Salem Political Snark

Is Larry Tokarski the developer of Creekside?

Yesterday I got a letter from an attorney representing Larry Tokarski.

The letter also went to A.P. Walther, the publisher of Salem Weekly. It was in response to the opinion piece I wrote for Salem Weekly, "Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill."

Here's the letter:
Download Letter from Tokarski attorney
The gist of the letter is an assertion that Tokarski isn't the developer of Creekside. Well, let's look at some evidence that argues otherwise. My point in doing this is to show that a reasonable person, namely me, is justified in calling Larry Tokarski the "Creekside developer."

Here's a screenshot of a 1990 document relating to the original development permit for Creekside. As with the other documents, I've circled Tokarski's name in red. This City of Salem document shows Larry Tokarski as the developer of the 264 acre Creekside property.

Here's a 1991 letter Tokarski sent to City Manager Gary Eide where he's identified as the General Partner of Hawaii Northwest Ventures.


Creekside was developed in numerous phases. The 2005 document below relates to Phase 10. It shows the owner/applicant as Larry Tokarski. 

The next document from 2006 shows that Larry Tokarski is the Managing Partner of Hawaii Northwest Ventures. Note that the City of Salem document says that each person included as the Developer are jointly liable for the conditions of the agreement relating to a Creekside development phase.

A 2016 Planning Commission order identified Larry Tokarski as the controlling member who signed off on various plats associated with phases of the Creekside development.

A 2015 Memorandum of Understanding regarding Creekside was signed by Lawrence Tokarski as trustee of a revocable living trust.

In 2016, Lawrence Tokarski was the petitioner in a case regarding the development of Creekside.


In that LUBA opinion is a footnote saying that Lawrence Tokarski is a controlling member of various entities that applied for Creekside Planned Unit Development (PUD) permits, and that he is properly viewed as the applicant, or one of the applicants, for the various applications.

So does it make sense to say that Larry Tokarski is the Creekside developer? I certainly believe so.

Gator & Denise hate radio show mocks Florida shooting survivors

Hate radio is despicable wherever it comes from. And when its being broadcast from right here in Salem, there's even more reason to condemn it. 

Gator Gaynor and Denise Nanke (wife of city councilor Brad Nanke) took to the KYKN airwaves on Tuesday to mock the Parkland, Florida high school students who survived the massacre that claimed the lives of 14 classmates and three adults.

How sick is that? Really sick. 

I learned about this latest episode of the hate radio series that goes by the name of the Gator & Denise show via a Facebook post put up by Jim Scheppke, who has the guts to listen to the crap Gaynor and Nanke spew and report on it. You can listen to the disgusting 10-minute clip here.

This is what Scheppke said in his post:

I invite you to listen to this 10 minute rant from our home-grown right-wing radio talk show hosts where they compare the Parkland students to Hitler Youth, among other ridiculous and outrageous assertions. Then ask yourself why our Mayor, Chuck Bennett, appears on their show every Wednesday. Does he never listen to it the other four days of the week? I think he should consider whether his appearances on this show legitimize and normalize the hatred and ugliness that is not contributing to the betterment of our community. I like our Mayor and I think he is doing a good job, but I think he makes a mistake and does his constituents a disservice by contributing to this radio show.

Indeed, Mayor Chuck Bennett is a weekly guest on the Gator & Denise show. They use Bennett to promote their show, which means Salem's Mayor is helping to spread lies and hate. 

Gaynor and Nanke would be odious enough if they simply promulgated extreme right-wing views. What makes them truly obnoxious is their habitual spreading of lies that anyone with an Internet connection and a minute or two to spare could easily detect. 

But they don't take the time to do that, because truth doesn't matter to Gator & Denise.

In the clip from Tuesday's show they parroted a conspiracy theory that one of the Parkland students is a "crisis actor" who goes around the country getting on TV to spout his liberal views in a ghoulish fashion, to quote Denise Nanke. 

This, of course, is completely false. David Hogg is a genuine Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student. A CBS-Los Angeles story explains how unethical right-wingers conjured up the false "crisis actor" propaganda. 

A Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting survivor opened up to CBS2 after becoming the target of a conspiracy theory. Some are calling 17-year-old David Hogg a phony and a fraud, but he’s fighting back against those reports while trying to be a vocal leader for his peers in an effort to tighten gun laws following last week’s massacre.

Hogg is one of several Stoneman Douglas students leading the charge against gun violence after 17 of his classmates and teachers were killed. He’s been interviewed by CBS News and other major networks multiple times. CBSLA’s Andrea Fujii caught up with him after he was in town for Dr. Phil and CNN interviews.

...Fujii interviewed Hogg last August in Redondo Beach and now that story has gone viral. Hogg was visiting family and friends in Los Angeles when he recorded a confrontation between one of his friends and a lifeguard. Now skeptics are claiming the teen doesn’t even live in Florida. But CBS News confirmed he is a Stoneman Douglas High School student.

What boggles the mind is that Gator Gaynor said that the supposed crisis actor was fake news, when in reality it was Gator Gaynor and Denise Nanke who were spreading fake news on their radio show.

Here's another bit of fake news from Gaynor in the audio clip.

He read a quote that supposedly was from Joseph Stalin: “America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.”

But Snopes says that the quote is fake. Stalin never said that. Again, it took me just a minute or so to learn this. Ben Carson also repeated the false quote during a presidential debate. A Washington Post story says:

And we would note for emphasis here that Carson did not utter these comments in the midst of a lengthy policy debate in which he was speaking off the cuff. This was his closing statement -- a closing statement that is undoubtedly something planned and practiced.

The fact that Carson used a false quote is the latest piece of proof that perhaps he's out of his league on that debate stage.

Well, Gator Gaynor's use of the false quote shows that he's out of his league as a radio talk show host. Oh, except the Gator & Denise show is part of right-wing hate radio, which doesn't have any ethical or factual standards.

So Gaynor and Nanke will keep on spreading their lies, because their audience doesn't care about truth. I just wish Mayor Chuck Bennett wouldn't support them by appearing weekly on their show.

Gallup says Oregon is non-religious, liberal, and dislikes Trump

OK, the "headline" of this blog post isn't surprising news.  

Still, political junkies like me love to pour over the statistics Gallup shared in a State of the States report, which is based on 2017 data. Below are screenshots for Oregon, the nation as a whole, Washington, and California. 

Here's some key takeaways:

Trump approval. Only 36% of Oregonians approve of  Trump, just a bit less than the 38% for the nation as a whole. Of the three West Coast states, California is the least approving of Trump at 29%, with Washington at 34%.

Republican vs. Democrat leaning. Only 36% of Oregonians lean Republican and 49% lean Democrat, which produces a 13% Democratic advantage. This is nearly double the national 7% Democratic advantage, but less than the 15% Democratic advantage in Washington and the 21% Democratic advantage in California.

Conservative vs. Liberal. Oregon has a higher percentage of liberals, 31%, than conservatives, 28%. Oregon moderates are at 36%, the national average. Oregon's conservative advantage thus is -3%, which is the same as California and greater than Washington's -1%. Nationally conservatives outnumber liberals by 33% to 24%, producing a +9 advantage for conservatives.

Economic Confidence. Oregon rates a 3, the nation as a whole is 6, Washington is 8, California is 1. Gallup explains this measure: "Gallup's Economic Confidence Index is based on state residents' views of economic conditions in the U.S. today, and whether they think economic conditions in the country are getting better or getting worse." So political leanings must affect how people see the economy. 

Religiosity. Oregon is one of the five least religious states nationally, with 48% of Oregonians saying they are non-religious (meaning: "religion is not important in their lives and say they seldom or never attend religious services"). Only Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have a higher percentage of non-religious residents. Oregon is much less religious than the nation as a whole, and about the same as Washington.

Here's the screenshots from the State of the States report, with the map showing the percentage of non-religious residents. 

 

I have a pleasant talk with two Salem Chamber of Commerce staff

The title of this blog post admittedly sounds boring. What makes it wonderfully boring is that during all of my local liberal activism, I'd never had an hour-plus talk with someone from the Chamber of Commerce, much less two someones. 

My primary connection with the Chamber has been criticizing its political positions, which lean decidedly toward the right.

So when Natalie Jasinski, the Member Services staffer, asked if I'd like to get together to chat about how I see Salem, I jumped at the chance. We met at the Beanery in downtown Salem. Natalie brought along Kate Gillem, the recently-married Director of Communications whose last name used to be Virden. 

(I'm terrible at remembering names, but I'm 99% sure I talked with Kate. If not, it was her identical twin.)

As befits Chamber of Commerce staff whose job involves a lot of communicating, Natalie and Kate let me do most of the talking. Since I enjoy hearing thoughts come out of my head and into writing or speech, this was a pleasant experience for me. Having Natalie buy my 16 ounce nonfat vanilla latte added to the pleasantness.

What I mostly talked about, once we got beyond some personal chatting, was my view of local politics in Salem and how our political discourse could be improved. 

I mentioned how some years ago I talked with someone who belongs to both the Salem and Monmouth-Independence Chambers of Commerce. This person told me that when she went to her first Chamber meeting in Monmouth-Independence, she asked a member about whether the Chamber endorsed political candidates.

That question got a quizzical reaction. "No, of course not," was the response. "We all work together here." Such is the difference between a small town political atmosphere and that in Salem.

Here, the Chamber of Commerce has chosen to be decidedly political, at least in recent years.

I noted that this has pluses and minuses. Since businesses obviously want to attract customers of all types, belonging to a Chamber of Commerce that has a right-wing reputation can be problematic at times, such as when the Chamber opposed an employer payroll tax that would have funded evening and weekend bus service in Salem -- which ticked off quite a few people.

I suggested that it could be both a good P.R. move for the Chamber, and a positive message for businesses considering locating in Salem, if the Chamber took the lead in trying to foster a more collaborative atmosphere in Salem. This effort wouldn't try to change political attitudes, but rather would foster ways to get people to recognize that open, honest, respectful debates can happen without demonizing the other side.

A problem with getting this sort of thing going, I said, is that Salem lacks local T.V. and radio stations that reach a high proportion of the population, as is the case in Portland and Eugene. And our local newspaper, the Statesman Journal, is basically asleep at the wheel when it comes to serious in-depth reporting on local issues.

So the Chamber of Commerce could play an out-sized role in changing our political climate for the better, since it has a good sized staff and financial resources.

It would be great, I said, for Salem to become known as a city that is bucking the trend of rampant political divisiveness that is extremely evident at the national level, and unduly evident at the state level here in Oregon.

I wasn't thinking of past-Mayor Anna Peterson's empty words of Salem being a "collaboration capital," because she didn't put those words into effect, viewing them more as "groupthink."

Not surprisingly, I brought up my own ideas along this line, which I've expressed in several blog posts as a Mingling of the Tribes. 

I envisioned a community-wide ongoing effort with a goal of getting different "tribes" in Salem to understand each other better, to communicate with each other more effectively, while still feeling free to fight for what one believes in fairly, respectfully, truthfully, and vigorously.

An image that came to mind is football teams eating together before a bowl game and exchanging back-slapping hugs after the game. During the game they battle. Before and after, they mingle. A time for each. 

I'd love to see the Statesman Journal and Salem Weekly each get behind a Mingling of the Tribes effort. I have ideas for how this would go. But almost certainly how anybody thinks it would go isn't how it would actually go. The goal would be to spark some collegial fires in Salem and not worry overly much where or how they spread.

Web site. Facebook page. Community events. Videos. Neighborhood association presentations. And yes, an annual roast. Lots of possibilities. 

I mentioned to Natalie and Kate that I really enjoyed last month's Bridging our Divide meeting in Salem, where I, a liberal atheist, ended up sitting at a table next to an ardent conservative Christian. We conversed just fine, seeing each other as people rather than labels.

An annual Mingling of the Tribes here in Salem could be highly enjoyable. And money raised would go to a broadly acceptable community charity.

I said that I see the event as more of a self-roast where people who speak would have to poke fun at themselves more than they joke about their political or cultural opposites. With enough imbibing of alcohol, and pre-ingestion of pot as desired, loosening of inhibitions would bring about a desirable vibe of What we have in common is greater than what pushes us apart.

Anyway, whether anything like this comes to pass, I enjoyed sharing ideas with Natalie and Kate. Early on Natalie asked me why I enjoy writing. I told her that it is like therapy for me, bringing what is within me out so it can be shared with others, which feels good. 

Likewise, this afternoon's conversation felt good. 

Streetscape open house shows need for downtown streets to lose lanes

Last night the City of Salem held a second open house on the Downtown Streetscape project.

I came away enthused about emerging ideas for improving the downtown area, but in an advance post about the meeting the Breakfast on Bikes blogger encapsulated the Big Problem with this project:

The second Open House for the Downtown Streetscape project starts tomorrow, Tuesday the 13th, at 5:30pm.

The project team hasn't published any new materials, so there's not much to say yet - other than to continue to push the City for changes to carspace. Until we grapple with the disproportion and zoominess of carspace downtown, our fiddling with the sidewalks will be cosmetic, principally rearranging the deck chairs. This may yield incremental improvement, but it will not yield the enduring, structural change we need.

A secular Amen to that!

Below you'll see photos of part of the slide presentation made by the Walker Macy project consultants, plus photos of the boards scattered around the room where attendees could put orange dots to indicate what streetscape options they liked the most.

In my comments I'm going to focus on the "carspace" issue noted above, because the overarching problem with downtown Salem is the excessive amount of space devoted to three and four-lane one-way streets, which gives the Historic District an overly freeway'ish feel.

This slide shows some of the conclusions arising out of 90-minute focus group sessions held with people interested in various streetscape topics. 

Note the "Focus on pedestrians."

Exactly nobody, from what I can tell, has said We want more cars downtown. After all, cars don't shop, eat at restaurants, or do any other of the things downtown offers. Only people on foot do, pedestrians. Yet as noted above, cars and the streets they drive on consume an inordinate amount of downtown space.

Otherwise, the recommendations speak for themselves. They seem rather obvious, but there's nothing wrong with pointing out obviousness, since often simple good ideas fail to get the attention they deserve because they're, well, so obvious.

Here's more of what the consultants heard. Consistency is a point worth emphasizing. There's a mash-mash of benches, trash cans, tree grates, and such on downtown sidewalks. Creating a consistent look would go a long way toward making the area more attractive.

This slide was used to show Salem's connection to highly productive farmland and beautiful natural areas. Not surprisingly, the consultants said agriculture and nature should be reflected in downtown streetscape themes.

Here's another obvious point that is good to keep in mind. Local retailers rely on sidewalk activity, while national retailers need limited sidewalk activity. So putting pedestrians front and center above vehicles is going to help local businesses most -- which should be the streetscape goal.

These are the four themes that arose out of the first phase of the Streetscape Project. Some specific streetscape examples are more interesting than the broad topics, as shown below.

Here's an example sidewalk. It looks appealing.

There aren't any "sandwich boards" cluttering up the sidewalk, as currently is the case around Liberty and Court streets. Plantings provide a buffer between people and cars. Sidewalk table seating is adjacent to the business/restaurant, rather than next to the street. All good ideas.

This slide is of Sisters in central Oregon, which recently had a makeover on its main streets. Natural plantings now make Sisters much more attractive. What the consultants didn't mention is that Sisters has two-lane, two-way streets, even though "Main Street" is a state highway.

Traffic crawls along at 20-25 mph or less, which makes being a pedestrian in this charming town wonderfully pleasant. Salem has a lot more to learn from Sisters than just its plantings. People flock to Sisters because it is people-friendly, not autocentric. 

This slide shows how adding trees to State and Court streets creates a sort of natural connectivity between downtown and Riverfront Park to the west, and the Capitol/Willamette University to the east.

Of course, when I saw this image I couldn't help but think of how City officials allowed the five large, beautiful, healthy Japanese Zelkova trees to be cut down for no good reason in 2013, after the Public Works Director, Peter Fernandez, made an outrageous backroom deal with the U.S. Bank president, Ryan Allbritton, to have the trees removed.

(Yeah, I've mentioned this before on my blogs, and I'm going to keep on mentioning it until the City of Salem forthrightly addresses what Fernandez did, and makes sure nothing like this ever happens again.)



This board shows some Social Spaces streetscape examples.

You can see that each of the ideas got many orange spots on the "I like" side, aside from a few people who didn't like the idea of using some spaces for parklets. Note how many people can enjoy a few parking spaces that otherwise would have an empty car sitting in them.

I like the rather quirky wayfinding signs already in downtown. Here's some ideas on the Wayfinding and Art topic.

Having more planted areas and lighting downtown got a lot of sticker love. Again, that wide sidewalk in the image on the left would be much more feasible if more downtown streets were two-lane and two-way. Lots of plantings and lots of lanes work against each other.

Here's the Knit Downtown Together board. Again, more trees, a clear unobstructed walking zone, consistency and creativity in the streetscape design. All laudable goals -- which would be easier to achieve if the sidewalks were wider and the streets were narrower. 

Salem City Council reconsiders making public pay for Lone Oak Road improvements

A citizen win!

Last night the City Council voted unanimously to reconsider their decision to have the public pay for two extensions to Lone Oak Road in south Salem, rather than the developers who really should be footing the bill. 

The impetus for the reconsideration was a letter from the South Gateway Neighborhood Association. Here's a screenshot of how it starts out.
Download SGNA - Reconsideration of Lone Oak Reimbursement District


There will be another public hearing on a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District at the council's March 26 meeting, if I recall the date correctly. 

This is a complex subject. I'm going to describe it as clearly as possible in this post. If you want more detail, check out my previous blog posts about Lone Oak Road:

City Council poised to make public pay for improvements, not Larry Tokarski
Why did Larry Tokarski start, then stop, construction of Lone Oak Road?
Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill
Neighborhood association asks City Council to reconsider Lone Oak Road decision

The overarching issue here is who should pay for two extensions of Lone Oak Road needed in the Creekside area: the general public, or developers planning to build subdivisions on currently undeveloped land? 


As shown above in a slide from a City of Salem presentation about the Reimbursement District, which would impose a fee on lots divided or developed in areas near Creekside to reimburse developers who construct Lone Oak Road, there are two unbuilt sections of the road shown in yellow.

The north section runs through a new phase of Larry Tokarski's Creekside development (outlined in green; existing phases are outlined in red). So why isn't Tokarski being required to pay for that part of Lone Oak Road? 

This is a key question that City officials need to explicitly address in a staff report before next month's "re-do" public hearing on the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District. There's abundant  evidence that Tokarski was supposed to build the north extension of the road, and indeed started to do so in 2007, but was let off the hook for City of Salem staff.

A 2016 LUBA (Land Use Board of Appeals) decision summarizes some of the history of this. Above is a screenshot of part of the decision. I've circled a pertinent part in red. The applicant is Larry Tokarski and his development company.
Download LUBA ruling
So City officials allowed development to proceed at Creekside even though Tokarski reneged on his promise to build the north portion of Lone Oak Road and a bridge over Jory Creek. The LUBA decision negated a later requirement that Tokarski build the road to serve a small 4-lot Creekside subdivision, offering up some narrow legal justifications. 


But it's an open question whether the City can still require Tokarski to build the north section of Lone Oak Road. A footnote in the LUBA decision (see above) points to this possibility of him paying for at least part of it. Strangely, City staff haven't addressed this in staff reports dealing with the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District.

Seemingly it's just been assumed that a rich developer who has been required numerous times to build that portion of Lone Oak Road can't be made to do so, so the public has to pick up his road construction bill. 

The South Gateway Neighborhood Association proposal makes sense: defer action on a reimbursement district until a legal case is settled and it is known whether Tokarski is able to convert the Creekside Golf Course into a large subdivision. If that happens, for sure Tokarski then could be required to build the north extension of Lone Oak Road, and it could run through flat land on what is now the golf course.

Also, City staff have said that there won't be enough money raised by the reimbursement district to pay for the north extension of Lone Oak Road, so this will have to be made part of a future streets and bridges bond. Which raises the question: why go to the trouble of forming a reimbursement district if it won't raise enough money to build Lone Oak Road?

Bottom line regarding the north portion of Lone Oak Road: either Tokarski can be made to pay for the road that he promised to build, or building the road can be made a condition for developing a subdivision on the golf course property, should he be allowed to do this. Either way, the public doesn't have to pay Tokarski's bill.

The unbuilt south portion of Lone Oak Road is easier to figure out: make the developers of the two subdivisions outlined in purple and orange pay for it.

Last night Mark Shipman, an attorney representing the 10 acre, 38-lot "purple" subdivision, explained that his clients wanted the City of Salem to help them find a way to pay for the cost of building the south portion of Lone Oak Road. The reimbursement district was what came out of this.

Wow. After letting Larry Tokarski off the hook for $7.5 million in Lone Oak Road improvements, City officials were pleased to do the same for the developers who should be paying for the unbuilt south section of Lone Oak Road. 

There's no discernible reason why the developers of the two subdivisions shouldn't be paying for the extension of Lone Oak Road south to Rees Hill Road. If the 20 acre development is built to the same density as the 10 acre development, 114 lots will be developed (38 + 76).

This sure seems like enough to justify making the two developers pay for the south extension of Lone Oak Road, since the map above shows the road going immediately adjacent to the 10-acre development and through the west side of the 20-acre development.

I've seen no explanation why a reimbursement district was justified to pay back the developer(s) for the cost of building the Lone Oak Road extension to Rees Hill Road. Seemingly it just was assumed that if a developer complains about the cost of constructing needed infrastructure, the public should foot the bill instead.

Attorney Shipman said that his clients are ready to build the south portion of Lone Oak Road. Great. They should build it. And also pay for it on their own. Then they can be partially reimbursed by the developer of the 20 acre property outlined in orange above, whose subdivision application is more recent.

City officials have been bending over backwards to please developers who don't want to pay for roads needed to serve their developments. This needs to change. Our "public servants" need to start living up to their name and begin putting the interests of the general public above the wants of developers.

Neighborhood association asks City Council to reconsider Lone Oak Road decision

Good news! There's a chance Larry Tokarski, the Creekside developer, won't be able to walk away from his obligation to build an extension of Lone Oak Road after all. 

The South Gateway Neighborhood Association has sent a letter to Mayor Chuck Bennett, Councilor Steve McCoid, and the other members of the City Council asking that the council reconsider its 7-2 decision to form a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District. 
Download SGNA - Reconsideration of Lone Oak Reimbursement District

Instead, as shown in the image above, the letter proposes an intriguing alternative idea.

If Tokarski comes out on top in a legal challenge to his plan to convert the Creekside Golf Course into 210 additional home sites, then Lone Oak Road should be built on flat land that now is the west end of the course (green dots) rather than the steep difficult terrain where Lone Oak Road currently is planned to be built in the Salem Transportation System Plan (red dots). 

Here's a screenshot of part of the letter from the South Gateway Neighborhood Association board.

Hopefully the City Council will discuss this idea at its February 12 meeting, because it makes a lot of sense. So much so, I wonder why City staff didn't suggest the idea, rather than leaving it to the neighborhood association to come up with it.

As the letter says, much of the funding for the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District is expected to come from the development of 210 home sites on what is now the Creekside Golf Course. A $9,212 fee would be assessed on the development of each lot. 

But this eventually would only bring in about $2 million, and right now the cost of the STSP Alignment for Lone Oak Road is $7.5 million. This is why taxpayers all over Salem would end up paying for the road through a future Streets and Bridges bond -- as I noted in my Salem Weekly cover story, "Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill."

In 2007 Tokarski started to construct the missing northern portion of Lone Oak Road. Preliminary earth grading of the road occurred and a box culvert was installed over Jory Creek. So this shows that Tokarski knew he was obligated to make those improvements.

But he never completed them. A City of Salem staff report says, “Work on the project was halted by the developer and no additional work has occurred since 2007. At present there is no timetable for constructing the bridge and remaining sections of Lone Oak Road SE.”

...If the next streets and bridges bond measure includes a request for $7.5 million (in current dollars) to build the northern portion of Lone Oak Road and the Jory Creek bridge, it may be saddled with an unfortunate nickname, “The Tokarski Bailout Bond.”

My guess is that Tokarski legally will prevail over the Creekside Neighborhood Association, which is trying to prevent the golf course from being turned into a subdivision. If this happens, Tokarski should be required to pay the full cost of building the extension of Lone Oak Road through what is now the golf course.

Congratulations to the South Gateway Neighborhood Association for coming up with a creative and workable alternative to forming a Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District. As the association's letter says, plans for the District should be put on hold until the legal dispute over the golf course is settled.

If the golf course becomes a subdivision, then Lone Oak Road can be built on the flat land of what once was the course, and Tokarski clearly should pay for the road, since it will run through his new 210-lot Creekside development. 

Pharmaceutical companies are behind full page ad opposing HB 4005

Don't be fooled by the full page ad in today's Statesman Journal opposing HB 4005, a bill that would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose pricing information about drugs they sell. 

The group behind the ad, Caregiver Voices United, is a front for the pharmaceutical industry.

Sure, you won't save at the pharmacy counter as a result of HB 4005 because the bill doesn't directly regulate drug prices. Rather, it brings some much-needed transparency into the price-gouging that pharmaceutical companies are notorious for.

Here's an excerpt from an Oregonian opinion piece, "Oregon should force Big Pharma to fork over pricing info."

The Prescription Drug Price Transparency Act, or House Bill 4005, would shine a light on the shadowy pricing process, giving consumers critical information about which drug companies are raising prices in Oregon. Its principal sponsor is Rep. Rob Nosse, a Democrat from Portland. The bill has already gained bipartisan support ahead of Oregon's short 2018 session.

Under the proposed legislation, if a drug corporation wants to raise the price of a drug by more than 10 percent a year, it must provide detailed information on that drug to the Oregon Department of Consumer Business Services. That would include everything from its name, price and length of time on the market and the top 10 highest prices paid for the drug in other countries. The company would also have to report its total sales and profits for the previous year.

Sounds good, right? 

Well, one giveaway that Caregiver Voices United is backed by pharmaceutical companies is the complete absence of any information about what HB 4005 does in their ad. And the photo of a stethoscope on a calculator means absolutely nothing.

What, the calculator is sick? It's heart has an arrhythmia? 

A bit of Googling revealed a March 2017 story in the Eugene Register Guard about a previous attempt by Caregiver Voices United to kill a similar bill. Here's excerpts from "Divide over drug costs spills into legislature: Groups with ties to industry attack bill in Oregon House." (boldface added for emphasis)

An ambitious attempt to try to rein in prescription drug prices on about a third of Oregon health insurance plans has run into a buzz saw of opposition in the Capitol.

The concept of curbing fast-growing drug costs is very popular with voters nationally, polls show. Democratic and Republican state lawmakers say high prices are a problem.

But the experience of House Bill 2387 this session illustrates strong differences of opinion about how to cut prices.

It also shows how two well-funded lobby groups — the pharmaceutical industry and health insurance companies — have aggressively tried to shift the policy discussion to their advantage. The drug industry opposes the bill, but many insurers like it.

Two groups with ties to the pharmaceutical industry are running unusual full-page ads in several Oregon newspapers, including The Register-Guard, attacking the bill, which is stuck in committee.

...One Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group, Caregiver Voices United, is running a newspaper and radio ad campaign against the bill in Oregon. The group calls the bill a “big insurance bailout.”

The group is a subsidiary of the Caregiver Action Network, whose top funder is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Other corporate partners include pharma firms Allergan, Genentech and GlaxoSmithKline, according to its website.

So Oregonians should urge passage of HB 4005, rather than urging its defeat.

Caregiver Voices United is a shadowy front organization for pharmaceutical companies that want free rein to keep 0n gouging people through their exorbitant prices for drugs. The full page ad is as shameful as those pricing policies.

Nordstrom space in Salem Center mall should become a "town square"

The Nordstrom store in downtown Salem is closing on April 6, according to a Statesman Journal story, "Nordstrom to shutter its store in Salem Center mall."

A Rapid Response question in the newspaper about what should replace Nordstrom elicited a bunch of diverse answers. Like, another major retailer; a lot of small shops; a bookstore; a new City Hall; a homeless shelter. 

None of these ideas made me go WOW! But that's what downtown needs, places that have a Wow Factor. We shouldn't be content with simply replacing Nordstrom with more of the same.

This is an opportunity to refashion the two story space into a major people magnet, an attraction that is a must-see on every visitor's list, as well as a place that draws Salem residents in with an equally strong attractive force.

My idea is...

Convert the Nordstrom space into a town square.

Salem doesn't have a central public gathering place, like other cities do (Portland, for example, has Pioneer Courthouse Square). So let's re-fashion the Nordstrom space into one.

This would require Urban Renewal money.

A follow-up Statesman Journal story, "What's next for Salem Center without Nordstrom," had a figure for the value of the Nordstrom space, which Nordstrom owns. It was $8.9 million. That's doable, given that the downtown urban renewal district has some $20 million to $30 million in available funds, from what I've been told.

Naturally I picture extensive remodeling.

The solid stark windowless brick external walls would need to be opened up. Some of the interior would be open to the sidewalk and street, though covered. Plantings, water features, art, and such would be used to create a vibrant space for people to sit, stroll, eat, listen to street musicians, relax, read.

Food trucks could be located in this part of the covered, yet open, town square. They'd periodically rotate with other food trucks to keep the dining options variable. There'd be a stage where events could be scheduled, plus open mic opportunities at certain times of the day or night.

The rest of the space would be enclosed. It could be "creative retail" with a street bazaar or Saturday Market feel to it. The second floor would be refashioned so a spiral walkway leads to it from the ground floor. Ideally the roof would be glassed in some fashion to make the second floor airy and light. 

Everything sold in the Town Square space would have to be Oregon-made, and preferably Salem-made. This would be a showcase for local creativity, talent, agriculture, brewing, and such. 

So my vision, OK, my dream, is that public money -- urban renewal funds -- would convert the Nordstrom space into (1) a covered town square (open to the elements on two sides) and (2) an enclosed second floor with a variety of shopping/browsing options. 

Now, all that stands between me and my dream is that sometimes nasty naysayer, reality. 

I have no idea if the Nordstrom space in the Salem Center mall could be retrofitted in the way I've described. I do recall some talk a while back about modifying the windowless walls of Salem Center to make them more appealing. Salem Center is an old style enclosed mall, while the trend nowadays leans more toward making malls look as much as possible like a old time'y main street.

Which pretty much describes Salem's downtown, of course, aside from the freeway'ish three-lane one-way streets that detract a lot from the ambience of the Historic District. 

Looking more broadly at what could replace Nordstrom, I think City officials and others involved in scoping out possibilities should be much more creative than simply envisioning either another major retailer, or dividing up the Nordstrom space into small retail square footages.

This is an opportunity to modernize Salem Center, to make a big chunk of the mall into a Wow! inducing place, a place, as I said before, that's a powerful people magnet. My Town Square notion strikes me as one way to accomplish that. Obviously there are many other ways.

Let's not think small and more-of-the-same when it comes to dealing with the exit of Nordstrom from downtown. Let's think big and wildly creatively about the space now occupied by Nordstrom.

Larry Tokarski leaves the public with a $7.5 million development bill

It took me about two seconds to say "Yes" when the publisher of Salem Weekly, A.P. Walther, asked me via an email if I'd be interested in writing a story about the unbuilt section of Lone Oak Road that the City Council is asking the public to pay for, after the developer, Larry Tokarski, walked away from his obligation to make the road improvements.

The front page story appeared in this week's issue of Salem Weekly. You can read it online. Here's a PDF file of the story as I sent it off to Walther.
Download Salem Weekly Lone Oak story PDF
This shows the importance of Salem having an alternative newspaper. Before I heard from Walther, I toyed with the idea of seeing if the Statesman Journal, our daily newspaper, would be interested in doing a story on this subject.

But since Tokarski's real estate company, Coldwell Banker Mountain West, is a major advertiser in the Statesman Journal, I figured that the chances of the newspaper running a story that put Tokarski in a bad light were slim to none.

So it was great that Salem Weekly gave me 1,500 words for a story about Tokarski leaving Salem citizens with his $7.5 million unpaid development bill.

Here's some comments that were left on Facebook posts about the story, along with my response to two comments.