Welcome to Astoria, Oregon

Hi, I'm Jim Weaver the owner of Weaver Web Designs inviting you to take a look at one of the most interesting and beautiful places in America, Astoria, Oregon.

When I rolled into Astoria, it was night in mid October of 1985 and I felt like I was entering a safe haven and soon discovered I would fall in love with the hard working community.

I became entralled when looking at the beauty of the Flavel house on a cold October day when sitting on a bench in the yard of the museum. The Flavel house craftsmanship was so awesome as I knew this work had been done by carpenters for very little pay and all of the trim work had been hand tooled. This gave me a lot of respect for the carpenters and painters of those days. The Victorian craftsmanship of these homes built (some over 200 years ago) brought out a heart felt need within me to help preserve and protect these beautiful homes and buildings for future generations.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma I had worked as a painter on many a millionaires oil boom era mansion and developed a passion for the renovation of historical homes and buildings.

Since 1985 for the next 20 years I worked in Astoria as a commercial and residential paint contractor fixing, rot repairing and renovating homes on the National Historic Register of Historical places listed in Astoria.

Visit my old painting website at http://www.weaverpainting.com to see some of my preservation and renovation projects and letters of referral. You will also find a couple of chapters from my book " The Care and Feeding of a Victorian Home " on my old website.

I decided to make a community related page to keep you informed as to what's going on in Astoria. Astoria, Oregon is undergoing many profound and artistic changes in the community for Art and tourism.

The Riverfront

Astoria is undergoing a challenge for the development of the riverfront to enhance beauty, commercial interest and residential development for tourism to bring economic resources to the riverfront area. I borrowed the PDF link below from the City of Astoria website to show whats happening with the Astoria Riverfronts Vision Plan and I believe you will be quite thrilled with Astoria's growth and visions for the future.

There is much scuttle abounding about the issues to best implement these challenging ideas amongst the citizens of Astoria and riverfront developers. Astorians have always been tough when it comes to changing the historical value of it's long standing history of being the " Oldest American Settelmet West of the Rockies " and believe me I'm into preserving the history of Astoria and its citizens firm resolutions! There is much heart and soul in Astoria concerning historic value as a landmark!

The Astoria Riverfront Vision

Land Uses
There is a prevalent concern about allowing new residential development along the riverfront and the affect it could have on public access. Astorians do not want the riverfront to become a de facto front yard for condominiums. Residents want to see the riverfront remain economically viable in terms of its ability to provide jobs and attract visitors. Many people expressed a desire to see the western portion of the riverfront as designated for industry and more intensive development and the riverfront’s eastern portion for open spaces and views. Participants also are particularly concerned about further development over the water and its potential impact on visual and physical access to the river for the community-at-large.

Downtown
An area of focus should be the connections between downtown and the riverfront. Many people feel there should be asynergy between these two areas enhanced by signage and landscaping. Visitors and residents alike should be comfortable going back and forth between the open spaces and beauty of the riverfront and the retail opportunities of downtown. Some people would like to see downtown spaces better utilized before new development takes place on the riverfront. These issues will be further addressed and resolved in the second phase of this planning effort as described in more detail on page 1 in the linked article below.

The Astoria Riverfront Vision

If you ever need advice concerning the preservation of historic homes or buildings, contact me at 503-861-9860 or on my cell at 503-440-3216. I am also an professional educator concerning the best web design practices and train the use of Internet based platforms. I am a listener, creative learner, thinker and artist in many areas of my life!

Thanks and Welcome to Astoria, Oregon!