Citizens for Astoria Oregon

12/13/2023

On the agenda tonight.

10/10/2023

LONG BEACH, Wash. — Maarit Tastula left the Lower Columbia region to return to Finland with a smile.

08/27/2023

08/21/2023

Maybe bring this back

Roller Coaster Ride

08/20/2023

Yes. Use all the space.

08/19/2023

It looks like a spaceship just crash landed in Millennium Park…

I took this shot on my phone through a gap between two sections of fence. At just the right angle and height, it appeared as if The Bean was sitting in an impact crater surrounding by a rim of impact ejecta.

Clearly, the project to renovate the plaza around Cloud Gate has officially started. According to the City of Chicago, "construction on Grainger Plaza surrounding Cloud Gate (aka “The Bean”) in Millennium Park will continue through the spring of 2024. During this time, public access and views of Cloud Gate will be limited. This necessary maintenance by the City of Chicago will replace pavers and make other repairs and accessibility upgrades to the Plaza".

08/09/2023

The Tillamook Beekeepers Association (TBA) welcomed crowds to the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for their new Apiary and Garden Learning Center at the Port of Tillamook Bay on

08/09/2023

Many great public spaces have grown out of communities resisting development. It is the evolution from opposition to proactive visioning - helping to create, finance, and manage public spaces - that often makes the opposition successful. Congress Square, and the community around it, are forging this story of transformation.

In what is possibly Maine’s most urban place, Congress Square Park is centrally located in downtown Portland, across from the Portland Museum of Art. The park was created through an urban renewal project funded by an Urban Development Action Grant in the early 1980s. The goal was to make the park a “showplace of the City” and to add significant vitality to the area by creating a new open public space. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the park was programmed by Maine Arts, the Portland Downtown District and other non-profit groups with events such as dances, movies, and concerts, and was a gathering place for residents and visitors. These outdoor events added to the development of Portland’s arts district identity. However, the design of the park – with multiple physical and visual barriers to entry – and the lack of amenities, made organic community use of the park a challenge and, unfortunately, a lasting management structure was never established.

As public and private investment in the park declined in the early 2000s, programming was abandoned completely, and a once vital space was allowed to deteriorate. The park no longer felt loved, used, safe, comfortable, or accessible. The City then scuttled plans that were underway to fix it and instead tried to sell it. That was when the Friends of Congress Square Park stepped in.

Many great public spaces have grown out of communities resisting development. It is the evolution from opposition to proactive visioning - helping to create, finance, and manage public spaces - that often makes the opposition successful. Congress Square, and the community around it, are forging this...

08/08/2023

Mark your calendars it’s officially one week until coronation at the 👑👑

Thank you to .autocenter for your support

Amazing photos by