Posted inSalem

Salem Weekly’s A.P. Walther gets Media Environmental Award

OK, it isn't a Pulitzer prize. But pretty darn close: the Salem Business Journal has awarded A.P. Walther, publisher of Salem Weekly, the first SBJ Media Environmental Award for outstanding coverage of environmental topics. I'll admit that I was surprised to come across this story on the very last news page, p. 25, of the March 2015 Salem Business Journal. When I see a fresh issue of the monthly SBJ, I usually pick one up -- since they lurk in a free box on the Court Street sidewalk next to a Salem Weekly box where I'll also score a bi-weekly…
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Posted inHome life

Some 1970’ish photos stir up wonderings about time and identity

It was like seeing a ghost. Except, the ghost was me, and I'm still alive. The first startling image that popped up in my Facebook feed yesterday was of the 1970 (I believe) wedding of my best friend in elementary and high school, Ken Hart. There I am, standing to the groom's right in the photo, all bearded, long-haired, and dressed-up.  I have absolutely no memory of the wedding. I haven't given a single thought to it, so far as I know, for as long as I can remember. Yet... I obviously was there. Well, let's put it this way:…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Warmest winter in Salem. But are City leaders global warming deniers?

Meteorological winter -- December, January, February -- is over. It's official. This past winter tied with 1934 for the warmest winter ever in Salem, Oregon. Portland also had its warmest winter.  It's pretty damn obvious that the weather here in the northwest is getting weirder. Not only here, of course. All over. The cause is global warming. Almost certainly. I'd leave out the "almost," but I'm scientifically minded, and science is never 100% sure about anything. Just very highly sure. Three years ago we had a unusual spring cold spell. This year, we had an unusual winter-long warm spell. Just as…
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Posted inSalem

Bike boulevards are cool. Help Salem get them.

A great new group in town, Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates, needs your help. They're pushing to make Salem, Oregon a much more bike-friendly town. Which was the subject of my Strange Up Salem column in Salem Weekly a few weeks ago.  Angela Obery seeks to change things. She’s a long-time resident of the Highland neighborhood who has formed a Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates group. After talking with Obery I’m super-enthused about her vision. This could be a game-changer for enhancing our quality of life, along with making Salem more attractive to people and businesses thinking of coming here. A bike…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Another day, another nonsensical Statesman Journal editorial

One of the reasons I keep on subscribing to the Salem Statesman Journal newspaper, a Gannett USA Today clone that is failing our town, is that reading its editorials often gets my heart pumping faster with irritation. I'm not sure if this substitutes for genuine aerobic exercise, but, hey, it might be health-promoting. Even the irritation could be positive, since it leads me to mentally deconstruct the reasons I typically find the editorial page editor's (Dick Hughes) opinion pieces lacking in logic. Not as challenging as doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, but intellectually enjoyable. Case in point: yesterday's…
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Posted inSalem

Six goals for making Salem, Oregon a much better place

Salem Community Vision -- I'm a member of the steering committee -- has come up with some goals for the Salem City Council to consider.  We believe that if our local elected officials made these goals a priority, Salem's citizens would benefit economically, culturally, environmentally, quality-of-life'ly and healthily.  Who knows?  Birds might also sing more tunefully; flowers would bloom more colorfully; the sun would shine daily, even when it is raining. That's how great these goals are! They've been shared with the Mayor, City Manager, city councilors, and other City officials, who are going to have a 2015-17 goal-setting work session…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Why legal marijuana may spur changes in Oregon land use laws

Today I attended a 1000 Friends of Oregon meeting at the capitol about land use issues in the current 2015 session of the state legislature. For me, the most interesting discussion involved Measure 91, the initiative voters approved last November that legalizes recreational marijuana.  As reported in a blog post about an OLCC listening tour meeting in Salem this month, people are talking about Measure 91 leading to legal pot becoming this state's "Napa Valley" when it comes to tourism. (Of course, if California legalizes marijuana soon, as is expected, the real Napa Valley and points north could become their…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

Sadly, I am forced to be my own Salem’s Oscar “red carpet” paparazzi

Yesterday my wife and I decided to watch the Oscars at the Northern Lights theatre pub in south Salem, rather than, per usual, sit at home with each other in front of our TV. Carlee Wright and Tom Rastrelli, who are Statesman Journal newspaper staff, did a great job organizing and hosting the event. We enjoyed viewing the Oscars with a bunch of other people. During commercial breaks Carlee and Tom keep everybody entertained with Academy Award trivia questions and other stuff. And the really big TV screen was cool. Laurel and I decided to dress up. In our own…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Will Oregon’s low carbon fuel bill be horse-traded away?

This morning I went to the monthly meeting of the Woodburn Democrats group, getting both a free breakfast and the ability to take part in some interesting progressive talk.  I'd been asked to say a few words about the Kitzhaber/Hayes scandal that led to our Governor's resignation, then lead a discussion. (Not that I, or hardly anybody else, is capable of leading Dems, well known for their like herding cats proclivity.) Representative Betty Komp started off the meeting with some remarks about how the 2015 Oregon legislative session is going. During the question and comment time, I told her that…
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Posted inSalem

Salem can grow without destroying the things people love

The title of this blog post comes from a terrific TEDx talk by urban planner Ed McMahon. Near the end of his talk he says:  The justification for preserving the special places of Florida is not just about the economy of this state. It's about the psychology of this state as well. Ladies and gentlemen, you can grow without destroying the things that people love. Hearing that, I thought of all the things that the City of Salem has allowed to be destroyed in the name of illusory economic progress. Illusory, because McMahon makes clear that a city can't prosper unless it offers a…
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Posted inSalem

Fairview Addition is Salem’s best “New Urbanism” development

About a year ago I blogged about a planned housing development on the old Fairview property in south Salem. The title expressed my optimism: "Fairview Addition -- looks like a cool Salem residential development." Impressed with Olsen Design & Development's design philosophy, which is closely aligned with New Urbanism, at the home show where Fairview Addition was first revealed I wrote a check to reserve two lots.  With some tongue-in-cheek caveats, as I noted in the blog post. Having drunk way too much whiskey, consumed too many drugs, and gotten way too little sleep in the days prior to visiting the…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Reaction to Michael Davis’ bizarre Statesman Journal opinion piece

I'll give Michael Davis, executive editor of the Salem Statesman Journal, credit for this: he stimulated a lot of online comment discussion by writing his decidedly weird "Oregon's fatal case of the Pulitzer pox." As I said in the title of yesterday's post concerning Davis' rant about the Portland Oregonian editorializing in favor of Governor Kitzhaber resigning (which the Guv has done), Statesman Journal executive editor has some Oregonian envy. At the moment there are 77 reader comments on this opinion piece. Quite a few praised Davis for taking the Oregonian's editorial board to task in calling for Kitzhaber to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal executive editor has some Oregonian envy

Got to tell it like it is: The Portland Oregonian kicked the Salem Statesman Journal's butt with both its investigative reporting and editorializing on the Kitzhaber/Hayes scandal -- which has culminated in Governor Kitzhaber's resignation. Today the executive editor of the Statesman Journal, Michael Davis, indulged in some petty journalistic sniping at the "bad girls" who run the state's biggest and meanest newspaper to the north. His Oregon's Fatal Case of the Pulitzer Pox piece struck me as sour grapes rationalizing, given how the Statesman Journal was asleep at the wheel as this saga unfolded, seemingly doing no original investigative…
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Posted inEntertainment

Why you should watch porn rather than Fifty Shades of Grey

Given the generally dismal reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey, the advice of these women to watch real porn instead makes a lot of sense. Yeah, there's a 30 second commercial to sit through at first, but the Funny Or Die "5 Reasons" video is worth a half minute of your time. The last reason, support independent cinema, is compelling by itself. 5 Reasons Pornstars Hate 50 Shades Of Grey from Funny Or Die
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Posted inSalem

A tale of irritated owls, a Blind School, and an evil hospital

Here in Salem, Oregon we've gotten our fifteen minutes of Owl Attack Fame after four feathered-fiend swoopings at the heads of supposedly innocent humans in Bush Park.  The full story, though, hasn't been told. Until now, where we learn why the owls are so pissed-off at people. Today I received the following tale from someone who wants to remain anonymous. She, he, she/he, or it wants to be known only as Tsu Mei.  Which is an apt name, given how many attorneys are on the payroll of Salem Hospital and the City of Salem -- the two Evil Forces who feature…
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Posted inSalem

What’s wrong with Salem, Oregon? — part 1 of many answers

I don't know how to describe my relationship with the city I've lived in or near for over 37 years. Me and Salem, Oregon -- we've never split up, but I've come damn close many times, when this town's aggravating shortcomings make me think "I've got to get out of this place."  Obviously something is keeping me here. And something is pushing me away. The Keep power just has been stronger than the Away power. So far. But when I try to look through the eyes of people and businesses who aren't already here, who don't have the attachments of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Using marijuana doesn’t increase the risk of a car accident

Ha! I should be a marijuana researcher for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Over four years ago I blogged, "Marijuana users can drive just fine -- vote yes on Prop 19." I learned many things during my college years (1966-71) at San Jose State University. One was that heavy marijuana users, a.k.a. "stoners," could drive just fine while under the influence. I can personally testify to this. Oh, man, I sure can. ...How do I know? I'm alive. And I never even got into any sort of auto or motorcycle accident while driving around the San Francisco Bay Area in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Liberal me ponders Oregon’s Kitzhaber-Hayes “scandal”

Had to put those scare quotes around scandal in the title of this post, because I really don't know how much to make of all the brouhaha swirling around Oregon's Governor and "First Lady" (more quotes -- they're engaged but not married, which adds to the intrigue). My knee-jerk reaction, being a liberal/progressive who is a strong supporter of Kitzhaber, was that the Portland Oregonian's editorial calling for him to resign was a bunch of baloney. As is the outrage being expressed by Republicans in this state, including the guy Kitzhaber beat last November, Dennis Richardson. But it bothers me…
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Posted inHome life

My visit to Eugene’s Bike Friday store: I order a way-cool folding bike

The two-wheel itch just had to be scratched. A week ago I blogged, "Folding bike! I need one to make my life complete." Today the family dog and I drove to Eugene, a hour from our rural south Salem home, to see the folding bikes made by Bike Friday. Yes, right here in the good old U.S.A. In fact, in the same building as the showroom. Bike Friday has a pleasing industrial-chic vibe. Nothing fancy about the place, aside from the wonderfully well-crafted bicycles. Tip to those who visit in person: pay more attention to the map on the Bike…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana Salem

“Marijuana could be Oregon’s Napa Valley”: OLCC Commissioner at Salem meeting

After attending last night's Listening Tour meeting in West Salem of the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission), which is charged with implementing legal recreational marijuana in this state, I came away with a very strong feeling that, yes indeed, the times really are a'changing when it comes to pot. Several hundred people attended the meeting. I got there fifteen minutes early, and the area set aside for seating was already filled up. Sliding partitions had to be opened up to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowd. There was an interesting mix of folks who had come to express their views about how…
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