Now that the back garden has been (mostly) cleared and sorted, it’s a little weird to find that some of the remaining plants have now turned into nameless strangers. Especially the aloes. The one pictured, with the elegant scroll-worked leaves, I’ve finally decided must be Aloe pluridens aka the French Aloe. I’ve been making progress with identification through checking old photos and blog posts, a comforting post-election distraction. There’s just one other aloe that will remain a mystery to be solved once it flowers.
I wish I could just as easily untangle the painful mystery of the recent election results. There are lots of theories on offer. Democrats have lost the working class voter because __________. The degraded state of the information ecosystem is certainly a factor, and I have a little story that might illustrate this part of the puzzle.
On the North Oregon Coast, where we’ve spent the better part of the last three years near Tillamook Bay, work is now underway on repairing the South Jetty. What may sound like a straightforward construction project is anything but to the locals. It concerns infamously hazardous conditions arising from the convergence of fresh water from five rivers exiting through the narrow mouth of the bay. The crabbing and abundance of steelhead and salmon make this coast prime fishing, but the turbulent waters have taken their toll on the community in lives and income lost. Some families lost a husband and a son in a single disastrous fishing trip.
Proposals for solutions go back to early in the last century, when an oceanfront community raised the funds for the Army Corps of Engineers to tame the waters and make the boat journey to their homes a little less harrowing. Two jetties were recommended, one on each side of the bay’s mouth, but funds enough for only one jetty were raised. The one-sided solution only exacerbated the problem, and the community named Bayocean was ultimately swept away by the sea.
By the 21st century, both north and south jetties were in place, with continual repairs needed to strengthen them. In particular, local government has sought repairs to the South Jetty since 2009. In January 2022, $62 million was allocated from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for repair of the South Jetty. The source of funding is not a secret but it doesn’t appear to be widely known and/or acknowledged either. This work critical to the small fishing communities will undoubtedly be completed under the incoming president’s term, the one voted in office by Tillamook County. The one who never got an “Infrastructure Week” off the ground. The one who didn’t fund the jetty work when he had a chance. The one who will probably take credit for the economic success all these projects will deliver.
There are thousands of such projects underway right now in every state. (You can check the work funded in your state here.) For me this is the kind of problem-solving that one party consistently delivers for voters. Sure, there’s a long arc and it can take years to see results. Would hearing some of these infrastructure success stories on the campaign trail have made a difference? What do I know, I’m just an old liberal…
Take care, AGO
Politics aside, I had no idea Tillamook Bay was such a harrowing place. Gotta read up on Bayocean.
Aloe pluridens seems like a very educated guess to me!
The Army Corp of Engineers were vital to the flood control project in Napa. Flood plains were created , flood walls erected and the levee system will be upgraded this year. This project took several years but it was successful in reigning in the Napa River which flows through our downtown and the east side of my neighborhood. It was well worth the sales tax $ that helped fund the project. I still have to buy flood insurance required by my mortgage lender. All these decisions! Pay off all or some of the principal and lower my flood premiums ? I’ve decided to put off major decisions to Q2 next year. Maybe by then we will understand the near future.
It must feel great to have everything cleared and sorted. A kind of garden housekeeping project if you will. Looking forward to seeing the choice of color(s)on your back fence!
I can’t help but think that many of the people who voted for our next president are the ones who may ultimately suffer the worst as a result. Future messaging will need to be clearer, louder and longer to be heard.
@Gerhard, thanks for validating the aloe ID. There’s a book on Bayocean by Jerry Sutherland that is worth looking into if the subject interests you.
@Kathy, the Army Corps is going to have a busy year! Sounds like wait-and-see is a good plan on so many levels!
@Jane, what a difference the extra fence height makes. Now the eye floats up the wall to the acacia canopy and onto the sky instead of getting snagged by the previous view.
The taller fence looks great and must be such a relief. When I saw you had a new blog post up, before reading it, I was thinking how fortunate that you’re in LB, post-election. I’d not heard of Bayocean, but just finished reading an OPB story on it (https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-bayocean-ghost-town-resort-tillamook-bay/). I especially enjoyed learning about the tribal oral traditions of a “god-like character” called South Wind, whose phallus is the sand spit. Occasionally South Wind did negative things that resulted in his phallus being severed (when the spit became an island).
@Loree, the extra height is a huge relief. You’re right, the Tillamook people’s folklore is pretty graphic and frank!
The story of Bayocean is very interesting. I wonder if local schoolchildren are exposed to the story? It could provide a valuable lesson in relation to the challenges of marshalling Mother Nature and the current and future problems posed by climate change. Our own Palos Verdes Peninsula is struggling with the slow-moving landslide, the origins of which stretch thousands of years beyond the 1956 event that triggered the first home losses. Manycurrent residents are struggling to continue life in long-term homes by living off the grid supported by adjustable metal foundations, while others are looking for buyouts. The city of RPV, California’s OES, and FEMA are funding voluntary buyouts and other mitigation efforts to the tune of $42M. The President Elect owns a property a half mile away from the most intensely affected area, although I understand that he expressed little concern for the problem even though the land he now owns was sold at a cut rate because one hole of the original golf course fell into the ocean. He’s reportedly selling lots for home development there even now.
@Kris, the story of Bayocean is fairly well known locally, and you can hike on the peninsula where it was once located, with informational signs. The local authority feels the town would still be standing today if they had either initially built two jetties, one on either side of the mouth of the bay, or none at all. So not a poor location, just a poor choice of remedy for the rough seas. Once land routes were available, sea routes were no longer critical to the town. There are still people alive who lived in Bayocean as it became a dying town in the ’50s and ’60s, with no more newcomers buying property, and they say it was an idyllic childhood! I do know that property owned by the pres elect and attended a wedding there!