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Cool Has A Price
I always feel sad when I leave our beach house in Pacific City, Oregon.
Even as a kid, leaving a vacation was hard for me.
Escaping your life for a place filled with memories and moments isn’t something you want to give up.
We found a great salad bar/brewery in Tillamook called Werner Brewery.
It's right in town in an industrial area.
We also visited Three Rivers Coffee Company in Tillamook for the best espresso in the land.
Kathy and I spent 2+ hours yesterday cracking more than a dozen crab.
We found a new pizza place in Pacific City “Megs Beachwood Bar & Grill” and they’ll even make take & bake.
So we bought a cheese pizza, smothered it in crab and had an amazing dinner.
(highly recommend their pizza)
When I leave this place I think of all the times we’ve been here with our kids, friends and family.
This place has been part of me since I was 10 years old.
Change is part of life and change can be good.
This place has changed a bunch in the last 53 years.
Pacific City is one of the gems on the Oregon Coast and its discovery is obvious with crowds and homes and new businesses and lots of traffic.
Not like the old days, the old days are long gone.
Everything looks really nice and town is quite charming.
But there’s a downside to all of that development.
I sit here in our house on the ocean front and watch people ignore no trespassing signs as they walk inches from our window as if the request means nothing or it’s there for everyone but them.
They walk between houses and park in places where signs ask them not to park.
We have a dune restoration project, which cost homeowners tens of thousands of dollars to do, and signs asking people to stay off the grass mean nothing as people trample through the area as if it’s their lawn.
I’m a big believe in beach access for everyone( especially as an ocean front homeowner) but there’s a huge difference between walking down the beach and sneaking between houses, past windows and on private property.
I did not mean for this to be a complaint driven blog so I’ll switch back and focus on something positive to end with.
Sitting at the bar last night we got into a great conversation with locals and non locals like ourselves about the changes here in Pacific City.
Back in the day there were a few tacky bars and fewer homes.
Now PC has an amazing feel as a vibrant little beach town.
There is cost that comes with discovery and attractions designed to bring in new people.
Kathy and I have a new perspective having left Oregon for Montana.
Townsend, our new home, is less discovered than neighboring towns in Montana.
People talk of the need for more places to eat and more services, and we get it. But we also remember the cost of those services and the people they bring.
Charm and upgrades can work against each other.
All those fine lines once crossed can never be redrawn.
So you go slow and plan well and remember what brought people here in the first place.
Maybe it all boils down to respect?
Perhaps you can have the services needed to bring people in, if those visiting or moving here assimilate rather than consume and try to change.
It’s that old saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Respect starts with listening, observing and reading the signs.
A town, a community is not here for your consumption it’s here for you to enjoy and become part of (honoring it’s culture) even if for just a weekend.
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