Trouble in the Goondocks - HISTORY
The Goonies House in Astoria, Oregon has been making the news around the world in regard to efforts to preserve quality of life for residents of this over-trafficked neighborhood. Thank you for taking the time to read this explanation so you can better understand how we got to this point.
- Regina Willkie, Marketing Manager of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce.
Current Status of Goonies Tourism in Astoria
As of August 2015, the “Goonies House” is no longer accessible to visitors. The “Goonies House” is a private home in a neighborhood full of real people. The growing popularity of the seeing the house in person has overwhelmed this small area beyond a manageable state. While interest in seeing the house has been around for decades, the resurgence in interest in the film, along with a rise in travel to Oregon in general, has caused an increase in visitors at a level no one anticipated. Visitation has grown beyond the capacity the residential area can handle. Due to traffic to the Goonies house, the neighborhood faces constant issues, including:
Trespassing
Vandalism
Theft
Littering
Illegal parking
Unsafe pedestrian behavior
Unruly dogs
Loitering far too long
Loud, late night visits
In reality, most visitors are respectful. Unfortunately, a few bad apples spoil the bunch. Due to these issues, residents have started the process to petition to have their portion of 38th street vacated by the City to create a private road. THIS MEANS THE “GOONIES HOUSE” IS NO LONGER ACCESSIBLE TO VISITORS. This decision was not made lightly.
Goonies are still welcome in Astoria! There are other, more suitable places to interact with Astoria’s film history than a private residence. The story is about saving their neighborhood and we ask you to help us do that same thing by visiting alternate locations. You can see the “Goonies House” from a distance at these alternate public locations:
Astoria River Walk (from Safeway to 37th Street)
Columbia Baseball Fields (adjacent to Hwy 30 at 35th Street)
Note: These locations also give a great view of the murals on Astor School, as seen in the film Kindergarten Cop as well as the East End Mooring Basin used as a location for filming and a great place to see a working commercial fishing fleet. Oregon Film Museum Did you know more than 300 films and television shows have been made in Oregon? View Goonies displays, learn more about the film industry in Astoria and around the state, and access interactive green-screens to make your own clips. There you can reenact the Fratelli break out scene, since this museum is housed in the historic county jail used in the opening scene of The Goonies. We are working to find other solutions to help visitors feel they have connected with this iconic film. This may include developing one of these viewpoints to include interpretive signage and other photo opportunities.
OCT 19, 2018 update: You have heard the news about increased parking fines around the Goonies House. Here is what is happening: The City of Astoria continues to experience complaints of illegal parking in the area of 38th St and Duane St. It is proposed that Council consider raising fines in this area for which will minimize illegally parked cars, improve traffic flow and minimize potential traffic collisions. The first reading of the revision to ordinance occurred on October 15, 2018. The addition of Astoria City Code 6.380 will add Enhanced Fine Zones to certain streets or parking lots where current prohibitions have had minimal effect or where a greater traffic hazard may be present. In general, the community of Astoria would not like to see anyone get this $100 fine for violating this section of the City Code.
The work in recent years to discourage fans from visiting the house has not completely helped resolve the problems of overuse in this small, dead-end area. Distressed neighbors wishing to retain their quality of life in their own neighborhood have had many meetings with City officials and this enhanced fine zone seems to be next logical step for changing behavior in the area. This is not an attack on the Goonies fandom, it’s an attempt to defend the Goondocks.
We would like to remind visitors that the house is a private home and is not situated in a way that it can be treated as a museum or public attraction. The Oregon Film Museum was created to answer the desire for fans to interact with locations from The Goonies. We encourage you to view the home from the Astoria Riverfront Trail near the East End Mooring Basin where you can get a vantage point of the whole goondocks neighborhood.
Possible Solutions Below are the most commonly proposed solutions, along with some feedback.
Sell the house / owner should have known better. As stated above, the homeowner bought the house knowing it was used in The Goonies and was a fan of the film along with her kids. They have been amazing stewards of the home and we should be fortunate it has been in such good hands. She's poured her heart into restoring the home. She purchased it in 2001, when there were a manageable few hundred fans visiting the site each year.
Make the house a museum. City code does not allow for such commercial operations at the location. The Oregon Film Museum just two miles away, does an outstanding job covering The Goonies and general film industry. Their green screen options include scenes from The Goonies and a video of the house itself that you can put yourself into. Commercial activities cannot occur in residential zones without public hearings and conditional use permits.
Put up a gate. The city administration states that a gate in this location would not currently follow code. First the public road needs to be privatized, which requires 100% agreement among the property owners and means that the utilities in the area would no longer be maintained by the City and home owners would be responsible.
Create a schedule for visitation / tour groups. The only time interior access has been offered has been during goonies events. Following privatization of the road, it is possible something like this could be set up, but this would need to be discussed with all effected property owners.
A Brief History of the "Goonies House"
June 7, 1985 – The Goonies was released.
1985 – Late 1990s – A handful of movie fans visited our region each year and were very respectful when asking about film locations in our community, often even apologizing for doing so. Seeing an underlying interest in film locations, the Astoria Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce happily started carrying a booklet created by the Clatsop County Historical Society called "Shot in Astoria,” which included a map to locations from The Goonies, Free Willy, Kindergarten Cop and others. In the booklet, it was very clear that because many locations were private homes, it’s important to be courteous to property owners in the area.
2001 – The current owner of the “Goonies House” purchases the home, when it was on the brink of no-return, and lovingly repaired it. She quite literally “saved the Goondocks.” She is a fan of the film herself and has been a fantastic ambassador of the Astoria community. For years, she allowed the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce and a few other non-profit groups to offer tours of her home to the public, denying any offers for even a penny of the admission fees. She has welcomed strangers into her home for their dream wedding ceremony. She has tirelessly told the stories she knows of filming in the house and about the work she did to repair the house when moving in. She held fast when conversations started among her neighbors in 2014 to find a way to shut down the visitation to the house, knowing it meant so much to so many people and not wanting to deny visitors a chance to reconnect with their childhood at the house.
2004 – A fan of The Goonies who lives in England plans a trip to Astoria to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film, working with several other fans who had gotten to know each other through a message board at thegoonies.org. What better way to celebrate than to meet in the town where the film that brought them together took place? When notified of the plan, the Chamber saw the potential for the general public to participate in the event and created the 20th Anniversary Celebration, held in June 2005, attended by a couple thousand people.
2005 – 2010 – With the rise of the Internet, a few websites mentioned Astoria as a great destination to see film sites and the interest in seeing our regional film locations grew at a steady, manageable pace. At the request of service industry members, who were often asked for directions to the house, the "Goonies House" was added to visitor maps.
2010 – Following a steady stream of requests from visitors who had missed the 20th Anniversary, the Chamber planned a 25th Anniversary Celebration with the help of community members. The 25th Anniversary took the town by storm with several cast members in attendance and a visitation of around 10-15,000 attendees participating during the weekend in various ways. Immediately seen as a successful event to boost our economy, it also sparked several dozen media stories across the globe. Parallel to the planning of the event, Clatsop County Historical Society developed plans to open the Oregon Film Museum, which would be set up to meet film fans’ specific interests and offer them a publicly accessible place to focus their film-based travel. The museum opened in June 2010 during the 25th Anniversary Celebration and has had fantastic attendance numbers since.
2010 – 2014 – With the rise of social media and blogs, the Goonies’ online community of fans and Goonies-based tourism skyrocketed, independent of promotion efforts by the Chamber. There are many online sources of information about The Goonies and film-based travel with varying degrees of authority, from personal accounts to professional travel sites. The Chamber’s role hasn't been as much to promote visiting the filming locations, but to provide answers to those who ask. However, as visitors have been increasingly able to plan trips online without ever interacting with the Chamber, requests to tread lightly in the neighborhood and reminders that the site is a private home were often unheeded.
2014 – Following a plateau in travel spending in Oregon from 2007-2011 (as a likely result of economic recession-based halt in travel), general spending increased again between 2012 and 2014. While the house didn’t become an attraction in itself overnight, the continued growth was not anticipated. Although the Oregon Film Museum has been created and promoted to draw traffic away from the house. The museum has been seen as an additional film location, rather than a substitute to the house.
2014 / 2015 – Visitation to our area, and corresponding crowds in the Goonies neighborhood, have reached an all-time high. In efforts to mitigate crowds, the Chamber implemented changes, such as redirecting visitors to park around the nearby school, repainting crosswalks and changing wording on maps and websites under our control. Through the 30th Anniversary Celebration weekend and into summer 2015, these changes seemed to be sufficient and most visitors and residents were co-operating.
August 2015 to Present - Fans are not welcome to visit the Goonies House and asked not to drive into the neighborhood at all. We highly recommend visiting the Oregon Film Museum where you can interact with Astoria's film heritage by making your own films, viewing artifacts from The Goonies and other Oregon-made movies. If you really must see the house - you can view it from the Astoria Riverwalk or Columbia baseball fields, as seen in the image at the top of this page.
October 2018 - Enhanced Fine Zone created to minimize illegally parked cars, improve traffic flow and minimize potential traffic collisions around the Goonies House area. Parking fee is $100 in this zone to deter problems.
2019 - The Historic Oregon Film Trail launches from Astoria with installation of three markers. One sign, honoring The Goonies, is located at the Oregon Film Museum. Another is at Alameda Park highlighting the Astoria-Megler Bridge's use in film, including Short Circuit. The third sign is placed at the East End Mooring Basin, denoting a great viewpoint to see several locations including the school from Kindergarten Cop and Goonies neighborhood. Another sign for Free Willy is placed at the Hammond Marina. The markers were placed in easily accessible public places. More signs are going up around the state and a digital component will be available soon.