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THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, MAy 17, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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Circulation Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Deeply troubled
H
omelessness is a consequence, not
a cause. Over the last several years
I have been deeply troubled by actions
and comments from many citizens on a
host of issues, including the homeless
population.
In 1948, the U.S. signed an agree-
ment with the United Nations indicat-
ing housing as a right under Resolution
217 A. The U.S. has not lived up to their
agreement.
There are many reasons people become
homeless: Mental health, drug abuse,
criminal history, divorce, low income,
high debt, monopolies and market manip-
ulation (these are the causes), and we
have done a really poor job addressing
them.
Finland has a policy called “Housing
First,” and since initiating it, they have
reduced the numbers of their homeless
population substantially. It’s based on get-
ting people into a stable housing situa-
tion, then addressing the cause; it appears
to work.
Before someone should be recalled
based on a decision to provide a homeless
area, you might want to know, it’s illegal
to criminalize homelessness.
In a federal court ruling, criminally
punishing homeless people for sleeping
on the street when they have nowhere else
to go is inhumane. It was found to violate
the Eighth Amendment.
The U.N. 1948 resolution and the fed-
eral court ruling are requiring cities across
the nation to find solutions for the prob-
lem by providing houses, and camps,
during certain hours, times and locations.
TROY PROUTY
McMinnville
Fix your roads
T
o hear about this new waterfront proj-
ect (“Astoria adopts waterfront master
plan,” May 5). The roads through Astoria
are completely a joke. Your roads are fall-
ing apart, especially entering and leaving
the Astoria Bridge. Fix your roads first.
THOMAS KRUEGER
Ocean Park, Washington
Unfortunate
A
s anyone travels through our small
towns, it is not hard to miss the
amount of litter pasted across the sides
of the roads. Broken parts and trash are
thrown and flown out of vehicles right
into our towns that are marked for their
beauty. We are close to the ocean and
river, where most litter will end up.
Only ever so often can a nice person,
part of our community, be spotted with a
bag and reach extender in hand helping
maintain the cleanliness of our environ-
ment. It is unfortunate that a person has to
be cleaning up after others, as if they are
children.
If everyone simply kept their trash
until they find a trash bin, and kept their
litter out of the beds of their vehicles to
prevent it from possibly flying out, then
our litter issue would already be almost
solved.
So the next time you walk down the
sidewalk, and you come across a small
candy wrapper, go ahead and pick it up.
That simple action can create a habit for
yourself to help our community.
SIERRA BROWN
Astoria
Great addition
G
rowing up as a basketball player in
the Northwest, I know how diffi-
cult and frustrating rain can be. I feel as
if a covered basketball hoop in Clatsop
County would be a great addition to the
community.
I have played many pickup games in
Astoria, but all of them have been on dry,
sunny days that are hard to come across.
I think a covered basketball hoop would
give kids an opportunity to go outside
and be active, while protected from the
elements.
Kids need an outlet, and something to
do, otherwise they could resort to things
like drugs or alcohol. I think covered bas-
ketball hoops would be a good addition
to the community, and lead the way to
lots of pickup basketball, and maybe even
some rain-free public events.
LOGAN MORRILL
Astoria
Ideal location
ave you ever tried to find a parking
place on a Saturday in downtown
Astoria? On a recent weekend, it took me
over 10 minutes to find a parking spot.
I believe that it would help people
and local businesses if parking was more
accessible. One way to do this is to build
a parking garage downtown. The lot off
of Duane Street between 11th and 12th
H
streets would be an ideal location for this.
This location is currently occupied by
the old Safeway lot and a small parking
lot. This location was also being planned
to be used by putting in affordable hous-
ing, but in the future the parking garage
would be more useful to tourists, and
local business people, than housing.
NICOLAI OGIER
Astoria
Our money that the people of the state
pay for the roads should be shown to go
for something to better the roads, not sit-
ting somewhere collecting dust.
RYAN DICK
Astoria
Moral failing
T
Stop littering
W
e need to take care of our
environment.
It doesn’t matter if you’re walking on
the side of the road, in town, or in the
woods, you find trash everywhere. On
multiple accounts, I have seen people
driving down the road and just throwing
garbage out their windows.
Plastic, food wrappers, cigarettes, bot-
tles, cans and even clothes, are all in
ditches or on the side of the road. Not
only does it deface our beautiful town, but
animals end up either eating the garbage
or getting stuck in it, which usually ends
up killing most of them.
We need to stop littering and defac-
ing our town, and start cleaning up after
ourselves.
SARA WERNER
Astoria
Dangerous
O
ur roads, and how dangerous they
are, have been a topic for many
years. With all of the potholes and bumps
that form on the roads over time, the dan-
ger of the roads increases with no sign of
improvement.
But how are the roads still so bad when
the people of the state pay taxes to have
them cared for? Crashes have been on
the rise. Deaths from crashes are at their
highest in three decades.
Potholes, bumps and cracks are almost
impossible to avoid on any road in the
world, but the frequency of these holes
and bumps are way too dangerous to pro-
crastinate on. There are many areas that
haven’t even been attempted at trying to
fix, as far as I have seen.
For example, U.S. Highway 30, all
kinds of bumps and potholes in a bunch
of different places along that road. I have
personally seen many times people swerv-
ing out of the way of these holes on High-
way 30 and putting people on the other
side of the road, and me, in danger.
here are an estimated half million
unhoused people in the U.S., 60,000
of them veterans.
I have housed and helped many house-
less people over the years. Each had legit-
imate reasons for ending up that way. In
addition to job or financial loss, health
issues, post-traumatic stress disorder,
mental illness, learning disabilities and
trauma can make it difficult to hold a job
or adhere to societal norms.
Many of the unhoused we see today
live with one or more of these issues. Liv-
ing homeless, with no resources or coping
skills, also often leads to addiction, mak-
ing getting off the streets even more com-
plicated. It’s a vicious cycle of frustration
and despair.
Expecting people to simply “choose”
not to be addicted, or to “pull themselves
up by their bootstraps” is not a realistic
approach. Being homeless is not a moral
failing. What is a moral failing is to see
these people, and not see deeply damaged
and suffering human beings.
It is a moral failing to worry more
about shopping carts than people. It is a
moral failing to stalk the homeless, put-
ting their pictures on the internet, and
threaten them with violence and call
them vile names. This behavior sad-
dens and frightens me more than any real
or perceived threats from the homeless
population.
History has shown what this can lead
to. Our fellow human beings deserve bet-
ter. There are no simple solutions, but
whatever we do, it must be based on com-
passion, not fear or disgust.
RITA SMITH
Hammond
Awareness
I
want to draw the attention of the con-
cerned authorities to homeless people
in Clatsop County.
If you walk around any part of Clatsop
County, you are sure to see tents set up,
people on corners with signs, and people
pushing carts around. It seems that as the
years go by, there are more people com-
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ing down from places like Portland to try
and get by here.
While there are places like Clatsop
Community Action, this might not be
enough for people. I constantly see peo-
ple pushing carts full of cans they found
on the side of the street into places, like
Safeway, that have bottle returns just
so they can get enough money for their
dinner.
With rising prices of not only gas,
but anything else in this world, it is even
hard on people who used to live comfort-
ably. The minimum wage has never been
enough to pay for things, and if prices
keep going up, we might all become
homeless.
I hope by writing this I may bring
awareness not only to the homeless pop-
ulation in Clatsop County, but also to the
future of our county.
RACHEL BALL
Astoria
Big difference
P
lastic pollution is found almost every-
where, from ocean to ocean, city to
city and land to land. It’s become more
difficult to look around to see the beauty
of nature and not notice the plastic that
litters our lives.
The harm it does to our environment,
and the wildlife that thrives in it, has
woken me up to the call of protecting our
world. We the people of Clatsop County
can come together in this call and pro-
tect our world from the plastic that threat-
ens it.
Even the simplest things, like pick-
ing up trash on the sidewalk, can and will
make a big difference for our world in the
long run.
MARKIAN MILLER
Astoria
Small thing
W
hen driving past the bridge that
enters Washington, driving on W.
Marine Drive in the left lane, have you
ever felt a rumble of waves? Well, I’m
sure you have, or you tried to get around
that horrible feeling. Something needs to
happen to get rid of those horrible pot-
holes that are all lined in that one spot.
It might not seem like a big, or even an
important problem, happening right now
in Astoria, but it’s a problem that could
eventually get worse if we leave it alone.
Potholes can be dangerous over time to
your car, or even people around you.
They can cause hoses and lines to
puncture, leading to fluid leakage. If the
holes are big enough, your vehicle could
bottom up, you could lose control of your
steering and hit someone, and you could
get damage to your car’s undercarriage.
These could all be serious problems.
These potholes need to be noticed and
fixed before they get worse.
Potholes are also a problem for how
Astoria looks. They are a small thing that
affects the look of Astoria, but all the
small things you clean up can make a big
impact.
MADDISON VanGUNDY
Astoria