Guest Column

I was in Medford when news broke that the EO Media Group was starting a new newspaper to replace the Medford Mail Tribune that had recently gone out of business. I was there to attend an informal Medford High School class reunion that was organized more than two years after the original was canceled because of the pandemic. Most of the conversations naturally concerned the past. But while driving around my old stomping grounds for two days, several local stories of statewide and even national interest jumped out to me.

In fact, it had been hard to imagine the Medford area without the Mail Tribune. My parents subscribed and it was always the house when I was growing up. I graduated from reading the comics and TV listings to the news stories and editorials as the years went by. The paper’s politics were more moderate than Southern Oregon’s reputation. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1934 for investigating corrupt Jackson County official. And it always endorsed my father, a Democrat, when he ran three successful campaigns for the Oregon House, helping him establish the base to help him become one of the few politicians outside the Willamette Valley to be elected to statewide office, state treasurer and attorney general.

The new owners have announced the new paper will be called The Tribune. It will launch soon as a website and then a print publication three times a week. They are already planning to cover the basics, including high school sports, community events, things like weddings and anniversaries. They are talking about partnering with the existing online nonprofit Ashland News as part of their regional coverage. And they plan on doing major stories that might otherwise be ignored.

Here are a few of my suggestions, based on my quick trip there. Some are informed by their contrast with they way things are in the Portland region:

Alameda Drive Fire recovery: The Alameda Drive Fire that erupted on Sept. 8, 2020, was the most destructive wildfire in Oregon history. Driven by winds of up to 45 miles per hour after a long, hot summer, it roared through nine miles between Medford and Ashland. The fire consumed 3,200 acres and destroyed approximately 2,800 homes, wiping out much of the small cities of Talent and Phoenix. Miraculously, only three people were killed.

The scars were still visible when I drove along Oregon Route 99. Most trees in the former greenway were blackened trunks. Two hotels were nothing but fire-tinged former neon signs. Rumble from demolished structures were piled up on empty lots.

But remarkably, signs of recovery were everywhere. All styles of housing are already in place or under construction on properties on both sides of the road. They include large lots with utilities for RVs and campers, blocks of manufactured homes, pockets of small starter homes, and developments with larger homes that would fit in at any of of Portland’s suburbs. The most affordable options probably can’t be built anywhere in the metro region because of the high costs of land, permit fees and system development charges. But they’re making them all work there.

Downtown Medford redevelopment: I’d visited Medford several time over the past 20 years and had always been struck by how the downtown seemed frozen in the past, and not in a good way. A series of new shopping centers built on the edges of town seemed to have lured all of the shoppers away.

But on this trip, downtown was coming back to life. A number of new multi-story apartment buildings had been built and at least one more was under construction. There were fewer empty storefront than I remembered. Even the original Medford Shopping Center a short walk away had been remodeled.

Lack of visible homeless: One of the last stories posted my the Mail Tribune was about a community needs assessment that said high housing costs were contributing to homelessness, just like in Portland. That may be true, but in two days of driving throughout the area, I only saw about a half dozen homeless people and four tents — fewer than a single block in Old Town. I don’t know if there are just that many fewer homeless people in the Medford area or if local social service agencies are doing something right, but it’s worth looking into.

Replica Victorian Jacksonville neighborhood: Jacksonville is a preserved Wild West town outside of Medford that is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. And since my last visit, someone has built an entire adjacent neighborhood of incredibly realistic faux Victorian-era houses. Dozens of them line several streets, looking for all the world like an ornate movie set. Maybe neighborhoods like this have been built in other places, but I’d like to know who developed this one, who lives there and why, and whether they wear Victorian-era clothes at home.

I’m sure there are many other stories to be covered in Medford and the surrounding area. And I’m glad they will be now, thanks to the EO Media Group and its new Tribune.