SOMETIMES IT TAKES A CRISIS TO BRING ABOUT A DESPERATELY NEEDED BETTERMENT IN THE COMMUNITY

Now, as Mr. Long lay dying in March 1934, his empire falling apart, his dream of education and advancement for all was stalled like everything else. But others would follow his inspiration and seize the opportunity at hand.

In the words of Virginia Urrutia, who lived through it:

Sometimes it takes a crisis to bring about a desperately needed betterment in the community. The Depression was such a crisis. One of the problems of the Depression was the plight of young people stranded after high school graduation, unemployed, unprepared for employment, and unwanted.

Mr. Long had, in fact, extended his dream to include post-secondary education. Early architectural drawings of the R.A. Long High School campus showed two additional buildings flanking the central structure: a vocational educational building to the south, and a junior college on its north side.

College Town

On May 5, 1934 a meeting convened by Kiwanis queried citizens about the need for a junior college and, if they determined there was one, how to bring it about. 150 people from around the county showed up, unanimously agreed there was a crying need, organized committees and laid plans to elect a board of regents. They agreed to raise $5,000, chiefly to pay faculty, and planned to raise it all in one week, July 9th to 14th, 1934.

As Urrutia put it, they didn’t just get rolling, “they steamrolled.” Groups plastered the town with publicity. The Business and Professional Club women grabbed their ukuleles and invaded about thirty club meetings in the area, singing and strumming rousing songs about “Yes, we’ll have a college.”

The week climaxed with a parade and pep rally “that would have dwarfed a modern Super Bowl extravaganza,” enthused Urrutia, with a huge bonfire, street dancing, hundreds of students in a serpentine and carried away in “a frenzy of enthusiasm.”

Getting prospective students was a more sober and difficult task. By October about fifty had registered but only about $3,000 had been raised. The college was set to rent rooms at R.A. Long High School for $600 dollars and had contracted with a president and three instructors. Warlike sounds from Europe, worsening economic news, fear of communists running amok in Cowlitz County, all contributed to uncertainty and reticence for prospective students.

Still, only a remarkable five months since the May meeting, the first 53 students of Lower Columbia Junior College gathered for its opening assembly at the high school, October 2, 1934.

The Great Transformation Longview did more than survive the Great Depression. It transformed itself, by necessity, from the dreamy Planned City and privileged Company Town to something more mature. The 30s may not have weaned the town entirely from its cont page 22 from page 21 grand visions and paternal oversight. But they toughened and empowered and humanized the fledgling citizens, and ceded them more control over their own destiny.

This transformation is a significant step in establishing a true community, not just filling in slots on a master plan. Even amidst the gloom and doom of the 1930s, people in Longview were strumming ukuleles and stringing out conga lines simply to campaign for a better way of life, for progress and empowerment. Swimming upstream.

Not everyone, not even a majority, of Longview kids would bypass high paying jobs at the mill, especially after the war and depression were over, and sign up at the fledgling junior college. But most everyone felt something good, and wholesome, and idealistic, about the effort.

And they knew R.A. Long would be pleased.

The emphasis placed in Longview on worthy endeavors — good schools, the YMCA, the hospital, the library, the high school, the college — had a cumulative good effect on the moral climate of the city.

John M. McClelland, Jr.

R.A. Long’s Planned City

However a good place to saw timber or smelt metal or ship cargo or go to college, Longview might become at the very least, in its own right, simply a good place to be. Perhaps, even, a good place to settle down and to grow up.

Refueling your tank for free while parked on the street sounds like a dream!

With vehicles like the Tesla Cybertruck finally coming this year, electric cars with a 500+ mile range, 1 MW fast charging, and optional solar roof, can effortlessly replace a family’s gas car rather than just be a ‘neighborhood car’ augmenting a traditional gas car for long road trips.

Tesla recently announced imminent reduction on prices by half, roughly over the next 3 years, for their new model, making a brand new Tesla as affordable as $20-25,000! Alongside the acceleration of production numbers and falling EV costs, the coming electric car revolution will save every family money and grant energy independence while helping climate problems.

9.

Living and Learning THEN

Despite the Great Depression, quality of life and access to opportunity motivate the Planned City.

Now

Lifelong learners continue to transform themselves and their city in a time of rapid change and a challenging future.