Posted inCity Council Third Bridge

Salem River Crossing project about to get a well-deserved death

Last night the City Council held a work session on the Salem River Crossing project, often termed the Third Bridge. Or, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle. I watched some of the work session via a Facebook feed. My impression of what transpired fits with the headline of a Statesman Journal story, "Salem third bridge: City Council shows few signs of advancing proposal as deadline nears." And why would the nine councilors show a sign that suddenly they were all in on this project?  Each of the six progressives on the City Council was elected after making a campaign promise to oppose…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Here’s how to tell Howard Schultz “Don’t run for president”

If Howard Schultz, the ex-CEO of Starbucks, runs for president as an independent, there's too high a risk that he will siphon off enough votes to enable Donald Trump to win a second term in 2020.  So here's how to tell Schultz, "Don't run for president."  There's a Contact Us link on his website, though it isn't very obvious, being at the bottom of the site pages. That's why I'm sharing the link -- to make it easier for people to urge Schultz to hold off on his vanity presidential campaign. It's https://www.howardschultz.com/contact-us Naturally you can say whatever you like…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City Council Third Bridge

City of Salem staff and Mayor Bennett are spinning Third Bridge facts

It's unfortunate that in advance of next Wednesday's City Council work session on the Salem River Crossing project, a.k.a. the Third Bridge, councilors and the public are being fed a bunch of pseudo-facts that run the gamut from clearly false to questionable. As noted in a recent post of mine, even though in recent years the Salem City Council has shifted from being dominated by conservatives to a 6-3 progressive majority, the unpaid volunteer councilors and mayor are dependent on City of Salem staff -- which includes employees who have been working on the Salem River Crossing for a long…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Five reasons Statesman Journal has hit a new low

It doesn't give me pleasure to write about the further decline of Salem, Oregon's one and only daily newspaper, the Statesman Journal. I'll end this post with a poignant anecdote from a New Yorker story about the death of newspapers. It isn't pleasant to watch the demise of someone that you care about. But turning our head away from reality isn't good either. So building on previous blog posts I've written about how this Gannett newspaper has been steadily tumbling down the slope of journalistic excellence (recent posts assembled here), here's Five Reasons Statesman Journal Has Hit a New Low.…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Land use

Heritage School needs to be treated fairly by the City of Salem

I like David and Goliath stories. I always root for David, the little guy or gal. That's why I'm hoping Salem's small 35-student Heritage School gets treated fairly by City officials and the City Council regarding its concerns about what the large, rich, and powerful Mountain West Investment Corporation wants to build adjacent to the school. A Statesman Journal story mostly misses the point about why the Heritage School wants to see changes made to a Mountain West proposal to build a 180-unit apartment complex next to the school.  The story, "Salem's Fairview Training Center was intended as a green…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Land use

City may buy Hillcrest after Mark Wigg proposed this. West Salem Loop is another Wigg idea.

This is a great example of bottom-up creativity here in Salem. As far as I know, the City of Salem had no intention of buying the 45-acre property that formerly housed the Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility until Salem activist Mark Wigg proposed this, and I shared Wigg's ideas in a September 2018 blog post that went to City officials: "Hillcrest is for sale. The City of Salem should buy it." Here's how my post started out. The State of Oregon has put the 45 acre Hillcrest property up for sale. According to Wikipedia, Hillcrest was a youth correctional facility that…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Steve Powers

Progressives rule City Council, but City of Salem has “deep state” problem

I'm not a fan of the whole deep state thing when Trump supporters use the term to denigrate career federal employees who are simply trying to do their job as best they can.  But rightly or wrongly, deep state has become a sort of shorthand for government officials hanging on to past policy positions after the political winds of change have begun blowing in a different direction. So that's how I'm using the term. After quite a few years of progressives being outnumbered by conservatives on the Salem City Council, they now enjoy a 6-3 majority. Tom Andersen, Cara Kaser, Sally…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Possible Gannett takeover worrisome news for Statesman Journal

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that the Gannett Corporation, which owns the Statesman Journal, is ripe for a takeover. Since the company that would make a bid for Gannett is notorious for cutting costs at newspapers it owns, I'm sure employees of the Statesman Journal aren't thrilled with this news. Here's some excerpts from "Hedge-Fund-Backed Media Group Prepares Bid for Gannett." (If you can't access the story via that link, download this PDF file.)Download Hedge-Fund-Backed Media Group Prepares Bid for Gannett - WSJ MNG Enterprises Inc., one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, has quietly built a…
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Posted inCity of Salem

Citizen activism wins latest skirmish in Salem Library Battle of the Books

Jim Scheppke, book lover and former Librarian for the State of Oregon, has done a great job at stimulating citizens to speak out about the Salem Public Library's misguided effort to purge tens of thousands of books from its core collection.  Here's Scheppke's report about last night's Library Advisory Board meeting at the library's Anderson Room that he posted on the Save Our Books Facebook page.  BOOKS WIN A REPRIEVE — FOR NOWThanks to a standing room only turnout of book lovers and supporters, the Library Advisory Board decided last night to continue the suspension of "the big weed" (as…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump has to be the worst presidential deal-maker ever

For someone who had a book ghostwritten for him called "The Art of the Deal," Donald Trump is a notably shitty dealmaker. So far in his presidency he's noted for breaking deals -- Paris climate change agreement, Trans-Pacific Partnership, Iran nuclear agreement -- rather than making them. Which figures. Blowing stuff up is a hell of a lot easier than putting stuff together. The worst thing I can say about Trump is that I consider myself a better dealmaker than he is. And my credentials aren't exactly sterling. Once I was negotiating with a guy in our carport about a…
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Posted inLand use

Salem’s Heritage School seeks changes to Mountain West apartment complex plan

This is a classic -- and oh, so Salem -- development story with David and Goliath overtones.On one side we have a charming 35-student private school, the Heritage School, which set up shop on the old Fairview Training Center property in 2004, when the vision for the property's 275 acres hadn't yet been diluted.  So the folks who invested a lot of time, energy, and money into renovating a building on the Fairview property, anticipating that the surrounding acreage would be developed in accord with a Sustainable Fairview Master Plan, now are justifiably irked that Mountain West Investment Corporation plans…
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Posted inBroadway Commons

Why supporters of gay rights should boycott Broadway Commons

Read on to learn why those in Salem who support gay rights and same-sex marriage should join in the boycott of the Broadway Commons and the Broadway Coffee House.  I submitted what follows as a guest opinion in the Statesman Journal about three weeks ago. Recently I inquired about the piece and learned that the newspaper wasn't going to publish it.  So here it is. The only change I've made to what was sent to the Statesman Journal was adding links to other blog posts I've written about the boycott. Facts About the Broadway Commons Boycottby Brian Hines In a…
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