OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
Vaccine: Presently,
Oregon averages
1,241 daily cases
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
This piece of property along Southeast 12th Street in Pendleton is among the list of properties the city has identified as ac-
ceptable for outdoor sleeping.
Homeless: Police plan to educate first
Continued from Page A1
hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The actual text of the law
focused more on where peo-
ple couldn’t sleep — streets,
sidewalks, alleys and other
public rights-of-way — than
where they could. With the
production of the map, the
city now has a patchwork
of public properties where
people can legally sleep for
the night.
In some ways, the ordi-
nance reinforces the status
quo.
Out of the approximately
60 properties that are now
considered “right to rest”
land, many of them are
along the Umatilla River,
where many homeless
already set up camps during
the evenings.
The rest are scattered
throughout
Pendleton’s
commercial, residential and
industrial areas, ranging
widely in size and shape.
Although one of the maps
includes the disclaimer
“areas considered unsafe
due to environmental fac-
tors have been excluded,”
some of the rest areas don’t
seem especially accommo-
dating for overnight stays.
One of the highlighted areas
appears to be the Southgate
entrance to D & B Supply,
while others have preexist-
ing structures on them like
houses or sheds.
“There are going to be
some areas in this map that
will need further scrutiny
and possible correction,”
City Attorney Nancy Kerns
wrote in an email. “We will
be working to get those
resolved.”
Lt. Chuck Byram, the
incoming chief of the Pend-
leton Police Department,
said while there are pub-
lic rest areas in some of
the city’s residential neigh-
borhoods, in practice, he
anticipates most homeless
residents will continue to
stick to the downtown area,
where stores and services
are within easy walking
distance.
While the law is in effect,
comply with the law once
they’re educated, and they
only start taking more strin-
gent enforcement actions
if talking to them doesn’t
work.
Byram said it will be a
learning process for both
sides, especially since he
doesn’t expect officers to
memorize the rest area map
off the top of their heads.
“If you think my officers
are going to memorize these
public areas, you would be
sorely mistaken,” he said.
But the exact parame-
“IF YOU THINK MY
OFFICERS ARE GOING TO
MEMORIZE THESE PUBLIC
AREAS, YOU WOULD BE
SORELY MISTAKEN.”
Lt. Chuck Byram, incoming chief of the Pendleton Police
Department
Byram said the police hav-
en’t taken any enforcement
actions yet because many
homeless residents tend to
move to warmer climates
or warming stations during
the cold winter months.
Even when outdoor
camping becomes more
prevalent in the spring,
Byram said his depart-
ment’s first tactic will be
educating the homeless on
the new law rather than
instituting fines or bans. He
added that most residents
ters have caught the atten-
tion of City Councilor Car-
ole Innes and some of the
organizations that serve the
homeless.
Innes said the Legal Aid
Services of Oregon’s Pend-
leton office is preparing an
“enhanced map” to give
homeless residents a clearer
picture of where they can
and can’t sleep.
A volunteer for the
Neighbor 2 Neighbor Pend-
leton, the nonprofit that
operates the Pendleton
50.07% of the vote in 2016.
2016 to Biden, according
to a national vote analysis
by National Public Radio.
Another 18 flipped from
Clinton in 2016 to Trump
in 2020. The 77 counties
that flipped were a pittance
compared to the last pres-
idential election. In 2016,
237 counties changed par-
ties from how they voted in
2012. Trump won 216 coun-
ties that went for Obama in
2012. In Oregon, Tillamook
and Columbia counties
made the switch to Trump.
Both counties stuck with
Trump this year.
Warming Station, Innes
has worked on the home-
less issues during her two
years on the council. Innes
was one of two no votes on
the right to rest ordinance,
arguing that the hours des-
ignated for rest needed to
be loosened to accommo-
date each season’s changing
daylight hours.
Innes said many of the
homeless residents she’s
worked with have learned
of her role as city councilor
and she’s going to keep
an ear out to see how they
respond to the new law once
police start enforcing it.
The ordinance comes
at a time when Pendle-
ton’s modest homeless ser-
vices are being further
strained by the COVID-19
pandemic.
Neighbor 2 Neigh-
bor shut down its South-
east Court Avenue facility
because volunteers felt like
they didn’t have the facili-
ties or the staffing to safely
reopen.
Dwight Johnson, the
executive director of Neigh-
bor 2 Neighbor, said the
warming station formally
started its season on Nov.
15, but is now operating as
an intake center where the
homeless can obtain motel
vouchers for the night.
While the warming sta-
tion is offering limited ser-
vices, Johnson said Neigh-
bor 2 Neighbor is soliciting
donations to ensure it can
operate through the win-
ter, a prospect that could be
threatened if demand rises.
with tracking coronavirus
data until they hired her
on as the county’s tempo-
rary epidemiologist. After
spending several months in
that position, she was hired
by Umatilla County.
“I don’t have any regrets
about becoming an epi-
demiologist,” Maloy said.
“But it’s such a weird expe-
rience to go into a program
two years ago and come out
during a pandemic. There’s
no short supply of things to
do. That’s for sure.”
In the past three weeks,
Maloy said that she has seen
cases slowly start to rise on
average in the county. She
believes there could be sev-
eral factors contributing to
the slight increase, includ-
ing “COVID fatigue” and
the colder weather, which
is forcing residents indoors
and closer to each other,
making it easier for the dis-
ease to pass from one car-
rier to another.
“It’s hard to tell right
now what will happen in the
future,” Maloy said. “Hope-
fully people will socially
distance, wear their masks.
But we are in a moment
right now where we’re see-
ing an increase in cases.”
Oregon is now averag-
ing 1,241 daily coronavi-
rus cases, according to the
Oregon Health Authority.
The state set new records
for deaths and hospital-
izations last week as case
counts reached new heights
on multiple days.
As Oregon continues
its two-week “freeze” ini-
tiated by Gov. Kate Brown
to curb the rapid spread of
infection, Maloy said she is
glad that the state is imple-
menting restrictions, as it
will likely help suppress
daily case counts. However,
she also recognizes that the
restrictions will place a sig-
nificant strain on the local
economy.
“I understand both sides
of why people like it and
people don’t like it,” she
said. “I do think it’s for the
best. I think we’ll see peo-
ple comply with it and I
think we’ll see lower case
numbers in the upcoming
weeks.”
But in light of positive
results coming from vac-
cine trials around the world,
Maloy said she is feeling
“very optimistic.” The rig-
orous testing shows prom-
ise that the vaccines will be
safe, she said.
“One thing I do want the
public to know is that these
aren’t things that we are
throwing out at people and
saying, ‘Hey try this.’ These
(vaccines) are very well
tested,” she said.
Vaccine trials from the
companies Pfizer and Mod-
erna have both reported pre-
liminary results in the past
few weeks that show their
vaccines to be at least 90%
effective. On Monday, Nov.
23, results from an Oxford
trial also showed 90%
effectiveness.
However, Maloy also
said that unless you are a
health care worker, first
responder or an individual
with preexisting conditions,
it is likely that vaccines
won’t be available until per-
haps next year.
“I think a lot of people
think that once the vaccine
is out, everything will go
back to normal,” she said.
“It probably won’t. But we’ll
be on the path.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign along Highway 395 welcomes drivers to the city of
Hermiston on Sept. 1, 2020. The city added an estimated
360 new resident from July 2019 to July 2020, according
to Portland State University’s Population Research Center.
Residents: Echo adds
Voting: Blue streak continues for Oregon 10 residents, bringing
its population to 720
Continued from Page A1
But with many counties
already reporting official,
final results, the remain-
ing votes are a tiny frac-
tion of the turnout. It’s safe
to see how the election went
in Oregon. Some of the
numbers:
Blue streak
Biden kept the streak
of Democrats’ presidential
wins in Oregon alive for
another four years. The state
last went with a Republican
in 1984, when Ronald Rea-
gan won a second term in
the White House.
More votes, same
result
Trump increased his total
vote in Oregon in 2020,
with 955,842 votes as Fri-
day, Nov. 20. That’s up from
782,403 votes four years
ago. But the extra votes
only lifted Trump’s per-
centage of the vote slightly
— to 40.36% in 2020 from
39.09% in 2016.
Bigger bite
Biden has received
1,337,329 votes, a big jump
over the 1,002,106 votes
for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Both numbers were big
enough to beat Trump, but
Biden’s total gave him just
over 56% of the vote in
2020, bettering Clinton’s
Deschutes goes
Democratic
Deschutes County issued
its final vote totals on Nov.
20. It’s a landmark result
in the presidential vote.
Biden won just under 52.7%
of the presidential vote in
Deschutes County. It marks
he first time the county gave
over half its votes to a Dem-
ocratic candidate for the
White House since Lyn-
don Johnson won 69% over
Republican Barry Goldwa-
ter in 1964. Trump won the
county in 2016 with 46.4%
over 43.1% for Clinton. This
year, Trump won 44.3% of
the vote. Minor party can-
didates and write-in votes
accounted for the final 2.9%
of the returns.
In 1964, Deschutes
County cast a total of
10,095 votes in the presi-
dential election. The 2020
total: 125,234. The total
Deschutes County vote in
1964 is 221 votes less than
Biden’s margin of victory —
10,316 votes — over Trump
in 2020.
Flipper
Most of the approxi-
mately 3,000 counties in
the United States voted for
the same party’s candi-
date as in 2016. Deschutes
County was one of 59 coun-
ties to flip from Trump in
Old record
Best turnout in 48 years.
The 2016 election that led
to Donald Trump becoming
president saw a record 136
million ballots cast nation-
wide, a 59% turnout of eli-
gible voters, the most since
Richard Nixon was elected
in 1968 with 60.7% turnout.
New record
Best turnout in 120 years.
NPR projected there would
be 155 million votes cast
in 2020. That would equal
a turnout of 67% of eligi-
ble voters, the highest per-
centage since 73% of vot-
ers cast ballots in 1900 to
elect Republican William
McKinley over Democrat
William Jennings Bryan.
Women could not vote until
1920 and “Jim Crow” segre-
gationist laws in Southern
states kept many Black men
from voting.
All-time champ
Strong political differ-
ence drove just over 81% of
eligible voters to the polls
in 1860 to choose between
four candidates. Repub-
lican Abraham Lincoln
won with 39% of the vote
against a split Democratic
Party that fielded two tick-
ets, one from the north and
one from the south, plus the
Whig Party. The electorate
did not include women or
the 4 million Black slaves in
the country. Lincoln’s win
would set off the Civil War
the following year.
Oregon’s first election
Oregon became a state
in 1859 and first voted the
following year. Lincoln
won Oregon with 36% of
the vote, just ahead of the
pro-slavery Southern Dem-
ocratic ticket with Vice
President John Breckinridge
of Kentucky running for the
top job. It helped in Ore-
gon that one of the state’s
U.S. senators, Joseph Lane
(namesake of Lane County),
was Breckinridge’s run-
ning mate. Sparsely popu-
lated Oregon cast a total of
just 14,761 votes, but good
enough to give Lincoln
three votes in the Electoral
College.
Continued from Page A1
private developers to nego-
tiate better prices for land
region-wide.”
Other Umatilla County
cities also grew, according
to PSU’s estimates. Uma-
tilla added 135 residents
for a total of 7,605. Mil-
ton-Freewater added 65
residents for 7,210. Stan-
field added 35 residents for
a total of 2,280. Echo added
10 residents for a total of
720, while Weston, Athena
and Adams stayed at 2019
estimates.
In Morrow County,
Boardman added 75 for
a total of 4,580 and Irri-
gon added 10 for a total
of 2,040. Heppner stayed
the same at 1,275. Morrow
County as a whole grew by
an estimated 145 residents,
up to 12,825.
In Hermiston, Morgan
said just two of the hous-
ing developers the city is
currently working with rep-
resent about 350 planned
new homes for Hermiston
over the next few years. He
suggested a few reasons
for Hermiston’s continued
housing growth, including
“expansive work in 2017
through 2019 to actively
build a deeper bench of
housing developments just
waiting for the right con-
ditions to pull the trigger.”
Historically low interest
rates have helped pull that
trigger, he said.
Morgan also refer-
enced the area’s compar-
atively quick rebound in
unemployment rates from
the unprecedented spike
in the spring. According
to the news release, Uma-
tilla County’s unemploy-
ment rate spiked to 13.9%
in April 2020, but fell back
to just 6.2% by September,
Portland State Univer-
sity’s Population Research
Center is the lead agency
for the Oregon State Data
Center, a state-level part-
nership with the U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau. The PSU center
creates detailed annual pop-
ulation estimates by ana-
lyzing birth records, death
records, driver’s licenses,
school enrollment, Medi-
care enrollment, voter reg-
istrations and other records.
The center also provides
population projections to
help government agencies
plan for future growth, such
as building new schools.
A preliminary popula-
tion report is issued Nov.
15, and after allowing time
for feedback from local
officials and others that
might be able to catch any
errors, the estimates will be
certified on Dec. 15.