Hi, my friends! First of all, I need to make a correction from my earlier column months ago stating that if anyone I knew was up in Astoria, look for me on the beach. There isn’t, unfortunately, any beach to speak of here in Astoria. You have to go to Warrenton, the South Slope of Astoria or out to Fort Stevens.
I had, in my first column, related a great deal of the history and the new renaissance here in this beautiful town; the change from a booming fishing and logging industry to tourism, which is a dirty word to the vast majority of locals here, since the average wage in the tourist trade is at a minimum. Sound familiar?
The so-called renaissance has a paradoxical character in the sense that rising property values and rents displace many who live in Astoria, in particular low-wage service workers who are not able to afford to live in the city they work in, not to mention the difficulty of finding affordable housing in nearby communities. A subculture of artists, musicians and writers and poets that move into shabby low-rent areas and revitalize them by opening shops full of art, music, candles, etc. attracts the New Age trendy crowd, causing a cultural shift with upscale gentrification of the low-rent parts of town — specialty boutiques and high-end art galleries supplanting so-called street art, raising property values that, in turn, cause a folktrek by the street artists who, by pricing themselves out of where they have been, reseed some other decaying town or part of town, perpetuating a cycle of renewal and displacement.
Like anywhere, Astoria is besotted with petty corruptions among its political class and rural squiredom. Most decisions are made to benefit both local and émigré fiscal mercenaries, for now a grasping attempt to attract tourists and homebuyers with the potential of the city’s historic riches. Undeveloped lands and uncut trees are bitterly fought over between what a city manager of another coastal town calls “the kamikaze environmentalists pitted against rape-and-pillage developers.”
Tourism can only be a temporary solution to Astoria’s problems. A more solid intellectual base must be set in place through local schools to develop an industry Astoria could be good at and profit from. Although Astorians realize that tourism has superceded fishing and logging as the city’s major industries, most do not wish for their hometown to be refabricated into a vacationer’s Elysium. Visitors are welcome, but Astoria belongs to Astorians.
Well, now that I’ve said a mouthful, like a typical Astorian, I have to tell you all that I’m very proud to be a part of this community. I’m not foreseeing there being a street newspaper here, but what I see is a need for activists. There are a few alternative publications that publish on a timely basis and I’ve met the editors, but they tend to get very political, which is something I’d rather stay away from. There is still some fishing and logging that will never go away, but I see the primary need as taking care of the local poor.
Right now it’s cold and rainy, and there’s a local mission that lets you stay there only one night a month. I have been here five months now and have already lost a friend to hypothermia and another on Thanksgiving Day. Stan “the marble man” was helpful to the homeless by putting them to work setting up his stand in front of his store or at the Sunday market. He sold marbles and inscribed them, drew on them, and whatever. He was a great loss to the community because he had a big heart. The one thing I’ve noticed here in Astoria is that there are so many nice, caring, and warm-hearted people. They don’t put a label on you. I have met artists, actors, lawyers, doctors, multiple big-business owners, a cute psychologist and even the mayor, who’s bought me a few beers in a local dive and just got re-elected after spending a month in the Betty Ford Clinic in California.
Not to get off the subject, but about the public toilet thing: you’ve got it here. There’s a trolley that goes from one end of town to the other and there are public toilets and port-a-potties all along the line, plus the usual options such as the library, courthouse, fast food joints, etc. The thing that impressed me was the showers at the Port of Astoria, at the far west part of town, and the East Mooring Basin, which is at the far eastern part of town.
Here in Astoria we have an organization called Clatsop Community Action, which does a lot of the same things that Central City Concern and TPI do in Portland — referrals, referrals, referrals… anything from clothing to food boxes, mental health care and housing. Shelter is what this town lacks, but it’s beautiful, and if I get to a point where I can’t stand the winter here, I know you may just be seeing me back in Portland. I miss you all and my friends and “family” at the paper and hope to see some of you for Christmas, when I plan to spend a week or so with my friends and family.
Happy Holidays!
