Posted inSalem

City of Salem kills more downtown trees for no good reason

UPDATE: After emailing Steve Ross (one of the property owners) this morning, I got a reply that he is open to trimming the trees if this can be worked out with everyone's approval. Steve said, "I love trees also." Great news. I asked to be kept informed as this approach to saving the trees moves forward. Many thanks to Steve. And to Elwood Newhouse of Elwood's Tree Service, who offered up his professional opinion of the trees' condition. "It's all bullshit." This is a conversation opener that's guaranteed to capture my interest. Especially when I'm talking with someone about why…
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Posted inSalem

Scott Bassett calls out the Chamber’s “Create Clones PAC”

Scott Bassett, the candidate voters should choose in the Ward 4 City Council race, spoke at last Saturday's Salem CityWatch meeting. I liked Scott's new term for the Salem Chamber of Commerce's Create Jobs PAC: the Create Clones PAC.  He's right. The four candidates endorsed by the Chamber -- Sheronne Blasi, Steve McCoid, Daniel Benjamin, Jim Lewis -- all have the same tax-and-spend position on the unneeded $400 million bridge across the Willamette that has been proposed. The bridge would take hundreds of dollars a year out of taxpayer pockets for decades, yet won't help with rush hour congestion and will destroy…
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Posted inFamily

Sometimes great video art just happens

My wife and I do not consider ourselves great artists. However, if you wish to acknowledge us as such after watching the video we made today, feel free. When art just happens; when a soul-stirring creation is born from the ever flowing well-spring of spontaneity; when the actions of man, woman, and dog flow together in a never-to-be-seen-again moment (well, 105 second/moments, to be exact) -- such can only be called great art. Though of course Laurel and I are too humble to call our You Tube video that. Again, it is for others to decide whether the title of…
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Posted inUncategorized

Salemians mourn trimmed trees — and U.S. Bank’s cut-down trees

It's been about a year since U.S. Bank and the City of Salem cut down five, large, healthy beautiful trees in the downtown historic district for no good reason.  Today the Statesman Journal ran a story about a less outrageous, yet still disturbing tree tale: "Salem residents mourn trimmed trees." Download Salem residents mourn trimmed trees (Caution: this excerpt from the story begins with an offensive word, Salemites. The official term for residents of Salem is Salemian. I know this, because I have issued that Official Proclamation from the height of my Strange Up Salem perch. Statesman Journal, Obey! ) Salemites are…
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Posted inSalem

I’m grateful for 10 years of Salem Weekly

Before the current issue came out, A.P. Walther, the publisher of Salem Weekly, told me that the cover story would be the 10 year anniversary of our town's alternative newspaper. A.P. asked if I had any favorite stories from that decade of reporting on issues that the Statesman Journal, our decidedly traditional newspaper, almost entirely ignores.  I replied: Hmmmm. I have thoughts. Not a favorite story. My basic thought is…  Gratitude.   So many times (like every issue), I’ve been grateful that Salem has an alternative newspaper voice. Salem Weekly makes me realize that there are many people in this…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem Chamber of Commerce tries to buy City Council seats

Read all about it in the Salem newspaper, Salem Weekly, that prints what you won't read in the Statesman Journal. In this case, facts and opinion about how the Salem Chamber of Commerce and other special interest PACs (political action committees) are spending big money on City Council races that should be all about the public interest. Facts, in a Special Interests Dominate Salem City Campaigns story. Four weeks before ballots will be mailed, notable disparities can be seen between funding amounts and sources for Salem city council candidates.  The totals suggest lopsided special interest funding. Voters concerned about the…
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Posted inSalem

These 2014 Salem City Council candidates want a $400 million tax increase

Watch out, Salem (Oregon) voters. Five City Council candidates want you to fork out hundreds of dollars more a year to pay for an vastly expensive unneeded Third Bridge across the Willamette River.   As pointed out by the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog, an advocate for smart cost-effective urban design, these tax and spend candidates are advocates for the $400 million bridge that would do nothing to ease congestion, while displacing dozens of homes and businesses.  Sherrone Blasi, Ward 2Steve McCoid, Ward 4Daniel Benjamin, Ward 6Jim Lewis, Ward 8Christopher Proudfoot, Ward 8 Fortunately, there are four candidates who care about…
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Posted inStreetStrider

Slomo explains why the StreetStrider is so fun

Yesterday I discovered the tale of a marvelous 69-year-old guy who traded his medical career as a neurologist to become a nearly full-time inline skater on the San Diego oceanside boardwalk- I wrote about him on my other blog in Slomo's simple philosophy of life: "Do what you want to."  I shared a link to a New York Times story about this intriguing man, who used to go by the name of John Kitchin. Now he's known as Slomo on the boardwalk. A 16-minute documentary about him can be viewed on the NY Times site. Well worth watching. Just wait for…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Dude, where’s the Salem Police Facility and Civic Center project?

Though I enjoy starting blog post titles with Dude, where's (see here), I'm bothered by the subject matter of this one. Because the City of Salem has disappeared a five-year project aimed at making seismic upgrades and other renovations to the Civic Center, along with building a new police facility. At the March 24 City Council meeting, City Manager Linda Norris said it is unlikely that a bond levy for the project will be on the November ballot.  Unless some other source of funding is found, this means that children and other visitors to the Library will continue to use a…
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Posted inSalem Sustainability

Salemians, come see “Wild Things” April 3, Loucks Auditorium

My wife, Laurel, is a big animal lover. Well, she loves small animals too. All kinds, really. She has worked hard to put on a free showing of "Wild Things" next Thursday, April 3, 6:30 pm, at the Loucks Auditorium adjacent to the Salem, Oregon Library. (Not the 1998 erotic thriller; the 2013 award-winning film about how the federal Wildlife Services agency needlessly kills tens of thousands of carnivores each year.) Laurel wrote a Salem Weekly opinion piece, "The Taxpayer Funded War Against Predators," about the film and Wildlife Services. Excerpt:  Few people know that a federal agency uses both…
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Posted inSalem

Salem Conference Center “sculpture garden” — depressing wasteland

Reading today's Salem Breakfast on Bikes post about the sculpture garden at the downtown Conference Center made me wonder if the author had tuned in to my wife's brain.  This is almost exactly what Laurel has said several times, albeit in different words, when we drive by this uninviting concrete expanse. The barrenness of the sculpture garden is an ornamental emptiness and far, far from anything we might consider a "functioning city scene." It is an attempt at delight, but it fails at dignity. If anything, the sterile concrete expanse looks cheap, an expression of that "demeaning bottom line." ...People…
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Posted inSalem

Will Salem Mayor Anna Peterson admit she spoke falsely?

This is Day 1 of the Mayor Anna Peterson apology/retraction watch. No response yet to the email I sent her, with a cc to the Salem City Council.  I said what I did after listening to Peterson make a preachy, inaccurate mini-speech during a testy exchange at last night's City Council meeting. She was fighting mad about the calm, reasoned, truthful things architect Geoffrey James was saying during the public comment period about the City's overpriced $80 million proposal for a new police facility at the Civic Center and renovations to City Hall. Councillor Laura Tesler, seemingly operating from a…
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Posted inHome life Skateboarding

Video of me longboard land paddling on Venice Beach’s boardwalk

I don't like the term "bucket list." The idea of scratching items off a list of stuff I want to do before I die seems too organized and Protestant-ethic'ish. Why not just do what you want to do, when you feel like doing it? Which is pretty much how I ended up taking my longboard to southern California this weekend. A dream of mine, though let's not call it part of my bucket list. Some time ago I'd told my daughter that one day I wanted to land paddle on Venice Beach's boardwalk -- one of the meccas for this…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Help stop the $80 million Salem City Council madness

I love to quote myself. Especially when I'm talking about saving lives and $40 million for Salem, Oregon taxpayers. Here's part of what I said in a recent Strange Up Salem column, "Save lives. Wear a purple sticker."  Give me a chance to explain why you should care about a local issue that, if left on its current course, really could lead to some nasty things happening. Lots of taxpayer money wasted. Downtown riverfront area uglified. Many lives being lost. I’m talking about the City of Salem’s $80 million plan to build a new police headquarters at the Civic Center,…
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Posted inHome life

Ten reasons I like our 2014 Highlander more than our 2006 Highlander

My wife and I have been happy Toyota Highlander Hybrid owners since we bought one in 2006. We got the base version, rather than the Limited, figuring that we already were spending extra on the hybrid technology. This year we decided to buy a new Highlander. Our 2006 was in good shape; we've had no mechanical problems with it. It just had some annoying limitations which, after a test drive, we could tell were missing from the 2014 model. After about a month of driving our Crème Brulee Mica XLE (great color, by the way), I'll share ten reasons why I'm…
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Posted inSalem

Let’s make downtown Salem a visitor mecca

Yesterday Michael Davis (executive editor of the Statesman Journal) called for Salemians to support his Big Idea: making Salem, Oregon a mecca for scholastic music. Download Lets make Salem a music mecca I readily admit to being underwhelmed.  Not because it's a bad idea to build on Salem's high-quality high school music scene and have some sort of nationally recognized festival, or whatever, celebrating all things scholastic music'ish. Because I wanted something grander and Wow! inducing after reading Davis' first paragraphs, where he talked about newspaper crusades for noble causes. Since his opinion piece has gotten just two comments in two…
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Posted inSkateboarding

Shark Wheels green up my longboard for St. Patrick’s Day

Today I got around to pimping my ride. Longboard ride, that is. I was a Kickstarter backer for the way-cool Shark Wheel -- looks square but rolls round. Got my green wheels a few weeks ago.  Haven't been too motivated to put them on my Roe Racing Mermaid, since I've gotten as addicted to my StreetStrider outdoor elliptical bike as I used to be to longboard land paddling.  But I'll be visiting my daughter and her family in southern California fairly soon. My dream has been to experience the Land Paddling Holy Land, the boardwalk along Venice Beach (well, it…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Strange goings-on in Oregon Marijuana Legalization Land

After Colorado and Washington voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012, while Oregon's ballot initiative failed after a horribly mismanaged campaign by Paul Stanford and the other Oregon Cannabis Tax Act folks, I figured that this state's marijuana legalization leaders would get their act together.- Unfortunately, doesn't seem to be happening.  Three initiatives may be on the November ballot, two sponsored by Stanford and one by New Approach Oregon. (The Oregon Legislature failed to act on a marijuana legalization referral bill in the short 2014 session.) I've been wondering why competing initiatives are being put before Oregonians. Seemingly this will…
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Posted inSalem

How the City of Salem decided to build a new police facility at the Civic Center

Here's another example, among many, of how elected and appointed City of Salem officials give citizen involvement the finger, to put it bluntly. Previously I've blogged about how the City of Salem planned a new poiice facility in (1) a backwards way, and (2) a secretive way. Now I want to share what I've learned about how City officials planned where the police facility should be located in a top-down way without any community input. Back in January of this year I had a conversation with the lead City staff person for the $80.5 million ($128 million, with financing costs)…
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Posted inHumor

Obama’s “Between Two Ferns” video: Prez is good comedian

President Obama sure held his own, comedy-wise, with Zack Galifianakis in this new Funny or Die video: "Between Two Ferns."  Great delivery, sense of timing, ironic expressiveness. Have a look. It's got a pitch for young people to sign up for Obamacare, but this is a small part of the video.
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