As our region contemplates the announced closure of the Camas papermaking operations and the loss of up to 300 family-wage jobs, laid-off workers may ask if more could have been done to save their jobs. We should all be asking that question, as our communities struggle with spiking homelessness, rising housing costs, and stagnant wages. …Decades ago, Camas’ mayor and other local leaders accepted the mill closure as inevitable. What if they had identified those measures most likely to keep the mill open and doggedly pursued them? …Future success of such a plant depends on many factors beyond demand: secure supply of raw materials, taxes and other costs to produce the product there, and regulatory/political uncertainty, any combination of which may push the long-term economic outlook into negative territory.