Great article. Something similar happened to Port Townsend, WA, which was in the running to be the location for the next big city on the Puget Sound. The railroad got to Seattle and stopped there. Now Port Townsend is a town that strongly resembles Astoria in both size, beauty and historical significance.
And both Astoria and Port Townsend have been taken over by far left/Sorosian/Atlantic Monthly-reading out-cashers from Portland and Seattle respectively (and Californians fleeing what they created down there with their housing-price-tag-explosion gains).
I.e., individuals with zero sense of how to do anything but climb on the BoomerTrain (actually Reagan's voodoo economics canoe) and ride it to the end. Or as Jim Hightower liked to say of George Bush Jr., "He was born on third base but thinks he got there by hitting a triple."
Turns out that actual community building requires more than struggle sessions, slogans, and cutesy wootsy chic little cafes that sell handmade stuff by retired permastate employees Living The Dream between massage sessions.
You actually have to, like, you know, understand how numbers and the real world works.
Otherwise you end up with the grotesque situation of Port Townsend and its utterly bazonkers mismanagement and pie-in-the-sky development projects.
As a resident of Astoria and an elected official for 25 of those 30 years, once upon a time Astoria was the second most prominent city on the West Coast, after San Francisco, which it slightly resembles.
A few reasons it flattened out during WW2 at about 30,000 population (now steady at 10,000).
Astoria is built in hillsides alongside the most flattest parts of the mouth of the Columbia, there is limited land and the near absence of any homes built in the last half century limits home affordability.
I bought my house for $125,000 in 1998 and expect to sell it for $700,000 this year.
There are very few job producing industries outside breweries, sihing, and tourism.
Transportation can be difficult. The small airport has only had scheduled air service maybe 15% of the time I have lived here, the railroads (which were vibrant 100 years ago) are virtually all unusable, and it's a long 90 minute to 2 hour snaky drive to the transportation centers of Portland.
The median household income in Astoria is about $70,000. Not individual median income. Household. Two people working
Purchase of a $700,000 house with a 20% down payment ($80,000) comes to about $31,000 in mortgage payments per year at 6.9%. On top of that, lets say $250 a month in house insurance ($3,000 a year) and who knows what in property tax.
Here's a rancher going for $725,000 that was apparently listed for a million during the recent pricing frenzy:
Property tax is shown as $6,657 on an assessed value of $334,377.
What will happen to the assessment, and the tax, when the house sells for over $700k? (And what will happen to neighbors' assessments, and taxes? Faugh--eff you, I'm in it for ME!)
So PITI comes to over $40,000 a year. Housing alone. Not upkeep. Not utilities. Not food, transportation, medical, or the occasional trip to the maritime museum.
A median-earning household can't even hope to buy this house.
Who can?
More rootless cosmopolitans with Tech and Permastate bling.
And they do not know how to build. Only Occupy. And exploit--the same way Astoria's founders did.
The area's history is extremely ugly. Genocidal exploitation of working men and seafarers. But let me not digress there.
My dad said he capsized three times with his father on Columbia River Bar. My dad also declined every invitation he ever received to fish off the Oregon Coast as an adult. Astoria is nowadays a great treat to visit, with interesting architecture, art galleries and good restaurants. The big tower at the steep climb to the top of the city has recently been beautifully restored.
Fun fact, Missoula and Spokane floods, and those downstream sediments in and around the Columbia, are a major contributor to Walla Walla and Willamette Valley’s excellent soils for growing wine grapes.
I'm from Oregon and have been to Astoria many times. When my sister and I were kids, we went and toured the pirate ship from the Goonies which was filmed in Astoria. 😊
By way of contrast (or maybe "rhyme") William Sherman was stationed near San Francisco before the Civil War. A lot of the generals were buying up land there.
He felt insulted that anyone thought him dumb enough to buy there, when obviously Vallejo was going to be the big city.
Not all parts of the country have equal treatment. Some call it fate, others good luck. Eighty percent of US population live in the eastern half of the country, while the west has only twenty percent population, out of 345 million.
While Astoria having just ten thousand, isn't such a bad thing. But it was considered to be part of the re configured California at one time. Read my book Third Remaking of California, out by British Library Publishing.
Even ten thousand is one too many for me. But then, your geo piece made to re-look at it again. In new light. Hoping you enjoy your year long sojourn. It was my idea, to spend a year in Mexico through.
Good and good fortune to iternary another good global candidate called France. Happy tap, tap, tapping around.
Great article. Something similar happened to Port Townsend, WA, which was in the running to be the location for the next big city on the Puget Sound. The railroad got to Seattle and stopped there. Now Port Townsend is a town that strongly resembles Astoria in both size, beauty and historical significance.
And both Astoria and Port Townsend have been taken over by far left/Sorosian/Atlantic Monthly-reading out-cashers from Portland and Seattle respectively (and Californians fleeing what they created down there with their housing-price-tag-explosion gains).
I.e., individuals with zero sense of how to do anything but climb on the BoomerTrain (actually Reagan's voodoo economics canoe) and ride it to the end. Or as Jim Hightower liked to say of George Bush Jr., "He was born on third base but thinks he got there by hitting a triple."
Turns out that actual community building requires more than struggle sessions, slogans, and cutesy wootsy chic little cafes that sell handmade stuff by retired permastate employees Living The Dream between massage sessions.
You actually have to, like, you know, understand how numbers and the real world works.
Otherwise you end up with the grotesque situation of Port Townsend and its utterly bazonkers mismanagement and pie-in-the-sky development projects.
https://www.porttownsendfreepress.com/
That bridge is the scariest bridges in the world! Otherwise it’s a wonderful city!
I love Astoria. It's a beautiful little city, and the northern end of a road trip down the Oregon coast.
Any recreational boater, much less a professional seaman, could have told you that.
As a resident of Astoria and an elected official for 25 of those 30 years, once upon a time Astoria was the second most prominent city on the West Coast, after San Francisco, which it slightly resembles.
A few reasons it flattened out during WW2 at about 30,000 population (now steady at 10,000).
Astoria is built in hillsides alongside the most flattest parts of the mouth of the Columbia, there is limited land and the near absence of any homes built in the last half century limits home affordability.
I bought my house for $125,000 in 1998 and expect to sell it for $700,000 this year.
There are very few job producing industries outside breweries, sihing, and tourism.
Transportation can be difficult. The small airport has only had scheduled air service maybe 15% of the time I have lived here, the railroads (which were vibrant 100 years ago) are virtually all unusable, and it's a long 90 minute to 2 hour snaky drive to the transportation centers of Portland.
The median household income in Astoria is about $70,000. Not individual median income. Household. Two people working
Purchase of a $700,000 house with a 20% down payment ($80,000) comes to about $31,000 in mortgage payments per year at 6.9%. On top of that, lets say $250 a month in house insurance ($3,000 a year) and who knows what in property tax.
Here's a rancher going for $725,000 that was apparently listed for a million during the recent pricing frenzy:
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/25-W-Kensington-Ave-Astoria-OR-97103/86302879_zpid/
Property tax is shown as $6,657 on an assessed value of $334,377.
What will happen to the assessment, and the tax, when the house sells for over $700k? (And what will happen to neighbors' assessments, and taxes? Faugh--eff you, I'm in it for ME!)
So PITI comes to over $40,000 a year. Housing alone. Not upkeep. Not utilities. Not food, transportation, medical, or the occasional trip to the maritime museum.
A median-earning household can't even hope to buy this house.
Who can?
More rootless cosmopolitans with Tech and Permastate bling.
And they do not know how to build. Only Occupy. And exploit--the same way Astoria's founders did.
The area's history is extremely ugly. Genocidal exploitation of working men and seafarers. But let me not digress there.
My dad said he capsized three times with his father on Columbia River Bar. My dad also declined every invitation he ever received to fish off the Oregon Coast as an adult. Astoria is nowadays a great treat to visit, with interesting architecture, art galleries and good restaurants. The big tower at the steep climb to the top of the city has recently been beautifully restored.
Astoria is such an awesome town.
Fun fact, Missoula and Spokane floods, and those downstream sediments in and around the Columbia, are a major contributor to Walla Walla and Willamette Valley’s excellent soils for growing wine grapes.
Astoria is a gem.
I'm from Oregon and have been to Astoria many times. When my sister and I were kids, we went and toured the pirate ship from the Goonies which was filmed in Astoria. 😊
By way of contrast (or maybe "rhyme") William Sherman was stationed near San Francisco before the Civil War. A lot of the generals were buying up land there.
He felt insulted that anyone thought him dumb enough to buy there, when obviously Vallejo was going to be the big city.
Not all parts of the country have equal treatment. Some call it fate, others good luck. Eighty percent of US population live in the eastern half of the country, while the west has only twenty percent population, out of 345 million.
While Astoria having just ten thousand, isn't such a bad thing. But it was considered to be part of the re configured California at one time. Read my book Third Remaking of California, out by British Library Publishing.
Even ten thousand is one too many for me. But then, your geo piece made to re-look at it again. In new light. Hoping you enjoy your year long sojourn. It was my idea, to spend a year in Mexico through.
Good and good fortune to iternary another good global candidate called France. Happy tap, tap, tapping around.
Denis CA de Souza
Goa, that forever tropical paradise in the sun.