Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal endorsement of Romney: pathetic editorial

There's good opinion/editorial writing, and there's poor opinion/editorial writing. Our (sadly) one and only local daily newspaper, Gannett's Salem Statesman Journal, falls into the "poor" category.  The paper's endorsement of Mitt Romney yesterday offered a prime example of why the editorial section should be held up before journalism students as an example of how not to write an opinion piece.  Understand: I enjoy reading well-reasoned, thoughtful, factual opinions by conservative columnists whom I usually disagree with politically. David Brooks is one. I can follow his train of thought and appreciate how he came to his point of view even if…
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Posted inSalem

Photos of 2012 Willamette Humane Society Boo Bash

This was the first year we played adult "dress up" and went to the Halloween-themed Boo Bash fundraiser put on every year here in Salem by the Willamette Humane Society. Last year Laurel and I volunteered to do clean-up duties after the event. I saw enough people hanging around in clever/cute costumes to make me want to attend as a real Boo Bash'er this year. Laurel found me a Witch Doctor costume which meshed nicely with a mask I got at the Oregon Country Fair. I was mildly disturbed by how much I enjoyed channeling my inner Witch Doctor. I heard…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Weekly exposes City Council’s trashing of Sustainable Fairview

Excellent job, Salem Weekly editors. Your reporting in "Master Plan? What Master Plan? The Lesson of Sustainable Fairview" was hugely better than the superficial articles published in the Salem Statesman Journal on this subject. You exposed the sad truth: Salem's opportunity to have a world-class mixed-use sustainable development now almost certainly has been frittered away through the City Council's short-sighted kissing up to Simpson Hills, LLC -- which gets to build barely-green (if even that) conventional apartments on a site that could have featured cutting edge environment-friendly design. My wife and I were investors in Sustainable Fairview Associates, LLC, the…
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Posted inSalem

Napoleon’s Crêperie — our new favorite downtown Salem restaurant

I made an excellent choice, though sadly belated."Sadly," because for months I've been walking by the expanded Napoleon's Crêperie & Gelateria in downtown Salem, Oregon (189 Liberty Street NE) and didn't know what I was missing.  Never went in. Never ate there. Until last Thursday, during a visit by my daughter and granddaughter. We'd enjoyed the Riverfront Children's Museum and Carousel. I needed to refuel. "Crepes! We should get crepes!" I announced. I could tell that my eatery suggestion was met with some skepticism. My wife is health conscious. So is my daughter. My granddaughter, like most kids, knows what she likes to…
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Posted inDogs Salem

My dog and I are dead last in the WillaMutt Strut. As planned.

We did it! Serena and I finished just where we wanted to in the Willamette Humane Society's 1.5K (.9 mile) WillaMutt Strut Fun Walk last Saturday in Salem's Riverfront Park.  Last.  Serena is twelve and a half years old. That's something like 87 in dog years. So Serena has slowed down. A lot. My wife took our younger dog, Zu Zu, on the 5K walk. I was pretty sure Serena couldn't handle three-plus miles in August heat.  Hence, my plan was to let Serena do her usual walking thing -- which should guarantee that we'd end up in a distinctive…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Northwest only region of U.S. cooler than normal in 2012

This won't surprise Oregonians and Washingtonians bummed out over our cold, wet spring. Which has extended into summer. Snow was falling at pass levels recently, and it's freaking June! Almost everywhere in the United States but the northwest, temperatures have been warmer than average in 2012. In many places, record-breaking warmer. Our relatives in the mid-west have been bragging for months about going swimming in 80 degree weather. Climate Progress tells the tale. Spring 2012 beat 1910, which had held the title for record warm spring, by a healthy margin of 2°F. No doubt much of this was driven by the…
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Posted inSalem

Downtown Salem (Oregon) needs to lose some lanes

I'm writing this blog post in my favorite downtown Salem coffee house, the Beanery. The atmosphere both inside and outside is pleasant, but in no way electric, energetic, exciting, enthusiastic, or any other "e" word I can think of to describe what downtown Salem could be, yet isn't. That's Salem, the little engine that could, but hasn't. On May 4, 1000 Friends of Oregon brought together a bunch of people to discuss what's right and wrong with downtown Salem. An overview of the meeting is interesting reading. I heartily agree with: But local residents and businesspeople have a lot of…
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Posted inSalem

Salem “cougar” is almost certainly a cat

Lock the doors! Keep children inside! Armor up your Chihuahuas! A cougar has been spotted in a south Salem residential area! Except... the animal almost certainly is a cat, notwithstanding the uncritical acceptance of the cougar sighting by Statesman Journal reporter Dan Bender. (Note to Bender: "sighting" is when you see something; "siting," the word you used, is when something is positioned somewhere.) This is a real cougar. This is the "cougar" spotted lying on some groundcover during daytime in the backyard of a south Salem home. Comments on the KATU story are decidedly (and appropriately) skeptical about this animal…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Crazy Shirts model spotted at Salem dog park!

OK, let's add "Aspiring" at the start of the title for this blog post. Because right now I am not an official model of Crazy Shirts clothing. But after Crazy Shirts executives see today's Salem (Oregon) dog park photo shoot, I expect a modeling contract will be in the mail. (One negative omen, though: Crazy Shirts seems to be age'ist in its current choice of clothing models. On the positive side, there's a dog in this photo of a 2012 photoshoot.) My own photoshoot was spontaneously organized by my wife, who asked for my iPhone after I cajoled Family Dog #2, Zu Zu, to…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Hawaiian Airlines drops non-stop Portland-Maui flights, so we drop Hawaiian

Most likely, yesterday we took our last flight on Hawaiian Airlines. For about twenty years we've flown direct from Portland, Oregon to Maui. In January 2012 Hawaiian dropped non-stop Portland-Maui flights.  So my wife and I are going to drop Hawaiian. We had lots of frequent flyer miles accumulated through our usually-annual flights to Maui, supplemented by our habitual use of a Hawaiian Airlines VISA card, which gave us one mile for every dollar charged. This year we used up almost all of our frequent flyer miles to buy "free" tickets for a flight to Maui that required a plane change in…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

1000 Friends of Oregon urges Salem to preserve Sustainable Fairview

Today the Salem City Council has a choice to make: preserve cutting-edge Green zoning requirements for the highly touted Sustainable Fairview mixed use development, or show once again why Oregon's capital deserves it's nickname, "So-lame." I'm not wildly optimistic, given the Salem Planning Commission's disappointing go-ahead to Simpson Hills, LLC that would allow it to build a bunch of average apartments on what should be an exceptional piece of property. But if the City Council listens to those in the know, as opposed to those with the biggest short-term profit motive, it will stick with the Sustainable Fairview Master Plan.…
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Posted inHumor Salem

My (cynical) ideas for a Salem, Oregon city slogan

Yesterday Michael Rose, a business reporter for the Statesman Journal, asked in a Twitter tweet, "What would be a good city slogan for Salem Ore.?" Oh, great question. My mind is cynically-inclined when it comes to describing Salem's positive qualities, or more accurately, lack thereof. So it didn't take me long to respond to Michael with quite a few suggestions. Waking up this morning, after my brain had unconsciously incubated additional embryonic seeds of cynicism, I came up with some more. This is my current Salem city slogan oeuvre. Salem, the blandburger sandwiched between Portland and Eugene's spicy buns Salem, after you…
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Posted inHome life Salem

Oregon weather breaks my May heart… then heals it

Oregon weather, I'm fed up with you. I've had enough abuse. This afternoon I realized that I can't stand you anymore. Driving around in south Salem, I just had to pull over, grab my iPhone, and document what a crappy companion you've become.  Come on! You're ridiculous! My Mini's thermometer doesn't lie. The warmth between us is gone. You're giving me 43 degrees. That's cold any time. Especially... When the time is 12:50 pm -- middle of the freakin' day! -- on May 4. Spring. In fact, late spring. Yeah, I'd been listening to the "Chill" station on Sirius satellite…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Salem City Council, preserve the vision of “Sustainable Fairview”

Please, Salem (Oregon) City Council. Pretty please. Don't allow the beautiful property in south Salem to become less than the world-class Green development that Sustainable Fairview currently is zoned as. A few days ago I learned that the Salem Planning Commission is OK with turning the undeveloped portion of the property from a vibrant green to a blah gray, architecturally speaking. On May 14 the City Council meets to decide whether to allow Simpson Hills, LLC to build a bunch of typical apartments on 43 of the 104 acres it owns at the site that used to house the Fairview…
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Posted inHome life Salem

My photographic evidence that the world’s alright

There's a lot wrong with the world. No doubt about that. But I've accumulated some photographic evidence on my iPhone which shows how alright things are also. Along with some fellow Trader Joe's-loving friends, we've been worried about how well the recently-opened Salem, Oregon store is doing. Seems like it isn't very crowded whenever I shop there. But when I glanced into the blue/green glass bin at the D&O Garbage recycling center a few days ago, I thought Alright!  Tossing my own Charles Shaw (Trader Joe's famous $2.49 wine) bottles into the bin, I was struck by how many similarly labeled…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

Storm Large dazzles Salem in Oregon Symphony show

Last Friday my wife and I went to see the Oregon Symphony in Salem even though we don't like classical music. Or, usually, symphonies. But Storm Large, Portland's rock goddess, was singing along with the symphony in "The Perfect Storm" show that moved to the Schnitzer Concert Hall this weekend. Which also featured rock violinist Aaron Meyer in the first part of the program -- another amazing performer. Large was on her best behavior during her sultry lounge-singer sort of performance. She noted this near the end of her show, saying something like "Salem, I bet you were wondering what you…
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Posted inSalem

Starbucks, get rid of the annoying homeless people

Oh, no! To some people I'm about to sound like a heartless right-winger, even though I'm a proud progressive. Tough. This isn't a left vs. right issue. It's an annoying homeless people vs. courteous paying Starbucks customers issue.  Understand: I'm almost always a happy Starbucks coffee consumer. Two years ago I blogged about how I'm strangely proud of my Starbucks Gold Card. Today I pay for my coffee via the Starbucks iPhone app, which makes me even prouder (because fewer people use it). But recently I walked into a Salem (Oregon) Starbucks store and was immediately aware of a large, noisy,…
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Posted inSalem

Tear down Salem’s Courthouse Square! Make it a park.

Courthouse Square is a square block disaster in downtown Salem. The three story building, previously mostly filled with county offices, is completely unusable because of dangerous construction defects. So is the adjoining bus transit mall/underground parking. Twenty million dollars still is owed on the $34,000,000 project. There's little chance that any more than the $1.8 million received in a settlement with the architects and contractors will be gotten in recompense for the construction screw-ups. Yet the Marion County commissioners seem to be headed toward throwing lots more taxpayer money down the Courthouse Square rathole. So says the Statesman Journal in…
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Posted inSalem

Salem’s lack of “cool” loses 180 jobs to Portland area

No big surprise. Not to those of us who have lived in Oregon's capital city for a long time, and gotten to know why its nickname is So-lame. Yesterday Statesman-Journal reporter Michael Rose laid out interesting details of how Salem is losing a bunch of jobs to Lake Oswego, a city on the edge of Portland.  Download Holiday Corporate Office to Leave Salem  One of Salem's most successful, homegrown businesses is headed to the Portland area with 180 good paying jobs in tow. Holiday Retirement, the owner and operator of retirement communities founded by the late Bill Colson, is moving…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal should dig deeper into Courthouse Square

A few days ago I suggested some issues the Salem Statesman Journal should unleash some investigative reporting on. Among them was numero uno: (1) The role of the three current Republican county commissioners in letting construction defects at Courthouse Square go unattended to for so long, until the building was declared unusable. Cracks, settling, and such were evident early on. Whenever this has been noted in stories about Courthouse Square, the questioning of commissioners on this subject isn't pursued by the reporter. Why not? I appreciate how Michael Rose, the SJ reporter who has done some fine work on uncovering…
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