It's a struggle for me to keep profanity out of this blog post, after taking photos today of Salem Hospital's willful, needless, unfeeling corporate destruction of a precious urban forest.
One fucking day (see, I couldn't help myself) after we got word that Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals had told Salem Hospital and the City of Salem that a ruling granting the hospital permission to cut down trees for a parking lot was in error, and needed to be revised by a hearing officer.
So today the chainsaws and logging equipment came out. Salem Hospital's message:
"Try to save those ancient, beautiful, large trees now, suckers! They're dead and gone! Screw the neighborhood; screw the legal system; we've got the money and power in this town, and we just showed you that we can damn well use it."
Yeah, I know...
Salem Hospital's high-priced legal team, the same guys who are threatening an elderly blind woman in an attempt to get her to stop with her efforts to save Howard Hall, the historic School for the Blind building where she was a student, almost certainly will be able to cite chapter xyz and ordinance 123 to justify their killing of these trees.
To which I reply wordlessly: just look at the photos I took today, mostly with my iPhone held up over the top of a blue-tarp clad fence which Salem Hospital hoped would hide the devastation.
These photos speak much more eloquently -- and profanely -- than I ever could. Each of these trees, according to Salem Hospital, supposedly is "insignificant." Yeah, to a money-grubbing nature-hating corporate monster.
But not to human beings with an ounce of humanity left in them.
Jim Scheppke took some photos today also. You can see them in a Facebook post by Salem Community Vision.
Good post today, Brian. As one of the folks shepherding the Howard Hall question my heart sank as I walked around the former Oregon State School for the Blind property last week. The blue curtain surrounded the 8.4 acres hid many trees that had been taken down. The backhoes laid in wait to destroy trees and Howard Hall. I felt a little reprieve with LUBA ruling against the City. It appears that the Hospital is taking out trees that are significant. This is what LUBA said they could not cut down. This is hubris beyond belief.
On December 21, we got word that LUBA ruled against us supporting the City’s ruling that the Hospital could tear down Howard Hall. This week we are filing a notice to appeal the LUBA decision with the Oregon Court of Appeals. We believe the Hospital did not make a good-faith effort to re-purpose the historic landmark build.
Posted by: Patrick Schwab, Ed.D. | January 05, 2015 at 07:37 PM
Fifteen trees died today, Brian, so that Salem Hospital employees can continue to have plenty of free parking. The oldest trees were 58" diameter Douglas firs. There were two of them. A calculator I found on the Internet says that would make them about 290 years old. They began their lives in 1725 and survived a lot of changes, but they could not survive the need for more free parking spaces in Salem. There were also six Oregon White Oaks that were killed today. Three of them were just a few inches less in diameter than the threshold for "significant trees" according to City code, so they had to go.
Posted by: Jim Scheppke | January 05, 2015 at 08:17 PM
Does anyone know the name of the individual person with Salem Hospital who gave final the order to cut down the trees?
Which logging company cut down the trees and how much blood money will Salem Hospital get for those trees?
Posted by: JQ Citizen | January 16, 2015 at 05:16 AM
Also, who exactly at the city voted in favor of granting Salem Hospital permission to cut down the trees?
This situation needs to go viral. Too bad it didn't make the national news before Jan 5th. Perfect fodder for The Daily Show, consumer bits on regional new channels, Good Morning America?
Which individuals and corporations donate to Salem Hospital Foundation? Which medical practice (Willamette Health Partners?) will be housed in the proposed new rehab building?
SRH and whoever is getting bribes or kickbacks doesn't care about heritage, history, their neighbors and community, nor ancient trees. They care about MONEY and CONTROL.
How arrogant they are. And how "So-Lame" of the city and citizens to bahhh like sheep and be herded out of their way?
Posted by: JQ Citizen | January 16, 2015 at 05:36 AM
And yet, for applying posters and stickers to the exterior of a few government buildings in 2011 or 2012, I was slammed with two felony convictions... Because, after all, murdering ancient trees to make room for Parking is totally fine, but exercising my "constitutionally guaranteed right" to speak out against corrupt and wicked policies and individuals is an imminent threat to the safety and functionality of the city.
Fuck these clowns, and the warhorses they rode in on.
Posted by: Galen Peder Brownson | May 15, 2015 at 05:08 AM