Posted inCity Council Daniel Benjamin

Citizens speak to City Council about racism and bigotry in Salem

Last night I was thankful to be part of a beautiful discussion of an ugly subject: racism, misogyny, and other forms of bigotry here in Salem, Oregon. The City Council meeting was held in the Library's Loucks Auditorium because so many people were expected to speak about the resignation of Ward 6 councilor Daniel Benjamin following his Facebook sharing of a video showing Black Lives Matter protesters being rammed by cars.  That expectation came true. The auditorium was almost filled to capacity when the meeting started. (I took this photo earlier than that.) Dozens of people used the public comment…
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Posted inCity of Salem National politics

Police officers involved in another Salem social media uproar

Following on the heels of the Daniel Benjamin scandal, which ended with his resignation as a city councilor after he shared a Facebook post about Black Lives Matter protesters being run down by cars, now Salem is getting more bad social media attention. This time a Salem police officer and a Marion County Sheriff's deputy are in the news. A Chicago woman has accused them of "trolling" her after she left a comment -- I am going -- on a Facebook link about a Women's March on Washington the day after Donald Trump's inauguration. Here's a KGW video about the…
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Posted inDaniel Benjamin

Daniel Benjamin was arrested twice for beating up women in the 1990’s

Yesterday social media in Salem became abuzz with the news that a call had been made for City Councilor Daniel Benjamin to resign after he posted a racially charged video on Facebook that shows Black Lives Matter protesters being struck by speeding cars. Here's the KATU story that set off the uproar. (It should play after a brief ad.) Now there's a Facebook page demanding the immediate resignation of Benjamin. When I signed on this morning, 17 people said they planned to go to the Monday, November 28 meeting of the Salem City Council to urge that this happens. Currently…
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Posted inDowntown Police facility

Rumor: City plans to buy police facility site with urban renewal funds

A credible source has told me that, following the defeat of the $82 million police facility bond measure a few weeks ago, City officials plan to use urban renewal funds to buy the old O'Brien auto dealership site where the police facility was planned to be built. The budget for the facility showed $5.5 million for site acquisition. I believe the City of Salem had an option to buy the property, which apparently is owned by the Delon family, but the option expires before next year. Hence, the need to find a way to tie up the police facility site…
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Posted inCity of Salem Peter Fernandez Sabre Ridge Estates

City of Salem favors rich developers over ordinary people

Here's a 3 1/2 minute excerpt from a half-hour interview Greg Fabos and I did with Ken Adams on his Salem CCTV show, "The Valley View." After some remarks by me, Greg speaks about how he's seen Salem change for the worse over the years when it comes to rich developers being able to trample on the rights of ordinary people. He says: There's a real negative feeling about what's happening in Salem, and I've been here a long time. It used to be a nice well-run city with, I felt, good concern for its citizens. Right now, it's at…
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Posted in2016 election

Ed Dover’s analysis of the 2016 election made me feel better about Trump’s victory

There's a lot of depression and anxiety floating around, following Trump's surprising victory. (And that describes me on my good days; sometimes I feel like I'm trapped in the scariest nightmare ever, one impossible to wake up from.) But after I raced back to Salem from Portland late Friday morning, desperate to hear Ed Dover's City Club talk, "A Postmortem on the 2016 Election. What Happened?," making it to the meeting just a few minutes after Dover started speaking, I realized how wise it was to break some I-5 speed limits. Dover is a Political Science professor at Western Oregon…
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Posted inPolice facility

PLAN B for building a Salem police facility

Behold! PLAN B! What's not to like about this PLAN B? Voters have said "No" to the unwise, over-priced $82 million police facility bond measure. So you'll find a two-page document describing our better "Yes" below. Hopefully City officials will begin to work with concerned citizens so another Public Safety bond measure can be passed in 2017 that gives the Police Department a perfectly adequate smaller-sized headquarters AND makes City Hall and the Library earthquake-safe. All for $62 million, $20 million less than the rejected bond measure would have spent on a police facility alone. I wrote the PLAN B…
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Posted inPolice facility Public Safety

Lessons for Salem from defeat of $82 million police facility bond measure

It's always tough to say why an election result turns out the way it did, especially at the local level where we don't have exit polls. But here's an initial attempt to get into the minds of Salem voters who rejected Measure 24-399 by 52% to 48% in yesterday's election -- combining that opining with insight into a mind I'm much better acquainted with: my own. Here's a couple of reasons why I'm optimistic about the defeat of the $82 million police facility bond measure that I led the fight against via Salem Can Do Better. The defeat shows the…
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Posted in2016 election

Millennials need to grow up and vote for Clinton — says this pissed-off baby boomer

Yeah, I admit to being in a cranky mood, what with the election being just four days away and Donald Trump showing more signs of presidential election life than this idiot deserves.  But what I read today in Greg Sargent's Washington Post piece would have gotten me irked at voting-age millennials (who are, roughly, those born between 1982 and 2004, so people aged 12 to 34 or thereabouts) no matter my state of mind.  Here's an excerpt from "Top Democrats say Clinton took a real hit from Comey. But they're cautiously optimistic." Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told me that the impact…
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