Posted inCarole Smith Downtown

Carole Smith argues against restaurant tents in downtown parking spaces

Carole Smith is a downtown property owner and resident who sent me the following argument against restaurants being allowed to use downtown parking spaces for outdoor seating during the Covid pandemic. A May 27 Salem Reporter story says this program is going to be permanent, with design standards for structures in parking spaces that could cost tens of thousands of dollars. Smith makes some good points about whether this is fair to the downtown businesses who pay a parking tax, since restaurants are being allowed to use parking spaces that are supposed to benefit all businesses in the area, not…
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Posted inCarole Smith City of Salem Downtown

Almost 3/4 of downtown Salem trash receptacles to be removed

Sheri Wahrgren, the Downtown Revitalization manager for the City of Salem, wants to get rid of most trash receptacles in the downtown area -- 44 of the 61 currently in use. See: Download Downtown Trash Receptacle Staff Report Before we dive deeper into this messy move, let's agree on this: the current trash receptacles are ugly, hard to use, and deserve to be featured in The Museum of Dysfunctional Trash Receptacles -- which I dearly hope exists. Carole Smith, a downtown resident and property owner, brought my attention to what Smith considers a trash travesty. Never one to mince words,…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown Humor

New issue of Salem Cherry Pits takes jabs at city officials

Not surprisingly, we (well, I) here at Salem Political Snark adore snarkishness. That's why I'm eager to share every new issue of Salem Cherry Pits when it hits my email inbox, sent to me by downtown resident and property owner Carole Smith -- the creator, publisher, and distributor of this marvelous mixture of biting satire and solid information about downtown goings-on. Below I've shared screenshots of the first two pages of the Spring 2020 issue, which deal with a novel approach to homelessness and a heretofore unrecognized way the coronavirus can be transmitted: farts. You can read the whole issue…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown Homeless

A perspective on how homeless people are hurting downtown

I've said it before, and I want to say it again: We've got to get over a reluctance to talk honestly about downtown's homeless problem. It's possible to both (1) feel compassion toward homeless people and (2) feel bad about how homeless people are making downtown Salem less pleasant for visitors, residents, and business owners. Downtown Court Street in the morning Yesterday Carole Smith, who lives downtown and owns property there, sent me the message I've shared below.   In an email to the Salem City Council, Smith describes how a prospective tenant backed out of signing a lease because…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown Homeless

Should lying on downtown sidewalks be banned between 8 am and 11pm?

Downtown Salem has a serious homeless problem. This is obvious to anyone who visits the area. I go to a Tai Chi class on Court Street three days a week around 4 to 7 pm. I'm bothered by the trash, people curled up in sleeping bags, shopping carts filled to overflowing with people's possessions. Last month I wrote "Seeing Salem's homeless sleeping outside stirred up these feelings." But I've got to be honest. I didn't share all of the feelings I had.  Along with feeling bad about the plight of the homeless, I also don't like what homeless people are…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown

Downtown Cherry Pits debuts as Salem satirical newsletter

Great news for humor lovers in Salem! We now have a local version of Silverton's Silvertongue Apple-Peal. Carole Smith has fashioned Downtown Cherry Pits -- Exclusive to the Slutsman Journal as our town's satirical newsletter.  After Carole told me that some copies were available at Lullu's (357 Court Street), I stopped by yesterday and scored the debut issue. It's more fun to read on paper, but here's a PDF file for general online consumption.Download Downtown Cherry Pits Dec. 2018 newsletter The newsletter also can be read in bite-size bits via the posts on the Downtown Cherry Pits Facebook page. Be…
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Posted inCarole Smith Downtown

Carole Smith critiques the City of Salem streetscape project

I'm sharing an email message that Carole Smith, a downtown business owner and resident, sent to me recently. She isn't happy with how the City of Salem streetscape project is being conducted, to put it mildly. Well, neither am I, as I wrote about in "Downtown Salem Streetscape project will ignore streets." The whole emphasis is on sidewalks. As shown above, "alleys and roads not part of [project] scope." So they really should have called this a Sidewalkscape project, which is much more limited than a true Streetscape plan -- such as the one proposed for Salem several years ago.  This…
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Posted inCarole Smith City of Salem Downtown

Here’s why Salem needs a genuine downtown association

Salem no longer has a downtown association. We need one. What happened at last night's City Council meeting is only one of many reasons why.  But before I explain what transpired at the meeting, a bit of relevant history about how downtown lost its downtown association is in order. I wrote about this in a couple of blog posts. My November 2013 post "Should Salem City Manager be known as Exalted Emperor Linda Norris?" explained how the existing downtown association, Salem Downtown Partnership, had its contract terminated by the City Council after Chuck Bennett (then a city councilor, now Mayor)…
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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 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 inCarole Smith Chuck Bennett

Mayor candidate Chuck Bennett is saying stuff that isn’t true

With the May 17 election for Salem Mayor and four City Council seats coming up in about ten days -- VOTE! It's so easy with vote by mail -- the campaigning is hot and heavy.  Well, with Mayor candidate Chuck Bennett let's make that hot, heavy, and seemingly untruthful. I've gotten reports that Bennett has been saying things that are factually challenged (a polite way of putting it). Like... (1) Telling people that the 2008 Streets and Bridges bonds will be paid off soon. Reportedly Bennett said this in an attempt to put a positive spin on an $80 million…
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Posted inCarole Smith Chamber of Commerce Chuck Bennett

Chuck Bennett gets lots of love (and money) from homebuilder PACs

Love may be ineffable when it comes to personal relationships. But love is quantifiable when we're talking about political campaign contributions.   Individuals and organizations give the most money to candidates they love the most. So even though browsing through records of political campaign contributions isn't all that fun, tonight I kind of enjoyed exploring the love-fest between Salem Mayor candidate Chuck Bennett and several homebuilder PACs (Political Action Committees). I also looked into Carole Smith's campaign finances, but this wasn't nearly as interesting. A brief discussion of Smith's contributions follows my report on Bennett's. ORESTAR is where the Oregon…
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Posted inCarole Smith Chuck Bennett

Mayor candidates Smith and Bennett duke it out before SJ editorial board

Well, regarding the title of this post, "duke it out" was more of my wish for what would happen when Carole Smith and Chuck Bennett met jointly with the Statesman Journal editorial board, seeking the newspaper's endorsement. After watching half of the hour-long video of the session, I came away wanting more candidate-to-candidate interaction, rather than what actually happened -- Smith and Bennett separately answering questions posed by editorial page editor Dick Hughes. As I noted in "Contrast between Smith and Bennett evident at Salem City Club Mayoral debate," there are major differences between the candidates. But this isn't as clear,…
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Posted inAnna Peterson Carole Smith Chuck Bennett

True Story revealed of Carole Smith’s feud with Mayor Anna Peterson

A lot of malicious political gossip gets spread around supposedly-friendly Salem. Here at Salem Political Snark, we're out to separate false accusations from true facts. This time, the accusation is that Mayor candidate Carole Smith promoted divisive, unproductive conflict while on the Downtown Advisory Board. Like Fox News likes to say -- and I'm barely capable of typing these words, given the source -- "We Report, You Decide." Brent DeHart is a recent past president of the Salem Chamber of Commerce. Smith's opponent, Chuck Bennett, has been endorsed by the Chamber. Here's DeHart's letter to the editor that appeared in the…
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Posted inCarole Smith

Contrast between Smith and Bennett evident at Salem City Club Mayoral debate

Today Carole Smith and Chuck Bennett debated at a Salem City Club meeting about who is best qualified to be this town's next Mayor.  Here's my main takeaways from the hour-long debate -- which, compared to the presidential debates, was very polite. Maybe excessively so, as I was looking forward to a more intense discussion of the policy differences between Smith and Bennett.  But the contrasts between the candidates were clear, regardless.  (1) Bennett's key mantra was jobs, jobs, jobs. Smith's was citizen involvement, citizen involvement, citizen involvement. Bennett has been endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce. If I hadn't known…
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