Some good news

What a week! I come home from a great vacation (my first real vacation since moving here), and then I have to prepare for the Englund condo battle next week, and attend a hearing where I can't say a word about the Bradwood Landing LNG project. That hearing generated a shocking reversal of the county staff report recommending denial of the application for zoning changes and more. Boy was I depressed! Then angry.

The paper told me about how Warrenton and the county had agreed to split the riches from the business park that is now a forest, so that development could begin. Think Costco, strip malls, parking lots. More depression and anger.

That huge house on the hill is still there. It's all still there. The For Sale sign on the property kitty corner from my house. The For Sale signs everywhere. The bulldozers. Ahhhhhhh!

I'm really hoping for some good news. I fall asleep and have a dream:

The county planning commission's decision to approve changes beneficial to Northern Star is overturned after an investigation reveals collusion. The commission is sacked, as are all the county commissioners, and new elections are held. The new commissioners are avid environmentalists, and start setting aside county land for parks, trails, and wilderness. All Measure 37 claims are declared invalid retroactively. Development is put on hold while a new county comprehensive plan is developed, with full citizen participation.

In Astoria, the same kind of thing happens. The city council is sacked. A new election gives us 5 avid environmentalists. City land is set aside for parks, trails, and wilderness. Development is put on hold while a new city comprehensive plan is developed, with full citizen participation. The land near my house is bought by some rich environmentalist and preserved, with new native evergreen trees planted to hold the slope in place. The For Sale signs go away, as the properties are bought and restored to their former glory. The Englund condos never happen – instead, a park named after one of the new city council people is established there and all up and down the waterfront. The yacht club is rebuilt on Youngs Bay. The Riverwalk is extended all around Youngs Bay, and the massive Youngs Bay Landing project is shelved, replaced by wetland restoration. The huge house on the hill is razed, and the forest restored.

The Highway 101 corridor is cleared of development back a half mile on both sides. Forest, farmland, wetland, wilderness is what I see when driving down to Cannon Beach for acting gigs. The big box stores are gone, and the local economy is thriving anyway.

Ship traffic on the Columbia is composed of a mixture of large vessels headed to and from Portland and Vancouver, and smaller cargo ships coming in and out of Astoria and other towns on the estuary. The large plants have been supplanted by smaller ones that dot the river, but don't pollute it. And NO LNG!

The most important change in my dream is that I no longer worry about continuous, massive change. Things evolve, but the scale is right, and it happens so slowly and publicly that I feel I don't have to fight it, or worry about it all the time.

I sleep soundly. I hope that when I wake up, it wasn't a dream.

Ah, but if we keep dreaming, and telling others our dream, maybe someday it will become reality. Go out and make some good news today. For me. And everyone and everything else. Thanks!