Posted inCitizen involvement Police facility

How citizen activism produced a much better Salem Police Facility plan

Yesterday Salem voters approved a second-try $62 million police facility bond measure. This is a good time to recollect how citizen activism led by Salem Community Vision (and Salem Can Do Better, an offshoot formed to oppose the first-try bond measure) prevented bad police facility ideas from being implemented -- which made possible the better plan approved by voters. Here's the "headlines" of eight citizen activism accomplishments. Stopping a police facility from being built at the Civic CenterStopping the Library from being converted to a police facilityStopping the idea of building a police facility anywhere at the Civic CenterStopping the…
1
Posted inCitizen involvement City Council

Global warming denial on display at Salem City Council

Our nation has a reality-denying president in Donald Trump. Among other things that are objectively true, yet not to his tiny mind, he believes global warming is a hoax.  The last thing Salem needs is Trumpian City officials who refuse to accept the scientific consensus that global warming is happening, humans are the primary cause, and the world needs to take steps to reduce carbon emissions.  (See "Let's not let horrors of Trumpism infect Salem politics.") So when I watched part of the May 6 City Council work session on a Salem Strategic Plan, it was seriously disturbing to see…
1
Posted inCitizen involvement

“Don’t be so negative” is the wrong thing to say to a citizen activist

I'm a proud citizen activist. Like many other progressives in this town, I do my best to -- no big surprise -- bring about progress in Salem.  This takes optimism, positivity, a conviction that people working together can overcome obstacles to change. Every day I have fresh ideas about what needs to be done to make Salem a better place: more livable, vibrant, equitable, environmentally responsible. Given my buoyant attitude toward citizen activism, it surprises me when I hear someone say, "Brian, you shouldn't be so negative."  And it isn't just me. My colleagues in Salem Community Vision sometimes are tarnished…
3
Posted inCitizen involvement City Council

City of Salem strategic planning effort seems to be going backward

Showing that I'm either (1) crazy, (2) got too much time on my hands, (3) a glutton for punishment, or (4) a dedicated citizen activist blogger (I like this choice!), I just spent two hours of my remaining lifetime watching a Salem City Council work session on its strategic planning effort that was streamed live on Facebook. One of the most interesting comments came from Mayor Chuck Bennett when he said, "I'm tired of planning" and "We don't need to sit around and talk about it." Understand: these sentiments were expressed during a meeting of City officials who have been…
1
Posted inCitizen involvement City of Salem

“Stakeholders” and “Citizens” have different priorities at Salem Strategic Plan meetings

Salem residents gave City officials and their consultants an earful at last Tuesday's Salem Strategic Plan Open House at the Broadway Commons. Actually, many earfuls, as the large crowd of concerned citizens was feisty, outspoken, and unwilling to accept pat answers from the moderators. This photo, courtesy of the City of Salem Facebook page, only shows about half of the attendees. A partition at the back of the room had to be opened up to accommodate the unexpectedly large number of people who showed up to express their views about how Salem needs to change for the better. (My seated…
4
Posted in2016 election Citizen involvement

Salem Women’s March 2017: photos, videos, my take on an amazing day

Though I'm posting this on my Salem Political Snark blog, there's not going to be anything snarky in what I say about last Saturday's Salem Women's March. The rally and following march through downtown Salem was the most inspiring political event I've ever been to. And that includes Barack Obama's 2008 campaign stop in Salem. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. So rather than blab on about why the Salem Women's March was so freaking fantastic, I encourage you to take a look at a web page I made about the event using Adobe Spark. Click…
No Comments
Posted in2016 election Citizen involvement

Facebook post boosts are an Oregon election independent expenditure

Just what I wanted for Christmas: an Oregon election law violation! I've already unwrapped it (by opening an envelope that came from the Secretary of State office) and am "wearing" it proudly. After all, I had no idea that there was a requirement to register as an Independent Expenditure Filer if someone spends $750 or more in a calendar year in support of, or opposition to, candidates or ballot measures independently of those officially involved in a campaign (like, the candidate, a PAC, and so on). So I openly and happily wrote a blog post after the May primary election,…
1
Posted inCitizen involvement Smart growth

Secretiveness of Salem City officials reflected in embarrassing email

Almost everybody has mistakenly sent out an email that had a regrettable something in it. City of Salem officials have joined this large club, as KATU reported in "'Kind of embarrassing': Salem authorities send email with note not meant for public." SALEM, Ore. -- An official with the city of Salem admits it's "kind of embarrassing." The city sent out an email alert that included a footnote the public was not supposed to see. The footnote is regarding whether to tell the public about the cost of a road project in downtown Salem....Gotterba said the budget information he released to…
2
Posted inChuck Bennett Citizen involvement

Mayor-elect Chuck Bennett wants to ban “negativity” about Salem

Jokes can have a serious side. So when I heard Mayor-elect Chuck Bennett laughing about the need to pass a law to ban negativity about Salem, I didn't think this was very funny.  Bennett, who currently is the Ward 1 City Councilor, was being interviewed by KYKN talk show hosts Gator Gaynor and Denise Nanke. (She is the wife of Ward 3 City Councilor Brad Nanke.) Someone sent me this audio clip. Naysayers Should Move I've made a transcript of the last part of the interview, which followed a discussion of how absolutely wonderful downtown Salem is. It's pretty clear…
2
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…
No Comments