Author: North Coast BBQ

January 2025
We want to wish all residents, community members, and readers a happy and great start to the new year! We also want to thank all of you who participate in and serve the City in any and all capacities, both formally and informally. Formally, our Planning Commission Chair and Vice Chair were re-elected; we had re-appointments to Planning Commission; and are currently in a selection process for our Budget Committee, appointments to occur at our Regular Session in February. We also had one new appointment to Planning Commission, Brad Berman. He introduced himself at this month’s Planning Commission meeting. You can watch here: ci.manzanita.or.us/pc-meeting-1-13-25.
Brad is a third generation Oregonian, native Portlander, and has been a homeowner in Manzanita for 13 years. Professionally, he’s worked for Nike in global roles, but also in architecture, and commercial real estate development the last seven years, with varying project-types such as mixed use, and a significant amount of housing as of late. He will be a great asset to Planning Commission and the Comprehensive Plan and Housing Ordinance Update project! Welcome, Commissioner Berman!
We also had a Work Session focused on short-term rentals (STRs) during which the STR Committee presented. You can watch here: ci.manzanita.or.us/city-council-work-session-1-15-25/. The City has heard from residents and community members in a variety of ways regarding STRs, such as through the STR Committee, the 2023 Livability survey, and complaints filed with our Code Enforcement Officer.
The City is trying to make a decision about STR policies, to create more livability for those in Manzanita through policies which constrain STR growth and potentially lessen noise and congestion (i.e., parking and traffic) which may arise from renters; while also wanting to provide adequate services to the City, which are funded in large part by our transient lodging tax (TLT) revenue, as opposed to property taxes which many other cities depend on. Due to certain Oregon measures (specifically Measures 5 and 50), Manzanita derives very little from property taxes and, therefore, must fund service-provision through different means.
We would love to receive input from our community members on this issue. Please reach out to our Council members here: citycouncil@ci.manzanita.or.us. There will be additional opportunities for the community to weigh-in on this issue at public hearings when and if any new policies are considered by City Council, so stay tuned.
Thank you so much to everyone who completed our second survey related to the Comprehensive Plan and Housing Ordinance Update. We garnered 76 responses which is huge for a city of our size! We also still have a few 20-mile-per-hour yard signs available for free at City Hall. Come by and pick one up if you would like to show your support for Twenty is Plenty! Lastly, the City has hired a contractor to complete some needed maintenance and repairs to the park. Parts are on order and as soon as we receive them our contractor will begin the repairs. Access to the play structure will remain closed until the repairs are complete. We are moving as quickly as we can to reopen the structure as soon as possible! Thank you for your patience during this time.
We’re off to a great 2025 thanks to all of you who serve and support our City!

High Tide now has openings for your home or vacation rental.
I have been in business here for 10 wonderful years helping with your cleaning needs. I have many years of experience with both private homes and vacation rentals making sure everything is clean and running smoothly.
Please call me at 503-717-2585 if I can help you with cleaning needs, vacation rental or your home.

Thank you,
Shawn

You can watch here: ci.manzanita.or.us/pc-meeting-1-13-25.

Brad is a third generation Oregonian, native Portlander, and has been a homeowner in Manzanita for 13 years. Professionally, he’s worked for Nike in global roles, but also in architecture, and commercial real estate development the last seven years, with varying project-types such as mixed use, and a significant amount of housing as of late. He will be a great asset to Planning Commission and the Comprehensive Plan and Housing Ordinance Update project! Welcome, Commissioner Berman!
We also had a Work Session focused on short-term rentals (STRs) during which the STR Committee presented.

You can watch here: ci.manzanita.or.us/city-council-work-session-1-15-25/.

The City has heard from residents and community members in a variety of ways regarding STRs, such as through the STR Committee, the 2023 Livability survey, and complaints filed with our Code Enforcement Officer.

The City is trying to make a decision about STR policies, to create more livability for those in Manzanita through policies which constrain STR growth and potentially lessen noise and congestion (i.e., parking and traffic) which may arise from renters; while also wanting to provide adequate services to the City, which are funded in large part by our transient lodging tax (TLT) revenue, as opposed to property taxes which many other cities depend on. Due to certain Oregon measures (specifically Measures 5 and 50), Manzanita derives very little from property taxes and, therefore, must fund service-provision through different means.
We would love to receive input from our community members on this issue. Please reach out to our Council members here: citycouncil@ci.manzanita.or.us.

There will be additional opportunities for the community to weigh-in on this issue at public hearings when and if any new policies are considered by City Council, so stay tuned.

Thank you so much to everyone who completed our second survey related to the Comprehensive Plan and Housing Ordinance Update. We garnered 76 responses which is huge for a city of our size!

We also still have a few 20-mile-per-hour yard signs available for free at City Hall. Come by and pick one up if you would like to show your support for Twenty is Plenty!

Lastly, the City has hired a contractor to complete some needed maintenance and repairs to the park. Parts are on order and as soon as we receive them our contractor will begin the repairs. Access to the play structure will remain closed until the repairs are complete. We are moving as quickly as we can to reopen the structure as soon as possible! Thank you for your patience during this time.

We’re off to a great 2025 thanks to all of you who serve and support our City!

Here are some quotes I think we all can live by.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only Light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only Love can do that.” Martin Luther King
“Love is all we need.” The Beatles
“Only Love can conquer hate.” Marvin Gaye
“When the Power of Love overcomes the love of power we will have peace.” Jimi Hendrix

So ANY WAY that all of us can add our bit of love to the world is to me a radical and powerful act. Let’s all be kind and do what we can to help each other. Keep the faith, stay strong and don’t let the haters win by giving up or reacting to them with hate.
Some specific ideas:
Regularly check on a neighbor who lives alone.
Help a struggling parent in line at the grocery store.
Give someone an authentic complement.
Hold your judgmental thoughts about someone.
Call a friend you haven’t talked with lately.
Reach out an olive branch to someone you have had conflict with.
Walk a friend or neighbor’s dog.
Host an informal get together with your neighbors to get to know each other better.
If you encounter hate speech from someone on line comment that you are sending them love.
Pay it forward.
Make someone laugh.
Take a walk in nature and send thanks for the beauty around us.
Pray in whatever forms calls to you. I pray that Love and Democracy will prevail and I imagine a hedge of angels surrounding Donald Trump preventing him from doing harm and giving him a “love transfusion”.

From Lane deMoll: Back in November after the election Brene Brown said somewhere that we all need to be taking micro-doses of hope. I realized that I could make an Essence of Hope. So I went out (as Pluto moved into Aquarius) and collected all the flowers that were blooming in my garden at the time, let them blend in spring water in the sun, and then added it to the last of my pear brandy. Now here it is – available in small bottles free or by donation. Or maybe it will help you keep moving forward that you just know it exists. Hang in there! lane@lanedemoll.com

All of us carry burdens—of daily life, of old hurts and pains. Do whatever you can do to lighten someone’s load. And accept help to lighten yours.

There are lots of organizations out there fighting for justice. Here is a link to an Indivisible.org article I received today.
indivisibleteam.medium.com/courage-is-contagious-its-time-to-fight-back-2610a18f94fc

Here are some ways to help locally.
Last November, everyone in Tillamook County received a copy of the 2024-25 Tillamook County Giving Guide. It’s not too late to use that as a resource for how to help local organizations doing good in our community.
Check out the link at the Tillamook County Pioneer
www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Giving-Guide-2024-25-Final-for-Web.pdf
It’s also on the bbq website Local Resources page. Also on that page are links to Tillamook County Organizations Directories—both alphabetized and categorized that give descriptions of most of the organizations listed.
www.northcoastbbq.com/local-resources/

Little Coasties is a daycare program for 2 and 3 year olds in North County. They have an opportunity to open a second location but need financial help getting into the property. Check out their story in the Pioneer.
www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/little-coasties-school-fills-need-for-child-care-in-nehalem-opportunity-to-open-second-location-with-community-support/

Another Pioneer article noted the opening of a Tillamook office for Consejo Hispano
www.tillamookcountypioneer.net/consejo-hispano-dear-community-tillamook-office-now-open/

Rainy Day Village helps people who are aging stay in their homes.
www.rainydayvillage.org/

These are just a few of the many resources we have in our community. Give where you can and what makes sense to you! Small acts of love and kindness add up. What if the hundredth monkey tale is true that a new behavior or idea can spread rapidly through a population once a critical number of people adopt it? Maybe your act of kindness or love is the critical one!

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
People show you who they are by their actions and by the words they choose. Pretend someone doesn’t mean what they say or what they do and live to find out otherwise. As long as the words and actions are pointed at other people, you’ll be fine. Pretend that the handful of millionaires and billionaires who are in power aren’t using their power to benefit themselves while maintaining control of the world’s resources. They accrue their wealth by standing on the backs of those who are without wealth, without power and without a voice. And we let them do it because we bought the lie they sold us—that our differences are something to be feared and hated.
Sometimes we ignore the differences between us because we’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. We are fearful and suspicious of differences when we don’t know people who aren’t like us. We allow those differences to separate us from each other and we lose a powerful force for change. Community.
As William Stafford wrote in his poem, A Ritual to Read to Each Other:
“If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star….
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.”
On this MLK day I want to paraphrase director David Lynch, let’s keep our eyes on the donut, kids not on the hole.

Posting on behalf of Kim Rosenberg
loretta.kim.rosenberg@gmail.com