A few days ago Salem businessman Dick Withnell tried to make the re-development of Salem's Boise Cascade site sound a lot better than it really is.
Good try, Dick. But I found your "Boise Cascade site a great opportunity" guest opinion in the Statesman Journal decidedly unpersuasive.
As noted in my recent Salem Weekly Strange Up Salem column, Larry Tokarski and Mountain West Investment have given up on the appealing original concept for the riverfront property.
I thought of this when I read an opinion piece by Larry Tokarski in Salem’s non-alternative newspaper. Tokarski heads up the company that is developing the old Boise Cascade property on the riverfront.
Tokarski spoke about how excited he was in 2006 when the Urban Land Institute presented a vision that included “an appealing mix of restaurants, shops, grocery, hotel, residential and office uses.”
Among other reasons that prevented this vision from becoming reality, Tokarski cites “multiple limitations regarding our market.” I translated that as: not enough cool people able and willing to patronize cool businesses.
…Developers like Tokarski need to do their part also. Take a chance on Salem. Not recklessly. Confidently. Remember “If you build it, he will come.” She, too.
I hope Tokarski will rethink being content with a medical rehab facility and apartments on Salem’s riverfront. That isn’t cool.
Withnell has the attitude that keeps Salem mired in a morass of mediocrity. Something, anything, whatever happening in Salem is better than nothing. Instead of aspiring to a full-glass city that draws people and businesses in, he says:
What a great opportunity, both for the city of Salem and its residents, to see the glass being half-full with the “new vision for the old Boise Cascade site,” initiated by Mountain West Investment Corp.
Well, here's an even better opportunity: a full freaking glass!
The new vision Withnell speaks of is, as noted in my column (1) rental apartments fenced off from Riverfront Park, and (2) a medical rehab facility. Whoopee.
I guess San Antonio's River Walk area (photo above) can stop worrying about Salem being a competitor. Our glass isn't even half-full compared to other cities that have made their riverfront a real hotbed of economic and recreational activity. More like a few drops full.
One of Salem's biggest problems is a lack of vision. Also, of confident courage. Businessmen like Withnell and Tokarski are afraid of taking a chance on hitting a home run. They are satisfied with small ball singles.
Which don't add up to a genuine score. No matter how many glass half-full's Salem has, none of them yield a satisfying world-class, nation-class, or even state-class project/development.
Withnell focuses on the economic benefits the apartments and rehab center supposedly will bring. I suspect these are exaggerated. Yet even if they come to pass, Salem is still left with much less than could have been.
Remember: a full glass can hold twice as much money as a half-glass.
Here's another part of Withnell's opinion piece that struck me as dubious.
I have lived in Salem for almost 50 years, and the livability of our Mid-Willamette Valley has been initiated by private entrepreneurial types who believe this is the best place to live.
They are showing this by passage of bond issues, including both Chemeketa and School District 24J, coupled with the sweat equity of hundreds of volunteers/mentors — all carrying water to make this the best place in which to live, raise a family and retire.
Huh? I've lived in Salem for 36 years. I've never thought, nor have I ever talked with anyone who thought, that this area's livability springs from "private entrepreneurial types."
To paraphrase a line we heard much of in the last presidential election: "Mr. Withnell, private entrepreneurial types did not build Salem's livability. You guys did not build this."
Everybody did. Including government workers. Including people of all sorts. Not just private entrepreneurs.
Further, saying that the Salem area is "the best place in which to live, raise a family and retire" is ridiculous. Some people would agree. Many wouldn't. The fact that many other parts of Oregon and the country are experiencing a much greater influx of visitors, homebuyers, and business relocations shows that Salem isn't exactly the peak of Livability Mountain.
Withnell then says:
Opportunities of this magnitude, as presented by Larry Tokarski through his company, do not come often. It’s an old adage, but “one in the hand is better than two in the bush.”
Huh? An opportunity to build a couple of apartment buildings and a medical rehab facility don't come often? That opportunity comes all the time. What won't come often, and in fact won't ever come again, is the opportunity to develop Salem's one and only downtown riverfront area in a full-glass way.
That opportunity shouldn't be forsaken.
But I'm afraid that it will be, because too many business and political leaders in Salem are content with having that proverbial single bird, while other cities have leaders who aren't content until they've got birds in each hand.
(Because the Statesman Journal quickly files stories away into paid archives, I'll include Withnell's opinion piece as a continuation to this post.)
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