Salem is a tourist draw? Only for bland lovers.

Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper. Especially if it's a front page story in the Salem Statesman Journal with the headline, "Is Salem a tourist draw? Absolutely, bureau says."
Download Salem, a tourist draw?

I'm a long time Salem resident (I moved there 31 years ago, but now live about five miles south of the city limits). I know Salem well, obviously.

When family or friends come to visit for the first time, Laurel and I start to panic. "What are we going to do? Where are we going to take them? There's nowhere interesting to go."

So I guess we're not going to be spokespeople for Travel Salem, the snazzier name of what formerly was the Salem Convention and Visitor's Association, which has introduced its new "Absolutely Oregon" catch phrase.

We like Salem -- but mostly for reasons such as the vast expanse of free on-street parking spaces downtown (because there's not much to draw people there).

In this regard, as I've documented, Salem is better than Portland.

But otherwise my blog posts on the subject of Oregon's yawn-inducing capital city have been along the lines of Salem sinks further into mediocrity and Here's why Salem is so depressing.

That said, I've no doubt that Travel Salem will be able to attract conventioneers to the area.

Groups such as the Bland Lovers Association and People for the Abolition of Excitement will come here like moths drawn to gray. Also, the Watching Paint Dry discussion circle.

If I sound critical, it's because Salem deserves to be criticized.

Along with every resident whose tastes are so strip mall, big box store, and fast food'ish, the rest of us are doomed to mediocrity when cool businesses reject the area after a marketing study.

That's what I've been told turns Trader Joes off when they considered coming to Salem: the lack of cultural creatives -- who are willing to spend money on healthy, organic, cutting-edge, innovative items.

Recently we ate at the P.F. Changs restaurant in Bridgeport Village south of Portland. There's nothing like it in Salem. Great atmosphere. Excellent food. Reasonable prices.

We begged the server to tell her bosses that Salem needs a P.F. Changs. Badly. Her reply started off sounding encouraging.

"I've heard that we're thinking of opening up a new store in...Bend. But not Salem."

Laurel and I were shocked.

"But Bend has like one third the population of Salem. Come on, we don't have a Trader Joes; we don't have a Whole Foods. There's plenty of good locations in south Salem, where the greatest enclave of P.F. Changs-friendly people live."

She said she'd pass on our request to management, noting that she hears similar pleas from the many Salemites who frequent P.F. Changs. I won't hold my breath for a restaurant here.

The most amusing quote in the Statesman Journal story came at the end, from the executive director of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, Mike McLaran.

Salem, as a whole, is unified in absolutely the greatest place to be -- to live, work, and do business.

Wow, that's hilarious. My wife and I both cracked up when we read that. Mike has a sideline waiting for him in ironic stand-up comedy.

Comments

[Paul]

I feel that Salem has tons of potential to be great, but it never happens and the decisions to encourage that are never made. I guess it was always meant to be the sleepy, slow, boring town it is. Sad really.

[cherry]

i grew up in salem and had only visited portland a couple times as a kid.it was always for a docter visit or a relative.when i turned 28 i moved out of salem because it is the most depressive place for a creative person.all but my treasured place like bush park and chemeketa college.i had a hard time connecting with people in salem and making friends.yet the few i had were die hard cool poeple, when i moved to portland my whole world expanded and i met so many who think like me.the buisnesses are smart and yes they have a trader joes.

[Jeff Shultz]

I hear so many people begging for stuff like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and PF Changs... I keep wondering what must be wrong with their marketing studies? I visited a Trader Joe's in the Hollywood District of Portland awhile back. It was interesting, but I'm not sure why some people act like they can't live without it.

As for Salem... where you take them depends on their interests lie.

Historical?
Deepwood Estate
http://www.historicdeepwoodestate.org
Bush House
http://www.oregonlink.com/bush_house/
Mission Mill
http://www.oregonlink.com/mission_mill/

Art?
Bush Barn
http://salemart.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=27
Hallie Ford Museum
http://www.willamette.edu/museum_of_art/index.htm
Art Fair in July
http://salemart.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=35

Fancy Dining?
J. James
http://www.jjamesrestaurant.com
Morton's Bistro
http://www.mortonsbistronw.com/

Stuff 'em full breakfast?
Busick Court
http://www.busickcourt.com

Kids?
AC Gilbert's Discovery Village
http://www.acgilbert.org/
Salem Carousel
http://www.salemcarousel.org

Culture? Look in a yogurt cup... oh, all right, check out what's happening at the Elsinore http://www.elsinoretheatre.com/
or Pentacle
http://www.pentacletheatre.org/

Take a ride on the Willamette Queen http://www.willamettequeen.com

The twits that got the Court & Chemeketa St residential zones declared a Hysterical Historical District seem to think people will want to come look at their homes...

No, we don't have a zoo, we don't have OMSI - neither do most cities of 120,000 or so. We do have one of the most beautiful state capitol buildings in the the USA though. http://www.leg.state.or.us/html_tour/capitol.htm

But we've got vineyards http://www.willamettevalleyvineyards.com/
by the score, which the S-J seems to think is cultural for some reason.
The mountains are an hour east http://www.hoodoo.com
The beach is an hour west http://www.oregoncoast.org/

I agree that it's not much as a tourist destination, but if you can't find stuff to do around here - and stuff to show guests, you're suffering from a failure of imagination. So there isn't much of a nightlife... oh well.

And that's from someone who dislikes Salem enough to have moved from Keizer to Stayton just to avoid living there.

[Jeff Shultz]

Thanks for fixing the formatting!

[Rossella]

No real neighbourhood feeling in Salem, this is what's wrong with this town, well... one of the things... I live in South Central very close to downtown, I can walk to the parks, to the mall or to a very limited list of decent restaurants, but wouldn't it be nice to have a grocery store to walk to? With all the 'luxury' apartment complexes that are coming up close to downtown you would think that eventually there would be a need for one.