Wow. Makes one forget for a while the frustrations of living here, such as the front page article in yesterdays Oregonian creating the illusion that the Multnomah County DA's office is a place, not where white collar criminals are protected, but from which principled charging decisions originate.

To keep one's sanity living here, one must from time to time stop gawking at the incompetence of our government and enjoy some of what they haven't screwed up yet.

i would rather spend time gawking at the scenery and spending time in it than wasting energy and time worrying about the local government in a backwater such as Portland, OR.

Rodney, You should hire yourself out as a conversation-killer.

yah - i just wish it would work with my wife

Stunning. The Oregon coast never fails to awe.

I was golfing at Torrey Pines a couple weeks ago thinking the same thing.
Beeeeeeaauuuutiful!

It is one of the most beautiful spots in Oregon. The entire sandy spit in the picture is owned by YWCA, and is called "Camp Westwind."

No roads in to the place; you have to ferry across the Salmon River estuary. There's a lovely lodge and a bunch of cabins on the site. Plus the most beautiful beach in the state.

It's unbelievably beautiful. As the picture shows.

Yes, yes, yes .... and it is also a moment that calls for, instead of "gawking at the incompetence of our government," a head-nod toward the brilliance of it in the days of a real progressive.

That would be the lategreat (Republican) Governor Tom McCall, who made all these beaches public.

do you think mccall would be a republican today?

Rodney, I don't know what McCall would be today, but I think not a Goldschmidt/Kulongoski Democrat. And if we don't try to do something about the incompetence of local government, we allow errors we might have prevented. We become complicit both in destroying natural beauty and hurting people. I hope more people who know Schrunk's office is not a "champion of the people"(today's Oregonian) will come forward. The office is very good at manipulating grand juries and the press. Otherwise, I don't think the top man knows the difference between the justice system's "shades of gray" (today's Oregonian) and pitch dungeon black.

Hey, I'm all for the public access to our beaches. But the way we got there is not quite "republican" (at least in a minimalist government property-rights-loving conservative sort of way). If I remember my law school property law stuff, didn't we get there by claiming an historical right of passage (like an ancient easement) based on the laws of Scotland? Damn the private property owners and their rights to quiet enjoyment of their property. Better yet, this theory (and the resulting 1967 Oregon Beach Bill) has been used to justify taking property from Sandy River landowners (navigable rivers can't be privately owned, modern-day drift boats and rafts = native kayaks for continuous use, yada, yada, yada).