Posts by Hines Brian

A new police facility at the Salem Civic Center got ZERO support from nine City Council candidates at today's City Club meeting. Nada. Zilch. Not one candidate, including four who have gotten Chamber of Commerce endorsements, raised his/her hand when asked if a new police facility should be at the Civic Center.  The eight non-hand-raisers: Sherrone Blasi, Bradd Swank, Scott Bassett, Steve McCoid, Daniel Benjamin, Xue Lor, Jim Lewis, Christopher Proudfoot. Finally, something liberals and conservatives can agree on! The ninth, Ward 2 candidate Tom Andersen, was on an overseas business trip. A campaign supporter made a speech for him,…

I just put this good news update on last night's blog post, "City of Salem kills more downtown trees for no good reason." UPDATE: After emailing Steve Ross (one of the property owners) this morning, I got a reply that he is open to trimming the trees if this can be worked out with everyone's approval. Steve said, "I love trees also." Great news. I asked to be kept informed as this approach to saving the trees moves forward. Many thanks to Steve. And to Elwood Newhouse of Elwood's Tree Service, who offered up his professional opinion of the trees' condition.…

UPDATE: After emailing Steve Ross (one of the property owners) this morning, I got a reply that he is open to trimming the trees if this can be worked out with everyone's approval. Steve said, "I love trees also." Great news. I asked to be kept informed as this approach to saving the trees moves forward. Many thanks to Steve. And to Elwood Newhouse of Elwood's Tree Service, who offered up his professional opinion of the trees' condition. "It's all bullshit." This is a conversation opener that's guaranteed to capture my interest. Especially when I'm talking with someone about why…

Scott Bassett, the candidate voters should choose in the Ward 4 City Council race, spoke at last Saturday's Salem CityWatch meeting. I liked Scott's new term for the Salem Chamber of Commerce's Create Jobs PAC: the Create Clones PAC.  He's right. The four candidates endorsed by the Chamber -- Sheronne Blasi, Steve McCoid, Daniel Benjamin, Jim Lewis -- all have the same tax-and-spend position on the unneeded $400 million bridge across the Willamette that has been proposed. The bridge would take hundreds of dollars a year out of taxpayer pockets for decades, yet won't help with rush hour congestion and will destroy…

Before the current issue came out, A.P. Walther, the publisher of Salem Weekly, told me that the cover story would be the 10 year anniversary of our town's alternative newspaper. A.P. asked if I had any favorite stories from that decade of reporting on issues that the Statesman Journal, our decidedly traditional newspaper, almost entirely ignores.  I replied: Hmmmm. I have thoughts. Not a favorite story. My basic thought is…  Gratitude.   So many times (like every issue), I’ve been grateful that Salem has an alternative newspaper voice. Salem Weekly makes me realize that there are many people in this…

Watch out, Salem (Oregon) voters. Five City Council candidates want you to fork out hundreds of dollars more a year to pay for an vastly expensive unneeded Third Bridge across the Willamette River.   As pointed out by the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog, an advocate for smart cost-effective urban design, these tax and spend candidates are advocates for the $400 million bridge that would do nothing to ease congestion, while displacing dozens of homes and businesses.  Sherrone Blasi, Ward 2Steve McCoid, Ward 4Daniel Benjamin, Ward 6Jim Lewis, Ward 8Christopher Proudfoot, Ward 8 Fortunately, there are four candidates who care about…

Reading today's Salem Breakfast on Bikes post about the sculpture garden at the downtown Conference Center made me wonder if the author had tuned in to my wife's brain.  This is almost exactly what Laurel has said several times, albeit in different words, when we drive by this uninviting concrete expanse. The barrenness of the sculpture garden is an ornamental emptiness and far, far from anything we might consider a "functioning city scene." It is an attempt at delight, but it fails at dignity. If anything, the sterile concrete expanse looks cheap, an expression of that "demeaning bottom line." ...People…

This is Day 1 of the Mayor Anna Peterson apology/retraction watch. No response yet to the email I sent her, with a cc to the Salem City Council.  I said what I did after listening to Peterson make a preachy, inaccurate mini-speech during a testy exchange at last night's City Council meeting. She was fighting mad about the calm, reasoned, truthful things architect Geoffrey James was saying during the public comment period about the City's overpriced $80 million proposal for a new police facility at the Civic Center and renovations to City Hall. Councillor Laura Tesler, seemingly operating from a…

Yesterday Michael Davis (executive editor of the Statesman Journal) called for Salemians to support his Big Idea: making Salem, Oregon a mecca for scholastic music. Download Lets make Salem a music mecca I readily admit to being underwhelmed.  Not because it's a bad idea to build on Salem's high-quality high school music scene and have some sort of nationally recognized festival, or whatever, celebrating all things scholastic music'ish. Because I wanted something grander and Wow! inducing after reading Davis' first paragraphs, where he talked about newspaper crusades for noble causes. Since his opinion piece has gotten just two comments in two…