Maybe it was driving by the usual motels along Highway 101 -  Terry-A-While variety, featuring animals made of driftwood - and then suddenly seeing "The Village@North Pointe" in Depoe Bay, a new concoction of condos starting at $380,000 apiece.

At some point during my latest escape to these parts, I was reminded - more vividly than ever - that this invigorating stretch of sand, surf, and brackish smells is no longer simply a blue-collar coast.

It's a Mo's clam chowder coast trying to survive in a Martha Stewart world.

The Oregon Coast - or, for those who demand style,  Coast@Oregone - has long been blessed with a touch of tackiness.  (Are there more grains of sand on the beach than Highway 101  stores selling Made in China shells, Roadrunner whirligigs and " I’m With Stupid" shirts?) But that traditional lack of polish has always been a comical virtue, an offshoot of unpretentious locals that added a certain ambiance to the place.

Yachats, for example, once had a gas station that called itself "Ain't-Mad-at-Nobody," which offered passers-by a sense of inclusiveness. Now, however, the Oregon Coast is increasingly being marketed for its exclusiveness.

A New Coast is emerging. And while that's not altogether bad  what's to not like about, say, the
Oregon Coast Aquarium? - it could be if it obliterates the Old.

WHAT'S AT STAKE, I think, is the very essence of this place. Can it grow and maintain that
get-away-from-it-all feel or is it destined to become like all those places people left to get away
from?

The tide seems to be shifting toward the latter. It seems mildly ironic, for example, that a coastline whose virtues have been vehemently protected by a public beach law is now sprinkled with private, gated communities.

And that in a place like Lincoln City, where the largest ocean on Earth laps ashore, more and more tourists find their treasures not onthe beach but in a factory outlet mall and a gambling casino.

What's happening on the Oregon Coast is not unique. Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde has replaced Multnomah Falls as the state's No. 1 tourist destination. And, nationally, the country is awash in what author David ("Bobos in Paradise") Brooks refers to  "Bourgeois Bohemians," well-heeled baby boomers who  morphed into these best-of-both-worlds creatures who may still  beachcombing but, at day's end, also like the idea of returning to, say The Village@North Pointe for a movie at the place's 19-seat big-screen theater.

Coast developers obviously saw the Bobos coming. Bandon Dunes Golf Course, voted by Golf
Digest as the best new upscale course in the United States last year, is having no trouble filling its dance card - at $135 a round.

The world is changing and, with it, the Oregon Coast. Oh, parts of it remain seemingly timeless; the beach itself, beyond eroding bluffs and shifting sand, is still blessedly consistent. But the New Coast is shouldering its way in, reflected in everything from property values  one of the last oceanfront lots in Yachats lists for $159,000 - to art gallery offerings.

On Newport's Bay Boulevard, where crabbers' lines over  decades have worn hundreds of notches into the wooden rail, you can stroll across the street to the Wood Gallery and, if so inclined spend $30,000 on a mermaid sculpture.

Of course, change in itself isn't bad. But change is best when it honors the people and environment around it. The Oregon Coast Aquarium which highlights the very stuff that makes the coast the coast, has been a win-win for locals and tourists.

In Pacific City, developers at Shorepine Village resisted the urge  sell expensive lots on a dune
ridge, instead preserving it for everyone.

In Florence, the waterfront area is growing, but with obvious regard for tradition.

But all is not well. In Florence, Newport and Lincoln City, a wave  franchise additions have eroded the towns' distinctiveness.  I used to love seeing that sudden sweep of dunes midway through Florence; though small, it was like a visual oasis - a parenthetical pause in an otherwise run-on sentence. It's now a Fred Meyer and, architecturally, a handsome design.

But unlike one-stop shopping centers, they don't make sand dunes anymore. And if we're to preserve the Old Coast while welcoming the New, we dare not forget that.  Source: 8/15/00 Register Guard,  by Bob Welch.