Salem

Are the skybridges good or bad for downtown? That's a simplistic question. Like most things in life, the answer is, "They're both good and bad."  But streetscaping Salem's Historic District -- making the streets and sidewalks much more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly -- that's pretty much an All Good in my opinion. The Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog has an interesting post, "Skybridges as Pedestrian Displacement Systems: Shelter, but anti-Sidewalk." But another ingredient in the lack of foot traffic is the way the skybridges here suck people, energy, and life off of the street-level sidewalks and reinforce the blank walls and…

The title of this post captures a core theme of the conversation I had yesterday with John Southgate, a Portland consultant highly knowledgeable about downtown revitalization.  Along with Public Affairs Counsel staff, Southgate did most of the writing and research for the Salem 2025 report that I blogged about recently. I've since learned, by the way, that Salem businessman Larry Tokarski commissioned the Salem 2025 study, a fact not mentioned in the report. Why can't Salem get its act together?  The Salem 2025 report points to the same question in various ways. Here's some quotes: -- ...it is clear that…

The City of Salem has put up a Survey Monkey poll about the proposed $80 million, 150,000 square foot police facility -- which is vastly overpriced, threatens the vitalization of downtown, and has sucked up money needed to make the Library and City Hall earthquake-ready. (If the link to the Survey Monkey poll doesn't work for some reason, head to the City's "New Police Facility" page; click on community survey in the fifth paragraph.) It is REALLY important that as many people as possible take the survey. Two questions are especially crucial. Here's my highly informed opinion about how you…

So, fellow citizens of Salem, do you agree with me about this? Making downtown more attractive, people-friendly, and economically vibrant is a way better use for $20 million in urban renewal funds than using that money to subsidize a supersized, overly expensive new police facility. Most people in this town would emphatically answer "Yes!"  Unfortunately, today the City's Urban Development Director, Kristin Retherford, said at a Salem City Watch meeting that $10 million to $20 million of urban renewal funds might be used to finance construction of a vastly over-priced $80 million police facility on the old O'Brien Auto Group site just…

What needs to be done to make downtown Salem (Oregon) more vibrant? Great question.  Yesterday I learned about a rather mysterious "Salem 2025" report prepared by John Southgate Consulting and Public Affairs Counsel, a Salem-based government affairs firm headed by Mark Nelson, described as "Oregon’s leading business lobbyist and political strategist." Download Salem 2025 Report I call the Salem 2025 report mysterious because it is dated December 2015, yet when I queried the Great God Google there was no online mention of it. Also, Salem 2025 doesn't indicate who initiated and paid for the report. This morning I phoned the Public Affairs Counsel…

When I started to get involved in City of Salem issues back in 2013, I was immediately struck by how top City officials didn't care about what citizens had to say. Their disdain for public participation in policy-making was obvious. Since, I've heard lots of people express the same frustration: during the reign of Queen Mayor Anna Peterson (2011-2016), City Hall has been run in a highly top-down fashion. Decisions are made behind closed doors, then attempts are made to foist a fait accompli onto citizens by their so-called "public servants." Not surprisingly, this results in a lot of controversy rather…

I have a new citizen activist obsession: Doing everything I can, from now until it happens, to convince Salem's Mayor, City Manager, city councilors, and general citizenry that making the Civic Center buildings earthquake-ready is a moral necessity. For several years I and others have been advocating this. See: "Earthquake readiness: will the Salem City Council choose to save lives?""Salem citizens: save lives by sending an email to the City Council""Why a new Salem police facility could cost many lives""Open letter to Salem's Police Facility Task Force" But today I went over an earthquake-readiness tipping point after looking over a…

I just got home from a fund-raiser for Cara Kaser that was held at the south Salem McMenamins. I'm flying high on visions of what a great city councilor she will be -- and that's not the Terminator Stout talking (well, maybe just a little bit). Kaser is seeking to be elected to the Salem City Council Ward 1 seat -- which currently is occupied by Chuck Bennett, who is running for Mayor. The fund-raiser was organized by Scott Bassett, who is known throughout the universe as being McMenamins #1 "Cosmic Tripster." Since, Bassett has done the Cosmic Tripster thing…

Here's the post I put up a little while ago on my Strange Up Salem Facebook page while I sat in the City Council chambers and listened to a lot of people testifying about the City of Salem's proposal for a new $80 million, 150,000 square foot police facility.------------ O'BRIEN SITE ROCKS. BLOCK SOUTH OF LIBRARY SUCKS. This is the clear message of the many people who are testifying at tonight's Salem City Council public hearing on a new police facility. Great turnout. Lots of impassioned testimony. People who live and work at the block south of the Library (Leslie…

I readily admit that I've rarely, if ever, voted in the Salem Statesman Journal's annual Best of the Mid-Valley contest -- the 2016 version of which is underway now. If memory serves me (chancy at my age, but I think I'm correct about this), Olive Garden won "Best Italian Restaurant" some years back. That soured me on viewing Best of Mid-Valley as a genuine reflection of business/organization bestness.  Rather, the Best of Mid-Valley rules are clearly pointed toward a popularity contest, rather than a quality contest. We rely on our audience to supply us with the names of outstanding people, businesses…

Well, we finally know how much City officials want Salem residents to pay for a new police facility: $80 million. This is the cost estimate consultants presented at tonight's City Council work session in the Library's Anderson Room.  Bottom line -- this is way too much. The cost should be half that, or even less. Salem Community Vision (I'm a member of the SCV steering committee) has been hammering on this point for several years. Read all about it in the group's position paper, "Salem's New Police Facility: The Best Way to Achieve It." Here's a PDF scan of the…

Salem has lots of unmet needs. This isn't a rich town. Many people are struggling financially. Our City Hall and Library almost certainly are going to collapse when the Big One earthquake hits.  So why is Mayor Anna Peterson and her right-wing City Council majority pushing so hard for a supersized new police facility that is double the size and cost it needs to be? Not long ago, in 2014, they were happy with a proposal for a 75,000 square foot police facility. And with seismically retrofitting the Civic Center buildings so lives of staff and visitors won't be lost…

How much smaller and more pathetic can Salem's so-called "community newspaper" get? I suppose it can shrink to almost zero on the Journalistic Quality scale and still keep on publishing.  But what's the point of that? In The Incredible Shrinking Man movie... Scott accepts his fate and is resigned to the adventure of seeing what awaits him in even smaller realms. He knows he will eventually shrink to atomic size; but, no matter how small he becomes, he concludes he will still matter in the universe because, to God, "there is no zero." This thought gives him comfort and ends…

Mark Wigg is a marvelous advocate for multi-use cycling and pedestrian paths here in Salem. A few days ago, in a post I shared a video of his testimony at a City Council meeting where he persuasively argued for a Salemtowne to Downtown path in West Salem -- which would be built largely with volunteer labor if City officials would simply approve the right of way for it. At the meeting Councilor Jim Lewis, who represents West Salem, asked Wigg a skeptical question about how many people would use a Salemtowne to Downtown path.  Wigg gave a good answer at the…

Wow, what a non-surprise. The Salem Chamber of Commerce's BIG PLAN to fund improved bus service in Salem by a means other than a payroll tax is dead as the proverbial doornail (yeah, I'm old; people used to say that frequently). So says local state Representative Bill Post, who got the unenviable job of trying to convince legislators to fulfill the impossible dream of Salem getting a pot of money from State coffers so Cherriots could offer weekend and evening bus service. HB 4078 (link will  take you to the actual bill) is now dead in committee. I had hoped…

Last night's Salem City Council meeting showed how badly planning for the unneeded, unwanted, and unpaid-for Salem River Crossing project, a.k.a. the 3rd Bridge, is hurting this town.  This billion dollar boondoggle is nowhere near being built -- hopefully it never will be -- but the remote prospect that it might be constructed someday is causing problems. Agenda item 3.3c dealt with purchases of right of way that would be paid for from 2008 Streets and Bridges General Obligation Bond funds. Some of these purchases would be on the east side of the river in the Highland neighborhood, the location…

Today Salem Community Vision released it's long-awaited position paper, "Salem's New Police Facility: The Best Way to Achieve It." That link takes you to the Scribd document, which is an easy way to read a PDF file without Acrobat Reader. Here's the PDF version. The formatting is a bit cleaner on the PDF file, but the Scribd version is completely readable. Download Police Facility Position Paper Final PDF I said "long-awaited" not because other people have been waiting for the position paper (nobody outside Salem Community Vision knew we were working on it), but because I volunteered to write it…

Oh, man. Here we go again. City officials here in Salem, Oregon are trying to do what happens so often in this town: screw over citizens with very little public notice in a fashion that goes against the will of the people. At next Monday's City Council meeting, February 8, the agenda has an Action Item that is difficult to decipher -- which is the goal when you're trying to do something sneaky. (c)  Marine Drive NW, Urban Growth Boundary, and Streets and Bridges Bond Funds – Wards 1, 8 – Councilors Bennett, Lewis – Highland, West Salem (PW)Recommended Action:…

Who knew? The social media Powers That Be at the City of Salem don't allow external links in Facebook comments. Well, except their own, apparently.  I learned this after leaving a comment on a recent City of Salem post about a City Council work session regarding planning for a new police facility.  Brian Hines Well, after hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on police facility planning over the past six years, this is the third try -- and the second "redo." So I suspect there will be more twists and turns in the saga. As described in my blog post,…