Salem

If you think the title of this blog post is far-fetched, think again. It's the truth: building a new police facility here in Salem could lead to many lives being lost.

It all depends on whether City officials make a wise or foolish decision.

And that may depend on the final recommendations of a Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Police Facility whose apparent last meeting is coming up on April 28. 

The City of Salem web site describes what the task force is supposed to do.

The group’s work may include recommending suggestions for lowering the cost of the proposed new Police Facility, considering whether it is cost effective to include some deferred maintenance and or seismic strengthening at the Civic Center buildings (including the Library) and campus. 

Seismic strengthening.

This means retrofitting City Hall and the Library so, though they would be damaged when (not if) the Big One Cascadia Subduction Earthquake hits, the lives of people in the buildings would be saved.

Currently both City Hall and the Library are expected to collapse in the Big One earthquake. This is a big reason why a new police facility is needed: presently the police headquarters is on the ground floor of the three story City Hall.

Everyone inside would be at the bottom of a "pancaked" City Hall after a major earthquake.

So the original plan by City officials was to (1) build a new police facility to current seismic standards, which are higher for a police building, since it should be usable after an earthquake, not just strong enough to save the lives of people inside, and (2) seismically retrofit City Hall and the Library, along with making some renovations to City Hall.

The price tag for both projects was $80 million. Salem Community Vision, along with other Salem citizens, saw that this was way too high. 

City officials wanted what amounted to a police palace built next to, and over, Mirror Pond on the Civic Center campus, complete with very expensive underground parking. When they tried to sell this plan to the community, the resounding reply was "No way!"

Thus, as noted above, Mayor Anna Peterson ending up appointed members to a Police Facility Task Force, charging it with lowering the cost of a new police facility and considering whether seismic strengthening of Civic Center buildings should occur.

Disturbingly, at its last meeting the Task Force approved a motion that calls for a single bond measure (amount unknown) for a new police facility. There was no mention of seismic retrofitting of City Hall and the Library.

Do the Task Force members really believe that it is important to save the lives of police department staff when the Big One earthquake hits, but not the lives of other City of Salem employees, along with the lives of anyone visiting City Hall and the Library? 

Children. Families. Senior citizens. 

Here's the dilemma faced by the Police Facility Task Force, which seems to be the reason it is on track to recommend leaving people at City Hall and the Library at great risk of dying in a major earthquake:

Only in Salem… we finally get support for a vibrant Food Truck Scene after a restrictive city ordinance is loosened up. 

But now some downtown restaurants have forced Fusion, a Vietnamese food truck, to leave its spot in the alley behind the Reed Opera House.

Where Fusion operated for a whole freaking 4 hours a week!

Deeply irritating. For those of us who want downtown Salem to be cooler. For the evolving food truck industry in this town. And naturally, most of all for Fusion.

Here's what happened, as reported in a recent Facebook post:

Due to restaurants "raising their voices" – this is the last day Fusion will be in downtown Salem. So frustrating that downtown Salem has become a place where a food truck gets pushed out of being here just 4 hours a week. It's a shame. Restaurants were feeling so threatened – they "convinced" the property owner to "ask" Fusion to "move along". Support food trucks, support diversity in our cuisine, support people starting up a business and chasing their dreams! Follow @salemfoodtrucks for news, specials and reviews.

I don't know which downtown restaurants were threatened by Fusion. However, last September I wrote a blog post, "Some downtown Salem restaurants may try to keep out food carts." Excerpt:

Today a Facebook post clued me in to a worrisome possibility: some restaurants in downtown Salem might attempt to keep food carts from establishing a long-term "pod" in the area. Or maybe even ban temporarily positioned carts.

…This seems really dumb to me, a few restaurants trying to stifle dining competition from food carts in Salem's urban core.

I was at a city council meeting where representatives of Venti's, Gamberetti's, and Napoleon's (will be re-opening its crepe cafe soon) testified that they feared losing business to downtown food carts. 

Whoever the restaurants are, they need to rethink their irrational opposition to food carts in downtown Salem. 

Last Tuesday I had to get my Mini Cooper serviced in Portland. Instead of waiting at the dealership, I asked for a ride to downtown. Chatting with the pleasant shuttle driver, I said that I was a vegetarian and needed some lunch.

"Oh, you should go to the 10th Street Food Truck pod. It's a whole block of food trucks. I recently had some great Indonesian food there."

I took her advice. And had an excellent veggie meal from the Rolling Gourmet Fusion food truck. The shuttle driver was right: food trucks lined the entire 10th and Alder block, all four sides. 

Downtown Portland restaurants also are thriving. Here's an excerpt from my Strange Up Salem column, "Embrace downtown food carts." 

Food carts are a big success in Portland, drawing national acclaim from Bon Appétit magazine and CNN. So what’s not to like about having a vibrant food cart scene everywhere in Salem, including downtown?

Nothing. But to some people here change is scary even when it is for the better. Diversity, creativity, more eating options… Eek!

At the July 14 city council meeting I was surprised to hear several councilors and restaurant owners talk about their Big Fear that people would flock to a downtown food cart pod and — oh no, the horror — enjoy eating there!

Theoretically, possibly, just maybe, the worry was that some of these people might choose a quick and easy food cart meal over a sit-down restaurant offering.

Well, this is called competition and free enterprise.

Even in the People’s Republic of Portland, where downtown food cart pods harmoniously coexist with restaurants. On SW 9th and Alder there are more than 60 food carts; on SW 4th and Hall, 25 food carts.

A post on the Fusion Facebook page nailed the problem with whatever Salem restaurants are threatened by downtown food trucks/carts. It quotes Bert Gall, an attorney who is the "patron saint of food trucks."

If you need protection from a food truck, maybe you weren't a great restaurant to begin with.

Right on.

Hopefully Fusion will be back in business soon downtown, along with other Salem food trucks. They don't pose a threat to downtown restaurants. But even if they did, so be it: that's what competition is all about.

I'll share some Facebook comments in reaction to the Fusion-kicked-out news as a continuation to this post. It's pretty damn clear that downtown food trucks have a lot of support from Salemians.