A couple of days ago, a friend and I spent about 5 hours visiting empty commercial properties from Nehalem to Astoria. We took pictures and videos of these spaces whose only occupants were “For Lease” signs. We plan to make a short video (in a series of videos about HD32) and discuss the state of House District 32’s ailing economy. By the end of our trip we had filmed about 70 empty commercial spaces in six towns separated by a distance of about 40 miles. And we had not by any means compiled all of them.

To be honest, at the end of the day I was a bit depressed. A few short years ago most of these spaces were leased to businesses with owners and employees earning their livings. Today there is nothing but a sign begging for a tenant. Cumulatively there was a feeling of having just visited a ghost town. The human dimension of this stuck in my mind. Hundreds of people who previously provided for themselves and their families have vanished. The owners of these properties are suffering too with the loss of their rental incomes and the means to pay the mortgages on these properties. Many of these properties are now in foreclosure.

My friends, there is something seriously wrong in House District 32. These empty commercial properties are just the tip of the iceberg. Many of our once self-supporting friends and neighbors have lost hope in their futures. They are out of work or barely working. Their homes are in foreclosure. They’ve gone on Food Stamps and their unemployment benefits have run out or are about to do so. Many are leaving the towns where they were born and raised. And where are their elected representatives who have promised to represent them in Salem? What have they been doing for the past three years since our economic troubles have begun? Honest to God, I don’t know. Read More….http://moocountynews.com/a-new-beginning-for-oregon-p671-1.htm