Salem Political Snark

Salem isn't really one of the best-run cities in America

The City of Salem Facebook page was all proud about Salem supposedly being one of the best-run cities in America. Not surprisingly, Mayor Bennett said it showed how wonderfully the folks at City Hall are doing.

I'm not nearly as excited, for reasons I'll describe below.

First, this isn't a scholarly bit of research conducted by an organization with impeccable credentials. It's a report by WalletHub designed to drive clicks to their web site, where I assume they do something involving being a hub for people with wallets.

Second, it might make sense to speak of the "best-run city government," but the idea of a "best-run city" is absurd, since a city is too complex for any single entity to run it.

The methodology used in the report makes this clear.

But I bet nobody at the City of Salem paid much attention to the methodology. Instead, they rushed to get some P.R. benefit from the report. I'm geeky enough to enjoy looking at methodologies, though. Here it is.

Of the six key categories, two are completely, or almost entirely, outside of the control of city government: Education and Health.

Each category is weighted equally, 16.67 of the total, so one-third of the criteria for determining a well-run city has virtually nothing to do with what the City of Salem and City Council are doing.

In fact, Financial Stability is the only category that is entirely under the control of city government, since it has to do with the Moody's City Credit Rating and Long-Term Debt Per Capita.

What about the other three categories?

Well, the most important scores in the Safety category have to do with crime rates, which are only loosely connected with how policing is done in a city, and motor vehicle fatalities per capita, which also has little to do with city government.

Economy has more to do with what transpires at the City of Salem, but not a whole lot, being primarily a private sector matter.

Infrastructure and Pollution involves roads, public transit, walking/biking, parks, air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions per capita, and traffic congestion. I'd say roughly half of this category is under the control of city government. 

So my rough estimate is that only about a third of the scores that gave Salem a ranking of 18 out of 150 cities actually had to do with how well city government is performing. Thus this report is pretty much meaningless when it comes to assessing how well the folks at City Hall are doing.

A last methodological problem is that the overall ranking of a city was calculated by dividing the Quality of City Services (which we've seen mostly has nothing to do with city government) by the Total Budget Per Capita (which has everything to do with city government).

Thus the ranking was basically, an apples divided by oranges thing -- essentially meaningless. 

Georgia election workers show what a hateful liar Trump is

At this point I'm rarely shocked by anything Donald Trump does or says.

But today's televised hearing of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol moved me deeply,  because what Trump did to two Georgia election workers -- Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman -- was so horrible even by Trumpian standards.

Moss and Freeman at the January 6 committee hearing

He and his lying accomplice, Rudy Giuliani, destroyed the lives of Moss and Freeman by falsely accusing them of falsifying many thousands of ballots for Joe Biden. 

It was infuriating to listen to Moss and Freeman talk about their lives being turned inside down by Trump and Giuliani. (Moss testified in person today; the committee showed videos of Freeman's previous testimony .)

These are honest hardworking women who believed strongly in helping people vote. Trump doesn't possess even 1% of the integrity and morality of Moss and Freeman. Yet so far he hasn't been indicted for his election-related crimes.

Hopefully Trump will be held to account for his misdeeds, especially since there's every indication he and his Republican cronies plan to try to steal the next presidential election if Trump runs again. And maybe even if he doesn't run.

Because a majority of Republicans, one poll had it at 70%, believe Trump's lie that he won the 2020 presidential election because of some mysterious voter fraud that lacks any evidence but supposedly occurred because Trump says so.

It's a national embarrassment that one of our two major political parties has gone so far down the election fraud rabbit hole. How anyone can vote for Republican candidates is beyond me.

Check out a Washington Post story, "Election workers describe 'hateful' threats after Trump's false claims." Some excerpts:

Shaye Moss’s life forever changed on Dec. 10, 2020, when Rudy Giuliani, then President Donald Trump’s top campaign lawyer, publicly claimed that she and her mother, a fellow poll worker in Fulton County, Ga., had rigged the outcome in her state.

Moss’s supervisor suggested that day that she check her social media accounts to see if she had received any threats, as others in the office had. She was stunned by what she saw when she pulled up her Facebook Messenger account.

“It was just a lot of horrible things there,” Moss said at a hearing Tuesday before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Many of the messages were racist and “hateful,” said Moss, who is Black. “A lot of threats wishing death upon me, telling me I’ll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, ‘Be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’ ”

That was only the beginning. Moss eventually stopped going to the grocery store, where she feared acquaintances might say her name and call attention from believers of Trump’s voter-fraud claims. Election deniers showed up at the home of her grandmother and tried to push their way in to search for evidence of fraud. Both she and her mother, Ruby Freeman, were forced into hiding. They quit their jobs with the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, where Moss had proudly served as a poll worker for more than a decade.

...Moss said she was speechless when her supervisors showed her a recording of Giuliani’s statement to a Georgia state Senate committee investigating the 2020 result. Giuliani claimed that Moss and Freeman had plotted to kick out observers at the State Farm Arena, where the county had set up a ballot counting operation. They had brought in suitcases filled with fraudulent ballots for Biden and scanned them through the tabulating teams multiple times, he said. He described surveillance video from the arena that he claimed showed the two exchanging USB memory sticks, presumably containing fraudulent vote counts, “as if they’re vials of cocaine.”

“I mean, it’s obvious to anyone who’s a criminal investigator or prosecutor that they are engaged in surreptitious, illegal activity,” Giuliani said. “And they’re still walking around Georgia. They should have been questioned already. Their homes should have been searched for evidence.”

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who led the questioning at Tuesday’s hearing, asked Moss: “None of that was true, was it?”

Moss’s answer: “None of it.”

Schiff then asked about the USB memory sticks.

“What was your mom actually handing you on that video?”

“A ginger mint,” Moss said.

Trump also attacked Freeman and Moss personally in a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) just days before the Capitol attack, mentioning Freeman 18 times and describing her at one point as a “professional vote scammer and hustler.” The Washington Post obtained a recording of the call and published it last year.

The threats and harassment that ensued even reached Moss’s grandmother, who called one day, screaming, to say people had knocked on her door and, when she had opened it, had tried to push into the home in search of Moss and Freeman. Moss recounted how awful she felt telling her grandmother, “who likes to get her steps in walking around the neighborhood,” that she had to stop exercising outside for her own safety. At night, pranksters “continuously” sent pizzas to her home that the delivery drivers expected her to pay for, Moss testified.

These disturbing days I'm doing my best to deny reality

It's a tough time for lots of people in the United States. No, let's make that most people. President Biden said as much yesterday.

Speaking to the Associated Press in a rare one-on-one interview in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, the president touched on many topics from war to hair.

“People are really, really down,” Biden told the Associated Press White House reporter Josh Boak, according to a transcript of the interview. “They’re really down.”

Agreed. Maybe you aren't feeling down, but I sure am. Not totally, of course. I have plenty of cheerful moments.

But I find it difficult to be all that upbeat given what's happening in Oregon, the United States, and the entire world. 

Being a news junkie, I can't shut off the flow of facts into my brain. However, I've been doing my best to put a positive spin on reality. Arguably, I'm denying reality. That seems preferable to falling into a deep depression, though.

Here's some examples, with my positive spin/denial in italics. 

Inflation and gas prices are going up like crazy. But the Granny Smith apples I eat every day, keeping the doctor away, still cost the same. If I ferment them, maybe they'll power my Subaru.

Betsy Johnson could be the next Oregon governor. I much prefer the Democrat, Tina Kotek, but even though Johnson has ads every night on Portland TV, that didn't do Carrick Flynn any good in the recent Democratic primary for the sixth congressional district.

The stock market is sinking into bear market territory. If I don't put my reading glasses on, and  ignore the red numbers in my iPhone's Stocks app, sometimes I can imagine that the market went up rather than down.

Biden's approval numbers are as bad as Trump's at this point in his presidency. So this puts pressure on Biden to not run in 2024, which would make me really happy. 

It looks like Trump is going to run for president again. That doesn't bother me, since he lost last time. What would bother me hugely is if Trump won. There must be a Dem who can beat him.

Republicans are going all out to make sure Trump wins in 2024, even if he actually lost. We couldn't really lose our democracy, could we? Won't Americans rise up and stop this from happening? I like my questions more than the answers that pop into my head.

It's been the rainiest April-May-June in NW Oregon recorded history. If this is an effect of global warming, I'd rather have too much rain than not enough. My daughter lives in southern California. She can't remember the last time it rained there, the drought is so bad.

Given the finalists, Salem will have a middle-aged white guy as the new City Manager. But hopefully one of them will be better than the middle-aged white guy who was the previous City Manager.

Vladimir Putin shows no signs of stopping his war on Ukraine. Some disease may stop Putin from living, though. Maybe a fast-growing cancer will win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The first case of monkeypox has been found in Oregon. OK, let's trade covid for monkeypox, a much rarer disease that doesn't spread easily and is rarely fatal.

A middle-aged white guy will be the next Salem City Manager

So after four months of searching the country for candidates to be Salem's next City Manager, the folks at City Hall came up with three middle-aged white guys. 

My intuitive reaction when I saw the image below on Facebook was, Oh, no! And this is coming from an old white guy.

Look, I have nothing against middle-aged white guys. I can remember being one myself a mere couple of dozen years ago. It just seems wrong for city officials to conduct a nationwide search and end up with three candidates who don't reflect the vast majority of people in Salem.

Women and people of color, including a large and growing Latino population.

The broader issue here is whether the City Manager should be viewed as merely a bureaucrat who keeps the machinery of city government humming along as smoothly as possible, or that plus a dynamic leader committed to making Salem a vibrant cutting-edge 21st century city -- not just a backwater between the more rapidly flowing cities of Portland and Eugene.

I definitely favor the latter option, but I strongly suspect that city officials are looking for more of a beancounter City Manager than a shake-things-up City Manager. 

They should keep in mind that the City Manager is by far the most powerful person in city government.

The unpaid Mayor is primarily a figurehead. The eight unpaid councilors, along with the Mayor, supposedly set policies via their City Council votes, but in practice they're powerless to do anything without the support of city staff, who are under the control of the City Manager. The Mayor and councilors have no staff of their own.

So it's ridiculous when I hear people say, "The City Manager is a non-partisan position." Not true.

If the new City Manager disagrees with a policy of the City Council he (it won't be a she) has many options to slow walk that policy into a semi-death, even while outwardly proclaiming to the Mayor and councilors that he's totally on board with the policy.

City staff are adept at manipulating the City Council to act in ways favored by staff. The City Manager is #1 in the city staff pecking order. So he is the #1 manipulator. Again, in a sneaky fashion, because no one becomes the Salem City Manager unless they've mastered the art of getting their way from elected officials while acting like a humble servant of those officials.

This is one reason I think an important criterion for selecting the next City Manager should be their personal political perspective. 

Salem is a left-leaning city.

Currently there are seven progressives and two conservatives on the City Council. Salem has voted for the Democratic presidential candidate in the past three elections. We have a Salem Climate Action Plan. Diversity and inclusivity are core values expressed by the progressive City Council majority.

When a president of the United States is elected, we take it for granted that the president will choose cabinet heads and other top officials who share their political perspective. It would make no sense for a conservative president to have a cabinet full of liberal department heads, or for a liberal president to have a cabinet full of conservative department heads.

Likewise, Salem's liberal-leaning City Council should choose a City Manager who is comfortable with progressive policies, rather than a conservative City Manager who isn't big on reducing carbon emissions, building safe bike lanes, having many police calls handled by a mobile crisis unit, and other actions that appeal more to the left side of the political spectrum.

Let's stop pretending that the City Manager isn't a political position. It is, masquerading as a bureaucratic position.

Read why people want Salem to have protected bike lanes

Ten days ago I started a petition in support of the Salem Bike Vision proposal to spend $10 million of an upcoming $300 million community improvement bond on building a network of protected bike lanes.

Please sign the petition, if you haven't already.

So far 228 people have signed the petition. Over half, 130 people, left comments explaining why they support the protected bike lanes proposal. 

I've copied in those comments below, which total 3,876 words. Yes, that's a lot.

But the people who wrote those words spoke well, and sometimes eloquently, about how protected bike lanes are a big improvement over either no lanes at all or white lines painted on the edge of busy streets, which are a poor substitute for much safer protected bike lanes.

If you want to know why protected bike lanes are needed in Salem, here's the answers from 126 people.

I ride regularly in Salem, and soon will hope my daughter can do the same. There are parts of Salem that are unsafe to ride a bike in because of traffic. This is needed.

With gas prices skyrocketing I’ve seen more people walking and riding their bikes then ever before. I am considering buying an electric bike and kid trailer to take to the grocery store instead of driving because of the costs of gas. Of prices of gas aren’t going to go down any time soon, if they are going to continue to reach for the sky, you will see more bicyclists on the road. There will be an uptick with car/bicycle crashes unless better bicycle paths are in place. There are many many roads in Salem that do not offer a bicycle path at all, and many more roads that have poorly maintained bike paths full of gravel and litter.

Biking is better for the environment, climate change, land use policy, & personal health so it should be prioritized to make it safe and therefore more accessible. It is irresponsible not to encourage biking & make it as safe as possible.

With Salem's bike infrastructure as it stands, most trips either require a car or put you in the middle of car traffic. Protected bike lanes would allow me to ride my bike for most errands, and would allow my children to ride to the park or the library

This is important because we need to do everything we can to stop human caused climate change, make it easier for all people to move around Salem and make Salem a great place.

We are a single-car family and I rely on my bike to get from work to home (vice versa). I live in south Salem and getting to Lancaster could be easier if just a couple roads were safely connected. The fear of being hit by a car is real and lack of safe routes increases to that risk. Furthermore, providing low income families alternative and safe options to transport themselves to/from work would help put additional funds back into their pockets, and reduce the strain on government support systems.

Paint is not protection. Try something new.

To safely commute , to ride for fun with family and friends, for quality of life

Protected bike lanes appeal to so many more people than regular bike lanes. Imagine riding a bike in comfort, separated from cars, with your kids, with your grandmother who is wearing high heels, collecting miles of smiles. That's what I see when Salem gets protected bike lanes.

I want to be able to bike to reduce my carbon footprint, but don't feel safe on the roads.

Biking should be accessible to all of Salem, not just rich neighborhoods.

Safer commute to work and school (8-year old), protect the environment

A safe network for biking is important for me and my family with little kids to reach school, work, the library, parks, and businesses downtown. We balance life with two school-age kids with one car. A safe network of separated bike lanes to reach all major parts of the city would open more opportunities for us to patronize business and access services in the city. It also would make it easier for us to do our part to reduce traffic congestion and pollution in the city we love! For example, my 8-year-old son currently bikes with me on the buffered bike lanes on Church/High, but we need to hop off and walk on State Street to go to Isaac’s coffee, The Book Bin, Dolce Mama’s, Fork Forty, and Riverfront/Minto Island parks. We walk because it isn’t safe to ride east/west through downtown with kids. And this is only because we can safely access the Church/High buffered bike lanes. If we lived further from downtown, it wouldn’t be possible to reach those businesses/parks. Please support Salem Bike Vision’s plan for better transportation in Salem!

To protect and promote safe and efficient transportation.

I would ride my bike more often if there were a protected network of bike lanes throughout the city. Motorized vehicles should not be the only option to get downtown!

To promote cycling safety and to reduce our city’s carbon foot print.

This is SO long overdue!!!

Being in a low-income household, a safe bike lane ensures I can get around town more freely and more importantly safely.

I would use them frequently!

As an active cyclist in my younger years, I never felt safe cycling on narrow bike lanes, separated from semis by just a painted line. We need safety and separation of bikes from vehicles.

I'm a lifelong bicycle rider that has been struck by vehicles three different times. I don't feel safe riding on Salem's narrow streets, but would forgo most car travel if safe bike lanes were implemented.

Our children deserve protection

As a long time bicycle commuter, I can say from experience that riding in Salem is scary. Despite meticulously following traffic laws, I've been struck by cars twice, and nearly hit on multiple other occasions. I've had drivers curse me out and run me off the road just for legally using a lane. I'd love for my kids to be able to develop some autonomy by riding around by themselves, to the park or the library, but with the current state of the roads in Salem, it just isn't safe. Protected bike lanes would go a long way toward making this town more livable.

I’m a cyclist

Cleaner air, healthier planet is good for people and other living things.

We need healthier ways to commute that are safe and away from cars. Sharing the road is too dangerous.

I would like to see bike lanes to be able to bike through the downtown, as opposed to having to go "around the downtown crowded streets." As is current, a downtown lane does not have room for a car a bicycle at the same time. The bicycle rider will be the one to get squeezed or hit by the car.

Because My sister and her husband loves riding bikes in Salem and I want to keep them safe from cars.

I bike everywhere, no vehicle because owning a vehicle is a thing of the past with a quality electric bike and self driving vehicles you can pay for a ride when needed. Also I have been hit by cars not paying attention and had to replace tires several times due to glass, also the side walks in Salem are so busted it's not even funny

Because people I love, ride bikes!

My husband has a rare blood cancer and daily bike riding is what saves him. It’s important to feel safe and comfortable out riding and protected. Thank you for this initiative

For future generations of Salemites

Biking is an essential way for everyone, especially lower income individuals to get around. Cater to them!

I'm a full time bike commuter in Salem

As someone who cycles down Sunnyview road as a commute and been hit three times, I'd like to not die for trying to save money on gas plz and thank you.

She was my Aunt’s close friend, no one should be hit riding their bike.

Because this could potentially save lives and I know others have gotten seriously injured or died from related accidents

I would love to be able to bike to work safely, with a clear designated bike lane on commercial, Liberty, 12th.

My husband was struck by a car while riding his bicycle in Salem this year. Thankfully he has recovered, but I fear for my family's safety when we bike, especially for that of my children.

People need alternative ways to get around. I just watched an incredible video on another country that had tree lined bike lanes and walking paths down the middle of their roads. It was amazing!

We need safe bike lanes for human and the environment.

Making sure that pedestrians have a safe place where they know they won’t get hit.

This would be great for families and to reduce our carbon footprint!

My best friend was killed on Cherry Ave in Keizer, I ride bikes as well and safety is essential

We need to ride bikes

As a country we need to get into the habit of exercising more and we all need to be able to do so safely. As more people choose to bike for more errands as well as for fun due to the high cost of gas, there will be more demand. Lets make it safe for all concerned in all our cities

I need to feel safer as a bike rider plus it will help Salem's livability

Bicycles are good for our community and safer biking means more biking and stronger communities.

For safety, health of our community and long term appeal for our city.

It will make it safer to bike in Salem.

I want to reduce pollution by giving people the safe opportunity to ride their bike.

I bike for exercise and transportation around town.

Our future generations depend on us decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. This is one small step towards that.

Safety using public facilities

If bicycles are to be options for transportation, they need more protection than they have. Take a look at corners where bike lanes continue around a turn to the right -- the lane markings disappear completely. I've seen cars carefully pass a bike only to nearly wipe them out at the corner!

Bike friendly city streets are necessary with the current population growth of Salem.

Safe bike routes add value throughout our community. Please include bike infrastructure to our bond projects.

I bike often in Salem for the health of the planet and the health of my body through exercise. Unfortunately, this often times leaves me and my son in an extremely vulnerable position with the limited bike protection infrastructure in Salem. We need to protect the most vulnerable from distracted and uneducated drivers re: bike safety and laws.

Oregon should be a leader in cycling both nationally and world wide. IN Salem we can make this happen now with a relatively small investment and show others how it's done. It's important for our green goals, lifestyle, health, and equity of transportation.

I want my family to be safe riding bikes in Salem!

I am an active Salem bike commuter and would like to feel more safe when riding my bike around town. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to have a voice!

Safety, safety, safety

The original design of Salem's roads didn't consider walking or biking as a mode of transportation, and now is a good time to improve that design.

My husband has been hit by cars twice while riding his bike. We are looking for a place to live that has protected bike lanes. I hope Salem can be that place.

I’m A bicyclist and safety is always top of mind.

Visiting and passing through Salem on a bike is much more cumbersome than it should be. After visiting cities where quality of life is put above quality of car-life, I’m sure Salem is capable of a better vision that encourages pedestrian and cycling as a hand-in hand part of a quality city lifestyle..

I want and care about the safety of those who choose to ride bikes here in Salem OR.

Safe biking helps the environment and promotes community activity!

Salem needs more diversity in transportation and as an avid cyclist I’d love to have safer options as I ride. My business was downtown for years and riding to work was dicey once entering downtown and surrounding area due to no bike lanes. I feel more people would consider bike commuting it they felt safer. As an avid cyclist I also would just to live in a more bike friendly town.

As someone who commutes via protected bike lanes I can assure you the daily journey I make is far more safer & much less stressful. Protected bike infrastructure has proven to be a quality benefit to my neighborhood leading into major business districts. And with the soaring price of gas and high cost of parking, having a bike option helps a tight budget so you can free up funds to support local businesses. Build a protected bike lane in Salem, and I will happily come visit, test ride your routes, & support your local businesses. My friends and I love to visit cities and explore via a great bike route designs & culture.

Once I moved to Salem I essentially stopped riding my bike because of the lack of safe travel routes. I would love to see this become a priority here.

How better to manage the increasing flow of traffic than to add bike lanes that make people feel SAFE enough to even try commuting to work. Especially in this time of e-bikes becoming much more accessible. Also I have almost been hit three times on commercial st this year because people don’t look for cyclists. In all three instances, a protected bike lane would have removed the problem. Salem doesn’t provide good public transit options and gas prices have skyrocketed. Help us please! My downtown business (Resonance Yoga Collective) has built a spot for people to park their bikes inside our space and we provide incentives for people to bike to class. Time for the city to do its part too.

We need safer bike infrastructure.

I want to be able to safely ride to work.

My family rides bikes, and bike lanes are great safety features!

I have been an avid cyclist and often wished that I felt safer riding down town for chores,shopping etc. Safe cycling could lead to a large reduction in greenhouse gases

Safety matters and many of my friends Bicycle in Salem!!

I want to feel safe traveling across the city on my bike, and for my husband and 2 year old son to be safer when they go on my husbands cargo e-bike to my son’s daycare 3 miles from West to NE Salem.

Connect the patchwork of bike lanes…. Liberty from browning to commercial is needed urgently. Protect riders with protected lanes!

Salem's bike infrastructure needs to be good enough to support everyday bike commuters like me.

keeping bikers safe in the roads is very important and encourages biking as a mode of transportation creating more opportunities for a healthier lifestyle and a positive impact for our environment.

This is important to make the streets safer for bike transportation.

Would definitely be taking less car trips if there were more protected bike lanes around town! Commercial & liberty split near Panera especially needs to be made safer for bikes!

Bike safety and a sustainable city!

It will promote riding bikes and reduce cars on the road. Better for the end and less traffic too

I commuted on bike for 3 years. Now my brother bike commutes

I work at the hospital and live in West Salem. The commute is only 4 miles and I would love to be able to ride my bike to and from work daily. But as it is right now, Wallace and Front St. are way too dangerous for cyclists and I am not comfortable riding to work. Having protected bike lanes would allow me to commute which is not only good for my own health but reduce my carbon footprint as well!

Liberty is extremely dangerous for bikes, especially during commuter hours. With the amount of new homes and apartments under construction in this area, we NEED a safe path for all the added traffic.

As a cyclist and a person who would like to use bicycles more for basic transportation I’d greatly appreciate feeling safer and more able to do so.

I would like to be abe to ride a bike in Salem without risking life and limbs!

Salem residents deserve a safe, accessible city and this proposal helps to achieve that.

Riding a bike in Salem should be safer and students should be able to safely bike to school.

Studies have shown that protected bike lanes exponentially increase safety (for both cyclists, pedestrians, and cars), retail traffic, and property values. I want to live in a community that values people and healthy lifestyles. I don\'t think that is too much to ask for. For more stats on protected bike lanes, be sure to take a look at People for Bikes data page at https://www.peopleforbikes.org/statistics/economic-benefits

Because I commute to work on my bike and riding my bike downtown is frightening. Would love to have better biking lanes downtown to make those on bikes feel safer.

I think it would be safer and more people would ride bikes, including me- age 13

Less than 5% of this $300 mil grant would contribute to lowering the city's carbon footprint as well as providing more safety for current bikers and encouraging reluctants to get on their bikes for transport to work and school as well as good healthy exercise.

Safe bike infrastructure helps to improve safe transportation options for many people who can't, or don't want to, drive around town for many daily tasks.

I envision Salem as a family-friendly bike town. I dream of any Salem resident feeling comfortable with the option of commuting around town, for work or play. For this to happen, we need not only more bike lanes, but protected ones. People need to feel safe on their bicycles.

To feel safe riding my bike instead of driving everywhere.

I would love to ride my bike around town to run errands and enjoy the city

Because people should be safe biking in Salem and right now it isn’t safe.

Bike friendly cities are better for the environment. I enjoy riding for exercise and would ride more places for errands and shopping if there were more protected bike lanes.

Public health reasons.

We need safe bike lanes for a less car dependent city.

Adding protected bike lanes throughout the city of Salem will make it safer for recreating families, offer a healthy and safe alternative to cars for commuters, and enhance the overall liveability of this beautiful community.

Bikes are the future of local transportation

This proposal will help save lives from motor vehicles and reduce our carbon emissions. It\'s an important first step towards our carbon goals and equity.

I've been injured rather badly from getting hit by a car from behind while riding on a roadside shoulder. Completely not my fault, but an Inattentive driver. Drivers speed and run red lights, and cut in front of you far too often in Salem. I would ride to work, go shopping, and ride for exercise if there were safe protected lanes for me on my bicycle. I now have a great fear of getting hit by a car. I was just visited Victoria BC. There is a city that shares the road with bikes and even has a well maintained bike trail called the Galloping Goose that allows one to ride without fear to many parts of the city and out to many sites outside the city. Salem should have a well connected infrastructure to get more people out of cars. We don\'t need a new bridge we need better ways to get around without being in or battling with 3-ton SUVs.

As gas prices remain high more people are likely switching to other forms of transportation like bikes. Also a good shift for climate change. More safer bike lanes would accommodate this shift.

I live downtown and would love to ride to work, but I feel unsafe

A protected bicycle network will provide a safer means to access opportunity for all Salem residents. This will reduce congestion and air pollution, increase physical and mental health and well-being, and create a more equitable transportation network for all road users. Salem has so much potential but we need to take this first bold step to really make bicycling feasible for everyone. This is an investment in our future.

I want the streets of Salem to feel safe so that everyone can use public thoroughfares regardless of their chosen mode of transportation.

Make our city more livable.

Safety, community, increasing alternative transportation Thorofare’s is important.

Economic vitality of the city. Positive health outcomes.

As a rider myself, I often stick to protected bike paths and lanes because of safety. Adding protected bike lanes will allow riders like myself access to more areas.

Safety

Because the drivers in Salem and in the PNW are super scary. I don’t ride my bike anywhere in town. I drove out of town and ride on trails because, no cars. Which means I also spend my money outside of Salem while driving to the safer bike trails

My family are in Salem. Creating lanes that a small child, elderly person or unconfident person can use easily is a key support to making cycling more inclusive.

I use a bike to go into town every weekday. Having safe bike lanes would be a real plus.

Because I wish for my children and I to have a safe place to bike.

I never biked downtown or back home without my heart in my mouth. And now I won’t risk it.

I prefer using my bike when running errands about town. Knowing that there would be protected lanes would give me a greater sense of security.

I ride my bike to meetings and shopping errands but safe routes to get places are limited .

I would use my ebike instead of my car to run local errands if the streets were safer. We need protected bike lanes. Painted lines are insufficient.

Making people feel safe to ride to work will encourage more people to get out of their cars, which will lead to reduced congestion, better health outcomes, better mental health outcomes, more satisfied citizens, and safer roads. In addition, most bicycle infrastructure gets used by other \"wheeled\" users, such as wheelchair and mobility scooter users, so this helps them be safer, too. Lastly, every city that has made the effort to become more \"bicycle friendly\" has shown that it brings a substantial positive economic impact along with it. EVERY ONE.

A life long cyclist and advocate for bike/ped and transit practical transportation options. 8 years a member on OBPAC - Oregon Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee.

To meet Salem's Climate Action Plan goal of net zero emissions by 2050 we need to get people out of their cars. There's no other way. This will help.

Alternative forms of transportation are critical to reduction in carbon emissions. In addition I want safe and equal access to our city streets for bikes.

Connected, protected, and direct bike lanes are needed if we are going to get folks comfortable riding their bikes and leaving their cars at home. To me, this is the number one thing we can do to fight climate change here locally.

I love to ride a bike. But not on Salem streets, because mostly it isn't safe.

Weird reasons against protected bike lanes in Salem

Any user of Facebook knows that while there is a lot to like about this social media platform, there's also a lot not to like -- such as damn crazy ideas being spread around.

About a week ago I started a petition in support of the Salem Bike Vision proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes in Salem. At the moment it has 190 signatures. Please sign it!

To publicize the petition, I shared a post on three Facebook pages that I administer: Salem Can Do Better, Strange Up Salem, Salem Political Snark.

The 591 reactions to date have been mostly positive: 71% liked or loved the post, while 29% deemed it worthy of a "haha."

Most comments in favor of protected bike lanes were predictably reasonable. Bicyclists don't feel comfortable or safe using the current bike lanes, which often don't exist on busy streets and when they do, almost always consist of painted lines on the side of the street.

Comments opposed to protected bike lanes were hugely more likely to be crazily weird. They came in a bunch of different flavors. Here's some examples of central themes put forward by the "haha" folks. I'm going to rebut the themes with a single sentence, since they make so little sense.

Absurd logic. A flawed premise plus faulty facts equals nonsense.

Anti-green conspiracy theory. A road diet is indeed planned when an unneeded car lane is better put to a bike lane purpose, but whoever "they" is, they're not going to ban all gas/diesel vehicles.

Want school armed security. The school district is funded in a separate fashion from how the City of Salem is funded, so the community improvement bond isn't taking any money away that could have gone to schools.


No one on disconnected bike lanes. Aside from the fact that the commenter can't be watching the bike lane 24/7/365, few people using a protected bike lane that goes for just a few blocks says nothing about how much a citywide network of protected bike lanes would be used.

Misinformed. Bicycles aren't supposed to be ridden on sidewalks in the downtown core, though some cyclists do, because it isn't safe to ride in the street; elsewhere it can be difficult for cyclists to ride on sidewalks, so fixing sidewalks is a poor option compared to building protected bike lanes.

Bicycle riders should be taxed. Actually most people who ride a bicycle also own a car, so they are paying a gas tax which funds both roads/streets and bike lanes.

Hardly anyone rides bikes in Salem. Just plain wrong.

Simply anti-bicycle. Hey, if you hate bicycles, that's your right, but come on -- banning bicycles from roads... are cyclists supposed to levitate above the pavement?


Against Governor Brown. The $300 million bond measure has nothing to do with state government, nor with Kate Brown.

Anti-homeless. OK, let's build the network of protected bike lanes and see if this prediction comes true, which of course it won't.

Bicycles should be licensed and insured. In my opinion this would be a great idea, if we were talking about assault weapons, but if bicycles are made too expensive for regular people to afford, only rich people will have bicycles.

Humor. After all the crazy comments I had to read in order to write this blog post, I really appreciated coming across a bit of humor.

Medlock now leads Gwyn by two votes in Ward 4 council race

If this was a fast-moving sporting event, rather than a slow-motion counting of all the votes, the contest between Dynee Medlock and Deanna Gywn to become the next Salem City Councilor in Ward 4 (a seat currently held by Jackie Leung, who didn't seek re-election) would have fans on the edge of their seats, waiting to see who ends up on top when time runs out.

Here's how the contest stands as of today. Yesterday Gwyn led Medlock by two votes. Now Medlock leads Gwyn by two votes.

We're not done yet with the May 17 election. A Salem Reporter story about the Ward 4 race said:

Election results must be certified by June 13. All ballots returned in Marion County have been counted, but voters whose signature didn’t match the signature on file with their voter registration, or who forgot to sign their ballot envelope, have until June 7 to correct the issue.

Burgess said there are 74 ballots outstanding in ward 4 with signature issues. Whether voters correct those could determine the outcome of the race.

All voters with a signature issue have been mailed a letter to the address on file with their voter registration.

In order to win outright, either Medlock or Gwyn would need to get 50% of the vote plus one more vote. With the current number of total votes, 5,100, this means 2,550 plus one, or 2,551 votes, which neither candidate has.

The twelve write-in votes are making it a distinct possibility that Medlock and Gwyn will have to redo their contest in the November election, assuming neither is able to win outright in the May election. Without those twelve votes, there would be 5,088 total votes. Then 2,544 votes plus one more vote would produce a winner, which happens to be the exact number of votes Medlock has now, 2,545.

Yeah, it's a cliche, but a true one: every vote counts. It isn't possible to tell when an election will come down to just a handful of votes, or even a single vote, as could happen in this race. So the simple lesson is... vote!

No opinion section in Statesman Journal getting more irritating

Wow, while eating breakfast today here in Salem, Oregon it was so great to use my iPad to read the opinion section of a local newspaper.

I enjoyed seeing an editorial about a local controversy, along with intelligent commentary on the recent horrible killing of 19 elementary school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. There were columns by nationally syndicated writers, both progressive and conservative. And the letters to the editor showed me how ordinary people are viewing various important issues.

Only problem was, I was reading the Portland Oregonian (which arguably is "local," especially compared to the New York Times), not the Salem Statesman Journal.

I can't read the Statesman Journal opinion section because it no longer exists.

Gone. Vanished. Sucked into a black hole of poor journalism earlier this month, as I wrote about in "Statesman Journal eliminates opinion section. I'm irked."

My irritation at something usually fades with time. But after three weeks of scrolling through the online Statesman Journal on my iPad, I haven't gotten used to the glaring absence of the section that used to be my favorite part of the paper.

A newspaper without an opinion section just doesn't seem like a real newspaper to me.

Of course, the reality of the Statesman Journal has been steadily shrinking for many years with every layoff of experienced journalists and more reliance on USA Today to fill up pages in the paper that used to have local news.

Now, in addition to very little local news, I'm met with precisely zero opinion content. 

I guess this is better than having no newspaper at all in Salem. (I don't count the Salem Reporter as a newspaper, being more of an online news source with just a few stories each week -- and also no opinion section.)

However, at some point the Statesman Journal is going to be even more of a hollow shell of a newspaper than it is now. I almost look forward to this, since having it go out of business could be preferable to having it hang on as nearly useless.

Hopefully something better would replace the Statesman Journal if it disappeared completely. Can't be sure about this, though, so for now I'll continue paying as little as possible for getting as little local news and opinion as the publisher deems possible in Salem's paper.

Why are progressives on Salem City Council so uninterested in protected bike lanes?

I'm a confused progressive. Along with many others, I've spent a lot of time, money, and energy working to get progressives elected to the Salem City Council.

Now they have a 7-2 majority on the council.

I put councilors Virginia Stapleton, Tom Andersen, Trevor Phillips, Jackie Leung, Chris Hoy, Vanessa Nordyke, and Micki Varney in the progressive camp, with Mayor Chuck Bennett and Jose Gonzalez in the conservative camp.

So it's perplexing why the highly appealing Salem Bike Vision proposal to build a network of protected bike lanes in Salem appears to be getting such little love from the progressives -- aside from Stapleton, who is championing the proposal in the City Council. 

"Protected" means cyclists would be separated from traffic by some sort of physical barrier, not just white lines painted on the side of a road. The photo above shows an example in Portland, given the photo credit.

A few days ago I wrote about the May 23 City Council meeting where Stapleton tried to get approval for $10-15 million to construct a network of protected bike lanes included in the $300 million bond measure planned for the November ballot.

I called the blog post, "Mayor and city staff try to keep Salem from having protected bike lanes." But that was only part of what disturbed me when I watched a video of the council meeting. 

Equally disturbing was how little support Stapleton got from her fellow progressive councilors.

Sure, there were murmurs of support here and there, but in general it seemed that while the other six progressives on the City Council have talked a lot about their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Salem, when it comes to taking a stand for much improved bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure in Salem, so far they have remained seated in regard to this proposal.

I say this because Stapleton noted at the meeting that she's been trying for quite a while to add the Salem Bike Vision proposal to the projects in the bond measure. But she keeps being told that the time isn't right, so she should wait for a future meeting where the bond measure is discussed.

Now time is getting short to add projects before an August deadline to finalize the bond measure.

Since progressives have such a clear majority on the City Council, I have to assume that if Stapleton's colleagues cared about protected bike lanes, they would have acted by now to get this in the bond measure.

Again, I'm perplexed why this is. It'd be great if the other six progressive councilors spoke clearly and frankly about how they view the Salem Bike Vision proposal. What do they object to in this excerpt from the preceding link?

To quickly build out a bike network that is safe for riders of all ages, our plan minimize the need for costly land acquisition and instead focuses on right-sizing existing streets. Such projects are not only cost-effective, but also improve safety for all road users, even those in cars.

A project in Vancouver, WA, which right-sized travel lanes and added bike lanes, reduced crashes by 52 percent on a major road with average daily traffic of 17,000 vehicles. Traffic speeds went down 18 percent, traffic spillover into nearby roads did not occur, and an overwhelming majority (67 percent) of users surveyed felt safer.

Further, Salem's Climate Action Plan, a progressive priority, says that in order to meet carbon emission reduction goals set by the City Council: 

Further, scenarios in the plan that show whether Salem can attain the numerical carbon emission reduction targets assume that the rate of residents walking and biking has doubled. 

This isn't going to happen with a mostly business-as-usual approach to transportation in Salem which, sadly, is what the Community Improvement Bond currently consists of. 

So here's the Salem Bike Vision proposal for a network of protected bike lanes, which can be paid for by allocating 5%, or even less, of the $300 million bond measure amount to the proposal, and currently it's being met with a big fat yawn from the City Council.

Now, I admit that I don't know which councilors support protected bike lanes, and which don't, aside from Councilor Stapleton, who is an obvious supporter, since a vote hasn't been taken yet.

All I know is what I observed at last Monday's council meeting, combined with the fact that even though Stapleton has been trying for a long time to add protected bike lanes to the bond measure list of projects, so far she hasn't gotten enough support from her fellow progressives to do this.

Hopefully that will change.

The Salem Bike Vision proposal is transformative and has a great many benefits for Salem residents and visitors, notably including how much more fun it is to ride a bicycle in a protected bike lane where you don't have to worry nearly as much about safety.

Mayor and city staff try to keep Salem from having protected bike lanes

Given how pleasurable and safe it is for all ages to ride a bicycle on protected bike lanes, rather than dangerous white lines painted on the side of busy streets, it was irritating to watch a video of last night's City Council meeting and see Mayor Bennett, along with city staff, do their best to shoot down the popular proposal put forward by Salem Bike Vision. 

One way among several to create a protected bike lane

Councilor Virginia Stapleton handled the falsehoods with more patience and calm than I would have been capable of. Stapleton is taking the lead in championing the protected bike lane proposal on the City Council, though it seems clear that the idea also is supported by other councilors.

Yesterday I wrote about the upcoming council meeting in "Tell the Salem City Council you want protected bike lanes." I noted that Salem Bike Vision had sent out an email saying that the project list for a $300 million bond measure to be voted on in November was expected to be finalized at the meeting.

But the $15 million budget to build a network of protected bike lanes in Salem hadn't been added to the project list yet.

Councilor Stapleton came to the council meeting with a motion to do just that. She said that she'd spent a lot of time on the phone last week talking with constituents and others about how to find a way to pare down road/bridge construction projects planned for the bond so 5% of the $300 million bond could be used to build protected bike lanes. 

Or if not $15 million, I believe Stapleton said $10 million could be acceptable. Everything seemed normal up to this point of the protected bike lane discussion. Then things got disturbingly weird. 

Several councilors said they hadn't seen Stapleton's motion prior to the meeting. She said this was a surprise to her, since she'd given the motion and supporting documents to the City Attorney, Dan Atchison, figuring that he would share the motion with councilors and staff.

That didn't happen -- the first sign that City of Salem staff were doing their best to make sure money for protected bike lanes didn't make it into the bond measure.

Another sign came when Peter Fernandez, the Public Works Director who has never showed any real commitment to improving Salem's bicycle/pedestrian infrastructure, jumped in and began spreading some highly annoying B.S.

In the course of talking about the need for center turn lanes on certain streets -- somehow that subject got mixed into the discussion of protected bike lanes -- Fernandez said unconvincingly he was a strong supporter of Salem's Climate Action Plan which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, of which the transportation sector contributes the most in Salem.

Echoing the absurd argument used by proponents of a Third Bridge across the Willamette, Fernandez said that idling vehicles waiting a while to turn left increase carbon emissions, so building more roads with left turn lanes is a Green thing to do.

Like I said, total bullshit.

If Fernandez had wanted to demonstrate how committed he is to combatting global warming, all he had to do was say, "I'm in favor of protected bike lanes, since the more people get around town by bicycle or on foot, the closer we'll come to meeting the goals of the Climate Action Plan. I'll work with Councilor Stapleton on finding a way to fund the Salem Bike Vision project by reducing the road construction budget in the bond measure."

But he didn't say that. Neither did Mayor Bennett, who appeared astoundingly clueless about the process being used to come up with a list of bond measure projects.

After Stapleton made her motion to add protected bike lanes to the bond measure, which was seconded by Councilor Andersen (an avid cyclist), Bennett criticized Stapleton for her motion, telling her that he couldn't understand why she was trying to change the bond measure projects "at 8 pm" of the council meeting.

Councilor Stapleton replied that she had been bringing up the Salem Bike Vision proposal at every opportunity during previous council meetings devoted to the bond measure, yet kept being told that wasn't the right time yet. Stapleton said it was her understanding following the council work session the previous week, that the projects for the bond measure could be finalized at this May 23 council meeting.

Stapleton was right. Bennett was wrong. Here's a screenshot of part of the memo from the acting City Manager regarding the work session. 

"As early as May 23, 2022, Council may adjust the package..." Exactly what Stapleton tried to do, until she got so much unjustified resistance from Mayor Bennett, combined with the failure of City Attorney Atchison to forward her motion to the City Council prior to the meeting, Stapleton decided to table her motion, which can be voted on the next council meeting.

Discussion then turned to the public opinion research mentioned in the Next Steps above. This led to more evidence that city staff are trying to prevent Salem residents from enjoying protected bike lanes, even though the authority to decide what projects are included in the bond measure is in the hands of the City Council.

Councilor Stapleton asked Courtney Knox Busch, a City of Salem staff person working on the public opinion research, to describe the question being asked about protected bike lanes. Busch said that she didn't have the exact language before her, but it said something about how people would feel about the bond measure if a change was made to add the protected bike lane project.

Councilor Chris Hoy, who was recently elected Mayor (takes office in 2023), immediately realized how loaded that question would be. After all, Busch and Bennett had just taken pains to emphasize to Stapleton that there was time for her to try to get the Salem Bike Vision proposal added to the project list, since the bond measure didn't need to be finalized until August 8.

So currently there is nothing to be changed in the bond measure, since it hasn't been approved by the City Council yet. Hoy correctly said that the survey question should say something like, "How would you feel if the bond measure includes protected bike lanes."

Busch waffled around in her response to Hoy, offering up a rather lame statement that the survey research company being paid to do the public opinion research knows that they're doing. She assured Hoy and the rest of the council that this wasn't a "push poll" intended to get a certain answer.

OK, but it sure looks to me like Mayor Bennett and City of Salem staff are doing what they can to kill the popular protected bike lanes proposal. Hard to say why. My suspicion is that they've heavily bought into traditional road projects and don't want $10-15 million going to bicycle infrastructure.

City staff kept saying they don't want the bond measure to be controversial. Well, here's some news for them. If you keep on playing games with Councilor Stapleton and other advocates for protected bike lanes, you're going to end up with a controversial bond measure. 

Stapleton smartly asked Busch to bring a tally of the public comments in favor of various bond measure projects to the next council meeting. Stapleton said she suspects protected bike lanes is one of the most popular projects, if not the most popular. 

I think she's right. There's a lot of people in Salem who want be able to get around on a bicycle without risking life and limb. Ignore them, and you're diminishing the chance of the bond measure passing.