A Hood River County Planning Commission meeting is planned for Wednesday, Feb. 13. It is very important for many residents on the west side and all residents using the streets of Hood River.

The Olmstead-Spedick development, “Pheasant Ridge,” is a so-called Planned Unit Development which would more than double the number of households relying on Summitview Way, from 65-70 to 140! A very narrow “Old Dairy Road” from the small streets of the development to the Frankton Road curve would do little for access or evacuation.

Remember the fire of August 2007 at 30th and May streets! Summitview Way is narrowed often and easily by traffic and by autos parked on both sides, especially in snow conditions. The recent snow storm put emphasis to this.

The school bus picks up and delivers many children at the dangerous intersection of Summitview Way and Frankton Road; the Early Development Center on Frankton Road would also be adversely affected by the increased traffic.

Misters Olmstead and Spedick have a right to “develop,” of course, but this should be done in a considerate and responsible fashion. This type of PUD is totally out of keeping with this modest residential neighborhood near wetlands and a National Scenic Area.

Please attend this very important meeting.

An immoral war

When I was a kid, I remember seeing the Vietnamese war on the evening news every night. When I delivered newspapers in the 1970s, the war was on the front page every day. Remember the photo of the naked Vietnamese girl running away from the napalm bomb that just went off? How about the South Vietnamese officer executing the Viet Cong man on the street in some city? These images are indelibly stained in my memory forever.

Nowadays the current administration (and architects of this illegal and immoral war) have made it illegal to photograph our dead soldiers coming off the planes in Dover, Del. (The count of U.S. soldiers is almost 4,000). There is virtually scant news coverage in U.S. papers on this trumped-up war that’s been going on for five years now.

In Vietnam 58,000 U.S. troops were needlessly killed and three million Vietnamese dead, all for what? Was anything accomplished?

The U.S.A. kills people all throughout the world, for big business, oil, natural resources. And we support suppressive governments that torture and kill their people — Iraq (Saddam in the 1980s), Iran (Shah) Panama (Noriega), Chile (Pinochet), and turn our backs on countries that need us, and we wonder why they hate us.

It is time to shrink the defense budget and start an offense budget, helping to build schools and infrastructure that will actually make a positive difference in these countries and the world.

It’s time our spineless news media and the politicians start standing up to this “evil empire” that our country has turned into.

Danger of sprawl

The Columbia River Gorge. The nation’s first and only National Scenic Area. The region’s premier tourist draw and the reason for its prosperity. The Scenic Area and the legal protections that created and maintain it are the source of some of our greatest pleasures and sometimes minor frustrations.

It is the reason that most of us enjoy just a wonderful quality of life, why many local businesses enjoy singular prosperity, and it causes us frustration when we want to change our windows or paint our houses. The Gorge Commission always sends someone around to be sure it is done “just so” with respect for the Gorge and the legal protections that are in place.

That’s why it is such a mauling of the act to have the commissioners approving an unprecedented new subdivision of an unlimited number of private residences, stores, and facilities in the non-urban area of the old Broughton mill, in direct opposition to the Scenic Act created by Congress. This will lead to “me too” development until we live in a version of Troutdale sprawl, with round-the-clock lighting in parking lots, casinos, golf courses, and no semblance of the Gorge we now know.

If you love the Gorge and wish that it not be sold out for sprawl and corporate profit, then come listen, speak, and most importantly, submit written comments to be included in the public record, Feb. 12, 9:30 a.m. at the Hood River Inn. If you cannot attend then e-mail your comments for the record to comments@gorgecommission.org.

You want more?

Special interest groups, like the Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association, enjoy a relationship with public entities — like the Port of Hood River and the City of Hood River — that an individual could only hope for. Should that relationship be characterized as a partnership or collaboration — or perhaps a high jacking?

Time and time again, a representative of the group approaches our public boards and commissions which are all too happy to smile, nod in approval and dispose of any pretension related to overall community benefits.

A recent letter to the editor by the group’s executive director pointed out in detail the lengths to which the Port of Hood River and the City of Hood River have succeeded to accommodate the group’s vision for the community’s waterfront. The areas currently claimed by the group include these: the Event Site, Marina Park, Luhr Jensen, Dirt Beach, and the Hook.

And now the Waterfront Park is coveted as well — thanks to the blessing of city staff and acceptance of $70,000 by our city council. I guess public testimony was too much to expect when $70,000 is burning a hole in your pocket.

The Luhr Jensen site is another example. At its May 1, 2007, meeting, the Port of Hood River heard testimony from the CGWA — not during the public comment period, but under the reports and presentations portion of the meeting (it’s all about who you know). The comments related to “CGWA’s proposal for overflow parking and windsurfing access from the Luhr Jensen waterfront property.”

The port’s executive director commented on the proposal as being, “a creative solution to provide for overflow parking and water access.” The commission reached consensus, and a new access point was created, complete with free parking and the “hope” that patrons would voluntarily pay $5 at the Event Site booth.

But since 2007 was considered a “trial” for the Luhr Jensen site, the public can surely expect the arrangement will be revisited for the 2008 season.

What does all this mean? It means there was no attempt on the part of the port’s staff or its commission to take public comment or even consider the outside likelihood that there were other river enthusiasts — also members of the community — who utilized this location. Perhaps the group’s $70,000 “grant” could be used to provide a public restroom at its Luhr Jensen acquisition.

The issue for Waterfront Park is the availability of vehicle parking given the proposed 66 spaces. While the average park patron may visit for a two-hour period, what can be said about the average length of stay for a windsurfer with a Subaru-load of equipment? I’ll need to park all day — but I’m willing to voluntarily share the resource. What a generous offer.

The underlying policy issue — which our port and city will never address — remains: How much of Hood River’s waterfront should be dedicated to windsurfing? Given the assets the CGWA already claims as its own, wouldn’t it be fair for the community to just say “No — we’ve given enough, thanks!”?

Inheritance at stake

A destination resort at the old Broughton Mill site is a step closer to becoming reality as the head of the Gorge Commission has given his recommendation. It would allow a maximum of 210 accommodation units and campsites no more than 1,000 square feet, outside an urban area, yet within the boundaries of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Act of 1986.

“Indeed what is within or without a wilderness area is determined by the fiat of the Secretary of Agriculture on the recommendation of the Chief Forester. Neither of these men is elected by the people; each is beyond the electoral will.

“Moreover, the ‘law’ under which they act is a set of regulations which they themselves drew. They can revise those regulations at will. Acts of Congress can be repealed or revised on a vote of those whom the people have chosen to be their representatives.

“But the question whether new land shall be put in a wilderness or whether the land presently included should be taken out — or, in truth, whether we shall have any wilderness areas at all — is resolved exclusively within the hierarchy of a federal bureaucracy.

“Yet the issue of whether the people will be left a rich wilderness area is left to the whim or caprice of a bureaucrat … the people should decide it after fair debate… it’s their inheritance that is at stake.”

These sentiments expressed 48 years ago by the late William O. Douglas, former Supreme Court Justice and citizen of Yakima and Glenwood, Wash.

Go to www.gorgecommission.org, go to current topics, scroll down to “read more and download here” to reach the link to write to the commissioners. Or attend the Feb. 12 meeting.