
on choppy seas, with its masts and rud-
der disabled. One Portland friend suggests
that Wheeler will be recalled from office
in the spring. And succeeded by whom?
Cities are always somewhere in the
cycle of deterioration, atrophy and resto-
ration. Astoria’s rebirth over the past three
decades has been remarkable.
Where is Portland’s momentum going?
How will the story end? Certainly politi-
cal leadership will determine the outcome.
So will the affection of its citizens. Pres-
ently, it seems like Portland is a hard place
to love.
Steve Forrester, the former editor and
publisher of The Astorian, is the president
and cEO of EO Media Group.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Mental heartburn
he March 9 guest column from
Dick Hughes on unexpected reve-
nue causes me mental heartburn, when I
see comments like a tax “kicker” rebate is
likely because of the unexpected revenue
received in 2020, while at the same time
Gov. Kate Brown wants more federal stim-
ulus money, even though she has not spent
all that has been received.
I listen to my local city leaders, who tell
me that the expenses they have incurred
from the COVID-19 pandemic far exceed
revenue received from federal or state
sources. Either the state is sitting on money
that should have been sent to counties and
cities in Oregon, or local governments are
not telling the public the full story.
How anyone can believe anything com-
ing from government is a mystery to me.
I believe that no matter how much money
the state taxes its citizens, it will never be
enough.
I understand that the public spin is that
new taxes are only aimed at very high-in-
come people. My bet is the advisers to Phil
Knight will outsmart the “tax them till they
drop” crowd all day long.
Experience tells me more than 50% of
Oregon taxpayers will end up paying more
taxes in the foreseeable future, no matter
how they spin it.
There seems to be a new belief in
America that the government can always
print more money anytime they need it.
I object to the out-of-control spending
underway at this time. I also object to most
political incumbents.
SCOTT WIDDICOMBE
Warrenton
T
Class warfare
n reply to Jenny Johnson’s letter of
March 9, I would ask that readers sub-
stitute the word “plantation” for the word
“forest” and “logging” for the word “for-
estry” wherever these words appear.
All her greenwashing will never make
the tax-free harvesting of private timber-
lands any more palatable than the factual
record of how county revenues and Ore-
gon Department of Forestry funding plum-
meted after the 1990 abolition of the state’s
harvest and severance taxes.
Her statement that reinstating these
taxes on harvests will somehow cost jobs
and businesses in rural Oregon is unsup-
portable. It is not as if timber harvests are
I
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
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month. Letters written in response
arranged as a public service.
Wherever trees are a crop, there will be
harvests. It will be profitable, just as it was
in the beginning, and as it was from the
1950s to the late 1980s. And, it is a living
fact that the 1990s abatement of harvest
and severance taxes has made short rota-
tion harvests obscenely profitable.
Labor costs have been rendered insig-
nificant. Mechanization and related fuel
and machinery costs are outlandish, but
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR.,
97103.
these expenses are now assumed by the
logger.
It is past time to reinstate harvest and
severance taxes on the owners as sources
of public revenue, to ensure that working
people of all persuasions and economic
sectors aren’t holding the bag to fund
every needed public expenditure.
Absentee owners and their proxies need
to pay their share. To demand less per-
petuates a disgrace, and solidifies Clat-
sop County’s role as a backwoods resource
colony.
GARY DURHEIM
Seaside
Think about it
hat if I were to get a building mate-
rial package, and wanted to pay cash
for it, but no invoice came?
And then they asked me for $15,000,
and I expected $12,000, after I asked and
asked for them to give me a receipt and
count the materials. Do you think they
would be right there to check it out? You
bet, I know them, and they are honest
people.
What if they balked and wouldn’t
check? What would you think? If I worked
for that company, I would work that out or
quit my job. They made me look dishon-
est, too.
Let’s get our voting right: Legal people,
same day, and on paper.
CHUCK BERGERSON
Warrenton
W