Posted inChamber of Commerce Citizen involvement Homeless

A view of Salem’s problems from wide angle of inequality and corporatism

Watching the Salem City Council discuss homeless solutions last Tuesday night made me feel like I was looking through a magnifying glass. The problems were real. The ideas about how to help homeless people were tiny. Now, there's nothing wrong with small steps, like allowing a women's homeless shelter to add nine beds to their current 10 bed capacity, or considering allowing the homeless to camp in industrial parts of town. But equally valuable, if not more so, is looking at Salem's problems through a wide-angle mental lens that sees homelessness, environmental degradation, lack of affordable housing, urban sprawl, and…
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Posted inOregon politics

Salem City Club sparks outrage with one-sided garbage burner program

It hurts when an organization you like screws up, then offers up a weak explanation for why the screw-up happened. That's why I'm so disappointed with the Salem City Club, which has decided to only have Marion County representatives speak at a February 21 program about the Covanta garbage burner in Brooks -- a decision that has outraged environmentalists who urged the City Club to also have someone speak about the downsides of the garbage burner. Which are many, as this excerpt from an Oregon League of Conservation Voters post says. When you think of clean energy, what do you…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Homeless

Great idea to deal with Salem’s homeless problem

A few days ago Susannn Kaltwasser asked an excellent question on a Facebook page where Salem City Council issues are discussed.  Kaltwasser is correct. An October 2019 survey of Salem residents found that after being asked an open-ended question, 41% said that homelessness and poverty were their top concerns. Crime and drugs were mentioned by only 4%. Here's a screenshot from the survey report, So it's perplexing that City officials want all of a proposed employee-paid payroll tax that will be on the May 2020 ballot to go to public safety. Here's a information sheet about the payroll tax and operations fee…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Homeless

Homelessness is a lot like climate change. Local action isn’t nearly enough.

Watching how city staff and the City Council are trying to deal with Salem's homeless problem reminds me of a 60 Minutes story I saw recently about Venice's flooding problem. The periodic floods of Venice have become more threatening and more frequent. This past November, a sudden storm surge overwhelmed nearly 90% of the city. Climate scientists say what happened that night exactly two months ago in Venice is a warning to the world of what's to come – and not just in Venice. Climate change is raising sea levels. Venice is being inundated with water to a greater extent…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Tom Andersen

Salem City Club discusses employee-paid payroll tax

Nobody likes paying taxes. (Well, almost nobody.) But everybody likes the services taxes provide. (Well, almost everybody.) That's the perpetual dilemma facing government at all levels, federal, state, local. Robert (Bob) Barron Today's Salem City Club program on the City of Salem's financial situation featured Bob Barron, who became the city's Chief Financial Officer last June -- a new position created by a reorganization at City Hall that did away with the assistant City Manager, leaving the CFO in charge of financial goings-on. Barron has an impressive background, as evidenced by his bio above. He came across as a straight-shooter…
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Posted inCity of Salem Homeless

Not supporting Salem’s Arta Potties was a dumb move by city officials

Back in 2015, providing artistically decorated Arta Potties (portable toilets) in downtown Salem was a brilliant idea of Rebecca Maitland Courtney and other women who wanted to give homeless people a place to go, rather than defecating and urinating in public places. First Arta Potty (photo courtesy of the Arta Potties Facebook page) But the folks at City Hall, including the Mayor and City Manager, never supported Arta Potties in any meaningful way, apparently figuring that putting them downtown would encourage the homeless to congregate in central Salem. Well, guess what? Five years later, there are more homeless people sleeping downtown…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Iran, if you’re listening…

Even though I can be prone to magical thinking at times, I haven't gone down that rabbit hole deep enough to really believe that if I'd written a blog post with the above title a day or two ago, Iran wouldn't have fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq today. But since I spent some time this afternoon prior to the attack thinking about what I wanted to say in an Iran, if you're listening... post, I might as well start off by summarizing my advice to Iran -- some of which still makes…
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Posted inCity of Salem Homeless

Bad P.R. for City of Salem: homeless and library debacles

The folks who run City Hall aren't doing very well in the public relations department recently. KGW News has been doing a good job of holding city officials accountable for failing to live up to their promise to add shelter beds for the homeless following a citywide ban on homeless camps. Here's how a January 3 KGW story starts out. SALEM, Ore. — More than two weeks after the city of Salem enacted a ban on public camping and two days after their self-imposed deadline, by which they promised to open 140 shelter beds, officials confirmed they’ve come up woefully…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce City Council Progressive Salem

Honor Mike Swaim by making Salem more progressive

Mike Swaim was a much-admired former mayor of Salem who died on December 17 from a stroke that occurred during heart surgery.  Other people have praised Swaim for how he worked to improve Salem during his three mayoral terms in office from 1997 to 2002. Below I'm sharing a piece that Bill Smaldone wrote about Swaim that was posted on the Salem City Watch site.  And both the Salem Reporter and Statesman Journal had stories about Swaim. So since I don't have anything to add about Swaim's exemplary life, I want to talk about how we can honor him in the…
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Posted inHumor

Angry Owl’s Top 10 Predictions for Salem in 2020

Funny. Sarcastic. Provocative. In short, a hoot. Here's Angry Owl's Top 10 Predictions for Salem in 2020 that came to perch on the top of the Twitter tree today. It's tough for me to pick a favorite, because I like them all, but I suppose my #1 of the Top Ten would be... "Botched construction at the polo grounds and clubhouse delay grand opening of Salem's $73 million police facility," because cost overruns were so extreme on this Police Palace. Be sure to follow Angry Owl on Twitter so you don't miss this famous bird's tweets. And check out Angry…
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Posted inBroadway Commons City Council City of Salem

Why the City of Salem shouldn’t give taxpayer money to a church that discriminates

In 2019 the most disturbing decision of the Salem City Council was to go along with a poorly thought-out plan by city officials to temporarily house the public library in a building owned by an organization that denies LGBTQ rights, the Salem Alliance Church.  In case you missed out on reading my blog posts about this unethical travesty, type "Salem Alliance Church" in the Google search box in the right sidebar to find what I've written on this subject. For example... Disturbing wrongness of last Monday's Salem City Council meetingSalem's city officials say "screw you" to supporters of LGBTQ rights…
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Posted in2020 election National politics

Warren was wrong about the Buttigieg wine cave event

Watching last Thursday's Democratic presidential debate, I was irritated by Elizabeth Warren's attack on Pete Buttigieg for having a fundraiser in a wine cave that featured a $900 bottle of wine. It drives me crazy when Democrats expect absolute purity from their candidates, since Republicans, by contrast, tend to be pragmatists who do whatever it takes to win an election. Buttigieg made this point after Warren attacked him, correctly pointing out that if Warren -- who is a millionaire herself -- donated $2,800 to his campaign, he certainly wouldn't be expected to do her bidding from that point on. He'd…
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Posted in2020 election Cara Kaser City Council

Cara Kaser won’t seek reelection to her Ward 1 City Council seat

Big breaking local political news today from the Salem Reporter's Troy Brynelson: "Kaser won't seek second term on Salem City Council." Citing major changes with both her family and her career, Councilor Cara Kaser told Salem Reporter on Saturday morning she won’t seek a second term as one of the city’s nine policymakers. Her term expires Dec. 31, 2020. “Serving my community these past three years as a city councilor has been both one of the most important duties I have ever taken on and one of the most important honors I have ever been afforded,” she said. “Additionally, it…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Jojo Rabbit, impeachment, and Trump’s authoritarianism

Let me make this clear. The United States isn't following in the footsteps of Nazi Germany. So when I speak of the danger of Donald Trump's authoritarianism, I'm not equating him with Hitler, though he does have Hitler'ish tendencies. However, this doesn't make Trump any less of a risk to our nation's democratic institutions and the Constitution. So his impeachment needs to be viewed from the broadest possible perspective, not just Trump's attempt to get Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election and then obstruct Congress in its 100% legitimate impeachment inquiry. That's bad enough, of course. Much worse, though,…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

Indivisible scorecard ranks Elizabeth Warren #1

Great idea, Indivisible folks. You've fashioned a clear, easy to understand, transparent scorecard for the Democratic presidential contenders that rates them on three criteria: Policy Platform: Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed to enacting bold, popular, progressive policies across a range of areas, including immigration, climate, economic justice, health care, and other critical policy areas. Day-One Democracy Agenda: None of the policy reforms we want to see in 2021 are possible without a democracy that responds to the people. Indivisibles want a candidate who is committed first and foremost to ambitious reforms to save our democracy. Building Grassroots Power: Indivisibles know that…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Sleaze warning: Reid Sund hires Chuck Adams in Ward 7 race

Watch out, residents of south Salem's Ward 7. A tsunami of sleaze could be coming your way as the City Council race between Vanessa Nordyke and Reid Sund heats up between now and the May 2020 primary election. Chuck Adams I say this because Sund's campaign finance reporting indicates that Chuck Adams' firm, New Media Northwest, is working for the Friends of Reid Sund committee. As you can see in this screenshot, there's a cozy (and rather incestuous) relationship between New Media Northwest and Friends of Reid Sund. In the sample of transactions below, New Media Northwest made $1,135 worth…
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Posted inHomeless

Yin and Yang homeless proposals: car camping and Hillcrest purchase

Homelessness is too big a problem in both Salem and elsewhere for one-dimensional solutions. It's going to take a wide variety of ideas, both tried-and-true and out-of-the-box, to make a dent in Salem's homeless population. So congrats to City Councilor Chris Hoy for a small "yin" proposal that would set up an organized location on private property for people who sleep in their cars.  A Salem Reporter story, "Salem official eyes organized camping for people who live in vehicles," describes Hoy's idea. As city of Salem staff hunt for a place where homeless residents may legally set up tents, staff…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem Homeless

Salem City Council allows homeless to camp on public property. But where?

At last night's City Council meeting a big change was made to the homeless ordinance that passed at the previous meeting, and required a "second reading" to become law. Instead of banning camping on public property entirely, the council decided to allow homeless people to camp on approved city-owned property. Here's some excerpts from a Salem Reporter story by Troy Brynelson, "Salem bans open camping and now seeks a place to host it." (Kudos to Brynelson for using "eighty-sixing" in his story. I haven't seen this term used in a long time, and I'm old.) Tents and other dwellings will…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Statesman Journal print circulation is down 36% in last two years

Salem's daily newspaper, the Statesman Journal, is experiencing a big decline in print circulation: it's down 36% between June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2019, which is an annualized rate of decline of 20% for those two years. Here's a screenshot from a searchable database of 200 newspapers that's included in a recent Boston Business Journal story, "Most Gannett papers are losing print circulation faster than average." This shows the results of a search for Oregon newspapers. It's interesting that while Eugene and Salem have roughly equal populations, the Eugene Register-Guard had a 2019 print circulation that was almost exactly…
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Posted in2020 election Donald Trump National politics

In 300 words, Katyal makes a great argument for Trump’s impeachment

Today I started reading Neal Katyal's compelling little book, Impeach: The Case Against Donald Trump. Katyal has personally argued thirty-nine Supreme Court cases. He's a law professor at Georgetown University. He's taught an impeachment course there twenty times. And he's an excellent writer. Below is how his book starts out. In a bit less than 300 words, Katyal nails the case for impeaching Trump. The rest of the book is icing on the impeachment cake. So if you're in favor of impeachment and someone questions why this makes sense, say you'd like to read them a brief argument by a…
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