HinesSight

Crazy Shirts model spotted at Salem dog park!

OK, let's add "Aspiring" at the start of the title for this blog post.

Because right now I am not an official model of Crazy Shirts clothing. But after Crazy Shirts executives see today's Salem (Oregon) dog park photo shoot, I expect a modeling contract will be in the mail.

(One negative omen, though: Crazy Shirts seems to be age'ist in its current choice of clothing models. On the positive side, there's a dog in this photo of a 2012 photoshoot.)

My own photoshoot was spontaneously organized by my wife, who asked for my iPhone after I cajoled Family Dog #2, Zu Zu, to jump up next to me on a Minto Brown Dog Park bench.

"So cute," Laurel said. I assume she was talking about me, even though she was looking at Zu Zu.

Fortunately for my modeling career, I was wearing my Ugly Tuna Saloona hat, a Chile-Dyed Pepper Dragon t-shirt, and Chocolate-Dyed Canton Sweatpants -- all from Hawaii-based Crazy Shirts, which has become my favorite clothing source (and I'm saying that only partly because I want to kiss up to the Crazy Shirts staff who choose catalog models; I really do love their clothes).

The first photo has some energy to it. However, the vibe I get is of an irritated dog about to bite a guy who's trying to pat it. Probably should omit this one from my Crazy Shirts portfolio.

The second photo turned out better, aside from Zu Zu's butt being crammed into my armpit. On the plus side, Laurel was standing far enough away to prevent the Crazy Shirts' advertising department from clearly seeing how old I am.

An improvement. However, Zu Zu's tongue seems to be sticking out and she isn't exhibiting a high degree of adoring behavior to her owner canine caretaker.

Ah, a big dog smile. And a dog lovingly facing in my direction, subtly encouraged by my right hand pressing into Zu Zu's neck. This photo should put me over the top, Crazy Shirts modeling contract-wise.

The photoshoot ended with some canine backsliding. However, I look pretty damn good, in my utterly subjective opinion. I then grabbed the camera and...

Took a single photo of Laurel with Zu Zu. Sadly for her own modeling career, Laurel isn't wearing anything from Crazy Shirts. 

(And sadly for mine, I don't see "Model" as one of the available career opportunities on the Crazy Shirts web site.)

Hawaiian Airlines drops non-stop Portland-Maui flights, so we drop Hawaiian

Most likely, yesterday we took our last flight on Hawaiian Airlines. For about twenty years we've flown direct from Portland, Oregon to Maui. In January 2012 Hawaiian dropped non-stop Portland-Maui flights. 

So my wife and I are going to drop Hawaiian. We had lots of frequent flyer miles accumulated through our usually-annual flights to Maui, supplemented by our habitual use of a Hawaiian Airlines VISA card, which gave us one mile for every dollar charged.

This year we used up almost all of our frequent flyer miles to buy "free" tickets for a flight to Maui that required a plane change in Honolulu. Ugh. Never again.

From now on we'll fly Alaska Airlines' non-stop to Maui from Portland. And cancel our Hawaiian VISA card. Hawaiian Airlines made a bad business decision. 

Have you enjoyed direct flights from Maui to Portland on Hawaiian Airlines? That service is about to end. Beginning mid-January, you will need to make connecting flights through Honolulu.

This move is bad for Maui tourism. Nonstop service is what attracts visitors to the Neighbor Islands. With fewer options for direct flights, tourists who understand the consequences of connecting flights will opt for a different airline or a different locale to visit.

The Portland flights always seem full, but if statistics show otherwise, why drop the number of days for the direct service to zero? We understand that difficult business decisions sometimes need to be made, but we don't understand the wisdom of deserting an existing market entirely.

Yesterday we asked a Hawaiian Airlines employee why the non-stop flight was cancelled.

"I have no idea," we were told. "The company doesn't tell us employees anything. The direct flights were almost always full. People liked them. Now we're losing business travelers who can't get to Maui early enough to do a full day's work. You should write Hawaiian and complain."

For sure. I'm going to.

Maybe it won't make any difference, but the more people who gripe about losing the non-stop Portland to Maui flight, the more Hawaiian Airlines will realize that whoever dreamed up this stupid move made a bad decision.

From a Facebook page, I learned that Mahalo@HawaiianAir.com is an email address to send complaints to. And the above-quoted letter from The Maui News says, "Leona Duarte at the airline is accepting email from affected travelers/businesses, Leona.Duarte@HawaiianAir.com" So I'm going to send my message to both email addresses.

I'm going to let Hawaiian Airlines know that it was much less enjoyable to fly to Maui through Honolulu. Yesterday my wife and I left Maui pretty much on schedule at 12:45 pm. Our flight to Portland left Honolulu about twenty minutes late, around 3:00 pm. 

So we spent over two hours getting farther away from Portland. Which meant that by the time we got our bags and hopped on the Park N' Fly shuttle, it was after midnight. Living as we do in south Salem, we didn't get home until close to 2:00 am. 

Not fun. Not compared to the non-stop Portland-Maui flights that we and so many others had come to like so much.

The Hawaiian Airlines employee we talked with had the same attitude as I did: "It just isn't right that now a lot more Oregonians are going to be flying on Alaska Airlines to Maui. Getting to Hawaii should be on Hawaiian Airlines."

I agreed. Wholeheartedly.

My wife and I love the service and island-atmosphere on Hawaiian. More than that though, we love not wasting hours of our time making an unnecessary stop in Honolulu -- which is an unattractive, poorly designed airport with horrible eating options for health-minded vegetarians like us. 

Hawaiian Airlines likely is about to feel the full impact of disgruntled formerly loyal customers. As mentioned above, we've now used up almost all of our frequent flyer miles. From now on, we'll use Alaska Airlines for our annual vacations on Maui.

Good bye, Hawaiian. We've enjoyed your company for several decades. But your inexplicable decision to drop all direct flights to Maui from Portland is causing us to embrace Alaska. Change your ways, and we'll probably come back into your arms wings.

Not if you continue to make us fly through Honolulu, though.

1000 Friends of Oregon urges Salem to preserve Sustainable Fairview

Today the Salem City Council has a choice to make: preserve cutting-edge Green zoning requirements for the highly touted Sustainable Fairview mixed use development, or show once again why Oregon's capital deserves it's nickname, "So-lame."

I'm not wildly optimistic, given the Salem Planning Commission's disappointing go-ahead to Simpson Hills, LLC that would allow it to build a bunch of average apartments on what should be an exceptional piece of property.

But if the City Council listens to those in the know, as opposed to those with the biggest short-term profit motive, it will stick with the Sustainable Fairview Master Plan.

1000 Friends of Oregon urges, "Salem Should Keep Sustainable Fairview VIsion Intact."

A flawed proposal can sink a whole vision. That's the case in Salem, where a proposed multifamily housing development seeks to sidestep an innovative, sustainable plan that local residents developed several years ago. The proposal will soon go before City Council, and local advocates are urging the Council to stick to the vision already adopted.

When the City of Salem adopted the visionary Fairview Master Plan in 2005, it was the product of a community with big ideas. It proposed a livable, sustainable future that garnered praise locally and around the country for its creative and productive reuse of a unique large parcel in the middle of a city. “Salem may get used to seeing its name on magazine covers for some time,” crowed the Statesman-Journal editorial board at the time.

Just seven years later, the City has a decision to make: whether to keep to the vision and the potential of that citizen-created plan, or to follow a bland path that it will undoubtedly later regret. 1000 Friends of Oregon hopes the City will choose to stay on the course its citizens so boldly laid in the Fairview Master Plan.

...The nearby Pringle Creek Community, on a different portion of the Fairview site, is a faithful expression of that vision, and has been rightly praised for its accomplishments. But Simpson Hills, citing insufficiently proven constraints on its portion of the site, claims that many of these same principles should be set aside to build utterly indistinctive apartment housing that might be seen anywhere in the country.

Local neighborhood associations, businesspeople, and advocates reject the idea that Salem should embrace blandness and walk away from the community’s vision expressed in the Fairview Master Plan. 1000 Friends of Oregon agrees.

Quality matters. This site can only be developed once. If Salem gets this right, it will set the tone for its own future as a livable and sustainable place, and those magazine covers will keep coming, as will creative and talented residents who will help the city’s economy and culture thrive.

And Salem Breakfast on Bikes has another good overview of what's wrong with the Simpson HIlls, LLC attempt to de-Green Sustainable Fairview.

On Monday, in an appeal on a Planning Commission decision, Council returns to the matter of the third Fairview refinement plan. (For background and analysis see here, here, and here.) The lead images from the plans, though, tell quite a bit of the story in a visual shorthand. The refinement plan strays significantly from the Master Plan and Council will have to decide how much straying should be permitted and, even, whether to construe the refinement plan as "straying."

My (cynical) ideas for a Salem, Oregon city slogan

Yesterday Michael Rose, a business reporter for the Statesman Journal, asked in a Twitter tweet, "What would be a good city slogan for Salem Ore.?"

Oh, great question. My mind is cynically-inclined when it comes to describing Salem's positive qualities, or more accurately, lack thereof. So it didn't take me long to respond to Michael with quite a few suggestions.

Waking up this morning, after my brain had unconsciously incubated additional embryonic seeds of cynicism, I came up with some more. This is my current Salem city slogan oeuvre.

Salem, the blandburger sandwiched between Portland and Eugene's spicy buns

Salem, after you visit just once you'll say, "Now I've seen it all!"

Salem, a great place to buy gas on your way to Portland or Eugene

Salem, visit us and your hometown will look so much more exciting

Salem, the town that could, if it would, but hasn't

Salem, gateway to the Woodburn Mall and downtown Albany

Salem, great places to visit are just an hour away in every direction

Salem, the town that never wakes

Salem, where manic-depressives are cured of what ails them before the hyphen

Salem, a state capital where the Governor sometimes wants to live

Salem, come for the prisons and mental hospital, then stay on our streets

Salem, you'll be surprised how close to Boring we are

Salem, lots of downtown free parking, few places you'll want to go

Salem, so special, there's nothing like us between Keizer and north Albany

Salem, home of... um, let me think... oh, lots of homes!

I suspect there's little reason for me to hope that the Chamber of Commerce will phone and say, "We want to make one of your ideas the official city slogan of Salem."

However, scrolling through Wikipedia's list of U.S. city nicknames (both formal and informal), I found there's some precedent for dark humor. For example...

Forestville - Poison Oak Capital of the World
Pacifica - Fog Capital of California
Gallup - Drunk Driving Capital of America 
Utica - The City That God Forgot 
Cleveland - Mistake on the Lake 
Beaver - Cow Chip Capital of the World 
Bellingham - City of Subdued Excitement 
Forest Junction - You Can Get There From Here 

And Salem can't let itself be shown up, humor-wise, by my favorite slogan that I came across in the Oregon category:

Talent - Our name speaks for itself

Oregon weather breaks my May heart... then heals it

Oregon weather, I'm fed up with you. I've had enough abuse. This afternoon I realized that I can't stand you anymore.

Driving around in south Salem, I just had to pull over, grab my iPhone, and document what a crappy companion you've become. 

Come on! You're ridiculous! My Mini's thermometer doesn't lie. The warmth between us is gone. You're giving me 43 degrees. That's cold any time. Especially...

When the time is 12:50 pm -- middle of the freakin' day! -- on May 4. Spring. In fact, late spring. Yeah, I'd been listening to the "Chill" station on Sirius satellite radio. But that doesn't entitle you to make the outside what I'm grooving to on the inside.

Speaking of outside, Ms. Oregon Weather, this is what you looked like when you were giving me that 43 degree frigid treatment. You've gone gray. And blah. And all rainy weepy. I don't find you attractive any more. It's over!

Oh, sweetheart... I'm sorry for those harsh words. When I got home, after being so pissed-off at you, my heart melted when I saw how beautiful you can be in your sunnier moments.

Thanks for the flowers. I'm going to do my best to work things out with you.

Oregon Weather, my dear, you're an alluring creature. Hellish to live with when you're nasty; heavenly when you choose to be seductive.

Salem City Council, preserve the vision of "Sustainable Fairview"

Please, Salem (Oregon) City Council. Pretty please.

Don't allow the beautiful property in south Salem to become less than the world-class Green development that Sustainable Fairview currently is zoned as.

A few days ago I learned that the Salem Planning Commission is OK with turning the undeveloped portion of the property from a vibrant green to a blah gray, architecturally speaking. On May 14 the City Council meets to decide whether to allow Simpson Hills, LLC to build a bunch of typical apartments on 43 of the 104 acres it owns at the site that used to house the Fairview Training Center. This is the big picture of Sustainable Fairview. Pringle Creek Community, a genuinely Green development, is located in the jagged outcropping at the top of the green-outlined boundary of Sustainable Fairview.

Simpson Hills, LLC owns the property at the bottom, lots 1-5. The white area is to be developed in the future. The area just above, lots 1-3, are inaccurately termed the "Refinement Plan Boundary." Refinement, I guess, is how planners refer to modifying existing zoning criteria.

I'd say Demolishment would be a more fitting term in this case. Here's a close-up look at the plan for lots 1-3.

Yes, it's largely colored green. But that's about the extent of its Green'ness, sustainability-wise.

These lots are planned to house typical three story apartment buildings. Even though current Sustainable Fairview zoning requires LEED standards, Simpson Hills, LLC doesn't want to make the apartments any greener or more environmentally sound than the usual Salem zoning requires.

Ridiculous. 

When Simpson Hills, LLC bought 104 acres of the Sustainable Fairview property, the buyers knew that this was, duh..., a sustainable development with especially sustainable zoning regulations that had been approved by the City of Salem quite a few years ago.

The vision of the Sustainable Fairview Master Plan, for example, included having highly energy-efficient homes; all stormwater captured on site; minimal emphasis on cars/roads; varied types of housing; mixed uses on site so people could "live, work, and play" in a conveniently compact area.

Disappointingly, Simpson Hills, LLC now wants to back off substantially from those laudable goals.

Note the expanse of gray in the plan for lots 1-3 above. Those are parking lots and roads. Lots of lots. Lots of roads. The rain water that runs off them, which will be lots, is planned to end up in the holding pond shown on the right of the drawing. Then all the water will go into Pringle Creek. 

Pringle Creek Community, by contrast, has permeable asphalt and other ways of capturing stormwater. And the original plans for Sustainable Fairview envisioned limited "obvious" parking, with cars sequestered behind dwelling units, rather than prominently parked front and center.

The Morningside Neighborhood Association, which represents those already living in the area, isn't thrilled with the Simpson Hills, LLC "refinement" plan.

Geoffrey James, an architect, heads up the association's land use committee. He's put together an excellent critique of the proposed development which can be read here. It starts off with:

Fairview Hills is a current proposal by a developer for the southern ownership [portion of the Fairview property,i.e. the old Fairview Training Center, that was sold by the State of Oregon in 2008 [actually, 2002], and is supposed (by ordinance) to be a Sustainable, Green, and Low Impact Development. Unfortunately, conventional apartments are currently proposed, with conventional parking lots. A public hearing on this is before Salem City Council on Monday, May 14. Morningside Neighborhood Association is the neighborhood, and the Executive Board passed a motion unanimously, that is opposed to this development.

Attachment 7 in this (large) collection of documents related to the Simpson Hills, LLC proposal is a memo from Sustainable Fairview Associates (SFA), the organization which bought the Fairview Training Center property from the State of Oregon. 

If anybody knows how Sustainable Fairview should be developed, it is SFA. And SFA also isn't happy with how Simpson Hills, LLC is trying to cut corners on cutting-edge sustainability/green'ness. In the memo Sam Hall, SFA Managing Member, told the City of Salem:

We are generally supportive of the plan to develop apartments on the site, but there is little evidence that their plan for apartments at Fairview is different from the projects they say they have done many times before on properties all over the country. We see very little understanding or recognition of the goals of the Master Plan and the nature of the Fairview site.

This should be a no-brainer for the Salem Planning Commission and City Council.

Simpson HIlls, LLC shouldn't be allowed to breeze into town with a cookie-cutter proposal for the Sustainable Fairview property that maximizes profits for themselves and minimizes Salem's chance to have a world class Green development. 

Salem Weekly, our city's alternative newspaper, has exposed how the Planning Commission is unfairly (and possibly illegally) comprised: five out of seven members have strong ties to real estate development.

So its no surprise that a short-sighted Chamber of Commerce mentality at odds with the Sustainable Fairview Master Plan has led the Planning Commission to recommend approval of the Simpson Hills application. It's up to the City Council to stop the madness.

Frequently I critique Salem's blah'ness on this blog. There's a good reason Oregon's capital is nicknamed "So-lame." Often, it is.

Sustainable Fairview is a non-lame flash of creativity, innovation, excitement, and world-class Green design that needs to be nurtured, not crushed by a Simpson HIlls, LLC proposal which seeks to markedly diminish those qualities.

Geoffrey James put it nicely in his critique of the ill-considered development plans:

Why was the area described by the Fairview Master plan meant to be different than other areas of Salem? What is the value of a "sustainable" community or neighborhood?
 

It is intended to be a new kind of neighborhood for those who live and work in Salem, that will foster innovative land development and transportation practices. create a strong yet dynamic sense of community, stimulate and create new employment opportunities, demonstrate the efficient use of both natural and human resources,preserve a healthy environment for people, nature, and business, protect nature and develop new techniques for integrating the natural and built environments, use resources to meet the needs of this generation while conserving them for future generations, encourage creative ideas, products, and processes, and share them with other communities and developments, and be a focal point for the growing effort to achieve a balanced,sustainable future.

The distinction of the project is it is becoming a magnet for people out of state wanting to relocate to a community that values sustainability. Protecting the standards of the project will ensure a differentiated project that would attract new people and new talent to Salem, in particular young professionals from out of state. Additionally, for recruitment, such a distinct housing offering will help our large employers attract top talent to Salem, rather than lose workers to other cities or to Portland. Several thousands of workers live in Portland and commute to Salem each day because they believe Portland has a better quality of life. Offering a well- designed housing option in Salem may lure these workers to live in Salem, and spend their money here rather than in Portland.

 Absolutely.

It'd be crazy if the Salem City Council said "OK" to building a bunch of oh-so-average apartments on the Sustainable Fairview property that are indistinguishable from apartments on Liberty Road, Commercial Street, Wallace Road, or many other places in our town.

Sustainable Fairview is designed to be special. Simpson Hills, LLC wants it to be nothing-special. Why? Apparently because the corporation thinks it will make more money by offering an average housing product, rather than an exceptional housing product.

Well, Salem has enough average.

Let's continue to aim for exceptional with Sustainable Fairview, as the Pringle Creek Community is doing, and which I assume SFA intends to do with the portion of the property it still owns.

Hold fast to the Fairview Master Plan and current zoning, Salem City Council. Don't settle for average.

(The Breakfast on Bikes blog has a good post about the Simpson Hills, LLC proposal. Give it a read. I heartily agree with the concluding words: "Salem has plenty of conventional development. The City of Salem should give that Master Plan a fair trial and square deal. Is it really necessary to water it down from the start?")

My photographic evidence that the world's alright

There's a lot wrong with the world. No doubt about that. But I've accumulated some photographic evidence on my iPhone which shows how alright things are also.

Along with some fellow Trader Joe's-loving friends, we've been worried about how well the recently-opened Salem, Oregon store is doing. Seems like it isn't very crowded whenever I shop there.

But when I glanced into the blue/green glass bin at the D&O Garbage recycling center a few days ago, I thought Alright! 

Tossing my own Charles Shaw (Trader Joe's famous $2.49 wine) bottles into the bin, I was struck by how many similarly labeled bottles -- with the square dark logo on a white label -- already were in it.

And the photo above was taken just after another recycler who had different wine tastes had dumped a large bag of other brand bottles into the front of the bin.

Here's a close-up of the back of the bin that gives a more accurate portrayal of how "Two Buck Chuck" is dominating south Salem's wine bottle recycling bin. If our local Trader Joe's store is selling as much other stuff as it's selling Charles Shaw wine, the store is doing just fine.

Next, not long ago I was short on time and in desperate need of a heavily discounted 16 ounce cup of coffee in my own mug (sitting on the curb in the photo above) from the downtown Beanery.

Love your massive 35 cent discount, Beanery! Starbucks sucks with its measly 10 cents off.

I scanned the parking spots as I drove down Court Street, worrying that I was going to be late for a dog training class that my wife wanted me to attend with her if I had to walk a ways to feed my caffeine addiction.

Then I saw it: Alright!

A "Small Car Only" sign. No problem with my Mini Cooper. Not only no problem, I had lots of room to spare (note the distance between the rear bumper and the white line marking the end of the spot).

Mini Coopers rule. If we all drove them, imagine how less crowded our roads would be. Plus, they'd seem oh-so-European.

Lastly, I assume that you, along with most of the rest of the millions (or billions?) of people who were astonished at the news that our dog had cloned herself, have been waiting to learn whether the clone and the original have continued to get along.

As you can see from the photo above, absolutely. All together now...

Alright!

Storm Large dazzles Salem in Oregon Symphony show

Last Friday my wife and I went to see the Oregon Symphony in Salem even though we don't like classical music. Or, usually, symphonies.

But Storm Large, Portland's rock goddess, was singing along with the symphony in "The Perfect Storm" show that moved to the Schnitzer Concert Hall this weekend. Which also featured rock violinist Aaron Meyer in the first part of the program -- another amazing performer.

Large was on her best behavior during her sultry lounge-singer sort of performance. She noted this near the end of her show, saying something like "Salem, I bet you were wondering what you were going to get tonight. But look! I didn't curse once. And I wore underwear!"

She was dressed elegantly in a slinky black dress, nicely made up in glittery eye shadow, her blonde hair neatly coiffed. But anyone who saw her sing on Rock Star SuperNova back in 2006 knows that Large has a whole other way of being "Ladylike" (her original song).

 

Storm Large's versatility is hugely impressive. Like Lady Gaga, she can play sophisticated nightclub singer or down-and-dirty rocker. I forked out for center seats, six rows back, in Willamette University's Smith Auditorium.

Good choice.

I loved being able to clearly see Large's expressive face. Not to mention her attractive body. In 2011 she took the place of Pink Martini's lead singer, China Forbes, who had vocal cord surgery. Here's a video of her singing with Pink Martini in her sophisticated style.

 

And then there's "8 Miles Wide" from her show Crazy Enough. Hint: she's not talking about the Grand Canyon, but rather, um, a intimate bit of womanly geography.

 

Friday night Large said she had a "kink" for love songs.

Especially for love songs about relationships that end badly. Even better... love songs about relationships that start badly. I loved her honest, pleasingly cynical, yet still hopeful attitude toward love. Yeah, it hurts. But oh so good.

A big audience pleaser was her unique rendition of "Hopelessly Devoted." Large said the original singer (Olivia Newton-John in Grease, I assume) got it all wrong. Large told us that if she was jilted by a jerk, she wouldn't be sitting on a swing, softly singing about the break-up. 

The guy would be duct-taped in an empty warehouse, his head over a toilet, getting what he deserved. 

 

Her emotionally honest approach to love is even more bluntly revealed in Large's wonderful "I Want You to Die." Great lyrics. Note to self: If you're ever reborn and somehow are on the edge of fulfilling your karmic desire to have a romantic relationship with a reincarnated Storm Large, don't!

For obvious reasons.

 

Storm Large is a fascinating personality. Seeing her perform close-up Friday night, I could tell that a complex, intelligent, highly engaging woman was singing beautifully with the Oregon Symphony.

In an interview with Rosie O'Donnell, Large talks about her childhood, her mentally ill mother, and forgiveness. Honest. Real. Super talented. That's Storm Large. Portland, and Oregon, is fortunate to have her.

 

Starbucks, get rid of the annoying homeless people

Oh, no! To some people I'm about to sound like a heartless right-winger, even though I'm a proud progressive. Tough.

This isn't a left vs. right issue. It's an annoying homeless people vs. courteous paying Starbucks customers issue. 

Understand: I'm almost always a happy Starbucks coffee consumer.

Two years ago I blogged about how I'm strangely proud of my Starbucks Gold Card. Today I pay for my coffee via the Starbucks iPhone app, which makes me even prouder (because fewer people use it).

But recently I walked into a Salem (Oregon) Starbucks store and was immediately aware of a large, noisy, rather slobbily dressed guy slouching on a cushioned chair near the entrance. He was talking loudly into a cell phone...

Obama, I can't stand him! He's a Muslim! What a jerk. [blah, blah, blah along that absurd line]

That was annoying in itself, even if the guy had been a customer. But I saw no sign of a Starbucks purchase anywhere near him, though he could have sipped his way through a 12 ounce coffee before I arrived.

What increased my annoyance were his two friends, even more shabbily clothed, standing with their duffel bags outside the men's restroom, waiting to do whatever once they got inside.

These three guys acted like they owned the place, whereas they should have been grateful the Starbucks staff didn't throw them out -- something I increasingly wished would happen as some friends and I tried to have a normal conversation while the homeless crew talked in a decidedly loud fashion just a few feet from our table.

So where are you going to go the rest of the day, dude? was one subject of zero interest to me, yet it unavoidably penetrated into my brain through three sets of obnoxiously loud male vocal cords.

I'm sympathetic to the plight of the homeless, poor, and chronically unemployed. However, these guys struck me as being perfectly capable of working. Could be wrong, but I felt like I came to know them fairly well after being forced to listen to them blather for over half an hour.

I started to get so irritated, I thought about asking them to take their conversation outside.

That didn't seem like a good idea, though, given their aggressive macho style. Getting up and asking the Starbucks manager to do something about them was another option. However, I figured they'd realize who was the complainant, and I didn't want to stimulate another round of shouting. Or worse, shoving.

Over on the entertaining I Hate Starbucks site, there's a page of posts devoted to "Homeless people!" The lead post, from a Starbucks employee, says:

I'm sure if you work in a Starbucks in a city you get lots of fun homeless people. Some of my favorite regulars in our store:

-the guy who sprawls out on the squishy chair, takes off his shoes, props his feet up on the end table, and proceeds to fall asleep, snoring loudly, until one of us have to go upstairs and ask him to leave, after which he checks his watch and says, "Oh! Look at the time! I was just leaving anyway."

-the guy who, without having bought anything, spends 20 minutes in the bathroom doing god knows what and leaving it smelling like absolute death for the next unwitting customer.

-the guy who paces in front of the store before we open every morning and comes in right before we close and asks for a cup of hot water and tells us about how he has to walk all night long. He's actually really cool, he turns on the lights for us upstairs in the morning and waits in line instead of coming straight to the bar.

-there's this blind guy who comes in all the time who positively reeks of henna and has this ridiculous patched pants and crazy long dreadlocks.. he buys a drink and sits upstairs staring into space for awhile. Then this other girl sees that he's inside and she comes up to us and asks for a refill on iced coffee, claiming that she lost her cup. She drinks half of the coffee, then asks us to fill the cup up with ice and whipped cream. She then sits down next to the blind guy and steals half of his coffee. We thought at first they were friends, but he assured us that they were definitely not.

-this guy who used to come in wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase with his long gray hair slicked back like the suave beast he was. He would sit down and start talking to high school and college girls while they were trying to do work and, even after they tried to get away or make him stop, would keep taking to them. After several complaints from other customers who watched him creep on minors, he got banned from the store but claimed he was going to write a letter of complaint to our manager because he was "wrongly accused."

There are more, but these are the most colorful of the ones I've seen. I live in a pretty tame little city though so I'm sure these aren't very bad comparatively. Do you guys have crazy homeless people stories?

Well, my story isn't about a crazy homeless person. The guy who irritated me was annoying rather than obviously crazy. I'm more sympathetic toward the clearly mentally ill. 

I realize that Starbucks wants to convey an open-minded, compassionate, community-oriented corporate spirit. That's great. But if Starbucks becomes a haven for the homeless, other customers are going to be turned off.

It's one thing for a homeless person to get out of the cold and quietly nurse a hot cup of coffee at a table in the corner for several hours. It's a whole other thing to dominate several chairs in the center of a Starbucks and talk loudly about Obama's Muslimosity and other ridiculous crap while paying customers are trying to enjoy a Sunday get-together at a coffeehouse. 

A positive side of my experience was that I've now discovered I Hate Starbucks. The site is run by someone clever who has a pleasingly cynical sense of humor. Since I moderate comments on my own blogs to keep out spammers and assholes, I enjoyed reading this on the site's home page:

An Answer to the Question... "Hey why did you take down my post?"

About three people, you know who you are, have been putting up heaps of posts on the site that talk about how wonderful Starbucks is, I delete 'em. Why? Because I like to think of people self-righteously typing their little hearts out thinking that they are going to take a stand against some bunch of anti-Starbucks hooligans and with one click of my mouse their work disappears. Boo hoo.

I also liked the rebuttals page, which starts off with:

I have been besieged by these people lately so here they are, for your reading pleasure... hate mail and stupid postings from the Starbucks Posse. My comments are in white.
Name: heather Date: Tuesday May 09th, 2000 01:18 PM  hey, i work at starbucks and i enjoy it and i posted many postthat seem to get taken off. Before,judging on 1 experience why won't you let people stick up for the company too! Take both sides.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a clue? Post your squishy ideas somewhere else, for example, try to find an ilovestarbucks.com website, or get off your mocha decaf booty and make one.
Name: Starbucks employee  Date: Sunday March 05th, 2000 03:22 AM I happened to stumble upon this site. It saddens me greatly that people are so full of hate. Sure not everbody likes Starbucks coffee, but not everybody likes tomatoes. Are you going to start Bitching about people who sell tomatoes and like tomatoes? Think about it? Aren't you being a little imature? This is the best job that I have ever had. You can't expect everybody to like everything. The way I see it is that you're jelous that one man made it and your still sitting in front of your computer wishing it was you. Sorry but, Get a Life!
Just in case you were curious, this is the most common type of negative correspondence to the site. Who are they? How much time do they waste traveling to sites that they don't agree with trying to lobby for a corporate monster and influence people by saying brilliant things like "get a life" ? These lovely people are true hypocrites. Don't go to a site with different opinions from yours and insult people. Jeez. And once again, the site is ihatestarbucks.com not ihateeverything.com or even ihatetomatoes.com.

Tear down Salem's Courthouse Square! Make it a park.

Courthouse Square is a square block disaster in downtown Salem.

The three story building, previously mostly filled with county offices, is completely unusable because of dangerous construction defects. So is the adjoining bus transit mall/underground parking.

Twenty million dollars still is owed on the $34,000,000 project. There's little chance that any more than the $1.8 million received in a settlement with the architects and contractors will be gotten in recompense for the construction screw-ups.

Yet the Marion County commissioners seem to be headed toward throwing lots more taxpayer money down the Courthouse Square rathole. So says the Statesman Journal in a story yesterday.

Officials will review repair proposals for the Courthouse Square office building and bus mall, county officials said Tuesday. A video summary of the “remediation” proposal recommended by an evaluation committee will also be presented.

No decisions have been made about Courthouse Square’s fate, but attempting to fix its structural problems will be the first option considered by its public owners.

... Preliminary estimates for repairing the entire complex have varied wildly. One consultant group put the cost at $53.4 million. Members of a citizen task force suggested a $16 million fix was possible.

I say, echoing Ronald Reagan (sort of), Tear it down, Marion County Board of Commissioners and Salem Area Mass Transit Board of Directors!

So also says every person who responded to a Statesman Journal "What should be done with Courthouse Square?" question.

We posed that question to readers on StatesmanJournal.com because the Marion County Board of Commissioners and Salem Area Mass Transit District Board are preparing to discuss proposals for remediating all or part of the building, parking garage and bus mall.

Readers were unanimous: Tear it down and start over.

A gathering place, or "park," should replace Courthouse Square. There's already a model for this not far away: Portland's highly successful Pioneer Courthouse Square. Geez, we just need to change one word and we've got Salem Courthouse Square. 

Tear down the unusable building. Don't fix it.

Make that block into the vibrant center of downtown Salem. Events, rallies, entertainment. Food, coffee, snacks. Benches, water feature, people-watching places. Have some covered areas for when it rains, but leave most of the block open. 

The county can continue to rent private office space for the agencies that used to be in the Courthouse Square building. This should cost way less than fixing the unusable current building, which, as noted above, still will take $20 million to pay off even without doing any repairs.

Stop the madness. Stop the massive waste of taxpayer money. Tear down Courthouse Square. Build a Pioneer Square'ish gathering place. This is what the citizens of Salem want.

Question is: Are the county commissioners and mass transit board of directors listening? 

Tell them. Public comments about what should be done with Courthouse Square are being solicited by both sets of decision-makers. Don't be shy. Send them an email.

Written comments about proposed repairs for Courthouse Square are also being accepted. The public comment period will remain open until the next scheduled joint meeting of the county and transit district. The date of that meeting has not yet been determined. 

Marion County Board of Commissioners, P.O. Box 14500, Salem, OR 97309-5036 
Email: commissioners@co.marion.or.us

Salem Area Mass Transit Board of Directors, 925 Commercial Street SE, Salem, OR 97302 
Email: board@cherriots.org

Salem's lack of "cool" loses 180 jobs to Portland area

No big surprise. Not to those of us who have lived in Oregon's capital city for a long time, and gotten to know why its nickname is So-lame.

Yesterday Statesman-Journal reporter Michael Rose laid out interesting details of how Salem is losing a bunch of jobs to Lake Oswego, a city on the edge of Portland. 
Download Holiday Corporate Office to Leave Salem 

One of Salem's most successful, homegrown businesses is headed to the Portland area with 180 good paying jobs in tow.

Holiday Retirement, the owner and operator of retirement communities founded by the late Bill Colson, is moving its corporate office from Salem to Lake Oswego by the spring. Based in Salem since its inception in the 1970s, the company ranks among the nation's largest providers of senior housing.

Scott Wood, general counsel for Holiday Retirement, confirmed that the company was relocating its headquarters when contacted by the Statesman Journal. He refused to comment on the company's reasons for leaving Salem.

The exodus of Holiday Retirement's headquarters to a Portland suburb reflects a persistent problem for Salem. The City of Roses is viewed as the state's business and cultural hub. Executives with the money and means often chose Portland over Salem for their homes. Even the governor lives in Portland and commutes to Salem. When businesses and their employees flee Salem for Portland, money and community leadership go north as well.

...Economic development officials, such as Burstedt, note the availability of industrial land, an ample workforce, and local governments' eagerness to bring new employers to the [Salem] area.

For others, however, Salem doesn't outshine Portland.

"We talk about it all the time. It's the hard-to-put-your-finger-on cool factor," said Peter Fernandez, Salem's interim deputy city manager. Many corporate "big shots" — especially those who are newcomers to Oregon — will pick Portland, he said.

Who can blame them?

Like many other people, my dentist lives in Portland and has his office here. To them Salem is a place to work, not a place to live and raise a family. The Portland area has better schools, more cultural opportunities, greater creative diversity, and that all-important "cool factor."

I've said that we can improve Salem's economic development by stranging up this town. The news that Holiday Retirement is leaving supports what I said in a post, "Strange Up Salem -- it'll bring jobs here."

I hope there aren’t many Strange Up Salem skeptics, but some might say that this campaign to spice up our overly bland city is out of touch with the “jobs, jobs, jobs!” cry that dominates so much of social discourse these days.

They’d be wrong. 

As noted in my first call-to-strangeness, something strange is out of the ordinary.  And most businesses thinking about locating or expanding in Salem aren’t interested in ordinariness.

After all, what they’d be offering is an alternative to what is available here now. So they’re looking for evidence that people who live here are going to be open to fresh possibilities.

Thus if we Strange Up Salem, we’re engaging in economic development. Along with making this town more creative, fun, dynamic, and appealing.

Makes sense to me. (Well, it should, since I wrote it, and I'm me, so far as I know.) Also, to a good share of those who commented on the Statesman Journal story. For example, John Merrell says:

the 'hard to put your finger on cool factor'?

try authenticity, culture, diversity, hospitality, mobility, etc., etc.

salem is about as phony as they come. it is a wannabe city that has sacrificed all the above on the alter of the same corporate sameness that is seen in any number of other 'mid-size' cities around the country. the lack of authenticity is exacerbated by a mangled transportation system (with such shining examples as lancaster drive, s commercial or river rd n) and the stifling conservatism that often exhibits itself in state capitols.

there is little, if anything, 'cool' about salem. 'exciting' developments such as keizer station only serve to double down on the very things that detract from what salem could offer...

disclaimer: i have not lived in salem for almost 20 years, and do my best to avoid frequenting anything but the peripheries of the town unless forced to travel through on the way to somewhere else.

Statesman Journal should dig deeper into Courthouse Square

A few days ago I suggested some issues the Salem Statesman Journal should unleash some investigative reporting on. Among them was numero uno:

(1) The role of the three current Republican county commissioners in letting construction defects at Courthouse Square go unattended to for so long, until the building was declared unusable. Cracks, settling, and such were evident early on. Whenever this has been noted in stories about Courthouse Square, the questioning of commissioners on this subject isn't pursued by the reporter. Why not?

I appreciate how Michael Rose, the SJ reporter who has done some fine work on uncovering how the Courthouse Square debacle resulted in an unusable newly built building/transit mall in the heart of downtown Salem (Oregon), responded via some Twitter messages.

But Rose failed to point out any of his reporting that was focused on what I said above: why didn't county commissioners Sam Brentano, Patti Milne, and Janet Carlson immediately deal with the construction problems that became obvious even before Courthouse Square opened in 2000, and which were even more obvious throughout 2002?

In one of his stories,"Courthouse Square's Red Flags," Rose led off with:

When cracks appeared at the tops of columns during construction of Courthouse Square in 2000, the defects were taken seriously by Melvin Mark Development Co., a Portland firm hired as a project manager.

The cracks were in critical locations beneath the bus mall at Courthouse Square. Melvin Mark wanted to be "absolutely certain the structural integrity of the bus mall has not been, and will not be, compromised," the company stated in a Feb. 18, 2000, letter to the project's architect.

Melvin Mark recommended getting a second engineering opinion about the cracks. Marion County and transit district officials agreed, according to a February letter from Melvin Mark to Arbuckle Costic Architects.

That second opinion was never received. In fact, it was never even sought.

Instead, Mike Hayford, the structural engineer who designed Courthouse Square, was summoned by county and transit officials. He proclaimed in a July 11, 2000, letter that the cracks were "cosmetic in nature and need only be patched and or epoxy-injected."

Ten years after Hayford's assurances, city building and safety officials ordered the evacuation of the Courthouse Square office building and the closure of the adjoining bus mall. Engineers now say the cracks were a symptom of structural problems that a shot of epoxy didn't cure.

Download Courthouse Square's Red Flags

In 2000, current Marion County commissioner Patti Milne was in office. Yet to my knowledge the Statesman Journal has never reported why she and other county officials ignored the warnings of the Courthouse Square project manager, instead trusting the guy who was reponsible for designing the building.

The Statesman Journal has tirelessly dug into records of the Willamette Educational Service District and demanded that the state make public personal information of every PERS retiree.

So I'd like to see the newspaper be equally committed to laying bare every bit of written and email correspondence to and from Marion County officials, elected and otherwise, regarding construction defects apparent in Courthouse Square from February 2000 onward (cracked walls and concrete pillars, settling paving stones, leaking windows, etc.).

Also, to interview those officials. What did they know? When did they know it? Who decided to ignore the problems? 

This isn't the first time I've asked these sorts of questions in a blog post. Here's some excerpts from my 2010 "Lessons of Salem's Courthouse Square debacle."

Who says nothing interesting ever happens in Salem (Oregon)? Well, I do, a lot.

But ever since it was reported that recently constructed Courthouse Square -- a building that houses most county offices, along with the downtown transit mall -- is in serious danger of falling down, things have been popping in the local newspaper.

Today the Statesman Journal ran a bunch of stories and opinion pieces about this debacle. The $34 million building, which takes up an entire block, is being vacated as quickly as possible. It might not be repairable.

Yet it opened just ten years ago, in 2000, when one of the three current Republican county commissioners, Patti Milne, was in office. The other commissioners came along a bit later, Janet Carlson in 2002 and Sam Brentano in 2003.

All of them are open to the eminently justifiable criticism that they fiddled around while Courthouse Square came ever closer to falling to the ground.

Somehow I suspect that if three Democratic commissioners had overseen this massive waste of taxpayer money (structural problems became apparent in 2002, but were never effectively addressed), the Chamber of Commerce-dominated Statesman Journal would be a lot harder on the politicians in charge.

Now, I'm not saying that news coverage decisions at the Statesman Journal are related to editorial positiions. However, many readers of the newspaper believe this is the case. So I'm not saying, but other people do.

It's a fact that the Statesman Journal editorial board endorsed Patti Milne for re-election in 2010 over her Democratic opponent, Jason Freilinger, who made Milne's "fiddling while Rome burns" attitude toward Courthouse Square part of his campaign. 

And it's a fact that the Statesman Journal editorial board opposed a citizen initiative to add two commissioners to the Marion County Board, and make the commissioner positions non-partisan. This was intended to improve decision-making on the currently over-cozy board, where two people control important county policies.

My main point, though, is that the public deserves to know why construction defects at Courthouse Square were brushed off as unimportant for so long by county officials when they first became apparent. 

Heck, whenever my wife and I have work done on our home (like new windows being installed), we always check out the quality of what we paid for. If there's a problem, we contact whoever did the work and make sure it is fixed.

The Marion County commissioners, all of whom are still in office, didn't do that when Courthouse Square started to fall apart as soon as it was constructed. Since it now looks like it could cost more to repair the project than it cost to build it, and some $20 million is still owed on Courthouse Square, the public deserves all the facts about what went wrong.

Suggestions for Salem Statesman Journal investigative reporting

Investigative reporters are a dying journalistic breed. This was a message I heard while driving around town, listening to POTUS on satellite radio (terrific thoughtful non-wacko programming for us political junkies).

Reportedly a television station in southern California went from over a dozen investigative reporters, to precisely zero in just a few years. This is part of a general decline in investigative journalism.

Including at newspapers, where employment and income are dropping also. So I can understand why our local major newspaper, the Salem Statesman Journal, has limited resources to dig into stories that need in-depth truth excavating.

I just wish the Statesman Journal would choose its gotcha! targets differently. My wife and I have been surprised by how much time and energy the newspaper put into its recent jihad about the Willamette Educational Service District.   

Sure, there were some serious problems with management of the ESD. But fifteen stories and editorials about this? Assigning a reporter to the story for sixteen months?

There's got to be more important local issues to unleash an investigative journalist on.

I'll suggest some. Maybe commenters on this post can suggest others. As a regular reader of the Statesman Journal, my overarching suggestion is that the paper needs to be more even-handed in its treatment of public employees vs. politicians/private sector.

Observing how the news and editorial "slants" of the Statesman Journal have evolved over the past ten years or so, a reasonable conclusion is that the newspaper is reluctant to take on the Salem and Marion County power structure/elites, who not coincidentally happen to be major advertisers.

On the other hand, the paper was eager to release detailed personal information about PERS (Public Employee Retirement System) retirees, including names and final salaries, for reasons that were decidedly unpersuasive. Indeed, totally lacking in my opinion.

So if the Statesman Journal wants to show that it isn't marching to a conservative and corporate drumbeat, it should turn its investigative journalism attention to some issues that aren't getting the attention they deserve. 

Such as...

(1) The role of the three current Republican county commissioners in letting construction defects at Courthouse Square go unattended to for so long, until the building was declared unusable. Cracks, settling, and such were evident early on. Whenever this has been noted in stories about Courthouse Square, the questioning of commissioners on this subject isn't pursued by the reporter. Why not?

(2) How the Marion County commissioners and county Legal Counsel could get some important land use decisions so horribly wrong. Proof: reversal of the decisions by a Circuit Court judge. Citizens have the impression that the Legal Counsel is supposed to follow the law, not political whims of the commissioners. Is this true? Or does the Legal Counsel improperly kowtow to the commissioners?

(3) The abrupt dismantling of Salem Futures, an effort to improve the city's planning. I can't recall any stories about this in the Statesman Journal. Other cities in Oregon are much further along in stimulating innovative mixed use neighborhoods, while Salem lags. How much better off would Salem be if Salem Futures had been allowed to continue, rather than being squashed by a newly conservative mayor and city council?

(4) Downtown has much potential, yet never gets over the "could be..." hump. The well-deserved reputation of downtown Salem is that of a boring, semi-deserted, uninteresting place to visit. Talk of an entertainment district keeps arising, then subsiding. What role do hidebound, Chamber of Commerce-influenced, traditional values play in keeping downtown Salem, well, down? 

(5) The site of the former Fairview Training Center was bought from the state by a group which promised to develop the 200 acre+ property into a model sustainable mixed-use development. Only a small portion has begun to be developed, even after many years, while Wilsonville's VIllebois (which also was state property bought at the same time for a private sustainable development) has prospered in comparison. What's going on with Fairview?

If anyone else has investigative reporting suggestions for the Statesman Journal, share them in a comment. More the merrier.

Untold story of Salem's "Singing in the Rain" flash mob

Today, hundreds of people assembled in Salem for an almost unheard-of happening in Oregon's capital city: to do something creative, semi-spontaneous, and fun. We danced to "Singing in the Rain." Ironically, it was a nice day.

As a blogger, I have a duty to disclose the untold story of this event. You won't find this in the Statesman Journal, which is going to do the usual mainstream media thing -- reporting news in an unbiased, objective, big-picture fashion.

So if you want to see professionally taken photos of people taking part in "Singing in the Rain," which was wonderfully organized by ace S-J fashionista reporter K. Williams Brown and nicely choreographed by American Ballet Academy's Annie Joslin, head over to Mainstream Media Land (video of the dancing still to come.)

But if you want a personal, subjective, focused look at the event, this post is for you -- the person, subjectivity, and focus naturally being on ME. (Hey, this is a blog. What else would you expect?)

I practiced a lot for "Singing in the Rain." Not only did I watch the Joslin/Brown instructional video several times, I even wrote down the basic moves in a 1-8 sequence. Last Monday I went to the Clockworks Cafe for some training from Joslin, which was attended by a pleasingly diverse group of people.

However, it was disturbing to find myself learning the dance beside a five year old girl who clearly thought she was way superior to me just because (1) she was wearing sneakers with lights that lit up when her feet moved, and (2) knew the moves a lot better than I did. 

Even so, we became close, bridging the 58 year gap between us, mostly through me bumping into her with distressing regularity as I screwed up my steps.

The rest of the week, I practiced for Saturday's "Singing in the Rain" event. Not so much the dance moves, but how I was going to maneuver myself into a good position for the video that K. Williams Brown told us about at the dance practice.

Anticipating that it could possibly go viral on You Tube, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to get myself noticed in the video without looking like a geezer jerk who squeezed into the front row of dancers even though he couldn't really do the moves all that well and lacked young-kid cuteness.

My plan: to wear something colorful; to place myself in the second row, or thereabouts; and to stand behind short dance-savvy children who, surely, would be in the front row. 

The plan didn't exactly go awry.

But so far, based on the still photographic mainstream media recording of the event, it didn't go as well as I wanted.

Here's what happened, courtesy of the Statesman Journal photography department, which I'm assuming allows its images to be shared under a Creative Commons license if I were to read the fine print on its web site, which, as a rogue independent blogger, naturally I'm not going to do.

My first mistake was standing way over on the left side of this photo. (I'm the tie-dyed sweatshirt gray-haired guy about three rows from the front.) I was perilously close to the sloping gutter of Chemeketa Street, which didn't help with my dance style. Camera angles also were going to be a problem.

Nonetheless, carefully cropping this photo results in a focus on...ME!

Looking good, dude. Right out of the '60s -- both the decade and the Social Security eligible age. Sadly, another S-J photo failed to capture a clear closer-up view of my "Singing in the Rain" hipness.

 

This is a great shot of my tie-dyed left arm (center right in the photo, just above the head of the cute pink-clad kid).

But my face is almost totally obscured, owing to two serious miscalculations on my part: I'd figured that the little kids in the front row would be by themselves, not accompanied by their mothers; and I assumed that photographs would be taken directly from the front, not the side. 

So even though I'd carried out my plan and positioned myself behind short kids in the front row, a rather tall adult woman interposed herself between me and the camera angle. Curses! I still went ahead and cropped the photo for my self-centered satisfaction.

Looks like I'm patting Mom on her head. Though now that I look at the photo more closely, it seems that another bare armed person also was between me and photographic fame. So double-curses!

Maybe there's a quasi-Buddhist lesson here: my most distinct appearance in a Statesman Journal photograph came when I wasn't trying at all to stand out. After "Singing in the Rain" was over, and most people had left the area, break dancers who'd been featured in the event stayed and showed off their stuff on the stage.

There I am, tied-dyed me, watching them with more than a little wide-eyed amazement. Great dancing and athleticism.

 Nice watching posture, Brian. Relaxed, calm, appreciative.

l'm looking forward to seeing the video of "Singing in the Rain." I was concentrating so much on doing the dance moves semi-correctly, I couldn't watch what was happening on the stage. If I'm visible in the video, great. 

If not? Well, it should be obvious from this blog post that I don't look upon the world as being All About Me. Just largely.

[Late night update: Statesman Journal web site now has a video up of "Singing in the Rain," a.k.a We Love Salem. Whew! I'm brightly visible, more or less, on the left side from 14 seconds to 32 seconds, after which Debra Seeck and partner do their thing. My wife and I have taken dance lessons from Debra. Nice job, D.]

[Even later update: Checking to see whether the corporate masters of the Statesman Journal would permit the Singing in the Rain video to be on You Tube, rather than just on the S-J web site, I found a video of the Salem Cypher Breakdancing Group doing their thing after performing at the event. Best of all, the camera faces tie-dyed ME! After I walk up after the first few seconds. Have a look. These guys are great.]

 

Marion County commissioners raked over legal coals again

Ha, ha! We were right and you were wrongI

Thanks to Salem Weekly, our city's alternative newspaper, I got to gloat again about our neighborhood's land use win over the Marion County commissioners after publisher A.P. Walther asked me if I'd like to write an opinion piece based on my recent gloating blog post.

"Of course," I told A.P.

I then struggled to find the perfect lead for the column, one which reflected my maturity, seriousness, and dignified writing style. "Ha, ha!" struck me as perfect, especially since I figured Salem Weekly wouldn't allow stronger language in a publication that's read by minors.

Check out "Marion County commissioners proven wrong."  

The photo accompanying the column in the printed Salem Weekly was what I use in the header of this blog. But the online version was the pleasingly sinister version above. I like the semi-crazed look. "Watch out, law-defying politicians, I see what you're up to!" 

My wife and I have been gloating about our neighborhood's legal victory over Patti Milne and Sam Brentano since 2010. See: Circuit Court reverses Marion County commissioners and Judge slaps down Marion County Commissioner Patti Milne.

I'll probably keep on gloating for a couple of reasons.

One, gloating is fun, particularly when the objects of the gloat are politicians who blatantly favor special interests over the public good. Two, the more light is cast on politicians who ignore the law, the greater the chance they won't be able to hide in the shadows.

I realize that county politics isn't of much interest to the majority of Marion County voters.

Salem residents identify mostly with their city, even though they (obviously) also are county residents. So it takes a debacle like Courthouse Square, which used to house county offices in a block close to downtown Salem until it was declared unusable due to construction defects which were ignored for years by Milne and Brentano, to focus even a modicum of citizen attention on the County Commissioners.

People in our neighborhood, though, have had lots of experience watching Milne and Brentano clown-walk their way through important decisions, ignoring facts, ignoring public testimony, ignoring expert reports.

Here's an excerpt from a previous gloating that shows what I'm talking about:

Patti Milne and Sam Brentano, acting in their quasi-judicial role as county commissioners, concluded that the Ridge View Estates vested rights application deserved a pass on all six factors.

Judge Johnson, however, gave the application a fail on five of the six factors (she gave a rather weak endorsement of the Board of Commissioners' application of the law on the nature, location, and ultimate cost factor).

That's a big legal turnaround: six for six, versus one for six. It reflects how uncaring Milne and Brentano were to getting both the law and the facts of this case straight, in contrast to Carlson, who seemed much more concerned with making a wise informed decision.

In April 2009 our neighborhood's Keep Our Water Safe committee sent a letter to the Board of Commissioners, asking that they hold a public hearing before deciding whether the Ridge View Estates vested rights application should be approved. Here it is:
Download KOWS request for hearing

Sixty-five people signed the letter. Sixty-five. But Milne and Brentano didn't want to learn about the legal and factual errors in a hearing officer's report to the Board. So they voted without a public hearing. In the request for a public hearing we presciently said:

"By holding a hearing, the Board will provide the public with due process and an opportunity to refine these issues before the board makes its final decision. If the board were to decide this application based on incomplete information it could very likely cost more money down the line by requiring this matter to be remanded for further proceedings."

Which is exactly what happened.

We and our neighbors, along with Friends of Marion County, had to spend thousands of dollars in attorney fees and lots of hours in volunteer time working on the briefs that got filed in Marion County Circuit Court.

This wasn't necessary. Just as letting problems go with Courthouse Square until the building had to be vacated seemingly wasn't necessary.

As we indicated in our press release, the citizens of Marion County should be able to count on their county commissioners to be sound decision-makers, gathering all the pertinent facts about an issue before voting on a course of action.

Patti Milne and Sam Brentano didn't do this with the Ridge View Estates subdivision. They clearly had personal political and philosophical agendas which prevented them from making the proper legal decision on the vested rights application, as well as the original approval of the subdivision.

Salem's Todd Davidson heading up international tourism efforts

One of our neighbors here in rural south Salem has become a celebrity -- in the tourism promotion world. Recently President Obama announced at Walt Disney World that Todd Davidson will lead an effort to increase international tourism through the U.S. Tourism and Travel Advisory Board. 

Here's a KGW story about Todd's appointment (after a brief ad). 

Davidson is CEO of Travel Oregon, which has been successful in boosting tourism in our state.

"The travel industry is an important part of Oregon's economy," said Governor Kitzhaber. "Appointing Todd Davidson to Chair the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board was an excellent selection. Todd is a thoughtful and effective leader who will continue to promote Oregon's tourism advantages in his national position."

Davidson was appointed Executive Director of Travel Oregon in June 1996 and was named Chief Executive Officer in September 2004. Under his leadership, the tourism industry in Oregon has flourished into an $8.7 billion industry that employs more than 90,000 Oregonians; in 2011 more than 8,000 jobs were created. 

Way to go, Todd!

I've got some great ideas for luring international tourists to our very own neighborhood, Spring Lake Estates, which those of us who have lived here for a long time like to call "Poison Oak Estates." There's got to be an untapped market of people who want to experience some of the world's largest and most potent poison oak vines.

I'm visualizing busloads of Japanese (and other) tourists pulling up to vacant lots in our neighborhood after they've had their fill of the Woodburn Mall. We'd give them white jumpsuits to put on, complete with masks and gloves.

Then we'd go on a walking tour of our amazing poison oak forests. There'd be some exciting acrobatic acts featuring scantily clad attractive guys and gals who would do their thing above, below, and around dense thickets of poison oak. And every one of them would be super-allergic to it!

Thrill a minute. We'd sell souvenir poison oak leaves enclosed in plastic, suitable for a necklace, earrings, or gift to someone you can't stand.

Anyway, Todd, feel free to give me a call when the Tourism Advisory Board starts discussing plans to increase international tourism. If you meet at Walt Disney World, where I hear you shook Obama's hand, I'll just have to put country first and accept an all-expenses trip to consult with the Board. 

Salem's great Spring Creek flood of 2012

This is one for our rural south Salem neighborhood's memory book. Until we die or move away, us old-timers will be saying, "Remember the flooding back in 2012? Man, that was something we've never seen before, or since."

Spring Creek is only half a mile long, at most. It's fed by, no big surprise, springs. The creek winds through our property on the way to Spring Lake. Usually it's quite small, even in winter. But the rainfall we've gotten this week isn't usual.

Here's a seven minute video of how Spring Creek and Spring Lake looked to me, my wife, and family dog today. My photographic journey ends with me being out-machoed by a neighbor (but I didn't have to dump water out of my boots).

 

After Laurel got back from our walk, she headed off to the Willamette Humane Society for her usual Thursday dog-walking volunteer duties. Again, though, today wasn't usual.

Instead of walking dogs, Laurel mostly filled sandbags to keep rising water out of the Humane Society building. Then it was announced that all of the animals had to be evacuated because of a broken dike. Laurel grabbed a smallish dog and brought it home.

Sally and I are getting along fine.

However, after some anatomical inspecting Laurel has renamed her/him Sam. Sam and our dog aren't exactly best friends, given Sam's understandable nervousness and barking. Hopefully he will be a fairly brief house guest. (Update: especially since we've discovered he has fleas..)

But for a while, we're pleased to shelter a canine refugee from the great Salem flood of 2012.
Download Salem flooding newspaper story 

Pringle Square gets ripped in a letter to the editor

 

 Ah, I was pleased to read in the Salem Statesman Journal today that another person dislikes Pringle Square for the same reasons I do. 

This monstrosity of a development proposed to be built on the riverfront is ugly and uncreative. It won't draw people downtown. It won't make central Salem a more interesting and livable place. 

Rebecca Custard is absolutely right: "Downtown Salem doesn't need another eyesore."

I very much agree with Carole Duree-Jones (letters, Jan. 13) regarding the plans for the new Pringle Square.

To those who are tasked with making and approving the design and usage decisions for this project, I would implore you to consider something that welcomes and invites visits to Salem and the riverfront area as a destination place rather than adding one more monolithic eyesore to the community.

This is, for Oregon's capital, the perfect opportunity to create an inviting and gorgeous riverfront community of shops, recreation and residential location — to entice visitors and enliven the area, instead of contributing to a continuation of the current "uglification" of the downtown area.

New construction in Salem for the past 10 years has done little to enhance the beauty and grace of this city; i.e., the Conference Center that, to my untrained eye, appears to be a bizarre merging of the architectural styles of Frank Lloyd Wright meets the Jetsons and Walmart.

The Pringle Square property has all the potential to be such an inviting treasure of a location; something of a jewel for the city of Salem and the riverfront.

What Salem really doesn't need is one more uninspiring and vacant apartment/condo building spoiling the view.

— Rebecca Custard, Dallas

Photos of rural south Salem's snow-pocalypse

Who says the pioneer spirit in Oregon died out with the pioneers? It was alive and well today on what many are calling our state's 2012 snow-pocalypse.

Though for some reason, many also are not.

Hopefully these photos of my personal snow-pocalypse will change the minds of skeptics who doubt the severity of our recent weather emergency.

My better judgment said, "Stay inside during this wild storm." My daring heart, along with a forlorn looking family pet, said "Risk your life and go for a dog walk." Given the inclement weather, even our dog, Serena, looked unsure about our chances for survival as we left the house (note curled tail).

During the first stage of our two-mile walk we had to blaze a trail along what would have been a snow-covered road, if there had been snow actually covering it. Nonetheless, snow had begun to cover Serena's back. I began to wonder how long a dog covered in fur, and with a husky'ish tail, could survive in 38 degree conditions. After all, by the time this photo was taken we had been walking in the rural south Salem wilderness for at least ten minutes.

Soon our surroundings became completely snow-covered. It was still possible to make out our route, barely, but even the dog was showing signs of disorientation. Her footprints indicate that she'd been walking in circles. I realized that if we were going to make it home, I couldn't depend on her canine instincts.

Dog and man walked on together, leaving a trail that, at the rate the snow was falling, likely would be completely covered up in a time range that I estimated from never to several days. Still, the thought that an extinguishing of all trace of our passing could theoretically occur filled me with existential angst. I yearned to be able to chat with Sartre about this over a strong cup of expresso.

 

Eventually we reached a point in our adventure where dog and man had to leave the road and enter unmarked territory. Or at least barely-marked, since we only had a sign and several tall fences to guide us across snow-covered grassy ground.

Miraculously, the dog regained her homing instincts and guided me to where I could catch a glimpse of home. At this point I felt like we were going to make it, though I recognized that nothing is certain in a storm of the intensity we were out in.

Having endured such hardships on our trek through the snow, our home's familiar surroundings took on a special appearance with the realization that, against all odds, I'd be able to enjoy them for a while longer.

A favorite tree in our back yard looked beautiful in the snow that just a few short minutes ago had seemed so treacherous. 

Our little pond welcomed me home with bubbling arms. As did our three goldfish, still swimming about (and barely visible in the photo).

Lost in my "How did we survive?" reveries, I turned and realized that I had forgotten about my loyal canine companion, who now was huddling beneath the eaves, undoubtedly dangerously close to hypothermia. Or, perhaps more likely, Feed me my damn dinner'ia.

But before I prepared Serena's food, I knew I had to document the intensity of this snow-pocalypse for those who were lucky enough to escape it, and would know of this memorable weather event only through tales like mine. Here is a ruler showing the snow depth on our deck. Certainly over 1/4 inch; probably closer to 1/2 inch.Who knows how much deeper drifts got?

Anyway, those worrying about our safety now should be reassured.

But the AccuWeather app on my iPhone indicates more severe weather is heading our way tomorrow: four-tenths of an inch of snow is forecast. Four-tenths. With two-tenths more on Tuesday. This means that over the three days this storm has ravaged our area, we could be digging out of an inch of snow, total. 

Somehow, we shall endure. Somehow.

Salem's Pringle Square development: ugly, unwanted, uninteresting

Oh, man... just what I didn't need so early in the new year -- another reason to be depressed about the prospects of Salem, Oregon being able to ditch it's well-deserved nickname, So-Lame.

Today the Statesman Journal newspaper revealed what the Tokarski clan at Mountain West Development are planning for the 13 acre downtown riverfront site which used to house a Boise Cascade paper converting plant and now is to become Pringle Square.
Download Pringle Square story PDF 

Rental apartments. Unbeautifully stacked in what reminds me and my wife of (1) North Korean housing, (2) Chicago "projects," or (3) a poorly designed airline terminal. The development doesn't look any better from closer up.

Garish. Flat roofs. Seemingly no attention paid to sustainability. (The newspaper story says "Salem staffers have recommended approval with a number of conditions, such as improvements to pedestrian access and the addition of bicycle parking.")

A shell of the paper plant still uglifies the view from Commercial Street. Some Pollyannish commenters on the newspaper story say that us critics of Pringle Square should shut up, because anything would be better than what is there now.

Wow. That's a reflection of Salem's disturbing acceptance of mediocrity.

While our much more vibrant neighbors to the north and south, Portland and Corvallis, press ahead with 21st century developments, we here in So-Lame are supposed to accept an oh-so-blah barely-mixed use plan for a highly important riverfront area that deserves a hell of lot better than a design which might have looked trendy in 1960.

I understand that the real estate market is in a downturn at the moment. But Salem shouldn't allow temporary financial conditions to dictate how the southern portion of the downtown riverfront will look for decades into the future. 

Only a few years ago, Mountain West Development had quite different plans for Pringle Square. The plans above are from a 2008 Statesman Journal story.

At a Thursday open house where a developer unveiled its plans for the Boise Cascade site, a small crowd of Salem residents looked over drawings showing the dormant industrial site replaced with a mixed-use development.

Most seemed to have an optimistic outlook for the transformation planned for the 13-acre property.

"I think it's a great idea and a great opportunity," said James Kohn, whose home is a 10- minute walk from the Boise property. Many critics think Salem can't pull together a showcase downtown development, Kohn said, but in his view, the mixed-use project is "pretty much on the mark."

"I want to live here. I want to be right at the top," Salem resident Hazel Patton said as she looked over plans for town houses. The property is a perfect location for a mixed-use development, and it will provide "a strong anchor" for the downtown area, she said.

...Where the old mill building now stands on Commercial Street SE, developers want to build a hotel, a restaurant and office space.

Meanwhile, a large share of the building's southern portion of the site would be spared and remodeled for new uses. The first construction work on the site likely will be converting the warehouse on the south block into a parking garage with as many as 550 spaces, Gerling said.

In addition, about 80 town house-style apartments would be built on top of the warehouse.

Site plans also call for a full-service gymnasium with a swimming pool to be built alongside the former warehouse. Several local gym operators have expressed an interest in the location, but no deals have been struck, Gerling said.

Now, no talk of condos, restaurant, or hotel. The "mixed use" side of Pringle Square reportedly is to be such wildly unexciting businesses as insurance and medical offices. This isn't what people in Salem envisioned when the city worked out a deal with the developers back in 2007. 

Like I said last year in "Salem's riverfront development looks like a loser":

So my wife and I pictured being able to walk to the development from downtown, strolling along the river to restaurants, shopping, night spots. We could enjoy a taste of Paris, or at least San Antonio, sipping our lattes with a view of Minto Brown Island and pleasantly people-watching.

What a waste of prime riverfront property. Nobody is going to want to visit Pringle Square to peer through the window of an insurance office, dreaming of how cool it would be to walk in and talk about a multi-car premium discount.

Last year a fellow griper, John Craig Nielson, wrote a letter to the editor about the Mountain West riverfront development. He nailed it then; given the recently revealed Pringle Square plan, he's still right-on now.

After years of talk, studies, proposals, etc., we finally get an idea of what the new owners of the Boise Cascade site are planning for this critical riverfront property.

What a joke! One hundred apartments and a huge parking structure, all based on rehabbing an old industrial warehouse?

Downtown Salem does not need 100 apartments and a mega-parking structure. To construct that amount of apartments obviously means they will likely be low-income units because Salem can't fill any of the "upscale" units that already exist.

I can't imagine too many professional, medical or retail companies that would want to locate in that environment.

The developers are taking the "cheapest" way to maximize their investment. What happened to the multi-use, park-like setting with shops, restaurants, open spaces, etc., that was originally touted?

This plan is a big mistake and would turn the property into another eyesore and waste of potential. But it would complement Courthouse Square and provide a view of the storage units that border Wallace Marine Park and enhance the beauty of our West Salem Riverfront.

Come on Salem, wake up to this "fiasco." Don't allow this waste of prime downtown riverfront. Make it something that all of us can enjoy and take pride in.

Marion County commissioners owe us an apology

By "us," I mean hundreds of people in our rural south Salem neighborhood who vigorously opposed a 217 acre Measure 37 subdivision proposed to be built on high value farmland that threatened our ground and surface water (wells and community lake).

My wife and I led this fight.

By "commissioners," I mean Patti Milne and Sam Brentano, Republican county commissioners here in Marion County who did everything they could to approve the Ridge View Estates development. Janet Carlson, the third commissioner, was on the losing end of several 2-1 votes.

Carlson, by and large, believed in applying the law to the appeals filed by our neighborhoods' Keep Our Water Safe committee. We didn't agree with everything she did or said, but Carlson was much more fact-based and reasonable than Milne and Brentano.

Today the Salem Statesman Journal had a story about Oregon Court of Appeals and Supreme Court rulings that made my wife and I want to scream We told you so! at the county commissioners.

Which, I guess, is what I'm doing in this blog post. 

We and the attorneys who fought the developers and Marion County, Ralph Bloemers of the Crag Law Center and Sean Malone, a Eugene attorney, kept telling the commissioners what Oregon's land use laws and the common law of vesting required of them.

Unfortunately, Milne and Brentano chose to ignore those laws, until a Marion County Circuit Court judge ruled in our neighborhood's favor and the subdivision developers didn't appeal the decision.

A wise choice, because last week the Oregon Court of Appeals issued another in a string of rulings that support one of the key points that we kept making, and Milne/Brentano kept ignoring: whether someone who has started work on a development should be allowed to continue after a law changes depends in large part on what the completed project is planned to be.

That's common sense.

If you build three rooms of a five room house, you could justifiably say "I'm about 60% done." But if you've built three rooms of a 1000 room apartment building, you've barely begun.

Milne and Brentano owe us and our neighborhood an apology because they willfully ignored this common sense. Oregon law says that whether a vested right is granted to a partially completed Measure 37 development depends on what was done by the developer prior to December 6, 2007.

That's the drop-dead deadline. Nothing done after that date counts as development. (In fact, Measure 37 claimants were required to stop work on December 6, 2007, the effective date of Measure 49 -- which scaled back Measure 37 considerably.)

In our written appeals, in our oral testimony, in our letters to the Marion County commissioners, we kept telling Patti Milne and Sam Brentano what the law said. And they kept ignoring it.

In our case, just as in the Clackamas County case, Campbell v. Clackamas County, the subdivision developers planned a high-end project with expensive homes that would cost around $500,000. Yet after Measure 49 put an end to development, suddenly the developers claimed they'd had a change of heart and planned to build cheap homes.

The Oregon Court of Appeals and Supreme Court didn't buy this argument. It was obvious to us that they wouldn't, just as it should have been obvious to Milne and Brentano if they hadn't chosen to be blinded by ideology, rather than being clear-eyed about what the law demanded of them.

Here's an excerpt from the Court of Appeals ruling:

Because the vested rights determination under Measure 49 is made as of December 6, 2007, the effective date of the measure, "it is incumbent on the property owner to establish the likely total project cost in relation to the size and character of the structures that the owner contemplated building in compliance with a Measure 37 waiver as of December 6, 2007."  Kleikamp, 240 Or App at 66-67.  Moreover, the likely total project cost is "'based on construction costs as of December 6, 2007.'" 

We and our neighbors spent a lot of time and money in court undoing the mistakes made by the Marion County commissioners. If Milne and Brentano had followed the law, rather than their own "pave it over" right-wing political mentality, this could have been avoided.

Note the twice-mentioned "as of December 6, 2007" in the quoted passage above. That's what we kept telling Milne and Brentano.

A developer can't say, "Oh, the housing market is so bad now in 2009 (or whenever). The total cost of our subdivision has been much reduced given these new plans." They don't get to change their plans. Whatever the plan was of December 6, 2007, that's the total cost of development to be considered in a vested right decision.

We and our attorneys were correct. Commissioners Milne and Brentano were wrong. We accept their apologies, in abstentia, because we doubt such will be forthcoming. 

Progressive activists -- an unsleepy side of Salem

This afternoon my open house fears turned out to be unfounded.

Since I figured that I wouldn't know anyone at the gathering but the hostess, new Salem resident Laurie, my ever-anxious mind envisoned awkward moments standing around with a glass of wine in my hand, wondering what I was going to talk about with strangers other than the weather and if the Ducks were going to triumph in the Rose Bowl tomorrow.

I should have known better, because after moving to Oregon from the Boston area, Laurie has found a home among Salem's activist progressive community. She's been a part of Occupy Salem, along with other progressive efforts.

So when my wife and I walked into her home, we found a bunch of gray-haired rabble-rousers sitting around who instantly made us gray-haired rabble rousers feel right at, well, home.

We like outgoing people who speak their minds. And, boy, progressive activists aren't shy about doing just that. Not in any sort of irritating fashion (unless, perhaps, you're a Tea Party type), but in a this is what I think, and I'm not afraid to say it sense.

Introducing us, Laurie told the group that she'd found my blog when she started looking for information about Salem prior to her move. Semi-jokingly, I said, "I tried to talk Laurie out of coming here because Salem is so boring. That's one of the most interesting things to do here: complain about how there's nothing interesting to do here."

"You're wrong!" Those decisive words came from a little woman with big ideas who I instantly liked (also, I almost instantly forgot her name).

We got into a conversation about how Occupy Salem has invigorated this town. She sees lots of ways Salem is headed toward changing for the better, along with, hopefully, Oregon and the nation as a whole.

Spending a few hours in the company of energetic, committed progressives was a great way to start off the year. And you know, I think I also would have felt almost (but not quite) as good if I'd hung out with energetic, committed conservatives.

Passion makes the world go 'round. Without it, who are we? Listless, drifting, cynical, uncaring, passive, lackluster. I'd rather have someone vehemently disagree with me than walk away with a "Whatever."

One person at the open house who I did already know, or at least recognize, was Peter Bergel of Oregon PeaceWorks. I enjoyed talking with him about his representing Occupy Salem at a meeting of Marion County Republicans.

"There was common ground," he said. "Some extremists there called us communists, but others said they agreed with much of what the Occupy movement was trying to do."

Absolutely.

That's why the Occupy folks refer to the 1% and the 99%. Given the political make-up of this country, the 99% of Americans include almost all Republicans, Democrats, and independents. Plus everybody else, for that matter.

What frustrates me, and what fuels the passion of folks who range from far-left progressives to Tea Party conservatives, is how the desires of the 99% have come to take such a back-seat in our supposed democracy. 

I'm fine with majority rule. That's how democracies are supposed to work. But a lot has gone awry in these United States. Somehow corporations have gotten legal rights which should belong only to people, and unlimited political donations have become equated with free speech.

Several people at the open house are passionately involved with the Move to Amend effort whose mission is a constitutional amendment.

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

They're trying to get Salem on board with this notion as part of a bottom-up movement. After initially expressing some skepticism about whether Move to Amend could succeed, I eventually changed my mind after recollecting how, not that many years ago, gays were very much in the closet. 

Now, TV shows openly celebrate gay relationships. Several states have legalized gay marriage. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is gone. Clearly this country is on its way to full equality for gays. Given how unlikely that seemed a decade ago, anything is possible for the future.

If -- and it's a big if -- we can preserve, and as necesssary, restore, our democracy. The 1% should basically have 1% of the power. The 99%, basically the rest of the power.

I told Bergel that I was more than a little surprised to see a prominently featured Daily Kos post that supported the Republicans doing-away with the filibuster rule if the G.O.P. takes over the Senate next November.

I, for one, would very much like to see Republicans do what Democrats didn't have the courage to do in 2007, 2009 and 2011: Turn the Senate into a functioning body of government where the majority rules. Simply put, you cannot have a functioning government where it takes a super-majority to do even the most mundane, routine tasks. Where you can't even get something as basic as an up or down vote. Where you have to constantly concoct these ridiculous "gangs" and "super-committees" because regular order is broken.

Politicians should have to account for their votes. It is time to accept the obvious fact that "gentlemanly comity" is a joke and a relic of a bygone era. Let the majority rule and let the voters take account.

Yes, that would give Republicans almost total control, if they have 51 Senators. But isn't this what majority rule means in a democracy? Seems like people from all parts of the political spectrum could agree on that. Except for those in the 1% who are afraid of what the 100% would decide to do. 

Another restaurant-reason why Salem drives me crazy

Geez. As if I needed any more reasons why Salem, a.k.a. "So-lame," keeps disappointing my health-conscious, vegetarian, organic, ethnic-food loving self.

A few days ago the Portland Oregonian reported that a mere forty miles or so to the north, in oh-so-cool Bridgeport Village, a vegan restaurant called Native Foods has opened. 

Need evidence that plant-based eating has gone mainstream? You'll find it at Bridgeport Village, where this outpost of a small California chain of vegan restaurants opened in November, smack in the middle of the suburban shopping center's busiest crossroad. The vibe is family friendly, as is the accessible menu of salads, small pizzas, burgers and sandwiches, along with comforting dishes like chili cheese fries, Buffalo wings and nachos. All the food is made to order, and many dishes feature "Native Meats," which are made out of plant-based proteins like tempeh, seitan and chicken and bacon substitutes made out of such things as soy, wheat and pea protein. It may sound like a science experiment at first, but the hearty flavors and textures should convince even die-hard omnivores. 

It looks great.

There's nothing like it here in Salem, Oregon's capital city, with a population of 150,000, 99% of whom apparently live for Subway, pizza joints, and the Olive Garden, or we'd have at least one restaurant like Native Foods, or Cafe Yumm.

Yeah, the Oregonian is right: plant-based eating has gone mainstream. But Salem residents will sit on the banks of the vegan/vegetarian river for as long as possible, gorging on double decker cheeseburgers.

Every week the Salem Statesman Journal, our local newspaper, reports in the Living section about restaurant news: openings, closings, renovations, and such.

My wife and I find it horribly depressing. There's rarely any news about eateries outside of the Salem tradition -- high calorie, unhealthy, uncreative, meat-focused. Hopefully this will change someday. For now, we'll just have to dream of the Native Foods vegan Rockin' Moroccan Bowl.

Rockin’ Moroccan Bowl
Your choice of tofu or Native Chicken marinated in our homemade Moroccan sauce with grilled veggies and quinoa. Topped with currants and toasted almonds. Chef Tanya gets the tofu version every time! 9.95

I will too. When I escape from Salem and make it to Bridgeport Village.

Plant magic mushrooms on your grave for loved ones to enjoy

I haven't spent much time envisioning how I'd like my dead body to be disposed of. But after listening to an episode of Philosophy Talk today, "Is Nothing Sacred Anymore?," I've got an interesting psychedelic option to consider.

Here's what a member of the audience said:

Hello, my name is Jay Monk. I'm from Willamette University. And first I'll apologize for the asking of this question about a taboo, but I really want to know what your thoughts are. If hypothetically, for my burial, I'd like to be buried in a plot of land that has been inoculated with psychedelic mushrooms, and then afterwards, in six months or however long, my friends and family take these as a celebration of my life in a wake ceremony, is that sacrilege?

Responses of the philosophers (the ones I could make out among the ensuing laughter):

What a good question! Leave it to the young to think of new ways to break... Wait a minute, these are edible mushrooms? Yes, yes, they have to ingest them to get high. Seems like a cool idea. This could be a celebration of somebody's life. One does have knowledge of rituals in which human beings are eaten as a way of passing on their powers to the people who eat them. And a kind of ritual, eating of the mushrooms that have grown on a person's grave is a mode of connection to that person's life, actually. It shows a kind of seriousness... Have you patented that, uh...

Great idea, Jay. It's terrific that a guy going to college right here in Salem, Oregon, my home town, had such a philosophically inspiring notion.

I had some personal acquaintance with psilocibin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, back in the 1960's. My memory of the experience is dim, but I'm confident that if any friends or family of a deceased person were still grieving after six months, a magic mushroom experience, courtesy of the grave site, would knock them into another state of consciousness. 

Graveyard soils apparently are conducive to mushroom growing. And Oregon is fertile ground for magic mushrooms. So I hope you will indeed patent your idea, Jay. Don't let a minor detail like the illegality of magic mushrooms stop you.

Danger warning! -- people and dogs sighted in Salem park

Watch out, residents of Salem, Oregon. Be warned. Danger is afoot in city parks, including the popular Minto-Brown Island park which has almost 900 acres of open and wooded areas, with many trails.

People and dogs have been sighted in the park! So be extremely cautious around them. These pose the greatest risk to you.

Cougars, not nearly so much.

So don't worry about a recent cougar sighting at the Minto-Brown Island park. Focus on the much greater danger you face from two other species: Homo sapiens and Canis familiaris, people and dogs.

I've done some research to quantify the relative risk of being killed by (1) a person, (2) a dog, and (3) a cougar. These United States statistics cover 2001-2010, the previous ten years.

There were 162,230 homicides during that decade, an average of 16,223 per year. In 2010, ninety percent of the killers were men, according to the FBI. Fifty-three percent of murder victims were killed by someone they knew; a quarter were slain by a family member.

The lesson: if you spot a man in a park, be fearful. Especially if you know him. Males you've met before are the most dangerous killing creatures any human will ever encounter. 

Dogs are considerably less likely to kill you. Still, 263 people were slain by dogs over the last ten years, an average of 26 per year. 

What about cougars?

Most people are more afraid of cougars than of their fellow humans or dogs. But they shouldn't be. Cougars killed just 3 people in the United States from 2001-2010. That's an average of .3 per year.

So you're 54,000 times more likely to be killed by a person (probably a man) than by a cougar. And you're 87 times more likely to be killed by a dog, than by a cougar. This is why, if you value your life, people and dogs should be feared much more than cougars.

Unfortunately, irrationality reigns when it comes to wildlife. Why? Seemingly because they're wild. We're used to seeing men and dogs in parks. Cougars are rare, so people freak out when one is sighted.

Today's Salem Statesman Journal had a great letter to the editor on this subject from Linda Bierly. I heartily agree with her. Thanks for stimulating this blog post, Linda. 

Regarding the recent possible cougar sighting in Minto-Brown Island Park, while it is always prudent to be aware of one's surroundings, cougars have not demonstrated a threat to humans in Oregon.

Top predators such as cougars and wolves are critical to ecosystems. Without these keystone species, ecosystems collapse and degrade. Lack of top predators is the true threat to all species.

Park visitors have much more to worry about from other threats surrounding parks, including the drive to the park, other human park users, off-leash dogs and especially, inadequate funding for Salem city parks.

— Linda Bierly, Salem

Salem Statesman Journal goes to Facebook comments -- trolls freak out

Tomorrow the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon joins an increasing number of web sites and blogs that require commenters on stories/posts to have a Facebook account.

The paper's announcement has created a frenzy among the many rabid, profane, uninformed, hateful, and profoundly clueless people whose main joy in life is leaving anonymous flaming troll comments on the Internet. 

So far, the online announcement has provoked 554 comments.

That's more than I can recall any other Statesman Journal story getting. To increase online readership, I guess newspapers should regularly fiddle with their commenting system, since that generates more interest than, say, efforts to combat hunger, bring about world peace, or cure cancer.

Appropriately, these were the first two comments on the story about moving to the Facebook commenting system.

StellarRat
1:51 PM on November 29, 2011
Well, that will be the end of my commenting. I refuse to join Facebook for any reason.

Name withheld
1:55 PM on November 29, 2011
This comment was left by a user who has been blocked by our staff.

To StellarRat, and others like him/her, I say: "Goodbye and good riddance. If you want to hide behind a fake name, feel free. But this isn't how people should relate with each other."

Regarding Name withheld: as a blogger, I too have had deal with jerks who abuse the privilege (yes, a privilege, not a right) of being able to leave anonymous comments on a web site paid for and managed by someone else.

So I understand why the Statesman Journal is choosing to move to a real name commenting system that, in the newspaper's words, should "create a more civil environment for conversation, and to give everyone an easier way to share with their friends."

Most of the 554 comments on the new Facebook commenting system express disgust and disdain for it.

Some of the reasons make sense, such as the inability of state workers (or anyone else) to share sensitive information confidentially. Others don't, such as the notion that this move is a plot by the left-leaning newspaper staff to silence conservative commenters. I can tell you that among the progressive community, people don't consider the Statesman Journal to have a liberal slant.

Browsing through the first few pages of those 526 comments, I came across -- shock! -- a well-informed, thoughful comment from someone who seemed to know what he was talking about. His comment was fairly lengthy, so I'll include the whole thing in a continuation to this post.

Here's some excerpts:

First, no, Facebook is not greasing the palms of anyone in Salem or the Gannett corporate offices in Virginia. But what they are doing is offering a commenting system at a much lower cost to the company than what Pluck can afford to sell their service for. 

...Second, I'll bet anybody here a thousand buck this decision is made at the corporate level, not in Salem. Generally, comment moderation systems are contracted at corporate and the individual papers must abide. So it's a far better idea to direct your complaints to Virginia, since nobody in Salem is behind the decision. Although the odds of your complaints having any effect on this decision are zero (reference the first point above).

Well, I did some investigative blog reporting on this corporate level issue. After an exhausting whole 30 seconds of Googling (Pulitzer Prize, please), this search result popped up: "USA TODAY switches to Facebook comment system." USA Today is owned by Gannett, as is the Statesman Journal.

And when is the above-linked USA Today announcement dated? Yesterday, November 29. Hmmmm. Sure seems like moving to Facebook is a broad Gannett policy, not a local decision.

I think this is a good move.

I'd seriously consider requiring a Facebook log-in on my own blogs if TypePad had this as a commenting option. When the issue of anonymity has been raised by visitors to my blogs, I've responded in this fashion.

Envision yourself sitting in a coffee shop, having a pleasant conversation with some friends. Then a guy walks up to your booth. He's wearing a mask. He starts yelling at you, spitting, cursing, ranting and raving about something or other. You can't really tell what he's so upset about, he's making so little sense.

"Calm down, dude," you say. "You're bothering us, the way you're acting. If you want some companionship, take off your mask, tell us your name, and sit down with us courteously and respectfully."

"F__k you, jerk!" he yells. "I go by SuprfreekXXX99. I'm not going to reveal who I am, or take off this mask. I'm going to continue to stand here and say whatever I want." At that point, I'd start looking around for a cop. Or someone to diagnose this guy's mental illness.

Yet masked anything-goes anonymity is how a disturbingly large share of the Internet works. This encourages people to say things they'd never speak out loud in public to someone face to face, when their identity was known.

Congratulations to the Statesman Journal for making this move. I think it's going to work out fine.

For some generally positive experiences of other web sites that have gone to Facebook commenting, see here and here.

BlueOregon, a leading political site in this state, moved to the Facebook system for reasons described here. Excerpt:

Nearly six years ago, we launched this site and declared, "BlueOregon will be the water cooler around which Oregon progressives will gather." At first, we weren't sure what we were building exactly. But it became clear very early that our community needed a place to hang out - and BlueOregon became that place.

Unfortunately, BlueOregon has also become a place where trolls have shown up - from all sides on the political spectrum - to throw stinkbombs and create havoc. We've been deluged with folks who aren't interested in chatting around the water cooler, just barging in and screaming at whoever's in the room.

The first foundation of community is identity. Whether your metaphor is a water cooler, or a small town, or a bar called Cheers, you have to have a place "where everybody knows your name" if you're going to create meaningful relationships.

We know this will be controversial. When we first started BlueOregon, many of us defended anonymous comments. After all, anonymity has a long and respected history in American politics. And we were building one of the only places for people to talk about Oregon politics.

But today, there are lots of places. And lots of ways for someone who is dedicated to anonymity to have their say. Here at BlueOregon, we've decided that the benefits no longer outweigh the costs. It's not even close.

It can be pretty demoralizing when you spend time writing a thoughtful post or comment, only to see an instant visceral reaction from an anonymous jerk hurling unfounded charges, insults, and rhetorical nonsense.

Amen to that. Here's the full comment on the Statesman Journal article mentioned above:

Visualize a Cafe Yumm in Salem, Oregon

Hey, my 2007 "visualize" blog post about Trader Joe's worked -- Salem has a store now. So I'm turning my New Age powers into manifesting a Cafe Yumm here.

I've got a perfect location in mind: right next to Trader Joe's. There's a couple of vacant storefronts. The Cafe Yumm franchise info says that 1950 to 2400 square feet are recommended for a restaurant. That seems about the size of the empty space adjoining Trader Joe's.

Come on, Someone in Salem. All you need is $400,000 or so.

My wife and I would throw in a few thousand bucks to become a minority partner with you. Which, hopefully, wouid entitle me to a discount on my favorite Cafe Yumm dish, the Southwest Tofu Wrap: 

Big, grilled tortilla (white or w/w) filled with melted cheddar, grilled seasoned tofu, avocado, tomato, organic salsa, fresh cilantro.

It's amazing. One of the best things I've ever eaten, especially for $6.95. The Tofu Skewer ($3.00) also is a big hit for us. Undoubtedly the meat/fish/chicken dishes are equally Yummy.

There's a Cafe Yumm in Beaverton, Bend, Corvallis, Eugene, Portland, and Springfield. Those are most of the main cities in Oregon. Except, naturally, Salem. Our semi-fair city is woefully behind the times when it comes to cool, hip, healthy, creative restaurants/stores.

No Whole Foods. No REI. No Market of Choice. Until recently, no Trader Joe's. And, sadly, no Cafe Yumm.

The menu would go over great here. I can almost 100% guarantee that, Someone in Salem who could be a potential franchisee. It's largely organic and healthy, but not obviously so. The food is so tasty, even big-bellied, Subway-loving Salemites would be drawn to it.

The story of how Cafe Yumm got started is interesting. From humble beginnings, the creative cooking of founder Mary Ann Beauchamp spread through the enthusiastic “Yummmm! What is this?!!” of her customers.

Let's keep the tale evolving. Into Salem. Next to Trader Joe's. Or anywhere else. Build it and they will buy, Someone in Salem who needs to become a franchisee.

Electric car parking spaces being used by gas guzzlers

After owning our Nissan Leaf electric car for seven weeks, always charging it at home, I decided to check out the recently installed charging stations at the Chemeketa Parkade in downtown Salem (Oregon). 

There are four of them, conveniently located on the first floor of the parking structure near the walkway to JCPenney's. So convenient, they're tempting to drivers of non-electric cars who blatantly ignore the signs displayed between each charger.

Here's the evidence.

Two parking spaces are dedicated to each charger, as the cord can reach a car parked in either space. So eight spaces should either be empty, or filled with an electric car. Count the electric cars in those eight spaces. 

(Hint: our Nissan Leaf is an attractive light blue. None of the other cars in the photo is electric. If you came up with "one" as the answer, give yourself a carbon free prize.)

This is irritating. Most people respect designated handicapped parking spaces. Why don't they respect electric vehicle only parking spaces?

The most likely reason is that Salem doesn't have a city ordinance that levies a fine for using a space assigned to an electric vehicle charging station. I know this, because after I drove our Leaf into the only open space I grabbed my iPhone and started to snap a photo of the offending gas guzzling car parked next to me.

I hadn't realized that the driver was still in the car.

He jumped out and said, "Hey, don't turn me in. I'm with the EV (electric vehicle) project." The guy was there to fix a broken charger. He apologetically said that his work car couldn't be electric because he does so much travelling around, since the range of a EV is only about 100 miles.

OK, this was a good guy.

I holstered my iPhone camera and turned to asking him parking questions. He said that Salem didn't have any rules against parking a regular car in an EV spot. I told him that the chargers being installed by the EV Project aren't going to be of much use if owners of electric cars aren't able to use them -- an emerging problem.

Hopefully the City of Salem will change its parking ordinance so a ticket can be issued if an ICE (internal combustion engine) car uses an electric vehicle space. Apparently California has such a law, as does the city of Portland. 

California recently considered a controversial revision of its statute, AB 475.I'm not sure if it's become law.

"Pure" electric car owners in California, like us Leafies, were upset that the proposed law would (1) give equal parking rights to hybrid electric cars like the Volt, which can run on an ICE after the battery gives out, and (2) require that a car in an EV slot be actually charging.

Being an EV newbie, I wasn't aware about charging etiquette in early adopter places like California. But from this article I learned some manners:

The existing EV etiquette deems that if an EV parked in a charging space has finished charging, a nearby EV owner may remove the charger and plug it into his or her own car. Now, under the new law, the EV owner who was parked in the designated EV charging space but is now charger-less could be towed.

Well, that doesn't seem right.

But at least California has rules and an enforcement mechanism for Electric Vehicle Only parking spaces. The Oregon Legislature needs to follow California's lead. So does the City of Salem.

I'm going to do some lobbying about this, now that I've seen how many ICE people thumb their noses at EV Only parking signs.

K. Williams Brown gets Salem's light just right

Salem, Oregon glows in the invisible ultraviolet wavelength, appealing-city wise. That's one of the insights that resonated with me in a column by K. Williams Brown in the Statesman Journal today. 

Check out the "Let's make Salem's light visible, not ultraviolet" post on my Strange Up Salem blog for how Brown's thoughts stimulated my own. 

But it's time (way past time, really) for Salem to evolve out of its ultraviolet phase of development. I'm tired of having friends and relatives visit from out of state and being stumped when my wife and I think, "What to do?" 

Salem sucks when it comes to engaging, vibrant, walkable, creative, artistic, energetic mixed use cityscapes. There's no neighborhood anything like Portland's NW 23rd Street, one of my favorite places to visit. 

I get this "inner beauty" and "secret treasures" stuff. I'm just eager for Salem to blossom with some outward beauty and manifest treasures also.

What "Salemia" taught me about myself (and Salem)

Wow!

Only about six hours left until the premiere of "Salemia," an event that has been eagerly awaited in Oregon's capital -- by those involved with the film, at least -- since the notion of a response to "Portlandia" was birthed from the fertile comedic mind-wombs of local filmmakers Mike Perron and Dave Jenkins.

(Check out Part 1 of an Q & A interview by Emily Grosvenor with Mike and Dave on her Desperately Seeking Salem site.)

After shamelessly sucking up to Mike and Dave through a series of fawning blog posts, and stammering through an audition last February at a "Salemia" casting call, I was thrilled to get a small role as a crusty transient, the precise smallness of which will be revealed at the premiere this evening -- 7:45 pm, Grand Theatre, advance tickets available at Travel Salem or Salem Cinema.

Checking out recent Twitter tweets from "Salemia" cast members, it's obvious that a certain amount of utterly understandable nervousness is in the air, or more accurately, the minds of amateur actors having yin/yang emotional anticipations:

It'll be wonderful to see myself in the film
It'll be horrible to see myself in the film

Well, what I've learned from my involvement with "Salemia" is that being concerned with wonderful and horrible is a creative process downer. 

As a writer/author, I knew this already. But my brief acting experience in front of a camera hammered home that lesson in a fresh fashion. Driving home after the filming on a cool, rainy April day, my inner critic kept telling me You could have done better; why didn't you do/say X instead of Y?

After awhile I told my alter (or super) ego, Shut the fuck up! Sure, I would have liked to do some things differently, to relive certain filming moments. But moments never can be redone or relived. Life only happens once. 

To look back is to miss the present moment. Art is about what's happening now, fully expressing what is present in that happening moment. 

And not only art: life as a whole. For example, I'd love it if Salem was a cooler, hipper, more energetic and interesting place than it is. "if's" aren't reality, though. Only "is" is (at the risk of sounding like BIll Clinton).

What we have to deal with is what can be expressed now. Our only choice is how fully to engage ourselves.

My old friend, synchronicity, paid a visit this morning as I was reading "How to Believe in Nothing." Here's a story by author Michael Misita that resonated with my inner aspiring actor, as also with my inner aspiring liver of life.

Expressing one's self can be frightening for most people. I remember an acting class I attended many years ago in New York City. The two actors on stage were doing one of the most boring scenes I had ever witnessed. It wasn't the fault of the material they were performing; it was them.

"What do you think you're doing up there?" the teacher asked them.

After a long pause, one of the actors shyly suggested, "Acting?"

We all laughed.

"We're trying to be real," added the other actor. "I don't want to over-act."

"What do you people think real is?" the teacher inquired. "Certainly not the behavior most people display in their everyday lives. Out there, everyone is repressed, and you think that is an example of real life? As actors, it is our responsibility to express ourselves in a way that everyday people do not because they are too self-conscious. You're not here to be self-conscious. A little over-acting would do you a world of good and hold your audience's attention a whole lot more. They don't pay to come to the theater or go to a movie to see what they can see in their everyday lives. They come to the theater to feel something. They come to see someone express themselves in a way they feel they cannot. Everyone wants to express himself but almost everyone is deathly afraid to do it."

There was momentary silence in the room, then the teacher said, "Now, start the scene again, and for God's sake, give it some life. Take some chances, show some passion, stop playing it safe. Express yourselves!"

Great advice. Mike and Dave have done just that with "Salemia." Kudos and congratulations to them. May all Salemites be inspired to follow in their creative footsteps and do as advised above:

Take some chances, show some passion, stop playing it safe. Express yourselves!

This is what Salem needs. Heck, this is what we all need.

I stand up for Salem (sort of)

Whenever I blog about how boring Salem, Oregon is, there's a pretty good chance someone will leave a comment along the lines of "Your negativity about the town you live in is getting old...like you."

Well, today I stood up for Salem when someone snarkily commented on the Oregonian's story about "Salemia," our film response to "Portlandia." This guy, bruceabishop, said:

Having both lived and worked there previously, it's obvious to me that it should be pronounced "Sa-Lame-Ya", with the accent on the middle syllable.

That deserved a fierce response, an energetic defense of Salem's non-lameness. So I replied:

Hey, bruceabishop, you're way off base calling my city "Sal-Lame-Ya," WAY off base. There's lots of exciting, creative, artistic, entertaining stuff to do in Salem. For example...

Um. OK. Just a second. I need some time to think...

It's coming. Almost got it. Damn! Slipped out of my mind. Wait, wait... the thought will come back. Oh, now I know what I was wanting to say.

My wife and I can get to a freeway on-ramp in just a few minutes. Then it's easy for us to get to Portland, Eugene, the coast, the Cascades. Gotcha! There's plenty to do in Salem. All you need is a car and enough gas to drive 60-90 minutes.

Hope this silences those who feel that I don't give Salem enough credit for... something or other. 

"Salemia" gets thumbs-up from Portlandia actors

Oh, yeah!

THEY, meaning Portland and Eugene, won't have so much reason to mispronounce our semi-fair city's name as So-lame now that the hipster stars of "Portlandia," Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, have acknowledged the creative brilliance of our very own "Salemia" -- sight unseen, even before the premiere this coming Wednesday. 

The brains behind "Portlandia" are cool with the notion of "Salemia." 

"I love it," said "Portlandia" star Fred Armisen, noting that "Portlandia" began as the web series "Thunderant." "Please tell them to keep going." 

"Portlandia" co-star Carrie Brownstein was equally enthusiastic. 

"We feel like we're just part of an ongoing conversation that artists in Portland have had with the city and that artists and creative people in other cities in the U.S. and the world are having in the places that they live," she said. "We don't see ourselves as separate or special; we're just one voice among many. We're inspired by other things constantly and it makes us happy that people would be inspired by 'Portlandia.' " 

Check out the rest of today's front page story in the Oregonian, "Web series 'Salemia' is a capital idea." (Well, OK, it was on the front page of the Living Section, but that counts.)

Then, plan to attend the premiere at Salem's Grand Theatre, Wednesday October 19, 7:45 pm. I recommend getting in line now, since a "Salemia" frenzy clearly is building and will only grow stronger. 

Tip: when you pitch your tent on the High Street sidewalk, bring some anti-Wall Street signs.

Then your campout can do double-duty -- you'll demonstrate your commitment to "Salemia," and passers-by will think that you're one of the Occupy Salem demonstrators who are hanging out in their tents a few blocks away.

Occupy Salem rally/march -- video & photos

Today in Salem, Oregon my wife and I joined hundreds of other 99%ers in a march from the Capitol that ended at a rally in Peace Plaza (in this context, "99%" refers to those people less well-off than the top 1% -- who now own 40% of our nation's wealth).

We were part of a vast October 15 worldwide protest against growing wealth inequality. The United States has the fifth-most unequal wealth distribution in the world, and it's getting worse. Our middle class is sinking into lower class status, while the rich keep getting richer.

Here's a five minute video of how the rally started. I was impressed with the unorganized organization of the Occupy ______ movement. Nobody in particular seemed to be in charge of the event, but it went along appealingly smoothly and flowingly. Lao Tzu would be pleased: "In governing, don't try to control."

 

And here's some iPhone photos that I took of the march/rally.

My wife, Laurel (on the left) and I got to the Capitol about fifteen minutes after the pre-march rally started. We figured the march would be late, just as we almost always are. Nope. The marchers left right on time, with us and a friend, Delana (in the middle) bringing up the rear.

Willson Park, part of the Capitol grounds, was indeed being occupied. We marched by tents put up by the committed core Occupy Salem folks.

A merry band of Silverton People For Peace joined up.

I don't think one traffic law was broken during the march. Heck, I usually jaywalk a lot more on my own. Occupy Salem had monitors at every crosswalk guiding people. Again, great organization for a loosely organized group.

At the Peace Plaza rally, this canine was one of the most enthusiastic chanters. Well, he/she barked. But the dog had the right intention. The sign reads: "Rescue Airedales not Wall St. Bankers - Tax Fat Cats"

Here's the main "stage" of the rally. But people felt free to speak from anywhere.

The people at the rally were a diverse group. Young/old. Countercultural/traditional. Loud/quiet. Everybody was united, though, by a common goal: to get our country and the world back on a fairness track.

This was my wife's favorite sign, a Ghandi quote: "First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; they they fight you; then you win." We need to put something like this together -- a generic protest sign that we can take to any sort of rally.

Laurel and I were signless until someone handed one to my wife. Guess they had to leave early. 

Here's our friend, Delana, with a sign she made herself. Note how every word is spelled correctly. That's important when you're a teacher who is saying "Hire our teachers back."

Occupy Salem march! Saturday, October 15, noon

Just got this info from Laurie Dougherty, a new/old blog friend who I've never met, but who I feel I know well:

Support occupiers in Willson Park next to the Capitol and attend the rally and march on Saturday October 15 starting at 12 noon at the Capitol.

Occupy Salem is inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the 10/15 rally. The march is connected with a day of action for global change taking place in hundreds of cities in dozens of countries around the world.
http://occupysalemoregon.com/
http://occupywallst.org/
http://15october.net/

Be there! My wife and I sure will.

I marched a lot in the 60's. And now I'm in my 60's, still marching. Far out. Also, groovy. I bet tomorrow will blow my mind.

"Smash" -- another great Willamette Univ. Theatre play

If you live in the Salem, Oregon area and enjoy going to plays, check out the Willamette University Theatre offerings. For a long time my wife and I had season tickets to Pentacle Theatre, but we came to yearn for edgier, less predictable plays.

Belatedly, we discovered Salem Repertory Theatre; unfortunately, just before SRT went out of business. Liking the SRT style (basically, anything goes), we were enthused with the first Willamette University Theatre production we went to, "Aquitania."

I didn't understand it, which I assumed meant that it was a deep, thought-provoking, mind-blowing play. Regardless, I'd rather be confused by a play than be bored by it.

"Smash" is the kickoff to Willamette University Theatre's (WUT) new season. It's based on a George Bernard Shaw novel about socialism. Up until intermission I didn't understand Smash very well either. But that's one reason intermissions exist.

So a woman can explain to her significant other (a.k.a. confused husband) what is really happening in the play.

In my defense, there are a lot of words in Smash.

I had the feeling that (1) the playwright, Jeffrey Hatcher, wanted to get a lot of thoughts across in a limited time, and (2) the WUT actors wanted to express those many thoughts rapidly in believable English accents so the audience members would be immersed in a flow of oft-complex verbiage which would carry them along in more of a feeling than thinking drama consciousness vessel.

Or maybe my brain just wasn't working very well during the first act.

Support for that hypothesis is found in the fact that when we walked into the lobby at intermission and I told my wife "This play is really hard to make sense of," she replied, "What are you talking about?"

Laurel agreed with me that the rapid-fire English accents could be tough to decipher at times. But in quick succession she cleared up a number of questions that had me baffled through much of Act 1.

(My wife is a retired psychotherapist, so it isn't surprising that she could pick up on narrative subtleties or obvious'ties which eluded me.)

For example...

Q. Why doesn't Henrietta recognize the husband, Sidney, who left her at the altar, post-marriage, when all he's done to disguise himself is grow a mustache?
A. She does! Didn't you get this? She obviously recognized him, but she didn't want anyone else to know this.

Q. Why did Henrietta say that would-be socialist Sidney disappeared because he was abducted, rather than speaking the truth: that he left her at the altar because he feared that marriage would dilute his pro-socialist zeal?
A. What did I just tell you?! Henrietta can't let on to her father, or anyone else, that she recognizes Sidney, so the abduction story was made up.

Intermission went on in this vein.

I was pleased to have Smash explained to me, but my male ego was pretty much, well, smashed by the time Act 2 started.

I started to worry about my general ability to understand human interactions, but then rationalized away that anxiety by telling myself that most people in my life don't have English accents, and they don't talk as fact as the WUT actors.

Embarassingly, after the play was over my wife -- rather gleefully -- got to explain to me what "Smash" alluded to, after I'd expressed my meta-perplexity about the title of the play.

The lesson for me here, which I'll take to heart, is to read the entire Director's Notes before a play starts, instead of using the restroom. (Or ideally, getting to a play early enought to do both.)

Laurel had remembered reading that Hatcher wanted to show how becoming too "preachy" about a social cause can be as off-putting as a Jehovah's Witness at your door. Yes, socialism or semi-socialism or slight-socialism has a lot of pluses. However, trying to smash those who resist what you're advocating usually isn't the best way to influence people.

My wife and I both thoroughly enjoyed Smash (me, especially after I understood it, more or less).

We were impressed with the fine acting of each and every member of the cast. I thought Josh Rice did a particularly good job playing Sidney, though the dramatic expressiveness of Margaret Smith, who played a girl's school headmistress, also was hugely entertaining.

It was refreshing to be exposed to a play that we'd never heard of, yet was about a subject that is as topical today as it was back in the late 1800's: how to change the world without being a total asshole about it.

"Salemia" premiere is October 19. Wake up, Salem!

Maybe this will wake up sleepy Salem, the Oregon blandburger stuck between the spicy buns of Portland and Eugene:  

Salemia, our response to IFC's Portlandia, will premiere at the Grand Theatre (191 High Street NE) on Wednesday, October 19, 7:45 pm -- as part of the Salem Film Festival.

Check out the You Tube teaser/intro, which features an absolutely perfect theme song by a local band, Axolotl Daydream.

(Oh, by the way, just in case you don't notice, my name appears at the 43 second mark, not that I'm into self-promotion, leaving aside this self-serving blog that I've devoted myself to for eight years; also, there is no connection between the words "Brian Hines" and the large bicycling butt shown above my name, which, thankfully, does not belong to me.)

 

Yeah, "Bring You Down" marvelously captures the Salem vibe. I'm too geezer'ish to understand most of the lyrics to the song, but I could decipher these lines:

No, I don't want to bring you down.
Sometimes, there's no place else to go.

You nailed it, Axolotl Daydream (whose band leader is TIm King). That's Salem! It tries hard to be an interesting, creative, energetic, stimulating, forward-looking city, but almost always it disappoints.

Which won't be the case with "Salemia," I'm betting. Filmmakers Mike Perron and Dave Jenkins are talented enough to be immune to Salem's Blah Witch curse.

But what if, against all odds, they aren't? What if "Salemia" turns out to be boring? Well, the film will still be a great success, because it will have wonderfully reflected its subject matter.

So come out and cheer/boo Salemia on October 19 at the Grand Theatre. No reason not to, Salemites, since there isn't much else to do in this town on a Wednesday night.

Salem's riverfront development looks like a loser

Salem, Oregon is cursed by a Blah Witch. That's pretty damn clear.

Whenever something creative, energetic, and enticing comes on the Capital City scene, it encouragingly flashes into life, then starts to dim until Salem's stultifying atmosphere snuffs it out. At best, a few mildly glowing embers remain to remind us of the luster that a genuinely vibrant urban area, such as Portland, offers its residents.

One example is the Sustainable Fairview project that my wife and I bought shares in quite a few years ago. Plans were for a world-class mixed use oh-so-Green development featuring residences, lots of open space, and a village center where people could mingle, shop, and play.

So far, only thirty-two out of 276 acres have been developed by the Pringle Creek Community folks.

They're doing a great job, but what's transpired on the location of the old Fairview Training Center isn't anywhere close to what was planned. Meanwhile, the Villebois sustainable development in Wilsonville, a sister project to Sustainable Fairview, has moved ahead nicely.

Like I said, Salem is cursed.

Here's more proof: the vaunted renovation of the disgustingly ugly Boise Cascade site near the downtown riverfront looks like it is going to be a shadow of what was promised back in 2009.

A dreary and vacant industrial complex along Salem’s waterfront is poised to become a gem, said Tim Gerling, a consultant working on the redevelopment of the Boise Cascade site.

“What we’re talking about is true mixed use on a scale that Salem has not seen before,” Gerling said.

...The 13-acre Boise site has already attracted interest from prospective occupants, including a health club, a hotel, restaurant and an office user. No deals have been finalized, Gerling said The consultant, a former public works director for Salem, gave the business community on update on the Boise Cascade site at a luncheon sponsored by the Strategic Economic Development Corp. More than 150 people attended the Thursday event.

In 2007, developers Dan Berrey and Larry Tokarski purchased the Boise Cascade site in downtown Salem for $7.25 million. The mixed-use development proposed for the property would include office buildings, shops, restaurants, and condominiums. It is designed to complement, not compete with the city’s existing downtown businesses, Gerling said.

So my wife and I pictured being able to walk to the development from downtown, strolling along the river to restaurants, shopping, night spots. We could enjoy a taste of Paris, or at least San Antonio, sipping our lattes with a view of Minto Brown Island and pleasantly people-watching.

The reality, sadly, appears to be quite different.

Changes in the real estate market stifled plans for redevelopment before they could become reality, and Tokarski said his group literally has had to go back to the drawing board."What we have done is looked at what the market wants right now, and that is apartments," Tokarski said.

...The next phase will be at the structure to the south of the creek. The current structure will be reinforced to better stand up to a seismic event, then the lower two floors will be remodeled to accommodate 500 indoor parking spaces.

The top floor will be demolished to make way for four new levels with space for 100 apartments, a 10,000-square-foot day care center and up to 12,000 square feet of "neighborhood" retail space, Tokarski said.

Developers envision insurance, medical or other destination retail offices instead of specialty boutiques or big box stores.

Wow! Parking spaces, apartments, a day care center, and -- oh, please, let this be true -- insurance and medical offices! It'll be so much fun to walk by and see people sitting in the waiting rooms.

Not.

Today a big "Yes!" screamed inside my head when I read a letter to the editor in the Statesman Journal. John Craig Nielson nailed it in "Plan for Boise Cascade site is a mistake."

Here's his letter in its right-on entirety.

After years of talk, studies, proposals, etc., we finally get an idea of what the new owners of the Boise Cascade site are planning for this critical riverfront property.

What a joke! One hundred apartments and a huge parking structure, all based on rehabbing an old industrial warehouse?

Downtown Salem does not need 100 apartments and a mega-parking structure. To construct that amount of apartments obviously means they will likely be low-income units because Salem can't fill any of the "upscale" units that already exist.

I can't imagine too many professional, medical or retail companies that would want to locate in that environment.

The developers are taking the "cheapest" way to maximize their investment. What happened to the multi-use, park-like setting with shops, restaurants, open spaces, etc., that was originally touted?

This plan is a big mistake and would turn the property into another eyesore and waste of potential. But it would complement Courthouse Square and provide a view of the storage units that border Wallace Marine Park and enhance the beauty of our West Salem Riverfront.

Come on Salem, wake up to this "fiasco." Don't allow this waste of prime downtown riverfront. Make it something that all of us can enjoy and take pride in.

John, I admire your optimism and enthusiasm. But you're forgetting about the Salem curse. We're doomed to mediocrity. We'll always look north to Portland and south to Corvallis/Eugene and think, why can't Salem be more like those cities?

Today the Statesman Journal also had a front page story about Salem's Courthouse Square debacle, "What went wrong at Courthouse Square?"

Richard Rogers, a manager at the Oregon Building Codes Division, said there is an expectation that "someone will chase through these (engineering) calculations" to determine the viability of structures. In his 11 years with the state's building codes division, Rogers said he hasn't seen another real estate development with the magnitude of problems found at Courthouse Square.

Of course you haven't, Richard. There's only one cursed city in Oregon, Salem.

Here's links to some previous blog posts about the Boise Cascade development:
"Salem's curse continues: riverfront development stalls"
"Salem's riverfront: frustrating concrete wasteland"

"Farming or Folly?" forum in Salem (Oregon)

Friends of Marion County, a land use advocacy group my wife and I are close friends with, is having a "Farming or Folly?" community forum this coming Thursday, October 6, 2011 at the Salem Public Library.

See press release info below.

I'll be attending, because I haven't made my mind up on the farming or folly expanded uses question.

Some people don't like the idea of a winery, say, being able to host marriage parties or other events. They consider that bringing a hundred or more people onto farmland isn't really appropriate, and fear non-farm uses will steadily erode the character of Oregon's rural areas.

Well, given how tough it is to make a living as a farmer these days, I lean toward giving farmers quite a bit of leeway when it comes to making a buck. But maybe I'll learn stuff at the forum that will lead me to change my mind.

------------------------------

Farming or Folly?
Expanded Uses on Farmland

Friends of Marion County, an advocacy group dedicated to sustainable land-use policies, is sponsoring a community forum to take place Thursday, October 6, 2011, 7 PM; Salem Public Library, Anderson Room “A”, 585 Liberty St., SE, Salem.
 
The forum, “Farming or Folly?  Expanded Uses on Farmland” will focus on a Marion County ordinance and also increased types of activities allowed on farmland due to laws passed during the 2011 legislative session.  Legislative issues for 2012 will also be discussed.

Panel members include David Epling, Planner, Marion County Public Works; Steve Berrios, Inspector, Oregon Liquor Control Commission; and Steve McCoy, Farm and Forest Staff Attorney, 1000 Friends of Oregon.

The public is invited to attend and participate in the discussion. Refreshments will be served.

For further information contact:
Friends of Marion County
Roger Kaye
503-743-4567
rkaye2@gmail.com

People and places I like in Salem, Oregon

Wow!

I'm about to say some positive things about Salem -- the capital city of Oregon, where I've lived for thirty-four years. My usual attitude toward Salem (boring, sleepy, uncreative, lethargic) is reflected in a multitude of other blog posts.

(For example, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

But today was a warm, sunny late September day. I rode my maxi-scooter around town and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. That got me to thinking about how much I like some favorite Salem people and places.

Betsy at Hair Headquarters. A few blocks south of Mission, on Commercial Street, sits a small barber shop where I've been getting my hair cut since 1977, when I started to commute from Portland to a state job here. I can't imagine having my hair entrusted to anyone else but Betsy. Once she took a few months off for some ridiculous reason, like to have a baby or something. I was traumatized when I had to have my hair cut by someone else.

Betsy and I always have great conversations. Today we mostly talked about cars. The subjects are almost endless, because I've known Betsy for longer than I've been married to my second wife. In fact, almost longer than both of my marriages combined. The guy who took my place in the barber chair helped with our home's earthquake preparedness renovation. We had a nice chat while Betsy started on his own hair cut.

The small town where I grew up had a one-chair barber shop. Hair Headquarters reminds me of that wonderful atmosphere: men's magazines, few frills, good chance you'll run into someone you know. One (positive) difference: Betsy is better looking than the guy who cut my hair as a kid.

Venti's downtown. l haven't been to the new Venti's location on south Commercial yet, so my praise is directed at the Court Street location. I've been eating the Garlic-Sesame Tofu dish for a long time, starting when Venti's was in a hole in the wall-space across the street, in the Reed Opera House building.

Back then, there was no way a patron wasn't going to get up close and personal with both the cooks and the other customers. I enjoyed the repartee between the regulars and the staff. That intimacy is diluted now that Venti's has expanded. But I still see some of the same people who frequented Venti's v. 1.0 when I leave my Tai Chi class at Pacific Martial Arts (above Dairy Lunch on Court Street) and walk by Venti's v. 2.0.

The atmosphere still is pleasingly casual, quirky, and beer'y. Over the years the Garlic-Sesame Tofu dish has steadily improved. I had it tonight and say, Best Yet! The teriyaki'ish sauce is excellent. I like having a brown rice option. The broccoli, pea pods, and carrot slices are healthily plentiful, as are the bite-sized tofu chunks (big improvement over the previous tofu strips, which required cutting).

Venti's is my favorite place to eat in Salem. May you live long and prosper, Venti's v. 2.0 and 3.0 (which I do plan to visit soon).

Downtown Beanery. Yes, I have a Starbucks card. Also, a Starbucks iPhone app which I use to pay for my coffee because it seems cooler to hold my phone up to a scanner than to hand over my card.

But my true caffeinated love is the Downtown Beanery, conveniently located just half a block from my thrice-weekly Tai Chi classes. I don't know how much cosmic energy I'm invigorating myself with through Tai Chi, but I sure feel an energetic jolt every time  my dearly beloved Thermos mug is filled to the brim by the Beanery baristas (who give a large 35 cent discount for using your own mug).

And not just from the caffeine. I'm energized by the Beanery's independent coffee house vibe, which is a heck of a lot more appealing than the Starbucks corporate atmosphere. I do a lot of blogging at a Beanery table, sipping from my mug, eating a muffin, enjoying the reliable wi-fi.

The Downtown Beanery feels almost like home. The staff are friendly, efficient, and accomodating. Yesterday a woman apologized for the length of time it took for me to get my bagel and cream cheese, because she'd toasted me a new one after over-cooking the first bagel. I told her that I eat mal-toasted bread made by myself all the time, but was appreciative nonetheless.

LifeSource Natural Foods. My wife and I would be semi-starving if it weren't for LifeSource Natural Foods' excellent deli section. We stop by quite a few times a week to see what tempting, healthy food item is lurking in the Deli. Then we graze on it for days afterward, postponing our home-cooking as long as possible, because almost always LifeSource does it better than we can.

The LifeSource staff are equally enjoyable. There seems to be little turnover at Salem's only genuine natural food store, seemingly because owner Alex Beamer and his wife have created a terrific working environment. I've been told that employees enjoy good benefits and profit sharing (plus, it seems, all the sample snacks they can eat; I know, because I'm frequently bumping into a staffer as I reach for a free goodie).

Kudos to Alex and LifeSource for being model Green'ies. Solar panels, recycling, low water usage -- all that stuff. When i mentioned to an employee that we'd recently bought a Nissan Leaf electric car, he told me that the Beamer's also had gotten one: blue, just like ours.

I'm thinking that we should form a Nissan Leaf gang of some sort. Maybe we could cruise around slowly in our Leafs with the windows down, arms hanging out the windows, smooth jazz blasting from the radio. Way cool. Just like some parts of Salem are, despite the overall blah'ness of this town.

Salem Statesman Journal shouldn't reveal retiree info

The Salem Statesman Journal, for reasons known only to its generally right-leaning editorial board, went to court so the newspaper could release hitherto private information about the retirement benefits of Oregon state government workers.

My wife is one of them.

A few days ago she got a letter from the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) informing her that because of lawsuits filed by the Statesman Journal and Portland Oregonian, on November 21, 2011 her name and benefit amount will be made public.
Download PERS Letter

Then, on March 9, 2012 anyone in the world will be able to learn my wife's retirement date, retirement plan, benefit calculation method, years of service, and final salary -- if this info is available from PERS's electronic database.

Why does the Statesman Journal need this personally identified information? I haven't figured that out.

Neither has a neighbor who cancelled his subscription after learning about our local newspaper's crusade to reveal intimate details about the legally-earned retirement benefits of himself and other PERS members.

He's deeply irritated at the Statesman Journal. So am I.

Neither of us can understand how the public interest is served by releasing data on individual retirees. If the newspaper, or anyone else, wants to study how the Oregon state retirement system works, I'm sure PERS would be happy to produce any sort of special statistical report desired.

So why is the Statesman Journal determined to reveal individual names and individual retirement benefits? Is this a matter of investigative journalism, or part of a crusade against public workers?

Salem's daily newspaper has been obsessed with the Willamette Educational Service District, which did something wrong some time in the past (can't remember the details; I got bored after the one thousandth, or thereabouts, breathless front page story about the ESD, especially since the Statesman Journal has never bothered to dig deeply into the much more expensive missteps of the three Repubican Marion County Commissioners who sat by and fiddled around while Courthouse Square became a useless $34 million debacle).

But when it comes to prying into individual PERS retirees' personal financial records, the Statesman Journal is right on it.

Again, why the need for making this info public? I wonder how the management employees of the Statesman Journal, such as publisher Steve Silberman, would feel about revealing to the world every governmental or tax benefit they receive?

After all, if individual information about PERS retirement benefits is public knowledge, why shouldn't we be able to know what tax credits or deductions Mr. Silberman and other members of the newspaper editorial board have taken advantage of?

And maybe some of their family members are on Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. Perhaps a relative has gotten a student loan underwritten by the government, or benefited from some other public program. All of those details should be divulged, so readers of the Statesman Journal can know the extent to which newspaper employees are feeding from the public trough.

If that sounds ridiculous to Statesman Journal management, then why is releasing individual information about PERS retireee benefits any less ridiculous?

Qutie a few letters to the editor and online comments have expressed similar outrage about what the Statesman Journal is doing. Check out this, this, this, and this. Some excerpts:
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"After you post all your information on PERS retirees, I want to know all the names of welfare recipients, how much money they receive, how long they have been on welfare and if they are trying to get off taxpayers' dole.

"I would also like to know who, what, when and where people are receiving medical care on the taxpayers' dime.

"You might as well stick in the names and monies of anyone else who has received any taxpayer money (corporate executive, etc). I want to know exactly where my taxes are going."
------------------------
"I cannot believe the public should be told my name along with the amount I receive each month for my pension. Isn't that an invasion of my privacy and of every retired person? Why does anyone — aside from PERS and my yearly tax reports — need my name?

I think the public deserves to know the pension plan details, the position salaries, the number of years served and what those facts will provide for each pension, but also a reminder that I contributed to my plan each month through the 20 years I served."
------------------------
"If all PERS benefits are made public, then all people receiving any government aid should be made public."
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"There is something inherently wrong with a system that requires a search warrant to obtain financial records from banks but allows retirement payment information to be given to news sources.

I spent over 25 years serving the people of Oregon, representing the state and the agency for which I worked to the best of my ability. I took very seriously the role of "public servant," knowing my life would reflect on the state for good or ill. I really looked forward to having my privacy returned to me when I retired, but now that, too, will be fodder for public scrutiny.

Thank you, Statesman Journal and Oregonian."

 

OLCV "Wheels & Wine" event in Salem tomorrow

If you live in the Salem area, here's two good reasons to attend a "Wheels and Wine" energy efficient wine tour tomorrow, Thursday September 22. It's sponsored by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, and will feature...drum roll, please...

Our brand new Nissan Leaf! Shown here, getting its first charge in our carport after being driven home from the Jack Scoville Nissan dealership in Corvallis late this afternoon.

So Reason #1 is: Come to the event from 5 - 8:30 pm at the Santiam Wine Company, 1555 12th Street in Salem (details here, and below) and you'll get to see my wife and me showing off the Leaf. I'll be semi-prepared to answer semi-geeky questions, and fully prepared to share our first impressions of this fully electric car.

And Reason #2 is: Wine tasting. Energy efficient car browsing -- Volt and Prius, plus the Leaf. and maybe others. Support the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Wine tasting (worth a second mention).

Here's a preview of the sort of fascinating Electric Vehicle geek'osity that I'll be sharing based on my extensive 24 hours of ownership experience with a Nissan Leaf:

I just went out to the carport to check the "Stats" function on the Blink charging system that was installed a few days ago free of charge by Cherry City Electric, thanks to Oregon's participation in a six state + D.C. stimulus-money-funded grant program.

The Leaf was fully charged when I left the Corvallis dealership. I drove 26 miles to our home in rural south Salem, going through Albany and then taking I-5 the rest of the way, where I drove 65 mph with the automatic climate control on, the day being warm.

It cost 63 cents to "refuel" the Leaf at our PGE electricity rate of 7.5 cents per kWh.

That's 2.4 cents a mile, a bit above the 1.9 cents a mile our car salesman, Russ Goodyear, told me he gets (Russ bought one of the first Leafs sold in this country). This likely is due partly to our home's rather high use of electricity, which kicks us into that higher "marginal" rate of 7.5 cents per kWh. Base rate is 6.7 cents, or thereabouts.

Even so, my trip home was the equivalent of our 2007 Prius being fueled with $1.06/gallon gasoline, since the Prius averages about 44 mpg in mixed rural/city driving. (Note: the Prius is for sale at a great price. Check out my blog ad.)

And the Leaf produces zero emissions. The Blink told me we just saved 6.89 pounds of CO2 emissions from being spewed into the atmosphere. Cool. Which the world needs, given the obvious effects of global warming.

First impression of the Leaf: Great. Come to the OLCV event tomorrow and I'll be glad to expand on that one word Leaf review. (After a glass of wine, I might be abnormally expansive.)

Here's the event details, copied from the OLCV web site:

-------------------------

The Marion County Chapter of OLCV is rolling out a new and different concept in wine tours! Join us for an evening of wine from local vineyards all over the region all in one easy location. What is the "Wheels" part, you ask? Well, you can stroll on out to the parking lot to take a gander at the most fuel efficient cars on the market in the region to see what is new and exciting in the realm of transportation.

We are holding this exciting new event on September 22, 2011 from 5:00 to 8:30 pm at Santiam Wine Company, 1555 12th Street in Salem promoting local wineries and energy efficient cars. Local auto dealers will have some of their most energy efficient cars on display. We will be having a tasting and silent auction of local wines.

When: Thursday, September 22nd, 5-8:30pm pm

Where: Santiam Wine Company, 1555 12th Street in Salem

Cost: $20 per person and includes wine tasting

Click here to get tickets or register for this exciting event

 

Sunday, support sustainability with the Strongs in Salem

Sesame Street should be proud of me. Look how many "S's" I used in my blog post title!

I stretched my alliterative mind muscles because the house party in honor of the Crag Law Center's 10th anniversary that I'm publicizing deserves to be noticed by people in the Salem, Oregon area who care about protecting our state's natural environment.

Without attorney Ralph Bloemers and the Crag Law Center our south Salem neighborhood couldn't have successfully fought the threat that a 43-lot subdivision posed to our ground and surface water.

So in addition to friends and neighbors, I'm spreading the house party word to other people in hopes that you'll join in saying "thank you" to a terrific public service environmental law outfit.

The house party is next Sunday, September 25, 4 to 6 pm, at the home of the Strong's -- who live at 360 Fawk Street SE (a block north of Hoyt, and a block east of Commercial). Here's a Google Maps link:
http://g.co/maps/ef5jd

See below for a message from Margaret and Arnold Strong, and an invitation to the house party. Photographic art work of Oregon's natural beauty will be displayed. Wine will be served. And yes... there will be a low-pressure opportunity to make a donation to the Crag Law Center.

----------------------------

Dear Friends,

Please join Arnold  and I as we open our home on behalf of our dear friends at Crag.  The Crag Law Center is celebrating its tenth anniversary of supporting community efforts to protect and sustain the Pacific Northwest's natural legacy. 

Ralph Bloemers and Chris Winter have been our friends for eight years.  Their work on behalf of the wild places and the great outdoors here in the Northwest has strengthened the richness of our wilderness areas and helped to keep this great place we call home as wonderful as it is.  CRAG is preparing to defend our forests before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The artwork we will display in our home is a combination of new pieces that will be available at the Wild Shots auction in November and some of the Wild Shots that we have won at auction in years past. 

We are delighted to feature these beautiful portraits of the life in the wild from Rainier to Hood, from the Oregon Coast to the Cascade Mountain range, from the roar of the Columbia River to azure of Crater Lake, from the Polar bears of Alaska to the pronghorn sheep of the high deserts of Oregon.  This will be an event you will appreciate. 

Help us to sustain the work of Crag Law Center by joining us. If you can't be with us at the event, please consider making a contribution to their work directly.  Crag is a non-profit law center.  Their work is made possible by the ongoing contributions of those of us who support their work. You can learn more here.

Please RSVP to either myself at arnold.strong@gmail.com or to Margaret at mmtstrong@gmail.com or 503.931.6681. 

We look forward to seeing you here in our home!

Most Sincerely,

Margaret and Arnold

Why we didn't buy our Leaf from Salem Nissan

Us bloggers believe in giving businesses praise when praise is due, and also publicizing buying turn-offs. So here's how I just replied to an email from Salem (Oregon) Nissan.

I'd gotten a message from Salem Nissan asking if we were still in the market for a car that included this request:

If you are no longer looking or would like to be removed from my follow-up list, please send a quick note to let me know.

I did just that, saying "We're buying a Leaf from the Corvallis Nissan dealer, so you can take us off your follow-up list." When I was asked why Corvallis, rather than locally, I responded with:

CJ, I appreciate your asking the question that you did: why are we rural south Salem residents purchasing our Nissan Leaf from the Corvallis dealership, rather than locally? Here's the explanation:

Salem Nissan was the initial dealer we requested a quote from. In fact, it was the initial dealer twice, because after we received a go-ahead from Nissan Central that it was possible to take action on our Leaf reservation, we contacted Salem Nissan, then changed our mind about getting a Leaf, and then changed our mind about changing our mind -- contacting Salem Nissan again after we'd decided to get a Leaf.

(As you know, Nissan Central only allows prospective Leaf-buyers to contact one dealer at a time.)

After Salem Nissan was contacted, several "turnoffs" transpired. First, I was told that it wasn't possible to test drive a Leaf, or to even see a Leaf at the dealership. I told the salesman, with more than a little incredulity, "So this means that we're supposed to fork out $35,000 for a car that we've never driven, nor even seen in person?"

He explained that all Leafs exported to this country were earmarked for consumer purchase, so dealers couldn't get an "extra" car to have as a demonstrator. I have no reason to believe that this is untrue. However, after we did additional research we learned that both the McMinnville and Corvallis Nissan dealerships had Leafs that could be seen and driven (reportedly at McMinnvile a Leaf even could be taken home overnight).

In Corvallis, the main Leaf salesman/expert purchased one of the first Leafs to be sold in the United States (#3, I believe). I'm pretty sure this also is true of the McMinnville Nissan dealership, as we've heard that the Leaf salesman/expert there also is a early owner of a car, along with being an enthusiastic proponent of this pioneering electric vehicle -- and EV technology in general.

At the Salem dealership, by contrast, I talked with someone who was neither highly knowledgeable nor enthusiastic, and certainly wasn't a Leaf owner himself. So it was a breath of fresh air to tell Nissan Central that we wanted to switch from the Salem to the Corvallis dealership, and then to hear from the Corvallis salesman, "Yes, we have a Leaf you can drive. And if it isn't available, you can drive my personal car."

We've been told that the Corvallis dealership has sold over fifty Leafs. I don't know how many Leafs your Salem dealership has sold, but I suspect it is in the single digits. Which brings me to another reason why we didn't buy a Leaf in Salem.

When I told the salesman at your dealership that we really needed to test drive a Leaf (this was before we learned that such was possible in Corvallis and McMinnville), he offered to contact the first people in Salem who got a Leaf and ask them if they'd be willing to show us their car. This seemed a bit strange to me -- shouldn't a dealer be able to show prospective buyers of a $35,000 car a demo vehicle without enlisting the aid of a customer? But I said, "Sure, give them my name and phone number."

I never heard from the Leaf owners, who turned out to be a couple in west Salem who are avid environmentalists. Several times I reminded the Salem Nissan salesman about this, and he kept assuring me that he'd given the early Leaf owners my name and that I should be hearing from them. Again, I never did. Throughout, I wrongly assumed that they had purchased their Leaf from Salem Nissan.

Eventually I remembered that our local newspaper, the Statesman Journal, had published a piece about these early Leaf adopters. (A Google search showed that some "green" blogs had also linked to the newspaper story.) So it wasn't difficult to find their names, look in the phone book, and give them a call.

I've talked with the woman of the family several times. She is highly enthusiastic about the Nissan Leaf. She also is highly negative about Salem Nissan. This probably explains why she ignored the request from the Salem Nissan salesman to phone us. I was told that she and her husband initially contacted Salem Nissan about buying a Leaf, but found the dealership uninformed and uninterested in the car. They ended up having a very satisfying buying experience at the McMinnville Nissan dealer.

Look: buying a Leaf, or any electric car, is a whole different experience from buying any other vehicle. My wife and I have had lots of questions, anxieties, worries. We couldn't have gotten over the electric car-buying hurdle without sales advice that was well-informed, honest, and personable. Plus, it helped a lot to be talking with a salesman at the Corvallis dealership who owns a Leaf himself and knows the car's idiosyncrasies first hand.

If Salem Nissan wants to be a player in what hopefully will be a rapidly growing and evolving marketplace, your dealership needs to commit to this electric vehicle. Enthusiasm is contagious. Customers can tell when a car salesman doesn't know much about a car he/she is trying to sell. Most people interested in an electric car are environmentally aware, scientifically/technologically literate, and turned off by a traditional car-selling approach.

Here's a final comment along that line: both times I contacted Salem Nissan, I asked for a quote by email -- what the cost of the Leaf equipped as we wanted would be, and what the monthly lease payment would be if we went that buying route. Both times I got a phone call from the salesman, even though the second time I asked for a quote I emailed Salem Nissan and said "Don't call me; email me; I want a written quote."

Whatever happened to "the customer is always right"? This is a whole other subject: what turns people off about car dealerships and the car-buying process.

Today I talked with several guys at a neighborhood garage sale about this. We agreed that when car salesmen play games with a customer, it is a major turn-off. All three of us agreed that walking away from a dealership when this occurs is not only justified, but essential. Unfortunately, we also agreed that car dealerships in Salem tend to be considerably less buyer-friendly than dealerships in some other nearby towns (like Corvallis, Albany, McMinnville).

Hopefully Salem Nissan will get its electric car act together. I'm confident that electric cars have a  bright future in Oregon, especially since our state is one of six with a grant to build Level 3 (fast) charging stations along major highways.

    --Brian

Patti Milne oversaw the failure of Salem's Courthouse Square

Today's front page story in the Salem Statesman Journal is headlined, "Courthouse Square's Red Flags." Subtitle: Project's failures extend beyond bad engineering

Yeah, no kidding.

The county commissioners in office when construction problems first started to become apparent looked the other way, even though the project manager recommended taking action.

When cracks appeared at the tops of columns during construction of Courthouse Square in 2000, the defects were taken seriously by Melvin Mark Development Co., a Portland firm hired as a project manager.

The cracks were in critical locations beneath the bus mall at Courthouse Square. Melvin Mark wanted to be "absolutely certain the structural integrity of the bus mall has not been, and will not be, compromised," the company stated in a Feb. 18, 2000, letter to the project's architect.

Melvin Mark recommended getting a second engineering opinion about the cracks. Marion County and transit district officials agreed, according to a February letter from Melvin Mark to Arbuckle Costic Architects.

That second opinion was never received. In fact, it was never even sought.

Instead, Mike Hayford, the structural engineer who designed Courthouse Square, was summoned by county and transit officials. He proclaimed in a July 11, 2000, letter that the cracks were "cosmetic in nature and need only be patched and or epoxy-injected."

Ten years after Hayford's assurances, city building and safety officials ordered the evacuation of the Courthouse Square office building and the closure of the adjoining bus mall. Engineers now say the cracks were a symptom of structural problems that a shot of epoxy didn't cure.

How could this happen? How could Courthouse Square, a modern structure built by professionals, simply begin to collapse?

Excellent questions by the reporter who wrote the story, Michael Rose. Unfortunately, apparently he didn't ask them of Patti Milne, a Republican Marion County Commissioner who is still in office.

Milne became a county commissioner in January 1999, so she was one of the decision-makers who decided to ignore the warning signs pointed out by the Melvin Mark firm.

Now the $34 million building might not be repairable, and about $20 million still is owed on it, with only a comparative pittance ($1.8 million) likely recoverable from insurance.

It's a debacle.

Yet Milne and others directly involved at the time are running away from their responsibility for letting Courthouse Square problems get more and more serious, while turning a blind eye to them.

Reporter Rose should have asked Milne why, after she had been in office for more than a year, as county commissioner she didn't follow up on the Melvin Mark recommendation to get a second engineering opinion about the concrete cracks.

Instead, Milne trusted the guy who designed Courthouse Square. Not surprisingly, he didn't find any big problems with his work. Milne believed him. Eleven years later, we now learn this was a $34 million mistake.

Taxpayers and voters should expect elected officials to be honest, straightforward, and accountable. Commissioner Milne possesses none of these qualities, as shown by a quote in today's story.

Marion County Commissioner Patti Milne, who first took office in January 1999, said decisions on contracts and the final go-ahead on Courthouse Square were made prior to her taking a seat on the commission."I don't believe I was responsible for what happened because there could have been decisions made I was not aware of," Milne said.

What a cop out. Yes, Ms. Milne, you are responsible for what happened.

What happened is that serious problems with concrete problems became apparent in February 2000. You were a county commissioner then. These problems were ignored by you and other county officials, even though Marion County was the owner of Courthouse Square, along with the transit district.

Nobody expects public officials to be perfect. It'd be fine for Milne to say, "I screwed up. I should have done my job better. I'm sorry."

That'd be courageous, forthright, truthful. Instead, we get ridiculous excuses: "I didn't approve the construction plans, so I'm not responsible for what might be a total loss on Courthouse Square."

Yes, you are.

You ignored obvious early warning signs that the building hadn't been constructed properly. Those problems continued to be ignored by you and your fellow Republican commissioners. They grew worse.

Patti Milne made a $34 million mistake. She should acknowledge it.

"Salemia" intro looks more interesting than Salem

Ever since I heard about this video production I've been excited about "Salemia," our capital city's response to "Portlandia," a television series about Oregon's metropolitian centerpiece of hip, sustainable, cutting-edge coolness.

Which doesn't describe Salem in the slightest.

Our convention center attracts groups like Center for the Enthusiastic Appreciation of Paint Drying. The most frequent diagnosis at the Salem Hospital E.R. is acute episode of Chronic Boredom Syndrome.

But we do have some talented film makers in the personages of Mike Perron and David Jenkins, who recently teased our Salemia-starved appetite with a one minute intro to the production.

 

I like it.

And I'm not saying that because I appear for a whole three seconds, from 0:19 to 0:21, though this fact admittedly does have some bearing on me being responsible for a healthy share of the current crop of You Tube views (most of the rest likely coming from the computers of Perron and Jenkins).

Way back in the '60s, Andy Warhol talked about how everybody would be entitled to fifteen minutes of fame. Given how things have speeded up, three seconds seems closer to the truth.

So this could be mine. Guess I need to milk it as much as possible.

If "Salemia" ever becomes the huge cinematic success that it deserves (though probably the history of artistic expression will look more kindly upon the production if it becomes longer than one minute and one second), students of this genre will discuss every moment of the Salemia Intro in excruciating detail.

Thus for posterity I shall offer up some revealing insights into my actor frame of mind after I was given a brilliant directorial instruction by Mike Perron, "why don't you go rummage through that trash can?"

In my middle-class life I haven't done much rummaging through public trash cans. So for inspiration I had to draw upon the times my wife has said, "I hope you didn't throw away that piece of paper that's been sitting around for a long time. It's really important."

However, upon lifting the lid I immediately realized that this receptacle on the Capitol Mall contained different stuff from our home trash can. Most obviously, a lot of McDonald's debris.

The photo above captured a moment of hesitation which likely is an accurate reflection of choices faced daily by actual transients. There's quite a bit left in this milkshake container; should I suck it out through the straw?

Art intersected with reality. I was torn between an impetus for Cinéma vérité and a desire to not get a nasty stomach bug. In the end I foreswore the straw, in part because I only like vanilla milkshakes and wasn't sure what flavor was in the container.

There's much more I could say about those three seconds. But too much explication of fine art detracts from the je ne sais quoi which is just about all the French I know, and so feels great to squeeze into a blog post whenever I can.

Here's another Salemia-related video from Perron and Jenkins. These guys have a great sense of humor.

 

Salem's riverfront: frustrating concrete wasteland

Making my annual visit last Saturday to Salem, Oregon's wonderful World Beat Festival, I was struck by a couple of dichotomies.

Arriving at the multi-cultural event, after just a few minutes of booth browsing at least one reason why some displays were crowded and some were empty became evident.

Looking good is popular.

Being good -- that truthfulness, benevolence, and forebearance stuff -- not so much.

Leaving the World Beat Festival, another dichotomy was frustratingly evident.


The main entertainment stage is near the Willamette River. It was great to watch Chinese dancers with such a beautiful natural backdrop of water, trees, and Minto Brown Island.

But then I walked a short distance toward downtown Salem and came to the edge of a concrete wasteland -- the remains of a now-unused Boise Cascade industrial site. Local investors Dan Berrey and Larry Tokarski bought the 13-acre property in 2007, hoping to transform it into a mixed use development.

Hasn't happened.

The development stalled last year and hasn't started up again. If anything, the Boise Cascade property is uglier than before. The main warehouse is half torn down, with chain link fences walling downtown Salem off from an expanse of barren rubble.

From the edge of downtown you can peer through the fence and get a glimpse of the verdant riverfront.

Just past the Riverfront Park stage, where the Chinese dancers and other entertainers did their thing at the World Beat Festival, the glimpse is a full-fledged vista.

This is what Salem is missing: a vibrant, year-round connection to its riverfront. Other cities have restaurants, shops, coffee houses, night clubs, boat rentals, and such along a major river that flows through town.

Salem basically has nothing. Just a park next to a difficult-to-cross busy street (plus train tracks) which attracts throngs of people only for special events during the summer.

There's a gem waiting to be revealed just a few hundred yards from downtown Salem. People are hungry for A Cool Place To Go in Oregon's excessively sleepy capital. It's easy to picture how successful a creative mixed-use development would be along the riverfront.

For now, though, that vision is frustratingly distant. Get going, Boise Cascade site owners. Build it and they will come. For sure.

Photos of opening day at Salem's Trader Joe's

Well, I wasn't one of the first in line this morning to enter the new Salem (Oregon) Trader Joe's on opening day.

But I got there early in the afternoon, which is pretty damn impressive for a retired guy like me -- especially since I indulged in a 30 minute nap just before I left, expecting that I'd need all my energy to fight the crowds cramming the aisles.

The reality was sort of like I anticipated, and sort of not. Here's photos of my Trader Joe's shopping visit, with accompanying narrative (and some comparative price analysis).

The parking lot seemed full when I drove up. I lucked out, though, when a car drove off at just the right time. Thank you, Trader Joe's goddess.

Nearing the front door, the excited Salem shoppers' energy grew more intense. At first I thought a crowd was lining up to enter the store.

But most of the people outside Trader Joe's were seniors who seemed to be waiting for a retirement home bus to pick them up.

By "seniors," of course, I mean people whose hair color was the same as mine. I just was able to drive up in a Mini Cooper S rather than a bus, for which I'm thankful (keep bringing me good health karma, Trader Joe's goddess).

My first thought upon entering the store and glancing to my left, at the checkout lanes, was "Uh-oh. Glad I'm not in a rush."

The lines were long. People seemed happy to wait, though. After all, Salem has waited a long time for this Trader Joe's to open. (See here, here, and here.) A few minutes standing in front of a checkout lane -- no big deal.

Just a few feet down the first aisle, I realized that I had entered a strange shopping land. Seeing the sign, at first I thought "Wow! Organic bananas for 29 cents a pound!" Then I noticed the arrows: that's 29 cents each.

I guess this eliminates the need for weighing produce at the check-out counter. But it makes it tough to compare prices.

When I got home I weighed an organic banana that I bought at Fred Meyer for 84 cents a pound. Our postage scale put it at about 5.25 ounces. That means at Trader Joe's I could get three bananas that size for 87 cents, making the Fred Meyer and Trader Joe's price nearly identical (three 5.25 ounce bananas are almost exactly 16 ounces, a pound).

Hmmmm. I guess nectarines cost that much each (69 cents) this time of year. But this shows how pricing produce individually, when you're used to paying by the pound, can be off-putting.

I like nectarines. Knowing that each of the little juicies would cost me 69 cents, though -- that caused me to walk on by.

I found the chips display a lot more interesting. One of the appealing things about Trader Joe's is their great store brands. I bought some unusally low fat (4 grams per ounce) TJ tortilla chips that were fried, not baked. And they taste great.

The wine department was on the final aisle, the way I shopped. The Charles Shaw bottles, a.k.a. "two buck Chuck," obviously had been popular with buyers all day long.

Knowing the nickname for Charles Shaw wines, I looked around for the exact price. And kept looking around. Couldn't see a sign anywhere. Until...

I looked up. The price was hidden in plain sight. $2.99. Wow! I bought three bottles, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Shiraz. I just opened the Merlot. It's not bad. Tastes better than I'd expect a $3 bottle would.

A few years ago The New Yorker had a fascinating article about Fred Franzia and his Two Buck Chuck -- which really was $1.99 back then. I recall reading that it scored well in taste tests against much more expensive wines. Which makes me feel good, because I hardly ever pay more than $10 for a bottle of wine. Now that Trader Joe's is in town, that might become $3.

Here's the contents of my shopping cart. Taking the photo gave me something to do as I waited in line for a register. Chips, coffee, wine, and fruit. That's what I focused on during my first Trader Joe's shopping excursion.

Being a vegetarian, I wasn't interested in the store's meaty stuff. And since I had some other places to go on a fairly warm day, I didn't pay much attention to the refrigerated and frozen stuff. But I'll be back... for sure.

LifeSource Natural Foods, I still love you. You've got some competition in town, though. I'll be shopping at both Trader Joe's and LifeSource from now on. Along with Fred Meyer, which also is going to be competing, albeit to a lesser degree, with Trader Joe's.

Case in point: organic raisin bran is a big part of my life. Almost every afternoon I have a small bowl, often right before my senior citizen nap. I bought a box of Trader Joe's Organic Raisin Bran Clusters, which I'd never tried before.

Getting home, that was the first thing I opened up. Yum! I liked it quite a bit better than what Fred Meyer sells, Nature's Path Organic Flax Plus Raisin Bran. Here's the two side by side.

The Trader Joe's box (on the left) is considerably bigger, 20 ounces, while Nature's Path is 14 ounces. Cost: Trader Joe's is $4.29, Nature's Path is $3.99. That translates into 21 cents an ounce for Trader Joe's organic raisin bran, and 29 cents an ounce for Nature's Path organic raisin bran.

So Trader Joe's brand is 33% cheaper. Plus, it tastes better.

I've heard people say, "Trader Joe's is just a place where yuppies buy their overpriced snooty food." I disagree, based on my first solo shopping trip (previously I've gone with my wife a few times; she's an even bigger Trader Joe's fan than I am).

Seeing who was shopping at Trader Joe's on opening day, there was an evident eclectic mix of people. Young and old. Well to do and penny pinching. Fit/trim and barely making it down the aisle.

Trader Joe's does have a lot of healthy items, many of which are organic (which usually are pricier than non-organic). But it also has many low-priced store brands. And plenty of comfort foods that make no claim to healthiness.

Welcome to Salem, Trader Joe's.

Based on your opening day, you've going to enjoy a long and profitable stay here. Your almost entirely local staff were efficient, friendly, and appealingly casual (I liked the evident absence of a dress code).

Break the blah-curse that hangs over Salem, Oregon

Over on my Strange Up Salem blog I've put up a post which conclusively answers the question that plagues residents of our city: why is Salem afflicted with so much blah'ness?

We're cursed. That's got to be it.

Check out "Is Salem, Oregon cursed by a 'blah spell?" The answer is yes; the solution is described. Excerpt:

Thus the curse of Oregon's capital isn't to be infected with evil. Hey, that'd be interesting, cool, something to be proud of. (Las Vegas does just fine with that sort of curse.)

No, Salem's curse is existential.

It's to be doomed with a void at the barely beating heart of our slow-moving metropolis. It's a lack of creative energy, a deficit of imagination, an emptiness that blocks attempts to cure the lethargy that infects Big Ideas and turns them into a shadow of themselves.

#Salemia tweets show need to strange up Salem

Check out another Strange Up Salem post on my blog that's dedicated to weirding up Oregon's excessively blah capital. "Salemia video aims to Strange Up Salem" is the last of my three Salem Weekly columns that made it into the blogosphere rather than print.

Here's some excerpts:

In early February “Salemia” touched off a craze among Salem’s Twittersphere. It all began when filmmaker Mike Perron tweeted, “Salemia. Opening scene: five hipsters fighting over a half smoked cigarette outside Chelsea's place...”

...Keep Portland Weird is a rallying cry for residents who want to preserve their city’s uniqueness. Since I feel an urgent need to Strange Up Salem, my guess was that when other Twitter’ers started sharing their own “Salemia” scene ideas, boring would be a more common theme than bizarre.

I was right. Here’s some of my favorite tweets from the first wave of Salemia sharings.

How stranging up Salem is a job creator

Over on my Strange Up Salem blog I've put up another marvelously persuasive post that uses the example of Trader Joe's to show how strangeness is a key to economic development -- not to mention the secrets of the cosmos.

Check it out. Here's a sample:

Bottom line: A place and the people who live there are intimately intertwined. If we want Salem to be a more interesting and lively place, we have to cultivate those qualities in ourselves.

Free enterprise is adept at filling voids. When there is unfulfilled demand for new and different, a.k.a. strangeness, individuals and businesses will offer up out-of-the-ordinary wares.