Posted inCity Council Jim Lewis

Jim Lewis wrongly claims Micki Varney wants “miserable traffic”

City Council campaigns in Salem usually don't sink to the level Jim Lewis displayed in a video where he claimed that his opponent in the Ward 8 race, Micki Varney, "wants miserable traffic." I learned about this offensive lie in a comment Marcus Solomon left on a Facebook post of mine. Solomon captured this image of Lewis' video before the image was edited out: Shame on Councilor Lewis for engaging in the sort of political crap that usually only rears its ugly head at the state and national level. Obviously Micki Varney doesn't want miserable traffic. She has stated that she's…
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Posted inCity Council Steve McCoid

Leung vs. McCoid City Council race isn’t getting attention it deserves

In this Year of the Woman, politically and culturally-speaking, I find it surprising that Jacqueline (Jackie) Leung's Ward 4 City Council race against incumbent Steve McCoid isn't getting more attention.  Five seats on the Salem City Council are on the May 15 ballot, the Mayor's seat and the seats of the councilors occupying the four even-numbered wards: 2, 4, 6, 8.  Only two of these races are contested: Jackie Leung vs. Steve McCoid in Ward 4, and Micki Varney vs. Jim Lewis in Ward 8. Mayor Bennett is unopposed, as are councilors Tom Andersen (Ward 2) and Chris Hoy (Ward…
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Posted inCity Council Tom Andersen

Councilor Tom Andersen’s self-congratulatory video needs some context

Understand: I've got nothing against self-congratulation. I love to tell myself, "You're doing a great job, Brian!" So there really wasn't anything all that unusual in Tom Andersen's 5-minute CCTV video where he asks voters to support his re-election to the Salem City Council, even though he is running unopposed. But as I watched the video, where Andersen talks about his various accomplishments during his first four-years as a city councilor, I kept thinking, I wish he'd give more credit to those who set the stage for those accomplishments.  Of course, it is almost a given that politicians are going…
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Posted inCity Council Jim Lewis Third Bridge

Jim Lewis isn’t telling the truth about tolling a new Salem bridge

In a Statesman Journal piece, "Ward 8 candidate Jim Lewis shares reasons why he wants to continue work on Council," Lewis says he's against tolling on a new bridge across the Willamette River. As a matter of clarification, I want to dispel a rumor that I in some way support tolls for the existing two bridges and the new bridge, nothing could be further from the truth and neither myself or the residents of West Salem would allow tolls to ever be a part of the formula for funding. But at the April 24, 2017 City Council meeting, Lewis cast…
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Posted inDowntown Salem Main Street Association

Salem Main Street Association is a failure

It's been almost exactly a year since the Salem Main Street Association kicked-off with high expectations, albeit with some valid worries, as I wrote about in "New Salem Main Street Association debuts with questions and concerns." These related to (1) secrecy, (2) use of Parking Budget funds, (3) managing of funds related to downtown Salem, and (4) current board members/leadership. About six months later, with essentially zero Main Street Association accomplishments to their credit, I discussed the City Council giving the group a $32,000 grant in "Here's why Salem needs a genuine downtown association." In that post I noted: Some…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

Images of Salem’s Downtown Streetscape Project

If you love Salem's downtown -- I sure do -- you'll want to see these photos I took at last night's Downtown Salem Streetscape Project open house. There's some exciting improvements in the works for downtown sidewalks, alley entrances, and Front Street crossings to Riverfront Park. Traffic calming features got me especially enthused, since whatever makes downtown streets less freeway'ish is a very good thing.Click on the image below to see the Adobe Spark page I made. 
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Posted inGator Gaynor

KSLM is trying to out right-wing-wacko KYKN

When a radio talk show lineup that includes Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck is viewed as too liberal for Salem, it's clear that we've veering into some really right-wing territory.  But this is the media ground KSLM is claiming, according to a front page story in the April 2018 issue of the Salem Business Journal, "KSLM and the Golden Age of Radio Returns to Salem and the Mid-Willamette Valley." Hmmmm.  I don't see how the KSLM talk show lineup has anything Golden Age about it. These guys and gals are way out there on the rightward political spectrum: Sean Hannity,…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Rumor: Statesman Journal will stop print publication in 2019

I've heard a believable news tip that the Statesman Journal will cease being a print publication in January 2019. So it now longer would be a newspaper, but a newsonline -- since an electronic publication would continue to be sold. Reportedly some reasons are that millennials aren't reading the Statesman Journal, and substantial increases in the subscription price of the print newspaper have resulted in a declining subscriber base. I've written quite a bit about the sinking fortunes of the Statesman Journal. Here's a sampling: Statesman Journal outrage: New subscribers charged half of what loyal subscribers payCancel your Statesman Journal subscription…
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Posted inCity Council Larry Tokarski

City Council poised to postpone vote on Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District again

Well, there's either an innocent reason next Monday's City Council agenda contains a staff recommendation to postpone another vote on the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District from April 23 to June 11, or there's a hidden reason. UPDATE: The City Council decided to continue deliberations on the Reimbursement District at its May 14 meeting. The second option -- hidden -- seems more likely to me, so I'm going to run with that in this post. Plus, it's way more fun to engage in political conspiracy theories than take utterances from City Hall on controversial issues like this one at face value. …
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Posted inCity Council

Jackie Leung is an impressive Ward 4 City Council candidate

Last Monday I attended a fundraiser for Jackie Leung at the south Salem McMenamins. She's running for the Ward 4 City Council seat currently held by Steve McCoid. My beer was pleasingly cool, and Leung was wonderfully warm as she discussed issues facing Salem with the politically engaged attendees. I'd met Leung before, but I hadn't heard her talk at length about her views on tough problems. She impressed me. A lot. Leung is thoughtful, informed, and an excellent listener. The latter quality is particularly important for a city councilor, since the (unpaid) job requires attending to people who appear…
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