June 19, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 5A
Summer tourism begins, but who plans the events?
E
very town on the North
Coast has its own way of
signaling summer, and
when summer does arrive on the
weekend of June 20 this year, it
will be duly noted by thousands
of visitors.
From Cannon Beach to Asto-
ria, the weekend promises to be
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can get to them.
My question is this: Do the
planners of these events ever talk
to each other?
In Cannon Beach, the Sandcas-
tle Contest Weekend runs from
June 19 to 21, when the tides are
low enough to accommodate the
crowds, cars and the sandcas-
tle-crafters. That is also opening
weekend for the Coaster Theatre’s
“Little Shop of Horrors.”
Meanwhile, in Seaside, two of
the city’s largest events, the Sea-
side Beach Soccer Tournament
and the Muscle and Chrome car
show, will occupy the downtown
core area.
Gearhart Golf Links will host
the Greater Oregon Brew Tour on
June 19.
Astoria will be the site of the
annual Scandanavian Midsummer
Festival June 19 through 21 at the
Clatsop County Fairgrounds.
And, for those who can make it
to the Long Beach (Wash.) Penin-
sula, the annual Northwest Garlic
Festival is being staged in Ocean
Park June 19 and 20.
And so, the summer begins.
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caused consternation among
drivers up and down the coast.
When there’s only one main road
connecting those towns and ev-
ery town has a big event, there’s
bound to be bumper-to-bumper
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I admit that, after eight years
of being a full-time North Coast
resident, I’m becoming tired of
seeing all the visitors in town
every weekend. I’m turning into
a curmudgeon who growls when
six cars are parked in front of a
vacation rental home on my street
for an entire weekend.
At the same time, I know our
area thrives on the generosi-
ty of strangers. Without them,
we would have few resources to
maintain the lifestyle we would
like to become accustomed to.
Finding the balance
So there’s the balance we need
to consider. The Seaside Visitors
Impressions
By
NANCY
McCARTHY
Bumper-to-bumper
traffi c is a bummer.
Bureau and the Seaside Chamber
of Commerce have done a bang-
up job of attracting crowds to
local events. Astoria’s event plan-
ners also produce myriad tourism
opportunities.
The Cannon Beach Cham-
ber of Commerce has managed
to coax a 1 percent lodging tax
increase out of the city’s budget
committee. Seventy percent of
that increase will go to help the
chamber bolster the staff at the
information center, which, ulti-
mately, will result in more “vis-
itors and tourism” for Cannon
Beach, according to City Manag-
er Brant Kucera.
Yippee.
Just this past week, two of the
“old guard” in Cannon Beach
have died. Steve McLeod, an art-
ist who may be remembered for
his paintings of Haystack Rock
that looked more like photographs
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ed artwork from seaweed, lived in
Cannon Beach since the time the
town was an early arts colony.
Pat Friedland, former opera-
tor of Pat’s Coffee Shop from the
late 1970s to 1998, died May 30.
She lived a quiet life in Cannon
Beach, but she was a generous
benefactor to the local arts, con-
servation projects and student
scholarships.
Those who raised a cup of
black coffee in Pat’s honor at a
recent informal tribute, recalled
how she used to tell the tourists
who came to her shop on our rare
sunny afternoons to head to the
beach instead of to the stores.
That attitude may not be very
popular now.
At another recent gathering
of friends, a few people fondly
recalled Cannon Beach’s “old
days,” when the North Coast was
sparsely populated and tourists
were relatively unfamiliar with
the area. When the town’s gnarly
“characters” were welcome and
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with day-trippers. They agreed
those days are long gone.
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We depend on them. Maybe too
much.
My favorite season used to be
summer. Now, it’s winter. Espe-
cially January and February, the
darkest time of the year. There are
few cars parked on the streets. It’s
easier to drive on the highway.
Local towns are quiet. Full-time
residents turn to each other for
company.
We may not be able to have
that ambiance all the time here
on the North Coast. But we need
more conversations about what
we do want here and how to plan
for it.
We need to ask ourselves how
much is too much.
Nancy McCarthy is a free-
lance writer who recently retired
as editor of the Cannon Beach
Gazette and the Seaside Signal.
Her column appears monthly.
Renowned artist Shirley Gittlesohn dies Gazette, Signal win
awards for excellence
Artist from Page 1A
“I was born in Good Sa-
maritan Hospital,” she said
in an interview last month.
“They took me home, and
then three months later they
took me down to the beach.
And that was sort of the story
of my life.”
Her parents, Tom and Dai-
sy Georges, decided to rent
a home in sleepy Cannon
Beach when she was a teen-
ager, Gittelsohn said, because
in Seaside she spent too much
time chasing boys.
The family bought a hill-
top house north of Elk Creek
in 1944 with an ocean-facing
view that swept from Chap-
man Point to Cape Falcon, a
vista she painted in rain, shine
and fog from the 1950s, when
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liked being a mother and wife
and so on, but I wanted some-
thing else to do, too,” she told
the Gazette’s Erick Bengel in
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painting and found I enjoyed
it very much.”
“Cannon Beach was for
Mom what Giverny was for
Monet,” John Gittelsohn said
Monday. “It’s a vast garden of
shifting light and thick, salty
air that inspired her unique
vision.”
Gittelsohn was to con-
tinue painting until macular
degeneration deprived her of
her long-distance vision. She
loved to walk on the beach
south of Ecola State Park un-
til she was 89.
In 1981, she feared that a
proposed housing develop-
ment would block her view of
Haystack Rock. So, between
March and July of that year,
she cranked out 183 paintings
of the rock, to “catch the view
before it was gone,” she said.
These were displayed at Can-
non Beach City Hall.
In 1987, she and her hus-
band, Bill, built a new house
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recaptured the view blocked
by the condos. In 2009, a ret-
rospective of Gittelsohn’s ca-
reer was presented at the Vol-
lum Gallery at Reed College.
Also in 2009, she wrote and
published a book, “Paintings
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PHOTO COURTESY JOHN GITTELSON
Th e black-and-white photo of Shirley with her 1981 series
of Haystack Rock, which she rushed to paint before con-
struction of the Breakers Point condos blocked the view
from the house her parents bought in 1944.
Gittlesohn reminisces
about the beach
paintings, most of which she
painted during the 1970s and
80s. They depict the stretch
In 2013, a crew for Oregon of beach from Chapman
Pubic Broadcasting’s Oregon Point to Haystack Rock as
$UW %HDW ¿OPHG *LWWHOVRKQ she viewed it from her beach
and her family reminiscing house window.
about the beach and its role in
“I’ve been going through
her development as an artist.
various pieces and just re-
During her nearly 60-year seeing them again and just
career as an artist, Gittelsohn enjoying them very much for
also painted still life scenes the most part,” she said be-
from her vacations in Mexi- fore the exhibition’s opening.
co and many, many portraits “I just hope the gallery’s big
of her children. Her work has enough for all this stuff!”
been displayed at Reed Col-
The exhibit was domi-
lege, Willamette University, nated by a 1977 family por-
the Oregon Jewish Museum WUDLWRIKHUWKUHHFKLOGUHQ²
and Arlene Schnitzer’s Foun- 'HQD-RKQDQG-XG\²KHU
tain Gallery.
late husband, Bill Gittelsohn,
This year, her exhibi- and the family cat and dog,
tion at the Cannon Beach posed on the dunes where the
Gallery, which ran through Breakers Point condominium
June 2, included about 15 oil project now stands. When the
condo project was approved
in the 1981, she rushed to
paint dozens of versions of
Haystack Rock before the
view from her home disap-
peared. The paintings were
exhibited in Cannon Beach
City Hall later that year.
Currently, her paintings
hang in Cannon Beach City
Hall and the Cannon Beach
Library. Others are on sale
at the White Bird Gallery,
which was founded by her
late sister-in-law, Evelyn
Georges.
Though macular degen-
eration slowed her output,
Gittelsohn, still painted and
showed her work at White
Bird Gallery.
Asked what tradition she
paints in, Gittelsohn said in
April: “My own.”
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A concrete
contradiction
In the May 22 issue of
the Gazette, there is an arti-
cle entitled “New Sidewalk
Project Could Improve
ADA Accessibility on
Spruce Street.” This article
states, “Councilor George
Vetter said he wondered if
there were a more aestheti-
cally appealing way to han-
dle the problem than “just
throwing concrete down.
We’re a town that prides it-
self on aesthetics, and con-
crete is not part of that.”
We agree with Mr. Vet-
ter. However, we wonder
why council didn’t have any
concerns about concrete be-
fore granting the property
located at 532 N. Laurel to
build four single residenc-
es on a half-acre lot. Typ-
ically a minimum of three
acres are required for this
type of development. This
property design included
a very industrial-looking
concrete retaining wall/
driveway, approximately
10 feet high and 125 feet
long! Throwing down con-
crete? WOW!! The project
also means the removal of
many trees. And this from
a town that “prides itself on
aesthetics”?
Council, please recon-
sider before allowing this
much concrete to be thrown
down in OUR neighbor-
hood!
Dale and Linda Hintz
Cannon Beach
The Cannon Beach Ga-
zette and Seaside Signal of
EO Media Group earned
four awards in the North-
west Excellence in Journal-
ism competition sponsored
by the Society of Profes-
sional Journalists, held in
Abany, Saturday, June 6.
Reporter Erick Ben-
gel earned two awards for
work in the Gazette. He
placed second in the life-
styles category for cover-
age of a citywide miniature
golf fundraiser for Tolova-
na Arts Colony. He placed
third in arts reporting and
criticism for his coverage
of Cannon Beach musician
Michael Corry’s remix of
his “Codger Pole” music
CD.
Nancy McCarthy, retired
editor of both newspapers,
earned third place in the
government and politics
reporting category, for cov-
erage of attempts to unseat
Gearhart Mayor Dianne
Widdop.
The awards included
third place in general ex-
cellence for the Seaside
Signal.
The awards, for work
published during 2014 at
the annual banquet of the
Oregon Territory Chapter
of the SPJ in Albany. The
chapter covers Oregon and
Southwest Washington.
The newspapers com-
pete against nondaily news-
papers in Oregon, Wash-
ington, Alaska, Idaho and
Montana.
McCarthy also earned
third place in the best local
column category. Her col-
umns covered recollections
of the murder of the 2-year-
old baby in Cannon Beach,
what nature can teach
during a vacation and con-
nections made at Cannon
Beach’s annual “welcome
home salmon” ceremony.
“I’m happy the Sigma
Delta Chi judges recog-
nized the commitment,
hard work and long hours
put in by the Cannon Beach
Gazette staff, which is ded-
icated to publishing a qual-
ity community newspaper,”
said Nancy McCarthy, who
recently retired as editor of
the Gazette. “This is a great
compliment for the paper,
which had been under the
new ownership of the EO
Media Group for only one
year when the newspaper’s
editions were submitted for
judging.”
McCarthy also won a
third-place award for gov-
ernment and politics report-
ing category, for coverage
of attempts to unseat Gear-
hart Mayor Dianne Wid-
dop.
“The Cannon Beach
community has greatly
supported the Gazette, and
the staff appreciates that
support,” McCarthy said.
“Without it, the reporters,
sales representatives and
the other staff members
could not produce such a
successful newspaper.”
McCarthy also earned
third place in the best local
column category. Her col-
umns covered recollections
of the murder of the 2-year-
old baby in Cannon Beach,
what nature can teach
during a vacation and con-
nections made at Cannon
Beach’s annual “welcome
home salmon” ceremony.
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