A4 • Friday, June 11, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SignalViewpoints
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Land swap
concern
To Gearhart Mayor and
City Councilors:
I would like to address
the proposed urban growth
boundary land swap.
My opinion is based
on a career in real estate
investment and devel-
opment. I have person-
ally developed and con-
sented more than 1,500
single-family residential
lots, worked out several
thousand residential lots
of failed residential sub-
divisions as a commercial
banker, and managed res-
idential subdivision con-
struction lending in San
Diego for a major national
bank.
I am not opposed to a
UGB land swap in princi-
ple; the transaction can cre-
ate significant value for the
property owner, developers
and, most importantly, the
community. My concern
with the proposed swap, as
it is currently structured,
is based on my long career
in real estate develop-
ment. In my opinion, this
transaction is structured to
lose millions of dollars of
potential value to the tax-
payers of Gearhart.
The fundamental flaw is
that the transaction is tied
to a bond issue that may
not pass. If you approve
the land swap now and
the bond fails in Novem-
ber, the developer will
gain millions of dollars in
increased land value from
being in the UGB but the
taxpayers will not real-
ize any greater community
benefit. Simply put, Gear-
hart should realize a benefit
proportionate to the devel-
opers benefit.
I recommend that you
slow down this land swap
process and that you make
sure that each of you
understands how much
money the developer/land-
owner is making by annex-
ing to the city of Gearhart
and then get at least 75%
of that value for the ben-
efit of Gearhart property
owners.
Gearhart is fortunate
to have a wealth of elder
statespersons who, by rely-
ing on their years of pro-
fessional experience, can
help you structure a land
swap that is less specula-
tive and that benefits the
community not just the
developer.
{span}For the long-
term financial health of the
community, please slow {/
span}down the land swap
and look deeply at how you
can provide the most bene-
fit to the community.
Bob and Timi Morey
E2 Land Use Planning
LLC
Portland
workers in Broadway Mid-
dle School. An interesting
approach (short-term) to
the lack of affordable hous-
ing for employees of Sea-
side businesses.
My question to the
council and the owners
of all of the businesses
invested in this project is
whether or not the build-
ing, which has been noted
as being full of asbestos
and mold, will be rehabbed
to ensure the health and
well being of people who
may end up living there
while they serve the city of
Seaside?
To quote a former arti-
cle in the Seaside Signal:
“This is a building
that has mold, rot, asbes-
tos, cracks, sinking, water
within the structure and a
Make former
middle school
safe for lodgers
I read the article about
business owners consid-
ering working with Sun-
set Empire Park and Rec-
reation District to house
roof that inspection reports
show has needed total
replacement for quite some
years.”
Federal regulations
require damaged thermal
system insulation to be
cleaned and repaired and
replaced.
From $4 million to $5
million needs to be spent
just to keep the building
watertight by replacing the
roof and all west-facing
windows.
The money raised by
businesses thus far may
pay SEPRD’s mortgage
payments, but it does not
even come close to cov-
ering the cost required to
make the building safe for
people to inhabit it.
Christina Buck
Seaside
Forum: City councilor calls for a regional approach
Continued from Page A1
there’s a way we can make
things better for everybody.”
Fears of Seaside turn-
ing into Portland — with its
influx of homeless and pub-
lic safety concerns — moti-
vated Tom Schwenzer, a res-
ident, to look to the courts
to the point that Portland is
— and it’s scary,” he said.
Martin
LeTourneau,
founder of Love on the
Streets, a volunteer group
to help the homeless, called
for permanent housing, shel-
ters and camp areas. “Keep-
ing them moving isn’t going
to make them go away unless
‘I WOULD LIKE TO SEE SOME
RESOURCES TO HELP THESE
PEOPLE BEFORE THEY
BECOME HOMELESS’
Detective William Barnes
for greater enforcement. “I
can’t say I walked up here
with an absolute solution, but
I’m telling you if I look the
other way, if you’ve decided
that you can’t do something
about it it’s going to bring us
they have someplace to go
to,” he said. “What we do
need is for the city of Sea-
side to have a vision that we
can build on and that we can
work toward supporting.”
Being shooed around
R.J. Marx
A homeless encampment at the Mill Ponds in December.
doesn’t change things.
Rather, it makes it more dif-
ficult for people to get off the
streets, Seamus McVey said.
“Having somewhere to go
would definitely make things
a lot easier,” he said.
Pamela Cromwell, a res-
ident, described a period in
her own life when she was
living in her car.
“The depression is unbe-
lievable, the sense of dis-
placement is debilitating,”
Cromwell, now a business
owner, said. “If I didn’t have
the limited support that I did
have, I could easily have
seen giving up. You’ll never
be part of that beautiful-
ness: the people who own
the beautiful homes in Sea-
side. The people who have
the magnificent businesses
in Seaside. You’ll never be
part of that. You’ll never be
welcomed into that. Because
you don’t have an address.
And you don’t have a place
to make food for yourself
and you don’t have a place to
simply be, you have no right
to just be anywhere, every-
where that you go. You have
no right to be there. And it’s
a soul-killing feeling.”
Detective
William
Barnes said he sought a
focus on the local popula-
tion. “I would like to see
some resources to help these
people before they become
homeless,” he said. “I don’t
know how many times you
see someone in the spiral.
We have to wait until we hit
that rock bottom before the
resources kick in. And to
me, that doesn’t make any
sense.”
Montero called for a
regional approach. “We
need to be working with the
other towns,” she said. “We
need to shine more light
on the South County and
on Seaside. We need to be
working toward the county
commission, paying more
attention to homelessness.
We want to keep the com-
munication and the conver-
sation going. If you don’t
keep it going, it just dies.”
Game: ‘It’s easier to be yourself when you’re playing a character’
Continued from Page A1
or fairy, and accompany-
ing titles, such as sorcerer,
monk, barbarian, druid or
bard. During the course of
a game, the adventurers run
into a variety of nonplayer
characters, all created and
controlled by the dungeon
master, who provides infor-
mation or assistance to the
group, or are sometimes vil-
lains who must be defeated
in combat.
Dungeons & Dragons
The Sword Coast in the game Dungeons & Dragons, is
described as “a region of Faerun that comprises shining
paragons of civilization and culture, perilous locales
fraught with dread and evil, and encompassing them all, a
wilderness that offers every explorer vast opportunity and
simultaneously promises great danger.”
Collaborative role-
playing
When Branson was hired
in September, the library’s
Teen Tuesdays program
had been out of commis-
sion for several months
because of the pandemic.
She was tasked with help-
ing to rebuild the program
and introduce activities that
could be done in a virtual
environment. The idea of
Dungeons & Dragons was
pitched during Branson’s
interview, and by Novem-
ber, she had incorporated the
game into the monthly lineup
for Teen Tuesdays.
At the Cannon Beach
Academy, first and second
grade teacher Ryan Hull had
come up with a similar idea.
During the end of 2019-20
school year, when he was
teaching third through fifth
grade, he asked his students
if they wanted to create char-
acters for fun. Of the 23 in his
class, 19 chose to. Through-
out the following summer, he
kept thinking, “I’ve got to do
something about this.”
At the start of the new
school year, Hull invited the
students to start an ongoing
campaign, which means con-
tinuing the same story with
the same characters from
week to week with different
quests or tasks along the way.
He originally had three
students involved, but the
group has since grown to
seven kids between second
and fifth grade. They meet
once a week on Wednesday
afternoons.
Branson also has about
seven or eight teens par-
ticipating each session. It’s
not always the same peo-
ple, but she encourages the
kids to come play when they
can, and she works the story
around the absences. One of
the more difficult aspects is
they only have an hour per
session, which isn’t much
time to advance the story.
Branson focuses her cam-
paign on smaller tasks, puz-
zles and problem-solving sit-
uations that can usually be
completed in the timeframe,
or at least leave the players
feeling accomplished.
A safe environment
Both Hull and Branson
likened Dungeons & Drag-
ons to theater, which they’re
individually involved with
at the community level. In
Branson’s experience, it can
be challenging for some peo-
ple to open up to others and
make friends. But the game
provides a safe, fantastical
and fun environment that is
conducive to putting kids at
ease as they work toward a
shared goal.
“In a strange way, it’s
easier to be yourself when
you’re playing a character,”
Branson said, adding it pro-
vides a starting-off point for
developing friendships that
extend beyond the game.
She’s observed certain teens
grow more engaged, vocal
and comfortable over the
past six months. “They have
a lot of fun, which is the
most important thing to me,”
she said.
Hull also sees it as an
opportunity to introduce real-
world issues and allow the
kids to work through them in
an imaginary environment.
“It’s a great place to talk
about things and to talk about
scenarios and situations,” he
said. “If I know something
is going on in the school
or someone is dealing with
something, I can make that
situation happen in the story.
… We can role-play it in the
game, and I think that’s been
really great, too.”
He appreciates watch-
ing the students absorb
information during differ-
ent game scenarios and then
think critically and collab-
oratively about solutions.
They’ll often generate ideas
or thoughts that didn’t cross
his mind.
“They are really listen-
ing to the circumstances and
getting into it and coming
up with their own thing,” he
said.
It also gives the students a
way to channel their energy
and hang out with their
friends, which has been diffi-
cult in the virtual classroom.
There often isn’t extra time
“to socialize, have fun and
kind of let your hair down,”
Hull said. Even though
they’re also playing the
game virtually, it still helps
fill that gap.
“I definitely think this
was a good opportunity to
socialize,” he said.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest
meeting information and atten-
dance guidelines.
MONDAY, JUNE 14
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
cityofseaside.us.
TUESDAY, JUNE 15
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District Board
of Directors, 5:15 p.m., 1225
Avenue A.
Seaside School District,
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
6 p.m., www.seaside.k12.
or.us/meetings.
Committee, 6 p.m., cityof-
gearhart.com.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., work session,
989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16
Gearhart Small Business
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Darren Gooch
Joshua Heineman
Rain Jordan
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
Seaside Tourism Adviso-
ry Committee, 3 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Gearhart Parks Master Plan
Citizens Advisory Commit-
tee, 5:30 p.m., work session,
cityofgearhart.com.
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
Seaside Transportation Ad-
visory Commission, 6 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
MONDAY, JUNE 28
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
989 Broadway, cityofseaside.
us.
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