Posted inCity of Salem Third Bridge

Some City of Salem officials want to toll our bridges. No one else does.

Dirty little secrets deserve to be broadcast to the world when this is in the public interest.  At last night's City Council meeting I was pleased to play a part in revealing something that the folks at City Hall have been trying to hide as best they could: The main source of projected funding for the $430 million Third Bridge (or Salem River Crossing) is tolls -- $175 million worth, generated by a $1.50 each way charge to cross both the new bridge and the two existing bridges.  Here's the proof: a chart from the official Salem River Crossing Project…
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Posted inCity Council Third Bridge

Salem City Council votes 5-4 against Third Bridge

Elections matter. Beginning in 2014, five (of nine) Salem city councilors have been elected after vowing to oppose the Third Bridge, also known as the Salem River Crossing.  Or, as I like to call it, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle.  The Statesman Journal has some good reporting on tonight's 5-4 vote to reject an Intergovernmental Agreement with the Department of Land Conservation and Development that would have helped move the Third Bridge forward. Check out Jonathan Bach's story, "Salem councilors reject third bridge agreement with state department." Opponents of a third Salem traffic bridge over the Willamette claimed a victory Monday as…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon marijuana policies discussed at Salem City Club

Last Friday I enjoyed hearing Oregon State Senator Ginny Burdick and Sara Batterby, CEO of HiFi Farms and a founding chair of Women Grow, update a Salem City Club audience about what's happening with marijuana in this state.  West Salem Cannabis had a display set up in an adjoining room. Unfortunately they couldn't give out any free samples, nor sell anything outside of their store. I hugely enjoyed seeing fellow semi-staid City Club members browsing the cannabis offerings and talking about pot with the friendly West Salem Cannabis employees. Yes, Oregon, along with other legal weed states, has come a…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

New Salem Main Street Association debuts with questions and concerns

As reported by the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog, a new downtown group has been formed -- the Salem Main Street Association.  On Thursday the 20th, the nascent Salem "Main Street" project is going to have something of an Open House at the Ike Box. I'm planning to attend the get-together at the IKE Box because I heartily agree with the bottom-line sentiment on the group's flyer: Here's to a vibrant downtown. However, I and others have questions and concerns about this latest attempt to form an organization that should represent the varied interests of downtown visitors, residents, businesses, and…
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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…
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Posted inLand use

SB 1024 is a rural residential nightmare which won’t produce more affordable housing

In every Oregon legislative session there are some land use bills introduced which make me think, "How the heck did this turkey legislation get hatched?" Case in point for 2017 is SB 1024, which I've heard is supposed to address the affordable housing crisis. Except, it doesn't. Not at all.  After reading the short bill, I'm convinced (along with many others) that SB 1024 is just the latest attempt to undermine Oregon's highly successful land use system.  It would double the number of dwellings allowed on rural residential lots and prohibit county regulators from preventing someone who already has a…
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Posted inCity Council

Who’s the strangest Salem City Councilor? I rank them.

Being the founder of Strange Up Salem -- which has morphed from a regular column in Salem Weekly to a popular Facebook page -- I figure nobody in this town is more qualified than me to take on an awesomely important task: Rank the nine members of the Salem City Council, the Mayor and eight councilors, in order of their strangeness.  Today is a propitious moment to do this. Yesterday Chris Hoy joined the Salem City Council, having been elected in a special Ward 6 election to fill the seat left vacant since Daniel Benjamin's resignation last fall. So now…
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Posted inCity of Salem Downtown

Open letter to Downtown Salem Streetscape Committee

TO:   Kristin Retherford        City of Salem Urban Development Director, and        Chair, Downtown Salem Streetscape Committee FROM: Brian Hines RE: Thoughts about transforming downtown Salem through a Streetscape Project Kristin, I'm super-enthused about what your Streetscape Committee is doing. Carole Smith, one of the members, has shared her synopsis of the committee's first meeting with me. You've got a big job ahead of you, and I'm one of many people in Salem cheering you on who both love downtown as it is, while also realizing how much better it could be through transformative streetscaping. …
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Posted inCity of Salem Police facility

New police facility doesn’t fit with City of Salem “North Downtown Plan”

Here's another reason to vote against Measure 24-420, the second-try $62 million police facility bond measure on the May 2017 ballot: Building a police facility in the north downtown area (on the old DeLon/O'Brien auto dealership site) goes against longstanding plans for how this area should be developed. Salem Can Do Better lays out four other good reasons to vote NO, but this is a fairly fresh idea that just came to light for me.  I've heard criticisms of putting a large 115,000 square foot tax-exempt police facility on a prime piece of downtown land. But until someone mailed me several…
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Posted inDaniel Benjamin Donald Trump

Daniel Benjamin looks on as black guy gets threatened at Trump rally

If this is how ex-Salem city councilor Daniel Benjamin is working on rehabilitating his image after being unanimously censured by the Ciry Council for racial insensitivity on Facebook, he needs to rethink his approach.  Below is a video of a recent pro-Trump rally at the Capitol that drew counter-protesters to a Stand For Love rally. A Statesman Journal story, "Trump rally, protests turn violent at State Capitol," describes what's shown in the video: Cameron Whitten, a Portland activist, being threatened, cursed at, and generally treated nastily by the Trump supporters. Cameron Whitten, 25, live streamed the environment leading up to the…
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Posted inCommunity roast

Salem should have an annual political roast: “A Mingling of the Tribes”

Nationally, politics is really divisive. Less so in Oregon. Here in Salem, we're kind of at a middling state of political tension. Intense nastiness rarely is overt, but under the surface irritations fester. Conservatives, progressives, and everybody in-between (or something else) never are going to hold hands and sing kumbaya together.  But I've got a more realistic goal: Local politicians and other community leaders get together annually for a good-hearted roast of each other and, equally importantly, themselves.  A couple of things would be essential for this to be a success. #1, a copious amount of alcohol. Beer, wine, mixed drinks.…
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Posted inStatesman Journal

Salem Statesman Journal seems to be scamming subscribers

I've been a Statesman Journal subscriber for 40 years. Recently I got a notice that my 7-day subscription price will go up from $36/month to $41/month. At first that didn't bother me. Yeah, it's a 14% increase in an economy where inflation is running under 3% a year. And I was paying only $205 a year back in 2009, which translates into a Statesman Journal subscription price of $17/month.  So that's a 140% subscription increase over eight years, an average of 17.5% a year.  I was curious to see if the $41/month our subscription was going to cost starting in…
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Posted inPolice facility

Four reasons to vote NO on Measure 24-420, the second-try Salem police facility bond

Today I updated the Salem Can Do Better web page to reflect our new campaign: urging a NO vote on the $62 million police facility bond measure on the May ballot. Because even though the rejection of last November's hugely overpriced $82 million bond measure forced City officials to reduce the size and cost of the proposed police facility -- a win for Salem citizens -- the $62 million second-try bond still suffers from some major flaws: Notably, (1) an excessively high cost per square foot, and (2) a continued failure to realize that saving the lives of everybody at City…
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Posted inChuck Bennett City of Salem

I won the Tree City USA photo contest! Mayor Bennett won’t like my acceptance speech.

Woo-hoo! My poignant photo of a citizen's flower memorial placed on a stump belonging to one of the U.S. Bank trees that were needlessly cut down in 2013 won the City of Salem's Tree City USA photo contest. Well, let's say that I'm virtually sure that I won, given the announcement on a rather obscure Facebook page belonging to the City, City of Salem Public Works Water.  Since my photo was the largest, and my name was mentioned first, I'll accept a win on behalf of the five beautiful Japanese Zelkovas that were killed for no good reason by clueless…
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Posted inHomeless

Straight talk about Salem’s homeless problem: answer is more money

Yesterday I learned a lot about our local homeless problem via a Salem City Club program, "A Profile of Salem's Homeless Population: Our Unique Challenges."  Jimmy Jones (Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency) and Ron Hays (Community Resource Trust) presented a lot of interesting information about how many people are homeless in Salem/Marion County, and why they're in this dire situation. I'll share some of those facts below.  First, though, I'll get to the bottom line of what I grasped from the talks by Jones and Hays, and some follow-up Googling into the broader question of what really works to help…
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Posted inCity Council

How will Chris Hoy’s victory affect the Salem City Council?

It was a happy night for Salem progressives yesterday. Chris Hoy won the special election for the Ward 6 City Council seat left vacant by Daniel Benjamin's resignation last year. Hoy's large margin of victory over the other candidates -- including Greggery Peterson, the "establishment" pick endorsed by current Mayor Chuck Bennett and previous Mayor Anna Peterson -- was aided by the enthusiastic support of volunteers from Progressive Salem, who put in a lot of time canvassing for Hoy. Here's a photo of the Hoy election night party at La Margarita Express, courtesy of a Facebook post by Geoff James.…
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Posted inDaniel Benjamin Public Safety

Daniel Benjamin’s right-wing “compassion.” No sidewalks in your part of Salem? Just move.

A couple of weeks ago Mary Nikas shared this photo in a post on the Salem City Council Facebook page (a private page which isn't associated with the City of Salem). She said: "Photo taken this morning on Oakhill Road in SE Salem. Can we start spending our community development money on sidewalks now, please?!" When I saw the photo of a woman having to ride an electric wheelchair in the road, I thought This is terrible, Salem needs sidewalks everywhere so people can get around safely.  Just about everyone who left comments on the post felt the same way. But…
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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…
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Posted inCity Council Gator Gaynor

Salem right-wing talk show hosts Gator Gaynor and Denise Nanke decry Inclusive City resolution

Last Monday the Salem City Council unanimously approved an Inclusive City resolution after hearing highly emotional, and also highly reasoned, testimony from 45 citizens -- all but two of whom supported the resolution. Person after person talked about the fear being experienced by both undocumented and documented immigrants after Trump announced stepped-up deportation efforts. They urged passage of the resolution to show these immigrants that Salem cares about them and will support them. But as I blogged about in "Citizens strongly support Salem 'Inclusive City' resolution. Conservatives not so much." there was both subtle and not-so-subtle resistance to the resolution…
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Posted inCity Council

Citizens strongly support Salem “Inclusive City” resolution. Conservative city councilors, not so much.

I hugely enjoyed watching a passionate parade of people testify in support of an Inclusive City resolution at last night's Salem City Council meeting. (An "Inclusive City" is a lot like a "Sanctuary City," but not quite, for reasons I'm unclear about.) Download Resolution 2017-22 Councilor Cara Kaser said she counted 45 people who testified. I'm pretty sure only two opposed the resolution. The rest talked forcefully and eloquently about the danger, fear, stress, anxiety, and uncertainty caused by President Trump's misguided efforts to build a wall and kick out undocumented Latinos who are already in this country, most of…
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