Posted inPolice facility

Outspent 52 to 1, the No on Measure 24-420 campaign is feeling fine

If you like political underdogs, you should love the Salem Can Do Better campaign I'm leading against the second-try $62 million police facility bond, Measure 24-420 on the May ballot. I just checked. The YES campaign being run by Friends of Salem Police has raised $114,750. The Salem Can Do Better NO campaign has raised $2,200.  That's a 52 to 1 difference.  Which doesn't bother me at all. Last year's first-try $82 million police facility bond measure was turned down by voters in the November election even though Salem Can Do Better also was outspent by a lot, about 30 to 1…
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Posted inCity of Salem Third Bridge

Some City of Salem officials want to toll our bridges. No one else does.

Dirty little secrets deserve to be broadcast to the world when this is in the public interest.  At last night's City Council meeting I was pleased to play a part in revealing something that the folks at City Hall have been trying to hide as best they could: The main source of projected funding for the $430 million Third Bridge (or Salem River Crossing) is tolls -- $175 million worth, generated by a $1.50 each way charge to cross both the new bridge and the two existing bridges.  Here's the proof: a chart from the official Salem River Crossing Project…
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Posted inCity Council Third Bridge

Salem City Council votes 5-4 against Third Bridge

Elections matter. Beginning in 2014, five (of nine) Salem city councilors have been elected after vowing to oppose the Third Bridge, also known as the Salem River Crossing.  Or, as I like to call it, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle.  The Statesman Journal has some good reporting on tonight's 5-4 vote to reject an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Department of Land Conservation and Development that would have helped move the Third Bridge forward. Check out Jonathan Bach's story, "Salem councilors reject third bridge agreement with state department." Opponents of a third Salem traffic bridge over the Willamette claimed a victory Monday as…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon marijuana policies discussed at Salem City Club

Last Friday I enjoyed hearing Oregon State Senator Ginny Burdick and Sara Batterby, CEO of HiFi Farms and a founding chair of Women Grow, update a Salem City Club audience about what's happening with marijuana in this state.  West Salem Cannabis had a display set up in an adjoining room. Unfortunately they couldn't give out any free samples, nor sell anything outside of their store. I hugely enjoyed seeing fellow semi-staid City Club members browsing the cannabis offerings and talking about pot with the friendly West Salem Cannabis employees. Yes, Oregon, along with other legal weed states, has come a…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

New Salem Main Street Association debuts with questions and concerns

As reported by the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog, a new downtown group has been formed -- the Salem Main Street Association.  On Thursday the 20th, the nascent Salem "Main Street" project is going to have something of an Open House at the Ike Box. I'm planning to attend the get-together at the IKE Box because I heartily agree with the bottom-line sentiment on the group's flyer: Here's to a vibrant downtown. However, I and others have questions and concerns about this latest attempt to form an organization that should represent the varied interests of downtown visitors, residents, businesses, and…
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Posted inCitizen involvement

“Don’t be so negative” is the wrong thing to say to a citizen activist

I'm a proud citizen activist. Like many other progressives in this town, I do my best to -- no big surprise -- bring about progress in Salem.  This takes optimism, positivity, a conviction that people working together can overcome obstacles to change. Every day I have fresh ideas about what needs to be done to make Salem a better place: more livable, vibrant, equitable, environmentally responsible. Given my buoyant attitude toward citizen activism, it surprises me when I hear someone say, "Brian, you shouldn't be so negative."  And it isn't just me. My colleagues in Salem Community Vision sometimes are tarnished…
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Posted inLand use

SB 1024 is a rural residential nightmare which won’t produce more affordable housing

In every Oregon legislative session there are some land use bills introduced which make me think, "How the heck did this turkey legislation get hatched?" Case in point for 2017 is SB 1024, which I've heard is supposed to address the affordable housing crisis. Except, it doesn't. Not at all.  After reading the short bill, I'm convinced (along with many others) that SB 1024 is just the latest attempt to undermine Oregon's highly successful land use system.  It would double the number of dwellings allowed on rural residential lots and prohibit county regulators from preventing someone who already has a…
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Posted inCity Council

Who’s the strangest Salem City Councilor? I rank them.

Being the founder of Strange Up Salem -- which has morphed from a regular column in Salem Weekly to a popular Facebook page -- I figure nobody in this town is more qualified than me to take on an awesomely important task: Rank the nine members of the Salem City Council, the Mayor and eight councilors, in order of their strangeness.  Today is a propitious moment to do this. Yesterday Chris Hoy joined the Salem City Council, having been elected in a special Ward 6 election to fill the seat left vacant since Daniel Benjamin's resignation last fall. So now…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

Open letter to Downtown Salem Streetscape Committee

TO:   Kristin Retherford        City of Salem Urban Development Director, and        Chair, Downtown Salem Streetscape Committee FROM: Brian Hines RE: Thoughts about transforming downtown Salem through a Streetscape Project Kristin, I'm super-enthused about what your Streetscape Committee is doing. Carole Smith, one of the members, has shared her synopsis of the committee's first meeting with me. You've got a big job ahead of you, and I'm one of many people in Salem cheering you on who both love downtown as it is, while also realizing how much better it could be through transformative streetscaping. …
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Posted inCity of Salem Police facility

New police facility doesn’t fit with City of Salem “North Downtown Plan”

Here's another reason to vote against Measure 24-420, the second-try $62 million police facility bond measure on the May 2017 ballot: Building a police facility in the north downtown area (on the old DeLon/O'Brien auto dealership site) goes against longstanding plans for how this area should be developed. Salem Can Do Better lays out four other good reasons to vote NO, but this is a fairly fresh idea that just came to light for me.  I've heard criticisms of putting a large 115,000 square foot tax-exempt police facility on a prime piece of downtown land. But until someone mailed me several…
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