Community

These are some of the projects in Astoria, I was lucky enough to help create.

They are now part of historic Astoria:

Liberty Theater
My partner at the time, Rosie Paavola, was renting a commercial space in the corner of the Liberty Theater building in downtown Astoria. One morning when I was down from Portland, she casually said, “buy this building. It leaks and the damn landlord won’t fix anything”. I told her that the community group called “The Friends of the Liberty Theater” had been trying for over a year and all they did was anger the tough old Chinese owner Mr. Eng... Continue Reading

Astoria Trolley
Back in the 1990’s, Paul Benoit, Astoria’s city planner, had a great drawing/rendering of the future Riverwalk and trolley tracks. The artist had also drawn a trolley on the tracks. I thought that idea of the Riverwalk with a trolley would be something great for the town. One day I got a crazy idea and thought maybe there is a trolley out there somewhere that we can get for Astoria... Continue Reading

Astoria Armory
When I heard that the old National Guard Armory was for sale, I thought what an opportunity. When I was a kid, all the big events where held there. Sometimes we had 3,000 people in there. Built in 1941, it was huge and still standing... Continue Reading

Astoria Ferry
I looked out the window of crazy Jeff Daly’s office/home/river arcade shop and said, “look what’s docked behind your building.” “I know. It’s the new little ferry boat for Westport.” Jeff says without looking up. “I know it’s a God damn ferry, but what do you really see,” I quipped. “A barge with a skinny pilot’s tower.”... Continue Reading