Posted inSmart growth

Salem only town in Oregon that bans tiny houses

Ah, Salem. I so look forward to the day when the name of my home town isn't regularly mentioned after someone says, "The last town in Oregon to not allow [some cool thing] is..." Tiny houses are an example. Salem bans them. Along with only one other city in the northwest. A 2014 Statesman Journal story said: Tiny houses. Everyone loves them. Cute, inexpensive, and eco-friendly, tiny houses are popping up all over the Northwest. Portland, which just relaxed its permitting rules, is seeing a boom, and even boasts a tiny house hotel. But don’t look for them in Salem.…
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Posted inPolice facility

Great critique of November’s $82 million police facility bond measure

Today the Statesman Journal published an excellent opinion piece by local architect Geoffrey James, "Proposed Salem police facility too large, too expensive." I've shared it below in its entirety, along with the links inserted by newspaper staff, since soon the piece will disappear into the Statesman Journal's archives. I agree with James that the $82 million police facility bond measure on the November ballot likely will fail. I just go one step further and say, "It SHOULD fail."  A few weeks ago I put up a Salem Can Do Better web page that lays out five reasons to vote "No"…
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Posted in2016 election

Democrats a clear majority in Salem

Here's a good analysis of political trends in Salem from my friend and fellow citizen activist Jim Scheppke, who posted this on Facebook. The days when this town was controlled by an overly conservative, keep-things-the-same, special-interest-favoring Mayor and City Council do indeed seem to be numbered. I look forward to the time when Salem becomes progressive in the best sense of this term: creative, forward-looking, and fair-minded, with a commitment to making our city a great place to live for EVERYBODY -- not just a few. "Salem has an undeserved reputation as being a conservative Republican city. Maybe it's because…
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Posted inCity Council Jim Lewis

Salem City Council embarks on investigation into “Sign-Up-Gate” scandal

Oh, man. Last night the Salem City Council passed a motion to investigate me and two other people. Shit! THIS IS F@#KING SERIOUS! So serious, it deserves a scandal-worthy name: Sign-Up Gate. The three of us being investigated, naturally, are The Sign-Up Gate Three.  I've made an annotated photo of myself that can be used by investigators, local media, and the New York Times (once this inquiry goes national, as it deserves to, given its importance). We can credit (if that's the right word) Councilor Jim Lewis with laying bare the details of this scandal (if that also is the right…
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Posted inPolice facility

Salem Can Do Better: Vote “No” on $82 million police facility bond

Tonight the Salem City Council is expected to ask voters to approve an $82 million bond measure to build a new police facility. This is a bad proposal. It deserves to be rejected in the November election. In this web page, made with Adobe Spark, I give five good reasons (plus a bonus reason) why Salem Can Do Better. I'm planning to testify during the public comment period at tonight's City Council meeting. One thing I want to say is that just as someone can be a strong supporter of our armed forces and still be opposed to wasteful military…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Statesman Journal gets fooled by misleading Republican poll

Shocker! Or so it seemed at the time.  "Poll: Richardson leads Secretary of State race." That link is to a Google cache version of a story that has been taken down by the Salem Statesman Journal.  I read the story online last night. It really surprised me that supposedly Republican Dennis Richardson was leading Democrat Brad Avakian 47% to 38%. A Republican hasn't won a statewide office in Oregon for a long time. And the story by reporter Gordon Friedman said: The numbers suggest the first time in nearly a decade that a Republican has led in polls in a…
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Posted inHumor

“Angry Owl” is on Twitter, saying satirical stuff about Salem

Birds are smart. I'm not surprised that "Angry Owl" has established a nest on Twitter, where he/she tweets out funny observations about Salem. I'm the dumb one, because it's taken me this long to explore Angry Owl's Twitter feed (which hatched in February 2015; tagline is "Protecting the nest, helping joggers run a little faster"). This was the tweet that caught my attention recently. My @oregonbrian Twitter handle was included in it, since Angry Owl knows how much I enjoy humor directed at the City of Salem. (Some of my blog posts also provided material for Angry Owl.) That tweet led…
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Posted inPolice facility Public Safety

Salem can do better… than an over-priced $83 million police facility

The flip side of NO is YES. Saying No to one thing often is the prelude to saying Yes to a better thing. So I'm proud to be a naysayer to plans for an $83 million police facility here in Salem, because rejecting a bond for this over-sized and over-priced Police Palace in the November 2016 election will open a YES door to a better approach -- one that meets the needs of the Police Department plus other needs that currently are being ignored by City officials. Here's what I mean: Cost is too high. Salem can do better... because not…
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Posted inPublic Safety Statesman Journal

Statesman Journal editorial about Orlando killings irritatingly silent on solutions

After so many tragic mass shootings in this country, I've got no patience left with the "thoughts and prayers" crowd -- unless their thoughts and prayers are accompanied by a strong call for action. This is why I found a recent Statesman Journal editorial so irritating. A few years ago I wrote about this in "Why I don't like 'Our thoughts and prayers are with you.'" After the [Boston] bombing I came across a Twitter Tweet by someone I follow, "scriptdave" here in Salem. He's a screenwriter with a great sense of humor. Also, some wise observations. He tweeted: I…
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Posted inCity Council Police facility

Salem City Council meetings are unduly scripted

Scripts are for plays, movies, and TV shows where the plot, including the outcome, is laid out ahead of time. Public hearings aren't supposed to be scripted.  After all, what's the point of inviting citizens to express their opinions on an issue if members of a government body -- in this case, the Salem City Council -- have already made up their minds?  But as you can read below, this was the reaction of several people who attended last Wednesday's City Council hearing on a proposed new police facility: Mayor Peterson and the eight city councilors weren't open to new…
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Posted inPolice facility Public Safety

To save lives, in November vote NO on Salem police facility bond

Last night the Salem City Council decided to press on with an unwise $83 million plan for an over-priced and over-sized new police facility.  Sadly, this means making the Library and City Hall earthquake-safe likely won't happen for many years, if ever. Reason: the hugely costly police facility proposal, which has doubled in cost and square footage from $36 million/75,000 sq. ft. to $83 million/148,000 sq. ft., has squeezed out the money that previously was going to be spent on seismically retrofitting the Civic Center so lives aren't lost when, not if, the Big One Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake hits…
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Posted inPolice facility

“Make Salem’s Library Earthquake Safe” video

I'm deeply disturbed -- no, let's make that pissed off -- at how making the Library and City Hall earthquake-safe is being ignored by the Salem City Council. Mayor Peterson and the eight councilors are focused on an ill-considered $83 million plan for a new over-priced 148,000 square foot police facility. A few years ago City officials were fine with a 75,000 square foot, $40 million police facility.  But after some Chicago consultants came to town, the size doubled along with the cost. And that made money for urgently needed seismic upgrades to the Library and City Hall go bye-bye,…
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Posted inCity Council Police facility

New Salem police facility seems to be on shaky voter ground

Well, after attending a 2 1/2 hour Salem City Council work session last night, I can report that six years of planning for a new police facility appears to be on track to end up as dysfunctional as it began. (See here for documentation of the messy process.) Which is too bad. The police department needs a new facility. But I observed the work session thinking, "Man, here's another reason voters probably will reject a bond measure in the November 2016 election." (For a comprehensive and readable analysis of this project, check out the Salem Community Vision position paper, "Salem's…
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Posted inCarole Smith Chuck Bennett

Smith and Bennett letters to editor have “ships passing in night” feel

Both candidates in the recent race for Salem Mayor -- winner Chuck Bennett and loser Carole Smith -- had letters in the Statesman Journal this week, a day apart. Not too much should be made of them. But also, not too little. So I'll try to strike a middle ground in my profoundly wise Salem Political Snark analysis of what the letters mean for this town.  Serious, yet not too serious.  My basic reaction is that the letters from Smith and Bennett had sort of a "ships that pass in the night" feel to them. Given that the mayoral candidates ran…
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Posted in2016 election

What $950 bought me in Facebook Page political post “boosts”

Nowadays political campaigns are making good use of social media. Heck, this is a big reason why Donald Trump got the GOP presidential nomination -- he's a Twitter Master.  So when the May 17 election for Salem Mayor and City Councilors approached, I decided to throw about a thousand bucks into supporting my favored progressive candidates -- Carole Smith, Cara Kaser, Matt Ausec, Sally Cook -- via "boosted" posts on my Strange Up Salem Facebook page. This was part of what I thought of as my extra year of Mini Cooper payments effort to improve Salem's political landscape. The five…
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Posted inCitizen involvement City Council

Conservatives are preventing Salem from being a true “collaboration capital”

Today the Salem Statesman Journal ran a surprisingly well-written editorial. Amazingly, because I'm a frequent critic of the paper, I found little to disagree with an analysis of last week's primary election, "5 lessons from City Council, other election races." Little, though, doesn't mean nothing. Reading Lesson #5 caused some mental raised-eyebrows. 5. Unity beats disunity If there is a political divide in Salem, it often is cast as progressives (i.e., liberals) versus business and specifically the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce. That is only partially accurate. The business community is not monolithic, whether in Salem or statewide. As we have…
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Posted inCarole Smith Chuck Bennett Statesman Journal

Statesman Journal is source of a lie a SJ editorial railed against. So sweet!

This is SO beautiful for a snarky blogger such as moi: discovering that the source of a Big Political Lie railed against in several Statesman Journal stories came from... (drum roll, please) A story in the freaking Statesman Journal itself! This fills me with so much pleasure, because there's nothing I enjoy more -- well, actually this isn't true, but let's pretend it is -- than criticizing our town's pitiful excuse for a community newspaper. So if you sense joy oozing from the words you're reading, you're correct! If you followed goings-on in the recent race for Salem Mayor between…
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Posted inCara Kaser Carole Smith Chuck Bennett

Progressive candidates win Salem City Council races. The Oligarchy weeps.

"The oligarchy is dead," a friend said to me tonight at Shotski's Woodfired Pizza as we applauded Sally Cook's decisive Ward 7 victory over current City Councilor Warren Bednarz -- who was endorsed by the Salem Chamber of Commerce and other special interests.  The Marion County Democrats put on a Primary Election Night party. Even though the races for Salem Mayor and four City Council seats are nominally non-partisan, everyone knew that the battle for the contested seats was between the Progressives and the Establishment, a.k.a. the Oligarchy. With most of the votes in, it looks like the Oligarchy lost…
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Posted inCity Council

Thank you, candidates! (Politics is the craziest sport.)

I offer a heartfelt Namas'cray to all of the Salem people running for Mayor and City Council seats in tomorrow's 2016 primary election. Thank you for being crazy enough to put in so much time, effort, and money seeking an office that pays exactly nothing, requires a hell of a lot of work, and puts you in the firing line for constant criticism. Some of you, I heartily disagree with politically. Some of you, we're political bed-fellows. Doesn't matter. I honor your craziness, your fine madness: Carole Smith and Chuck Bennett, Mayor; Cara Kaser and Jan Kailuweit, Ward 1; Brad Nanke,…
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Posted inCara Kaser

Cara Kaser calls out false statements being spread by her opponent

With just a few days to go before the May 17 election, Ward 1 City Council candidate Cara Kaser is fighting back against falsities being spread by her opponent's campaign.  Kaser doesn't mention him by name, just referring to him as "my opponent." He's Jan Kailuweit, the Chamber of Commerce-backed candidate. Kaser is endorsed by Progressive Salem.  Here's what Cara Kaser says in a Facebook post today: Over the last several weeks when I've been out canvassing, I've heard from too many people who have been given negative misinformation about me by my opponent's campaign. Fortunately, I've been able to…
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