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As kids gear up to go back to school and nights get a little cooler, you may be thinking about squeezing in one last weekend on the coast. Or, perhaps, you're watching as the tourists trickle out of your coastal community. Either way, life is shifting in Oregon beach towns into what locals refer to as the "shoulder season." Seasonal workers are preparing to look elsewhere for jobs and at least one Seaside resident is looking forward to being able to buy s'more fixings at her local grocery store again. (She said that marshmallows usually fly off the shelves in the summertime.)
Those who drop in to a coastal house for a short stint might not see how their visit affects local politics, but Tillamook County residents are currently battling over a new ordinance that would set up some formal rules for people who want to rent out their homes on a short-term basis.
Some residents of unincorporated towns that would be affected say they'd welcome safety requirements as well as noise and parking restrictions. Those who oppose the new rules say they would place an unfair burden on homeowners who depend on income from renters, especially in these tough times.
The recession has affected the Oregon coast, of course, by slowing development and new construction. Less disposable cash in people's pockets has meant they often spend less on food and lodging when they come, but it doesn't mean they've stopped coming. In fact, the coast is an attractive destination for those who might have chosen to fly off to more remote locations when they were feeling flush.
Do you visit the Oregon coast? When do you like to go? Where's your favorite destination? Do you live on the coast? Do you rent out your home on a short-term basis? How does your life change in the fall and winter?
Special Note: Think Out Loud producers Julie Sabatier and Ben Lansky will have a roving microphone at the Pig 'N Pancake in Seaside on Friday morning during the show. Come by anytime between 8 and 10am to share your thoughts!
Tagged as: beach · business · travel
Photo credit: Mountainbread / Creative Commons
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For some reason, this whole end-of-the-summer-season notion keeps reminding me of Roz Chast's amazing cartoon: The Party, After You Left.
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Amusing cartoon. I can imagine locals breaking out their fiddles and 'shine after the tourists retreat into Fall.
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I'm thrilled to see this as a topic here! I head up a business group made up of merchants here in Cannon Beach. Our goal is specifically to raise awareness of how terrific Cannon Beach is for visiting in the "off" seasons. The crowds are gone, the prices for lodging go down and the weather can be lovely or stormy...take your pick!
I hope your listeners will try out Cannon Beach this fall and winter.
Enjoy the show! Keep up the good work.
Julie Walker - Cannon Beach
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Are your efforts working? How has off-season business been in recent years? What are you expecting come October?
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Our efforts started up just as the economy went bad so it's difficult to tell. But we've had many successful placements PR-wise and I believe that it was one of the reasons we had a very well attended Stormy Weather Arts Festival last year. It helped that we had a mild winter last year on the coast....we're hoping for a mild winter and fall again this year.
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It is odd how people in small towns and/or rural areas repeatedly talk about city folk not understanding them or urbanites looking down upon them, when it is often the other way around. This ordinance is an example of this in action. Apparently they don't like the people who visit or at least the way the tourists behave. So lets make some rules---but we'll say there for safety reasons.
The Oregon coast is charming and beautiful as a piece of nature but nothing more. I have been to the coast many times, but I rarely have any desire to go out of my way to get there, it is only ever a last resort. There is little charming about the man-made world of the coast: the architecture, the planning, the shopping, the casinos---everything is third-rate. I don't know who is responsible for this. Just circumstance? The weather? Are there simply not enough visitors to support anything worthwhile? If you build it won't they come? Maybe not.
Are there not enough people in Oregon to support things? Not enough tourists? But it is odd to blame it on the weather, because if you go to British Columbia---even further north everything is more appealing. I have to suspect that in Oregon the mix of hippie/hipster meets Republican doesn't work very well. I think it is a clash of extremes. Anyone who has the savvy to make any kind of meaningful development doesn't because there are fervent environmentalists on every corner and the only people left to do the developing are the last people that should. So it is an awful mix.
If I came here from Europe and went to Bend, Oregon to go skiing I would about kill myself---it is a strip mall with a mountain. Crater Lake, anyone? Where you gonna stay? The lodge? Take a look at the rooms-yuck. The coast: a flimsy few nice hotels for the entire stretch. A bad outlet mall. Walmart. The desolate charm of the Tillamook Cheese Factory---wanna taste some bad ice-cream? Why would anyone spend their dollars on this? The only people willing too are the people you probably don't want to come. Oregonians are their own worst enemy. And it is sad, because it is a beautiful place.
I should add that there are of course some great people at the coast and all over Oregon---but the place is still lacking.
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I like the coast in winter. I think all of Oregon looks better in the winter.
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Maybe you should check out Europe yourself- plenty of strip malls, food you probablly don't care for, bad hotels, and tourist traps. Enterprise is everywhere!
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JONNYFROG,
I have been to Europe. Many times. Just six months ago. One of my favorite hotel chains is in the UK: Hotel Du Vin (www.hotelduvin.com)---these hotels remind me of what you want Oregon to be like. Not to mention Relais & Châteaux.
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My favorite times are spring and fall - when the winds turn west. I hangglide at Cape Lookout and Oceanside. We spend hours looking down at our beautiful cities, surf, and wildlife. Eagles soar with us as we follow hikers out to the end of Cape Lookout. Sorry, it is really indescribable.
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One glory that continues to amaze me during our dark winters on the central coast, is the continuing richness of arts opportunities – mostly homegrown. Private citizens in Lincoln City have revitalized an empty school building into an continuously busy cultural center. Theatre West of Lincoln City is year-round community theater –all volunteer. Gleneden Beach has a new Chamber Music concert series. Newport can’t find room at the Performing Arts Center for all the activities – including a professional symphony season, two resident theater companies, and live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. And all this exists in “real time” for fulltime residents – not just festivals to entertain the tourists.
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I love every season at the Coast. We recently purchased a home on the central coast and split our time between there and Central Oregon. Previously we had a home on the north coast. Beachwalking is much more fun in the summer. In the winter I look forward to sitting by a warm fire and just gazing out the window or reading a good book. I find that there are many days throughout the year that are sunny and mild and conducive to being outside. It's so incredibly glorious. Crabbing is lots of fun; viewing the wide range of wild life is awesome. The geography is incredible. Of course, I wouldn't want this to get out to too many people!!!
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we live here in manzanita year round. the winter is nice and quiet here, though very rainy and windy. we know people who own businesses here, and we try to support them as much as possible through the winter months, when things can get "lean." for people who actually live in these small coastal towns, we try to support one another as much as possible, because we know that we can't depend on the flat-landers for everything. we do enjoy brief visits, and of course their dollars, but please, LEAVE THE FIREWORKS AT HOME!!!
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My husband and I usually go to the Astoria and Seaside area in April, early May, or November. We like to go then because I am not a person who can deal well with crowds and screaming children. We take the dogs, we walk on the beach, which is rarely has unpleasant even during those months, it's been cool, but more than tolerable, and the dogs run and play without much worry of them running into aggressive dogs or interfering people.
We are from the Mount Hood area, which is a tourist draw of its own, but we do not get a good respite from tourists where we live. The hikers morph into skiiers... we have no 'shoulder' season. We have the brief time when the rain drives campers and hikers away, and where there isn't enough snow on the slopes to pull in the crowds from town. But it's not a long break. So we go to the coast for some quiet. :)
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Driving through Newport recently I've seen a lot of newly built condos and houses that are empty. Driving through Pacific City it seems like it has four times as many houses as it did 20 years ago -- and they're built too close together. Who is buying these houses? Out of state vacation home owners? I wonder if the foreclosure rate at the coast is higher than other areas?
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I especially enjoy the fall and winter here in Lincoln City. The summer can be nice, but there is alot more sand on the beach, which means that there is a lot more soft sand that is less conducive to long walks. In the winter, the currents take the sand away and it is great! The southern winds return and are so invigorating and not nearly as biting as the northern winds of the summer. I don't mind the rain of the storms. They are fun as long as you can go inside and dry off at the end of the walk. It is such a dynamic place that people come to for the beauty and I am very fortunate to call it my home.
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Growing up in Oregon I have spent many a day on the coast. Lincoln City and Manzanita, tops on my list.
I have found Rockaway in the recent past, as my new birthday destination. Every 2nd weekend of September, my friends and I make our way to a cozy motel on 101. They welcome us with a gift basket in each room and treat us like family. I would not go anywhere else to share my day with friends and family.
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I just tuned in and didn't get a chance to add my comments during the show. Thank you for having a show about the beach communities and turism. We are an important part of the Oregon economy and the emotional hearts and minds of many Oregonians. Though, we who live full time "At The Beach" are often and overlooked population. I have lived in Manzanita for 10 years, and am a general contractor. Most of our customers are 2nd home owners, and just living in town brings us intimate contact with the tourist and 2nd home industry. While we, of course, appreciate and rely on tourists and 2nd home owners it is a delicate balance with locals often being overrun. Manzanita has a good system for short term vacation rental regulation and vacationers here are largely appreciative and respectful of the local residents. We do love fall though: often by August we're holding our breath in anticpation of post Labor day weekend! I would love more focus on beach communities: another show perhaps, on long term rentals, local enconomies and the service industry here on the coast. Many people cannot afford to live in the communities they service, and local economies that are largely focused on providing for tourists often neglect servicing local full time residents. We love living here: wouldn't be anywhere else! Hearing OUR voices on the radio was a pleasant surprise. Thank you, I would love to hear more from us!
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Here, here to hearing a story about the central coast! I listen to the show often; while working, which entails driving, so was unable to call in and be safe amongst the many visiting drivers. I migrated to the coast from downtown PDX going on five years now. I live and die by the service industry out here- first as a chef, now in foodservice sales. When our "season" ends, we rely on our full time population for business- which in recent history has become quite a challenge. The economy of the north/central coast is shakey at best without the seasonal visitors. There are so many facets of this area- not just the cheese factory, antique shops, outlet malls, and casinos- which are all great fun- but really cool wild Oregon too. More outdoor activities than Ma Boyle could outfit you for. Come, check it out, yes even in winter- when it's windy and wet. Put a jacket and boots on, and dig for razor clams, or slog through the forest checking out slugs and mushrooms. Then, when you've had enough of that, find your nearest diner, restaurant, or bar, and warm up with some tasty food and a nice beverage. After that, go back out to the beach, and stare down the storm as it crashes onto the edge of the continent- you will be quickly reminded of how small we are. Don't fear the coast in the Winter!
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When tourists leave the beach, the beach folds itself into a triangle, like Boy Scouts folding the American flag, and hurls itself noisily into the sea. The beach swims about, frolicks with obnoxious sea lions, and dines on fresh seafood until tourists return.
When tourists leave the beach I take their place. I'm Sunday through Thursday vacation guy. No madding crowds. The Jacuzzi and swimming pool to myself. The Internet bandwidth to myself. Terribly long beach walks whilst encountering ghosts wafting on tendrils of fog.
The beach is awful without tourists. I don't recommend it. Spare yourselves the misery, lonliness and spookiness.
But in town life goes on after the tourists are gone. The locals do whatever they do. They breathe a sigh of relief as the hordes of greasy unwashed children are dragged away by their garrulous Hawaiian-shirted parents. They return to their lives crammed like lemmings into their shiny metal boxes.
Fishing boats are breathed into and out of the harbor. Whales spout close to shore. Coast Guard helicopters make their rounds. Clouds race across the sky and pull the world around on its axis. Wash, rinse, repeat.
The ocean propel's life's rhythms. Tides breath in and out. Sun chases moon chases stars. Over and over like waves rearranging castles made of sand, which fall into the sea, eventually.