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West 8th Street at Esther Short Park
gets five stars on www.greatstreets.org
Esther Short Park reemerging, power and
telephone lines are gone.
Vancouver’s West 8th Street at Esther
Short Park gets a top five-start rating in the latest website presentation of
www.greatstreets.org, along with Main
Street, Annapolis, Md., and A Avenue Lake Oswego.
Resuscitation of Esther Short Park on
the south side of 8th Street and development of the upscale Al Angelo Company’s
Heritage Place on the north side were the first building blocks in a downtown
revitalization project envisioned by an Identity Clark County initiative begun
in 1990. The newly completed Esther Short Commons extends 8th Street’s influence
two additional blocks to the west. The completed north tower of Vancouvercenter
adds another block of development to the east.
The concept behind Vancouver’s
redevelopment plan was to rejuvenate the Esther Short Park, the oldest public
park in the West, dating to 1853. As recently as the early 1990s the park was
cohabited by bums and Mayor Royce Pollard’s
buddies, who frequently commingled and occasionally clashed during the mayor’s
Wednesday noon brown bag lunches and concerts.
The aggressive program to bring new
life to downtown Vancouver was championed by the city and resulted in a downtown
convention center and the Vancouver Hilton Hotel on the south side of Esther
Short Park, both of which will open this summer, along with the opening of W 8th
Street’s rival, W 6th street, which borders the hotel and Propstra Square and
the public plaza.
According to greatstreets.org, the
best ideas in the project are the excellent pedestrian connections from the new
housing to the park and the decision to locate ground-floor retail along the
entire frontage of the blocks that face the park. Over time, this strategy will
help foster a synergy between the park and neighboring blocks that solidify its
role as “town square.”
Other important design features are
the generous sidewalk seating and nicely coordinated street fixtures, including
traditional street lamps, planters and lush landscaping.
There are no bad ideas in the project,
greatstreets.org says. “The project is simply a stellar example of how a
mid-sized community can marshal public and private funding to revitalize its
historic center.”
Kimsey outlines advantages of
elections
conducted entirely with mail ballots
During three town hall meetings
designed to explore his recommendation that all future Clark County elections be
conducted by mail ballots, county Auditor Greg
Kimsey will outline a number of advantages of this proposal.
The first town hall session is at 7:30
p.m. this evening in the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin Street.
Besides reducing the complexity of two
voting systems and minimizing the likelihood of mistakes, conducting elections
by mail ballots has other advantages, Kimsey says.
Eliminating polling places will almost
entirely eliminate provisional ballots, which were related to several problems
in the 2004 general election.
Because undeliverable mail ballots are
returned to the Elections Office, it will be easier to identify people who no
longer live at the addresses in the county, thus keeping the database of
registered voters more accurate.
Voting by mail is at least as secure
as voting at a polling place. The primary control is that the signature on every
mail-in ballot is compared with the signature of the voter on the registration
form held in the Auditor’s office. If the signature doesn’t match, the ballot is
set aside and not counted until the voter resolves the signature issue.
The county would avoid also spending
$300,000 for new electronic voting machines that are required to be in place at
the polling places by the end of this year.
News briefs
Possible new city taxes being considered
by the city’s Financing Working Group will be dissected by the Vancouver City
Council in a four-hour work session that begins at 4 p.m. today in City Hall.
The meeting will be cablecast live on CVTV, Channel 23.
g An all-mail voting proposal for Clark County gets
its first public airing at a town hall meeting during the first of three town
hall meetings scheduled by county Auditor Greg
Kimsey at 7:30 p.m. this evening in the Public Service Center, 1300
Franklin Street. g
Semi-annual Business Roundtable sponsored by the Clark County Chamber of
Commerce is at 7 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, in the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay. The
event is open to the public and admission is free. For further information, call
258-1181.
g Clark Public
Utilities’ commissioners meet in regular session at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 17.
g Clark
County commissioners meet in regular session at 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 17.
g At 2 p.m.
Tuesday, May 17, Clark County Commissioners are meeting to discuss assumptions
being used for reconsideration of the county comprehensive plan.
Headlines at home and from around the world:
(Click on the headlines below for the rest of the story)
Businesses'
share of city taxes may be returning--Columbian, Jeffrey Mize
Russian valor saluted at Chkalov Monument--Columbian, Margaret Ellis
Sammy winners go
extra mile to restore habitats--The Columbian
Tall
ships arrive in Clark County next week, but won't fight--Oregonian, Bill
Stewart
Renewal is evident at Mount St. Helens 25 years later--KATU, AP Rachael La
Corte
Supreme Court strikes down wine shipping ban--Washington Post, Fred Barbash
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam
[updates every five minutes]--USDA Forest Service, Mount St. Helens National
Volcanic Monument |
MIRIAM GREEN 
"Working to help you!"
