Month: December 2015

Do I have a New Year's wish for Salem, Oregon? Oh, yeah, I sure do. This long-time resident -- I've lived in and near Salem for 38 years -- hopes everybody in this town, but especially our Mayor, City Councilors, and other city officials, will become way more creative, inventive, and non-linear in their thinking about how to make our area better. For a great example of how things have gone wrong with prior assumptions that the future will, and should, be like the past, check out a recent Salem Breakfast on Bikes post: "Our Habits in Modeling and Overbuilding." …

Yesterday I'd just started riding my StreetStrider outdoor elliptical bike at Salem's rural'ish Minto Brown Island Park. Coming to a flooded area just west of Parking Lot 1, I saw a woman with her smartphone out, taking photos of an unexpected sight. Two swans.  I'd seen the swans a few days before, when I was riding at Riverfront Park. They were hanging out by the dock in the Willamette where the sternwheeler ties up. (I'm assuming these are the same swans, since until now I've never seen any swans out and about in the wild here in Salem.)Some kayakers were…

Well, after more than five years of planning -- much of it poorly done -- a Salem City Council subcommittee has selected four possible sites in this town where a new 150,000 sq. ft. police facility could be built.  This happened tonight at a meeting in a third-floor conference room at City Hall. I and some other members of the Salem Community Vision (SCV) steering committee attended the meeting, sporting purple stickers with the SCV position: $50 Million Police HQ & Seismic  Salem Community Vision has the answer to this question — a 75,000 square foot facility, 50% larger than the police facilities we have — with…

Going to a Salem City Council meeting isn't the most entertaining way to spend a Monday night. But for me these meetings are interesting on several different levels.  There's (1) what is going on between City officials and the public in the present moment, and also (2) how these interactions point to habitual ways of acting by the City Council -- which is sort of like Blake's "see the world in a grain of sand" notion. Last night the City Council -- which consists of Mayor Anna Peterson and eight city councilors -- voted to accept a recommendation by city…

Yesterday I heard from an advocate for Salem's homeless who asked me to publicize this important message: Advocate for low-income housing on Monday! The Salem Housing Advisory Committee is asking that the City set aside 25% of the repurposed State Hospital property for low income housing.  The Salem Housing Commission will receive this recommendation on Monday.  Date: 12/14/2015 Time: 6:30 PM -‎ 10:00 PM  (Housing is first hour or so of meeting)Location: City Hall, Council Chambers, Room 240. Let's show up en masse in the early part of the evening to support more low income housing in Salem.How about signs "Off our steps, off the streets-housing for the…

Baby boomer guy that I am, I'm old-fashioned when it comes to newspapers. Meaning, I still read them! My wife and I subscribe to the print versions of both the Salem Statesman Journal and the Portland Oregonian. I also have a digital subscription to the New York Times.  Given that I like newspapers, and have read one or more almost every day of my life, I've been saddened by how far down the Journalistic Quality mountain our home-town paper, the Gannett-owned Statesman Journal, has slid. I've written numerous criticisms of the newspaper on this blog. Type "Statesman Journal" into the…

I'd never compare the new Strange Up Salem logo to the Mona Lisa, but... No, wait! I would!  Art is art. Unless it isn't art. But clearly, this logo is. It is an original creation by Ryan James Rhoades of Salem's Reformation Designs. And moi. (Now that I am an artist of sorts, having collaborated with Ryan on the logo -- not to mention paying for it -- I am going to speak more French; but wear a beret? Non.) Regarding the Mona Lisa, imagine that it was possible to know what Leonardo da Vinci was thinking when he created…

Another day, another worrisome effort by City of Salem officials to demolish our town's history for no good reason.  Recently they overturned a Historic Landmarks Commission recommendation to preserve Howard Hall, the last remaining building on the School for the Blind property. Instead, the City Council voted to tear Howard Hall down. (So Salem Hospital could build an over-sized parking lot.) Now LeBreton Hall, a majestic 1908 structure that was one of the first to be built on the Fairview Training Center property (which used to be called the State Institution for the Feeble-Minded; we've made progress) is on the…