The Serfs Address the Castle

Alan Arod of Wingspread Mobile Home Park stood before the City Council on Tuesday and explained the economic arrangement of his life without a single wasted word: "The king rules from his castle on the hill. The serfs live below and pay the king for the privilege of living on his land." He then noted that Oregon's celebrated 7 percent rent cap "would mean that the rent is gonna double every 10 years. And I guarantee Social Security is not going up by 7% a year." Compound interest, explained from a mobile home, more clearly than any consultant has managed it in two years of process.

The Council heard him. The Manufactured Home Park zone — Ordinances 3296, 3297, and 3298, protecting Wingspread and Tolman Creek inside the city and two more parks at its edge from ever being flipped into something else — passed first readings 6-0, 6-0, and 6-0, over a written protest from the industry and one in-person realtor. The tenant-protection chapter, Ordinance 3306, was continued to July for legal hardening, which is the correct kind of delay: the kind that makes a thing survive a courtroom.

The Testimony

The hearing was the best hour of council this year, and the residents carried it. Mary Lou Gross, licensed broker, historical rent series: her mother's era, $300; now "almost $800 a month." Maryanne Shank: "We're not tenants, we are co-owners... They need us to make their millions" — and, of the industry's warning that Ashland "sets a precedent that other Oregon cities may follow": "may I say hallelujah sister. I hope it does." Dolores Nims reported that Wingspread's own owner refused to talk to the city's consultants, and dispatched the industry letter as "a last ditch stand by the park owners to derail the zoning ordinance." Rich Rohde told of four regional parks sold out from under residents, of a hundred-some homes from which exactly one proved movable, of a woman in her eighties gone to a nursing home while the neighbor kids' garden went under the blade.

Opposite them: the park co-owner appearing by Zoom from Nevada, frustrated to have learned of a two-year process in May, whose park is 65 years old and whose expansion the city itself blocked twenty years ago — a fair grievance, fairly made — and the realtors' association, whose spokesman objected that a 180-day purchase window "is not an incremental adjustment. It is more than a twelvefold increase" over the state's 14 days. On the state's own number, Councilor Dale had already ruled: "14 days is woefully inadequate and quite honestly embarrassing at the state level."

Councilor Bloom addressed the owners directly — "I would just offer the suggestion to pay closer attention to your community instead of your bank account" — and then said the quiet demographic part: "as a low income worker... the most likely path to home ownership is probably in one of your parks. And I hope to join you one day." Mayor Graham matched it: she lived in a mobile home park her senior year of high school; her mother stayed until she died. "Local government never moves as fast as we would like it to, but it moves." Councilor Sherell noted for the record what the empty opposition chairs meant: "I didn't see anybody else representing the other side and that carries weight with me for my vote."

Meanwhile, in the Rest of the Agenda

The evening around the hearing was a cabinet of civic curiosities. The Council approved an 8.75 percent Recology garbage-rate increase that it is contractually unable to refuse — the attorney confirmed as much, and recalled the time a previous council "accidentally" voted one down and had to redo it — whereupon Councilor DuQuenne voted no anyway, "on principle," against a vote whose outcome was legally predetermined. The rate discussion did yield the news that Ashland's bears are defeating the premium bear-resistant carts by force — "Force overrides," the Recology manager deadpanned — and that drivers are modifying carts with heat guns. The bears, at least, respond to incentives.

The Council adopted a resolution requiring the city to keep video of its meetings forever and to recover ownership of its archive from RVTV — a genuinely good-government move, sponsored by Dale, who noted the city pays into a contract for video "we don't own any of that content" of, with the contract expiring in two weeks. The resolution was adopted as "resolution number 2026 with a number to be determined by the city recorder" — a records resolution without a number, passed the same night a forum commenter formally apologized for having accused the council of editing a video. The archive, at least, will now exist to check.

East Main Community Park's construction contract passed 3-2 — Councilor Dale voting no for the ancientest of reasons: there is no operations plan. "It's great if we have the money to build it, it would be a tragedy to have it closed because we can't operate it." Staff said an ops plan could be produced "within a month," which invites the question of why nine years of process never produced one. The $1 million state grant attached to the park expires at year's end, a deadline everyone acknowledged is already lost, approval urged precisely so the city can ask forgiveness. And five public commenters plus Councilor DuQuenne protested the city manager's memo cutting the Social Equity and Racial Justice Committee to quarterly meetings — "I think it's a ridiculous thing for you to appoint us to this commission and then take away our ability to do our job," said member John Tyler — a decision made by memo, by an official who was not present, on which the mayor ruled discussion out of order. That fight, this paper promises, returns.

The $4 million from Asante arrived in the city's account the following morning. The Council did not mention it once. The serfs, at least, got their zone.

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Sourced from machine-generated closed captions of the June 16, 2026 Ashland City Council business meeting. Quotations appear as transcribed; the caption software recycles speaker labels, so names are attached only where the chair's own words or self-identification confirm the speaker. Figures are as stated in open session.