Salem Political Snark

I'm a loyal Democrat who's already tired of Joe Biden

Joe Biden was really appealing when the alternative was Donald Trump. But after a year of Biden's presidency, my attitude toward him ranges from grudging acceptance to outright irritation.

Today I'm at the bottom of my personal Joe Biden approval rating. And there's a good chance my mood is going to darken further.

I've got this theory -- not exactly original to me -- that a person's good qualities also are their bad qualities. It just depends on how those qualities are expressed, and their context.

Along with lots of other people, I relished having a calm, competent, low-key president in the White House after four years of Trumpian chaos. Now, though, those qualities are looking more like liabilities, especially since competent is fading away as a Biden descriptor.

My current gripe with Biden, and it's a significant one, is that he pretty much ignored voting rights legislation until very recently, when he gave a speech in Georgia about the urgent need for Congress to pass two voting rights bills.

Too late and too little, Joe. 

Today Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin both announced that they aren't willing to do away with the Senate filibuster even if that's necessary to pass voting rights legislation, which it definitely is. 

Also today, Sinema and Manchin met with Biden at the White House to discuss their position on the filibuster. So far there hasn't been any word that Biden changed their mind, probably because he didn't.

I get it that Sinema and Manchin are really difficult to deal with, being full of themselves, refusing to negotiate in an honest fashion, and uncaring of whether they're acting in the best interest of their constituents in Arizona and West Virginia.

Still, it sure seems like Biden has been weak in how he's interacted with them, choosing to play the role of Mr. Nice Guy rather than President Who Should Be Feared. 

Lyndon Johnson played that latter role well. So did Trump. Again, I don't want Biden to be Trump-lite, just that he display some of the aggression and passion that makes Trump beloved by his base.

Early on in January 2021, congressional Democrats said that voting rights bills would be a top priority. As Republicans in state after state passed their own legislation to make it harder to vote, especially for  black and brown people, voting rights should have risen to the top of Biden's agenda.

But it didn't. 

Covid relief bills did. Then the bipartisan infrastructure bill did. After that, the Build Back Better bill was pushed by Biden.

It made sense to focus on Covid given how the pandemic was ravaging our country. However, Biden botched the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which was supposed to go hand-in-hand with the Build Back Better bill -- social/climate change infrastrucure as opposed to physical infrastructure. 

Manchin and Sinema were heavily invested in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. That should have given Biden leverage for him to use in pressing for them to do a carve-out of the filibuster on voting rights legislation.

And leverage to get them to commit to supporting the Build Back Better bill. Now that bill is stuck, going nowhere fast. Biden seems to have given up on it after Manchin said he's done talking about it. 

Yet last year Biden cajoled progressive House Democrats to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which already had been approved by the Senate, when he assured them that Manchin had bought off on a framework for Build Back Better, so now the two bills could be decoupled.

Build Back Better contains half a billion dollars or so of vitally needed support for our country's efforts to combat global warming. 

So Biden is batting .000 on the two legislative areas that mean the most to me, and many other Democrats: voting rights and climate change. I've read that Manchin was willing to go along with a $1.8 trillion Build Back Better bill that included all that money to fight global warming.

Biden reportedly walked away from that agreement for some reason. Unforgivable. 

Since I'm 73, not a whole lot younger than Biden, it pains me to say that Biden is looking more and more to me like a kindly grandfather whose best days are behind him.

Sadly, he hasn't given Vice-President Harris much of a viable role in his administration, because while Harris has her own weaknesses, she's more energetic and a much better speaker.

My mood toward Biden definitely would perk up if somehow he could pull off a win on either voting rights or Build Back Better.

Right now, though, it looks like neither legislation is going to pass. Since Republicans are favored to take back the House in November of this year, this means Biden has little time left to get his first term agenda through Congress.

And I haven't even mentioned the failure of Biden and his fellow Democrats to do anything about police reform and immigration reform. No wonder Biden's approval rating is so low. When he's losing many members of his own party, there's no way to go but down.

Councilor Nordyke makes progress on mobile crisis unit

Thanks to Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, last night the Salem City Council approved a motion to have city staff prepare a report about a mobile crisis unit pilot project.

She was happy in a Facebook post. And humble, because the staff report that was approved was written by her.

Here's Nordyke's approved proposal.

The pilot project would be a civilian-led mobile crisis unit similar to CAHOOTS in Eugene to respond to calls for service involving persons experiencing homelessness or behavioral health crisis and would likely be for one year.

Staff is directed to consult with CAHOOTS of Eugene regarding what this pilot project could look like in our city.

Specifics to include in the staff report:

•  Identify potential community partners (such as local non-profits, medical service providers, behavior health providers, local governmental entities)

•  Identify potential funding sources (such as the $10.5 million grant we recently received from the state of Oregon)

•  Identify estimated cost of pilot project (depending type of staff chosen and other factors)

•  Identify potential service providers

•   Identify who could hire and train mobile crisis unit personnel (The city? A local nonprofit? Someone else?)

•   Identify potential types of staff (Peer support specialist, social worker, EMT, QMHP, etc.

•   Identify how a civilian-led mobile crisis unit would fit alongside existing public safety programs (such as SPD BHU, Marion County LEAD, etc)

In making this motion, I am specifically directing staff to consult with CAHOOTS of Eugene what this pilot project could look like in our city.

I understand that depending on the type of staff hired, the cost of the pilot project may vary considerably. So in creating the staff report, my expectation is that staff will propose multiple scenarios with their own price tag.  For example, I would expect having peer support specialist would be a lot cheaper than having an EMT or a registered nurse on the team.

The United Way submitted a proposal for a pilot project in the budget committee meetings earlier this year. That document estimated the pilot project costing $540,000. The United Way’s proposal may be an appropriate starting point for this proposal.

As I noted in a previous post about the mobile crisis unit pilot project, so far a stumbling block has been the decidedly lukewarm (bordering on cold) response of Police Chief Trevor Womack to this idea, which probably explains why even though the project is part of the City of Salem budget, no progress has made on it until now.

Jim Scheppke spoke about this in a public comment he submitted on Nordyke's motion.

Dear Mayor and City Council

I support the motion for a staff report on a mobile crisis unit pilot project because this will hopefully get this issue off the back burner and back on to the front burner.

I thought when the Budget Committee and the Council voted last year to budget funds in the 2021-22 budget for a mobile crisis unit that the policy was set to pursue this. Since that time nothing has happened. Grant funds that could have been added to City funds have been left on the table. Our police chief has spoken openly in the Salem Statesman Journal about his opposition to mobile response units so I can only take from that that the policy that was adopted by the appropriate policy-makers is being subverted by City staff. That’s not right.

Civilian mobile crisis units are the proven solution to serving people in crisis. They are less expensive and more effective. People in crisis don’t need to be confronted by officers with tasers and guns. We need to learn from the death of Natzeryt Viertel just last year at the hands of the police. How might that have ended differently with trained mental health specialists responding to the call about a suicidal young man? Mr. Viertel might be alive today.

Thanks to Councilor Nordyke for her leadership on this issue and for her persistence in attempting to do the right thing for Salem.

Jim Scheppke, Ward 2

Yes, this is indeed the right thing to do. I looked through some of the other public comments, which all seemed to be in support of the Nordyke motion. They can be read via attachments to the staff report. These caught my eye.

I would like to comment to the Council that I want Salem to have a CAHOOTS-style program. Many times people call 911 because there's no other realistic option to get a rapid response to a crisis... but they don't necessarily want an aggressive man with a gun to come in and start yelling and threatening people with arrest. They can't necessarily afford an ambulance ride or feel like being locked in a psych ward will be beneficial. Given the option, they might have a strong preference between police, fire, ambulance and mental crisis response: they're the ones observing the situation, the dispatcher only has the caller's words to go on.

We have police because the Executive Branch needs a way to physically enforce laws -- usually felonies that are actually arrest-worthy, since traffic, parking, health, labor and other civil penalties are rarely worth a gun on your hip -- by detaining and referring people to prosecution. The idea that police are also dogcatchers and domestic abuse prevention and a force for serving and protecting is mostly PR, and distracts from the very real work of finding and detaining murderers and thieves, or responding to active shootings.

Just as we have firefighters for fire emergencies, ambulances for medical emergencies, and National Guard or FEMA for widespread environmental emergencies, we need mental/social crisis responders who can respond to psychological or small-scale environmental emergencies.

I once watched a crying young child forcibly chased down and ripped from his mother's arms by multiple armed men because Family Court decided that his absentee father was a better provider, despite allegations of abuse. Were guns and physical violence really the best way to accomplish that? It scarred me just seeing it happen, let alone if I were that child being ripped from my only loving parent by the armed government. It seems to me a better system is possible and necessary. The presence of a gun is in itself an escalation of a situation, even if police are supposedly trained in de-escalation.

Some emergencies need response in the form of water, others in the form of morphine, or Humvees, or sometimes even guns. The giant missing gap in our system is emergencies that need response in the form of a sympathetic ear and a safe place to stay. It used to be that the town pastor would fill such roles, but with large populations a more formal, coordinated system is needed. Police can try to fill this gap, but it's not actually their core mission, and many police chiefs nationwide have said that their departments are overworked, filling in too many roles outside their training. We wouldn't dream of using the National Guard as long- term hospital staff, so why are we as a society so eager to use police as social workers? A separate, independent, care-oriented department should be on 911 speed dial so that the right response is possible, separate from the Police Chief's responsibility to enforcing laws and prosecuting crim

Will Bradley, District 1

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

I am writing in support of the motion for a staff report on a mobile crisis unit pilot project. I hope that the outcome of the staff report will result in the creation of a mobile crisis unit support team, similar to Cahoots in Eugene, Oregon.

I lived in Eugene for over 30 years, and saw the good that the Cahoots team accomplished, time and time again. Their teams of medical and behavioral professionals were able to attend to the needs of clients in the community, freeing the Eugene Police Department to deal with other more critical and violent issues. The Cahoots teams had a solid reputation in Eugene, and city officials, as well as law enforcement officials, were gratified that the Cahoots team was on call when needed, year in and year out. Money was saved as were lives.

I don't think you will be disappointed in exploring this issue further. Thank you for considering this agenda item.

Claudia Carmichael

Brad Witt jumps into Salem's HD 19 race, all the way from Clatskanie

Currently Brad Witt is a member of the Oregon House, representing HD 31 -- which consists of most of Columbia County and parts of Washington and Multnomah counties.

But recently Witt formed a campaign committee to be elected in HD 19 -- which is in Salem.

Here's a map of HD 19, which definitely doesn't include Clatskanie, where Witt says he lives.

So how is it that Witt appears ready to challenge two Salem city councilors, Tom Andersen and Jackie Leung, in the May HD 19 Democratic primary? Currently he isn't shown as having filed for this race, but as noted above, his current campaign committee is for election to HD 19 rather than HD 31.

Well, I've heard that fellow Democrats in the state legislature redistricted Clatskanie out of HD 31 so Witt couldn't run again in his old district. The map below shows that now Clatskanie (near the top) is just outside of the HD 31 boundary.

This could have happened because in June 2021 Witt was found to have violated a legislative sexual harassment rule, according to an OPB story. 

State Rep. Brad Witt violated workplace rules against sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment with a series of texts to a fellow lawmaker in April, a House committee found Tuesday evening.

But the House Conduct Committee found that, contrary to an allegation against him, Witt did not intend to create a quid pro quo arrangement with Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson in which he would exchange his vote on a bill for a date or sexual favors.

So it's possible that Democrats viewed Witt as sufficiently politically damaged by this episode to make it unlikely that he could win re-election against a Republican challenger, hence the boundary change that took his home out of HD 31.

Regardless, I've been told that Witt owns a residence in Salem which he hopes makes him eligible to run in HD 19.

That's fine.

I just think it's unlikely that Witt could waltz into Salem from Clatskanie and defeat two Salem city councilors in the May primary who have vastly more local name recognition. However, Witt might be betting that in a three-way race with Andersen and Leung, he has a chance to win as an outsider.

Which his opponents probably would term "carpetbagger."

I'll end by saying that when I told my wife what I was writing about tonight, Laurel said she had positive experiences with Witt when she advocated ending coyote killing contests during a recent legislative session, something Witt supported.

Brad Witt probably holds policy positions that are close to those held by Tom Andersen and Jackie Leung. Unfortunately for Witt, they have to be viewed as front-runners in the HD 19 race given their connections in Salem.

Nicholas Kristof's Governor run stumbles before it starts

When I heard that Nicholas Kristof, a former columnist for the New York Times, was running to be Oregon's Governor, I was enthused. 

Wow, a non-politician who, unlike Trump, was intelligent, knowledgeable about the world, and obviously a sophisticated communicator.

I started following Kristof on Twitter. I enjoyed his cogent well-written tweets, along with appealing photos of his family at their Yamhill County farm.

But now I've soured on Kristof.

Yesterday the Oregon Secretary of State, Shemia Fagan, ruled that Kristof didn't meet the residency requirement to run for Governor. The Oregon Capital Chronicle, a great news source, said in its story:

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said Thursday that deciding former New York Times columnist Nick Kristof didn’t qualify to run for governor “wasn’t even a close call.”

Fagan’s staff notified Kristof’s campaign on Thursday morning that he didn’t meet a constitutional requirement to be a “resident within this state” for three years prior to the November 2022 election.

Fagan outlined findings by the state Elections Division in a Thursday morning news conference, citing the Democrat’s ties to New York and his failure to produce documents he said made his case.

Hours later at his own news conference in Portland, a defiant Kristof vowed to fight the ruling, calling it an act of self-protection by a “failing political establishment.”

If Kristof had simply said he disagreed with the ruling and would appeal it, that would have been fine by me. But when I saw this tweet by Kristof, I had to reply to it.

Note: It seemed obvious to me that "My candidacy was stolen by the Deep State" was my made-up quote to sound like something Trump would say, but a few people who can't appreciate literary subtlety somehow thought I was quoting Kristof. 

It's unlikely that a Republican will be elected Governor next November. But Betsy Johnson, a moderate Democrat, is running as an independent. It's unclear whether she'd pull more votes from the Democratic or Republican gubernatorial candidate. Regardless, I want to see a Democrat win.

If Kristof somehow were to win both his appeal of Fagan's ruling and the Democratic primary, he'd be saddled with carpetbagger "not really an Oregonian" epithets throughout the general election campaign.

So that's another reason I no longer support Kristof. Plus, the Capital Chronicle tried to get the documents that Kristof claims show that he truly has been an Oregon resident for the past three years, but he refused to share them.

With legal opinions by private attorneys and in a 15-page sworn affidavit, Kristof defended his right to run on two prongs. One is an analysis by his lawyers and others that concludes that Kristof meets the constitutional requirement to run for governor. The second is referring to a string of documents ranging from tax returns to incorporation papers he maintains show he has been an Oregon resident.

A long-time journalist, Kristof didn’t submit these records to the Secretary of State’s Office and rejected a request for them from the Capital Chronicle. Kristof also didn’t answer questions about other public documents obtained by the Capital Chronicle or about his sworn statements regarding his farming operation outside the rural community of Yamhill. He also didn’t respond to an email sharing elements of this story to check for accuracy.

On Dec. 23, the Capital Chronicle requested redacted copies of his New York and Oregon driver’s licenses, his 2018 and 2019 New York and Oregon personal income tax returns, the Yamhill County property tax bill for Kristof Farms for the past three years and the farm’s 2019 corporate tax return and workers’ compensation insurance policy. 

Kristof’s campaign didn’t respond with any documents or an explanation for why they weren’t being provided.

Instead, Kristof and his campaign basically say that because he feels like he's always been an Oregonian, that means he's a long-time Oregon resident. Which is absurd. I've grown accustomed to Trump elevating his feelings over facts, but I expected a lot more from Kristof.

He's appealing to the state Supreme Court. That Capital Insider story includes the 185 page brief his attorneys have filed. Which is really quick work, given that Fagan issued her ineligible-to-run ruling only yesterday. Sure seems like Kristof expected that to happen.

Glancing through the brief, it looks like some solid arguments are being made, along with, I'm sure, some dubious arguments. 

Like I said, even if Kristof wins the appeal, the way he handled the Secretary of State ruling leaves a bad taste in my political mouth. Sure, Kristof isn't a member of Oregon's Democratic establishment. But I find it hard to believe that Fagan was out to tank Kristof's candidacy when she made her ruling.

If the Oregon Supreme Court issues a scathing reversal order of Fagan's decision, that would help to rejuvenate Kristof's campaign. But I still think he's too wounded to win the Democratic primary.

Councilor Nordyke pushing hard for mobile crisis unit

I'm tempted to call this a cage fight between Vanessa Nordyke, Salem City Councilor, and Trevor Womack, Salem Police Chief, over the establishment of a civilian-run mobile crisis unit.

Oops. Looks like I gave in to that temptation. Nordyke looks sweet and gentle. But my advice to Womack is to throw in the towel now before you get thrashed by her.

A few days ago Nordyke announced in a Facebook post that she wants City of Salem staff to prepare a report on the feasibility of a mobile crisis unit.

Note the language: "civilian-led mobile crisis unit." Those are fighting words for Womack, who largely dismissed that notion in a December 27 Statesman Journal story about Womack's first year as police chief.

How do you see the Police Department approaching calls about community members in mental health crisis and individuals who are homeless?

I do think there is room on this continuum for a non-law enforcement response. I don't think it can come at the expense of law enforcement because there's also room for a national best practice, which already exists here: our Mobile Crisis Response Team, where we have a law enforcement officer partnered with a qualified mental health professional. We handle hundreds of calls this way successfully. 

When we talk about removing law enforcement from the situation, that removes a critical component for safety. You never want to insert a non-sworn professional staff, like a mental health provider or a medic, into a situation where there may be somebody who is a physical threat.

Across all of that, also making sure that everybody is trained with the right skills and equipment abilities to do those roles effectively. So, crisis intervention training is one thing I'm proud of, too. We've been committed to providing additional CIT training to all of our officers.

What I am concerned about is, are there other gaps in the system? So let's say that the team existed right now and it consisted of a paramedic or a medic and a social worker. There wouldn't be a lot of calls that they would relieve from police because we already screen calls; we don't necessarily go to calls where that model would respond to because we don't have time to go to those calls, anyway.  

Let's say they go and there's a person right out here that's obviously in crisis that needs some help. What are the resources I could connect them with? There are gaps in the system. Let's not create the cart before the horse. Let's make sure that if there is a team like that, that there are actually resources that they can use to improve the situation.

My answers to these questions are going to change over time as the gaps are filled. But what's optimistic is we did open some more hotel bed space. We have a navigation center the city is going to open. So we're starting to invest and fill in these gaps that are out there. And then maybe at that point, a non-law enforcement response makes more sense.

Jim Scheppke wrote a Facebook comment about what Womack said which points out that Womack is choosing to ignore a clear City Council priority -- which Nordyke is now calling him out on.

Another interesting wrinkle is that Trevor Womack has endorsed for re-election the incumbent Marion County District Attorney, Paige Clarkson, while Vanessa Nordyke applauded the effort of Spencer Todd, who is running against Clarkson, to form a mobile crisis unit.

Here's a link to the Statesman Journal opinion piece Nordyke referenced: "Look to CAHOOTS for inspiration for nonviolent emergencies."

My bet is that Nordyke will succeed with her motion at the January 10 City Council meeting, since a mobile crisis unit appears to have the support of a majority of councilors. Then it will be up to Chief Womack to decide whether to get on board the mobile crisis unit train.

I think he'd be wise to support that proposal, given that it seems to be gathering a full head of steam.

Every Republican candidate should answer four questions

Our democracy is in grave danger. Not from an outside enemy. From within -- the Republican Party. This is a tweet shared on MSNBC today. MAGA, of course, is Trump's slogan: Make America Great Again.

If only Republican leaders were behind the party's anti-democracy movement, there wouldn't be as much reason for concern. Or, panic. But two-thirds of Republicans wrongly believe Biden wasn't elected legitimately.

Trump's Big Lie that the election was stolen from him has infected the minds of a clear majority of Republicans. This has made agreeing with the Big Lie a prerequisite for Republican candidates who want to win an election by garnering the support of their fellow GOP members.

Which means every Republican candidate for local, state, or national office should have to answer four questions put forth by Representative Eric Slalwell (D - California) on Chris Hayes' MSNBC show today. I've fiddled with the wording of a couple of the questions to make them clearer.

(1) Do you acknowledge that Joe Biden is the legitimately-elected president?
(2) Do you disavow QAnon?
(3) Do you agree that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote in your state in 2024 should get all of that state's electoral votes? (unless the state is one that splits electoral votes)
(4) Do you disavow violence following an election by supporters of the losing candidate?

These questions also should be asked of every candidate running for a non-partisan office, like Mayor of Salem or the Salem City Council. Republican candidates shouldn't be able to ignore the questions just because the ballot don't have a "R" after their name.

On January 1 the New York Times editorial board published "Every Day Is Jan. 6 now." I learned about it on today's Chris Hayes MSNBC show. The movement, of course, is the Trump-addled portion of the Republican Party, which as noted before, is a clear majority of the GOP.

Here's some additional quotes from the editorial.

Jan. 6 is not in the past; it is every day.

It is regular citizens who threaten election officials and other public servants, who ask, “When can we use the guns?” and who vow to murder politicians who dare to vote their conscience. It is Republican lawmakers scrambling to make it harder for people to vote and easier to subvert their will if they do. It is Donald Trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies and limitless resentments and whose twisted version of reality still dominates one of the nation’s two major political parties.

In short, the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends. No self-governing society can survive such a threat by denying that it exists. Rather, survival depends on looking back and forward at the same time.

...A healthy, functioning political party faces its electoral losses by assessing what went wrong and redoubling its efforts to appeal to more voters the next time. The Republican Party, like authoritarian movements the world over, has shown itself recently to be incapable of doing this. Party leaders’ rhetoric suggests they see it as the only legitimate governing power and thus portrays anyone else’s victory as the result of fraud — hence the foundational falsehood that spurred the Jan. 6 attack, that Joe Biden didn’t win the election.

Note what's said in the last paragraph above. Read it again. Let it sink into your consciousness. 

The Republican Party, like authoritarian movements the world over...

Take a few minutes to help save 30 beautiful acres in Salem

If you love trees and open space -- who doesn't? -- please consider taking a couple of minutes to help save the 30-acre Meyer Farm property near Trader Joe's in south Salem from being turned into a subdivision.

Back in October 2021 I wrote a blog post about this, "Thirty-acre Meyer Farm property in south Salem may be developed."

If you drive past Trader Joe's on Hilfiker Lane SE, on your left you'll see a surprising urban sight: thirty acres of beautiful undeveloped land. 

Unfortunately, there's a decent chance that before too long this property will become thirty acres of much less beautiful developed land.

But not if a group of people devoted to seeing the land remain as natural as possible succeed in their effort to stop the planned subdivision. Consider joining the Friends of The Meyer Farm Facebook group if you share their goal.

On Monday, January 10, 2022, 6 pm, there's a Public Hearing scheduled for the subdivision application (SUB 21-09) as part of a City Council meeting. The councilors will receive testimony from citizens and vote to either approve, approve with conditions, or deny the proposed subdivision at the Meyer Farm.

Requested action(s). Do one, or both, of the following:

1. Tell the City Councilors why you think this proposed subdivision should be denied by submitting your written testimony to the City Registrar by 5:00 p.m. on January 10 by email to [email protected]. You can also submit paper copies at the mailbox outside the City Recorder's office at the Civic Center, 555 Liberty St. SE, Room 205, also by 5:00 p.m. prior to the meeting.

2. Provide virtual comment live via Zoom at the Public Hearing on January 10. In order to testify at the hearing, you will need to sign up between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. the day of the hearing at https://www.cityofsalem.net/Pages/Public-Comment-at-Salem-City-Council-Meeting.aspx. A meeting link will be sent to all persons who signed up to testify.

I'm a member of the Friends of the Meyer Farm Facebook group. These are some of the issues the group has identified which argue against approving the subdivision application. You can mention the issues in your public comment/testimony urging denial of the application.

Traffic. There's concerns about how neighboring streets and intersections will be affected by the traffic generated by the proposed subdivision.

Trees. A tree inventory submitted as part of the development application appears to be out-of-date and incomplete. So there's no way to tell how many trees are planning to be removed, and how many saved.

Wildlife. Fourteen local wildlife species that need the Meyer Farm to survive are protected by local, state, and federal law, along with their required habitats.

History. The Meyer Farm has significant historical value, being one of the last original parcels from the Land Donation Act of 1850. Ownership of the farm can be traced back to the original claimant, Joseph Waldo.

Heritage. A barn that Joseph Waldo built in 1854 is still on the property. It qualifies to be listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. 

Chris Hoy wants to be Salem's mayor. Here's how he became a city councilor.

Today KMUZ broke the news that Ward 6 city councilor Chris Hoy will run for Salem Mayor next year. His announcement is at the end of the 20-minute interview.

Hoy joins two women who have already announced their candidacy: Chane Griggs, who appears to be to the right of Hoy politically, and Hollie Oakes-Miller, who definitely is to the left of Hoy politically. 

So Hoy occupies a sort of Goldilocks sweet spot in the mayor's race. He'll be criticized by some as being too conservative and by others as being too liberal. Which isn't a bad place to be in, given Salem's moderately leftward tilt.

(Salem went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.)

Since quite a few people have moved to Salem after Hoy became a city councilor in 2017, I thought it'd be good to recap how this happened. Plus, many voters don't pay much attention to local politics, including, sadly, this blog.

Daniel Benjamin held the Ward 6 city council seat until he resigned in November 2016 following his Facebook sharing of a video showing Black Lives Matter protesters being rammed by cars. That led to an amazing city council meeting in Loucks Auditorium where two hours of public testimony, including three minutes from me, called for an end to racism and bigotry.

A special election to fill Benjamin's seat was held in March 2017. It attracted a lot of interest, since at the time there were only four progressives on the city council. If a progressive won in the special election, that would give them a majority on the nine-member body. 

Which was a big deal, since the city council conservatives were determined to keep the Salem River Crossing project, a.k.a. Third Bridge, alive in the face of considerable community opposition. 

Hoy won easily in a four-person race, getting 56% of the vote in early results, as I wrote about in "How will Chris Hoy's victory affect the Salem City Council?"

It was a happy night for Salem progressives yesterday. Chris Hoy won the special election for the Ward 6 City Council seat left vacant by Daniel Benjamin's resignation last year.

Hoy's large margin of victory over the other candidates -- including Greggery Peterson, the "establishment" pick endorsed by current Mayor Chuck Bennett and previous Mayor Anna Peterson -- was aided by the enthusiastic support of volunteers from Progressive Salem, who put in a lot of time canvassing for Hoy.

Hoy then ran unopposed for a full four-year term in the May 2018 primary election, not surprisingly getting 100% of the 1,469 ballots case in the race -- not counting 15 write-in votes.

In the KMUZ interview, Hoy was asked if he had any ideas about who would be running to succeed him as the Ward 6 city councilor. He said that he'd heard of several people who are thinking of running and there should be some great candidates for the position. 

Hoy also noted that while the interview was his first public announcement that he was running for mayor, this was "the worst kept secret in Salem." Which explains why people already were vying to fill Hoy's seat prior to his announcement. 

The Salem Reporter has a story about Hoy entering the mayor's race. 

Oregon's snow and cold fits with global warming

This morning my wife and I woke up to a winter wonderland.

Our ten acres in rural south Salem looked beautiful, as did most of the rest of western Oregon after arctic air flowing southward collided with a low pressure disturbance rolling into the northwest from the Gulf of Alaska.

But with that beauty came a lot of problems. Many accidents on roads and freeways. Clogged traffic as people traveled the day after Christmas. And for us, five and a half inches of snow on our steep, long driveway.

After lunch I got out our ergonomic snow shovel (with a curved handle). It took me a bit more than two hours to clear our driveway, aided some by my wife. It's simple labor, pushing the snow from the middle of our driveway off to one side, then pushing more snow from the middle to the other side.

I've done this quite a few times during the 31 years we've lived at our house. Shoveling snow is good exercise. It relieves my snowstorm anxiety -- will the power go out? can our cars get up the driveway? -- when I stop worrying and start shoveling.

This time, though, my thoughts weren't as relaxed as they usually are. As I wrote about yesterday on my churchless blog, one reason was a form of PTSD following a nasty ice storm last February that left us without power for twelve days and lots of tree damage.

Sure, snow is different from ice. I knew that this storm would be much less serious than the one earlier in the year. Still...

As I cleared the snow from our driveway I found myself thinking about global warming, which really should be called global climate change, because the effects of rising greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere can include much more than warming.

Like, unusual cold spells. And unusual snow amounts.

It's rare for us to get over five inches of snow in a single day, with several inches more falling after sunset, and the snow is still coming down.

While I was shoveling away this afternoon, occasionally the sun would come out and I'd feel better. But then the snow would return. I'd think, "What if it ever snows heavily for an entire week, or even longer, with bitter cold preventing it from melting?"

This isn't an idle worry.

It's the sort of thing that will become more common as global climate change is increasingly serious. Drought. Flooding. Tornadoes. Blizzards. Hurricanes. Extreme weather already is becoming commonplace, and it will increase in frequency as greenhouse gas emissions continue to mount up.

I'm not saying that Oregon's current cold and snow was caused by climate change.

It's difficult to attribute most individual weather events to global climate change. However, it's well known that polar vortexes, where the jet stream bends markedly southward, allowing arctic air to flow into the United States, will be more common with climate change/global warming.

After I finished shoveling the snow off our driveway, I took our dog for her usual late afternoon walk. As we got to the end of a trail and reached the street that leads back to our house, I was thankful that I didn't have my iPhone with me.

Because if I did, I would have been tempted to get it out and take a photo of the buck with an impressive set of antlers standing in the snow on the other side of the road, nestled  between two oak trees. Instead, I was able to savor the moment without technology intruding.

He was looking right at us. That moment was like a painting brought to life. "Buck standing in snow." As the dog and I walked onto the road, the buck ran off, with a doe following him. It was a special moment. I was grateful to see this gorgeous creature.

Who was a part of nature, not of our human world. Moments like this remind me that we humans are unique among all other animal species in our capacity to massively screw up the natural environment that we, like the deer, depend on to sustain our life.

The buck is fortunate not to have his mind filled with thoughts of catastrophe caused by reckless disregard of our place in nature. My mind is different. I just hope enough other human minds wake up to the need to deal with global climate change before it is too late to make a difference.

Our 2021 Christmas letter explains what we mean by "Fine"

For us, 2021 was one of those years when we felt like adding an asterisk to our usual reply when asked by a store employee, "How're you doing?" 

Fine was an OK answer. But Fine* is even better. Our Christmas letter allowed us to describe what we mean by the asterisk.

Here it is in PDF and JPEG formats.
Download 2021 Christmas Letter PDF