Salem Political Snark

Arta Potties SOS! Why isn't Salem embracing public portable restrooms?

Rebecca Maitland Courtney is frustrated with her home town. She has a right to be.

After coming up with the idea for Arta Potties, artistically-decorated portable toilets that serve both the homeless and ordinary people, she's finding that other cities are giving her a lot more love than Salem. 

I just spent an enjoyable hour talking with Courtney.

She's a caring, creative woman who can't understand why it is so difficult for people in Salem to come together and embrace a great idea: making restrooms a right for all in downtown, rather than a privilege for those who have the money needed to "buy" a place to urinate or defecate by frequenting a business with restrooms.

She told me, "People just don't want to look at homelessness. And they think that Arta Potties attract the homeless." Yet, she added, "They are already here."

Courtney's disappointing experience with placing Arta Potties in Salem echoes the Biblical adage, "No prophet is acceptable in her hometown." 

Last night Oregon City had a wonderful celebration to mark the placing of two Arta Potties after the city's Police Department reached out to Courtney and asked her to help them figure out where to put the portable restrooms and what art to place on them. 

KATU did a piece on the Oregon City Arta Potties. And the Clackamas Review had a story, "Arta Potties Coming to Oregon City." 

The Oregon City Police Department will launch an Arta Potties pilot program to provide clean, safe, aesthetically appealing portable toilets.

On Wednesday, Sept. 27, two Arta Potties will be placed in downtown Oregon City to provide access to public restrooms 24 hours a day. Arta Potties is a community-organized project based in Salem.

According to a news release, OCPD is taking a proactive approach to concerns from the community and business owners regarding people relieving themselves outdoors on both public and private property.

"We also recognize the need for access to restrooms 24 hours a day, specifically for our homeless population who may not have access to restrooms otherwise," OCPD Capt. Shaun Davis said.

But here in Salem, Arta Potties have hit a brick wall of opposition after the first two were placed in the alley behind the Reed Opera House, where Courtney works as a manager, and the First Congregational United Church of Christ at Marion and Cottage. 

Four (or maybe five, can't remember) additional Arta Potties are ready to go.

However, so far the City of Salem hasn't provided a place to put them on city-owned property, as Oregon City is doing. And no downtown businesses other than the Reed Opera House have given Courtney permission for an Arta Potty to be placed on their property.

So what's wrong with Salem?

Courtney told me that yesterday's Oregon City celebration of the placement of that town's first two public portable restrooms was "like a dream" for her. It involved about 20 homeless people, the Chief of Police, about 20 city staff, and Oregon City business owners. 

Here's some photos of the Oregon City event that were posted on the Arta Potties Facebook page. The woman who's singing is homeless.

What's bizarre is that Courtney is getting requests from leaders in cities all around the country for her to travel at their expense to tell them how they can have their own Arta Potties. 

Meanwhile, here in Salem the powers-that-be at City Hall, along with downtown businesses, are giving a cold shoulder to the Arta Pottie movement. Now, to be fair, it appears that most of the City of Salem negativity happened during the Mayor Anna Peterson era.

I told Courtney that the current Mayor, Chuck Bennett, hopefully will be more supportive of her work. Also, there's been a considerable change in the make-up of the City Council, which now has a progressive majority. Courtney just is understandably semi-burnt-out after several years of having doors slammed in her face by City officials and downtown businesses.

So she's looking for more supporters. I certainly am one, after hearing her explain why Arta Potties are needed so badly.

The homeless aren't going to leave Salem if they can't use an Arta Pottie. They'll simply do what they've been doing, which is what anyone would do if you need to go to the bathroom and there's no bathroom to go to: urinate or defecate outside. This raises health issues, along with indecent exposure issues. 

Again, in Oregon City the Police Department took the lead in bringing Arta Potties to town. That hasn't happened yet in Salem. I urged Courtney not to give up on the City of Salem, especially since both Mayor Bennett and most of the city councilors want to address the problems of homeless people in our town in a big way. 

This is an opportunity for Salem to live up to the "Collaboration Capital" nickname that Anna Peterson liked to use during her terms as Mayor, but which has been more of a dream than a reality. 

Currently Oregon City is kicking our butt in that regard.

Let's make this temporary. The City of Salem has promised that Arta Potties will get $4,000 if seven Arta Potties can be placed (in the downtown area, I assume). Courtney has the Arta Potties. What she needs are places to put them.

[Update: Courtney has clarified that the $4,000 from the City would sponsor two Arta Potties for a year each. Her goal has been to place seven.]

Public property is the first choice. Churches are a second choice.

There's no reason why Salem can't step up to the Arta Pottie plate and hit a home run. The beneficiaries aren't only the homeless. It is everybody who needs to go to the bathroom and doesn't have the ability, or cash, to zip into a coffeehouse, restaurant, or wherever and use a restroom there.

It also is everybody who wants to keep Salem's streets and alleys free of human waste. Courtney told me stories of stepping over homeless people who sleep in their own urine or bowel movements.

Geez, what kind of a town are we if we allow this to happen, rather than supporting Rebecca Maitland Courtney in her volunteer efforts to make access to a portable public restroom a right for everybody in the downtown area, especially the homeless?

Salem City Council should do away with the Pledge of Allegiance

Every Salem City Council meeting begins with the Pledge of Allegiance. Whenever I'm at a council meeting, I'll stand for the pledge, but I don't say it or put my hand over my heart. 

The whole idea of the Pledge of Allegiance just strikes me as decidedly creepy. 

From what I can tell by some Googling, North Korea is one of the few other countries in the world that are so enamored of a pledge of allegiance. 

 Of course, in North Korea the pledge is to the Supreme Leader. Here, the first mention of allegiance is to the United States flag. But that's equally ridiculous. A flag is just a bit of cloth. Why would I want to pledge allegiance to a flag? 

I got to thinking more about the whole Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem thing after President Trump started making such a big deal about NFL players taking a knee when the Star Spangled Banner was played. 

This doesn't bother me at all. The National Anthem is just a song, in the same way the flag is just cloth. There's nothing to revere in a song or piece of cloth. 

So this morning I said in a Facebook post:

ADVANCE NOTICE: Next time I'm out in public at a place where the National Anthem is played, or the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, I'll be sitting down. Why? Because Trump is continuing to tweet ridiculously about this subject, and I want to protest Trump. Besides, the National Anthem is just a song. The Pledge of Allegiance is just words. The American flag is just cloth. There's nothing sacred about them. They're just overblown rituals.

Since I rarely go anywhere other than a Salem City Council meeting where the Pledge of Allegiance is recited, the next stop on my train of thought was this: Why is it necessary for the Pledge of Allegiance to kick off a council meeting? 

Sure, I realize this sounds like heresy. But like I said, the United States appears to be unique among democratic industrialized countries when it comes to a pledge of allegiance. 

(See here and here for discussions on this topic.)

lt's kind of like the debate our country has been having about health care. In Canada, Australia, and every European nation it simply seems obvious that everybody should be able to get health care when they need it. But in the United States, this is a controversial subject.

Likewise, in this country most people take for granted that the Pledge of Allegiance should be recited before city council meetings and the National Anthem should be played before football games. Yet in other countries, this isn't the case.

Now, I'm not so deluded as to believe that any Salem city councilor is going to make a motion to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance at council meetings. I'm just saying that people like me who don't feel like saying the pledge, or even standing up for it, have a perfect right to do so.

Trump is fond of saying that members of our military have fought and died for our country, our flag, and our National Anthem. This obviously is wrong. Nobody fights and dies for a piece of cloth or a song. 

I've heard numerous veterans speak about this on cable news and satellite radio today.

They said that they fought for freedom -- which includes the freedom to protest injustice and inequities. Also, presidential idiocy, which is my primary motivation for remaining seated during the National Anthem or Pledge of Allegiance. 

Lastly, let's take a look at what the Pledge of Allegiance says:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Obviously anyone who doesn't believe in God, such as me, is entitled to not say the "under God" part that was added in 1954. And anyone who questions whether the United States is "indivisible" or provides "liberty and justice for all" also should get a pass on saying those parts.

I've already noted that it is absurd to pledge allegiance to a flag, so there's no good reason to say the first part of the Pledge. That leaves us with just something like "I pledge allegiance to the United States." 

OK. I don't have a big problem with that, in this sense. I'm not a citizen of any other country. The United States is where I was born and live now. I'm committed to making the United States a better place, just as I'm committed to making Oregon and Salem better places. 

So I feel that I'm as patriotic as anybody else. Even, or especially, when I decide that I don't want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or National Anthem.

In the course of looking for a Google image to accompany this post I came across the above graphic. Which led me to the post, "What's Wrong With: The Pledge of Allegiance?," in which it appeared. The concluding paragraph makes a lot of sense to me:

To recap: Since Americans are neither serfs nor vassals, we don’t owe “allegiance” to anyone or anything. We don’t owe it to the country, to the flag, or to any person or group. “Allegiance” is a feudal notion that has no bearing on citizens of a representative republic. Yes, I suppose it seems like a nice idea to line the kids up every morning and force them to mouth a pledge to the flag … but to do is entirely inappropriate. Even without the words “under God,” it would still be inappropriate. The time has come to just dispense with it altogether. Hopefully this country will find the maturity and courage to do so, once and for all.

Salem Climate Action Plan top priority at Strategic Plan open house

T0night the City of Salem asked people to express their top priorities for actions in the Strategic Plan that's under development. 

I took these photos in the Broadway Commons meeting room at about 7:15, more than halfway through the 6-8 pm Strategic Plan Open House. The crowd was pretty thin at that point -- probably as many city staff and officials were in the room as concerned citizens. 

So the top priorities might have shifted a bit over the next 45 minutes. But by the time I left, the #1 priority action was a Climate Action Plan.

(Every person who came to the Strategic Plan Open House got seven green dots and one yellowish orange dot to put on various actions associated with seven goals.)

A Climate Action Plan coming out on top is great news, since while President Trump is a global warming denier, everybody who understands the science knows that climate change is happening, humans are responsible for it, and we need to act now to reduce carbon emissions.

Or, to put it bluntly, we're screwed when it comes to our one and only planet remaining habitable for humans.

A Climate Action Plan got 21 "Best Idea!" votes by the time I left. The runner-up action with 17 orange dots was this one:

The meaning of "Infrastructure Maintenance Prioritization" isn't crystal clear on the face of it, but this was the action that supporters of a Third Bridge mostly used to express their Build It Now mantra -- since there wasn't any action in the Strategic Plan goals calling for the Salem River Crossing, or Third Bridge, to be built.

Amazingly, some Third Bridge supporters put post-it note messages on the Climate Action Plan sheet, bizarrely arguing that construction of a giant half-billion dollar bridge would somehow reduce carbon emissions. 

Naturally I and others pushed back against this ridiculous notion. My post-it note is the one on the right.

Two other actions tied for 3rd place in my 7:15 pm Strategic Plan Voting Sweepstakes Awards with 7 votes each. Here they are:

"Sustainable Substantive Funding Stream for Affordable Housing" got quite a bit of well-deserved  love from Open House attendees.
 

So did "Citywide Visioning Process for Growth and Development." Which, not surprisingly, got a Build the 3rd Bridge now! post-it note.

Here's the sad little action that got the smallest number of green dots, just one.
 

Urban Development Department Director Kristin Retherford was standing next to this sheet. I asked her if she was depressed by the fact that only one person wanted new urban renewal areas in Salem. She smiled and said "No."

I thought I saw a tiny sheen of a tear in her eye. But it could have been the lighting. 

Great video discussion of why Salem needs to ditch the Third Bridge

Whether or not you believe Salem needs to spend more than $400 million on another bridge across the Willamette River, this CCTV interview between Ken Adams and Bob Cortright will help you understand what's going on with the Salem River Crossing project.

Sure, I know a 26 minute video can seem like eternity in these days of 30-second social media attention spans. But Adams and Cortright do a great job of digging into some details that everybody in Salem should know about. 

I jotted down some notes as I watched the video while eating breakfast this morning. Here's ten things that struck me.

(1) Last December's Salem City Council vote to expand the urban growth boundary to include a bridgehead in West Salem now is null and void following a legal decision by Oregon's Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA).

(2) So at the moment there's no way the Salem River Crossing (a.k.a. Third Bridge) can move forward. LUBA remanded, or sent back, the urban growth boundary expansion to the City Council because there were three errors in the December 2016 vote to approve the expansion.

(3) The errors may seem small, but they loom large, because the City Council has a different membership now. Five of the nine current members are on record as opposing a Third Bridge. If they don't approve fixes to the legal errors found by LUBA, the Third Bridge is dead in the water. Or rather, dead over the water.

(4) Now is the time to ask fundamental questions about whether a half-billion dollar bridge is the best way to deal with traffic problems between West and East Salem. There are much less expensive ways to reduce rush hour congestion, and they can be done much more quickly.

(5) For example, the bridgeheads -- approaches and exits -- can be modified. Timing of traffic lights can be adjusted. The eastbound offramp on the Center Street bridge could be revamped so there is a direct stop-free way to head north toward Front Street and the Salem Parkway.

(6) The state legislature has allocated money to seismically retrofit the Center Street bridge so it will withstand a major earthquake. By contrast, the proposed Third Bridge north of downtown is in an earthquake liquefaction zone. Meaning, there isn't evidence that the half-billion dollar bridge could remain standing when the Big One earthquake hits.

(7) Marine Drive needs to be built in West Salem. Roughly parallel to Wallace Road, Marine Drive would do a lot to reduce congestion on Wallace Road that contributes to rush hour bridge backups.

(8) The $425 million estimated cost of the Third Bridge -- which mostly would be paid by $1.50 each way tolls on both the new and existing bridges -- doesn't include paying for a replacement of the Rosemont exit that would be done away with by Third Bridge construction.

(9) ODOT, the Oregon Department of Transportation, is notoriously bad at estimating construction costs. So it is very likely that the actual cost of a Third Bridge would approach a billion dollars, once financing costs are included. 

(10) It is well known that rarely, if ever, is it possible to build one's way out of a traffic congestion problem by adding capacity. The phenomenon known as "induced demand" almost always prevents this: when there is more capacity for vehicles, people drive more, thereby soon producing the same amount of congestion as before.

Salem moves closer to a Climate Action Plan

Because the Trump administration has a head-in-the-sand approach to global warming, cities like Salem have to help fill the federal void when it comes to the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

Otherwise, devastating wildfires, persistent drought, supersized hurricanes, massive flooding, and other manifestations of human-caused climate change are going to keep on worsening. 

Fortunately, today I learned that Salem is making good progress on having a citywide Climate Action Plan -- thanks to the efforts of our local 350.org chapter, 350 Salem OR, and supportive city councilors such as Tom Andersen, Cara Kaser, Sally Cook, Chris Hoy, and Matt Ausec.

This afternoon Andersen spoke at the end of 350 Salem OR's well-attended public meeting at the Library, "A Climate Action Plan for Salem: What Can We Learn From Other Oregon Cities?"

To briefly answer that question, a lot.

Former Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Linda Lovett of the Corvallis Climate Action Task Force each spoke for thirty minutes, providing some great information about how their city councils were able to get on board with a Climate Action Plan. But I'm going to focus on Councilor Andersen's update on how things are going on this front here in Salem.

Andersen correctly noted that in Salem, as elsewhere, there's a "misinformed segment of society" that fails to recognize the reality of climate change.

Because it appears that several conservative members of the Salem City Council are part of this science-denying group, there's a need to tread kind of lightly, word-wise, when it comes to a Climate Action Plan. Thus Andersen noted that a new seventh goal added to the City of Salem Strategic Plan speaks of an "Environmental Action Plan." 

Today, in the morning, the Salem City Council had a work session on the Strategic Plan. Andersen told us that some word-smithing resulted in the seventh goal being called "Prepare a community-wide environmental strategy."

But one of the actions under this goal will be "Adopt a Climate Action Plan with emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions." Pleasingly, Andersen said this goal got unanimous support at the city council work session. 

Less pleasingly, he added that red, yellow and green stickers were given to members of the city council to indicate how positively they viewed the various goals of the City of Salem Strategic Plan. The Environmental Action Plan goal got five greens, three yellows, and two reds.

It's disturbing that several members of the Salem City Council are so negative about lowering carbon emissions and protecting our one-and-only Earth for human habitation. The good news is that it looks like a majority of the nine City Council members (eight councilors and Mayor Chuck Bennett) support a Climate Action Plan.

Regarding Mayor Bennett, he came to today's 350.org public meeting to introduce Kitty Piercy, then left. The woman who introduced Bennett said that last June he was one of 372 other mayors in the United States who agreed to uphold the Paris Climate Accord after President Trump said he was going to withdraw from it.

That mention got applause from the audience.

However, my take is that Bennett's support for climate action is lukewarm at best. He certainly isn't pushing for a Salem Climate Action Plan, though I suspect Mayor Bennett will vote for it if a majority of the City Council is on board with an Environmental Action Plan. 

What's perplexing is how Bennett can commit to upholding the greenhouse gas emission goals of the Paris Accord, yet be so lackluster about a local Climate Action Plan that aims to achieve the same sorts of goals. But, hey, politicians often act in mysterious ways.

And Mayor Bennett is both a politician and a professional lobbyist, so this adds to his potential for mysterious action.

Because City Council support for a Salem Climate Action Plan isn't totally firm, Andersen urged people to come out and support the Environmental Action Plan goal at a September 19 Salem Strategic Plan Open House. Here's the 350 Salem OR handout about this (click to enlarge).

Andersen ended by saying that it is important to involve the whole community in this Salem Climate Plan effort. That view was echoed by Piercy and Lovett in their own remarks. Business support is especially crucial, in part because some people mistakenly believe that economic development is at odds with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Actually, the opposite is true.

It's impossible to have vibrant economies in a world beset by the negative impacts of global warming. For example, hundreds of billions of dollars is going to be spent on dealing with the aftermath of the two massive hurricanes that have struck our country recently, hurricanes fueled by the warmer ocean waters produced by global warming.

Piercy and Lovett provided lots of information about how Eugene and Corvallis got their city councils, and entire communities, to buy into a Climate Action Plan. Their basic message was....

Keep moving. Keep trying. It isn't easy. 

Piercy ended her remarks by telling us:

Every little thing you do on the climate action front is really important. People around the country are watching fires, floods, and other disasters caused (or exacerbated) by global warming. Most people understand human-caused climate change is happening. We can't know where the tipping point is that will lead to marked success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Be hopeful. 

I am. Everybody in the 350 Salem OR meeting today was also.

We just need to match our hope with action. So as noted above, come to the Salem Strategic Plan Open House and let City officials know that you support an Environmental Action Plan,

September 19
Broadway Coffee House
1300 Broadway Street NE
6 to 8 pm

[On a personal note, and please feel free to skip this part, a woman I sat next to at today's meeting told me that she liked my blog posts, and had noted that I haven't been writing many recently. I truthfully told her that life has been busy for me recently. Given the setting, I didn't mention that I've been struggling with some health problems that have been capturing my attention -- due to the anxiety, lack of sleep, and time needed to deal with them. 

I just want to let people know that I'm still committed to making Salem a better place and reporting on political goings-on in this town. However, like the saying goes, life happens. Some days I really want to write a blog or Facebook post, but I just don't have the energy and focus that I used to have. On the plus side, I've become a lot more understanding of people who suffer from a chronic medical condition.

I hope mine isn't chronic, but the future is uncertain -- both for me and everyone. I'm into the proverbial "one day at a time" mode. One of my daily goals is to do something positive for my community, or at least my closest loved ones, rather than worry about myself, which I'm unfortunately prone to do. However, some days I'm capable of a long dog walk, yet not a blog post.

I apologize for this addendum, since I really don't want to be known as the old-man-blogger who bores people with his medical problems. I simply have been feeling the need to explain my lack of blogging and Facebooking for the past few months. Again, it isn't because I've lost interest in Salem affairs. I've just been stressed out to such an extent that often I'm unable to do what I really enjoy doing, which I hope to get back to doing again with the same zeal I had before.]