Salem Political Snark

My twelve favorite 2018 Salem Political Snark blog posts

How I feel about my blog posts is a lot like how I'd feel if, instead of only having one child, I had several. They all would be my favorite! 

But risking some tears from unchosen posts,  I was able to pick just one Salem Political Snark post per month to comprise my favorites list for 2018. 

Before sharing them, I want to say that the always-interesting Breakfast on Bikes blogger has put together an absolutely great overview of goings-on in Salem during the past year from the standpoint of land use, livability, and transportation issues. 

So be sure to check out "2018 In Review: In Between." Here's how it starts out. 

What to say about 2018? I want to think it is a pivot, a transitional year. I'm not sure that there was a whole lot big and new, and maybe even nothing truly decisive, but there were concluding actions, things ending, and also things gathering and starting. Maybe this will be a mistake, and the year will turn out to be very insignificant.

The wish is always to be able to place the year's events in some kind of narrative, to find shape and pattern - and progress. But as we have seen, a Whiggish attachment to Progress is very often just fiction, and history has no such teleology. Maybe 2018 is just a random splatter of events.

As you can see from the following blog posts, progressive/liberal me found a lot to like locally in 2018, along with a lot not to like. On the whole, I agree with the Breakfast on Bikes blogger: progress has been made, but much more remains to be done.

Here's my favorite posts, one from each month, with an excerpt from each.

January
Here's 5 good reasons not to shop at Salem's Hobby Lobby

The biggest reason was given in a Slate podcast interview with Candida Moss, a Professor of Theology who wrote a book about the company's efforts to Christianize this country, "Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby." 

After hearing Moss talk about some Hobby Lobby horror stories that I'll summarize below, at about the 21:14 mark Mike Pesca, the interviewer, says that the engine of all that Hobby Lobby sets out to do is their stores.

So, he said, "When you shop there, you're giving directly to their efforts." Moss agreed, saying that the company's evangelical owners are the religious equivalent of the Koch brothers. 

February
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.

March
What if Salem was like this...

Today I had an stimulating conversation about Salem, including political goings-on, with a person who had some appealingly fresh ideas about what needs to change in our city to make it a better place to live for everybody -- not just the already well-off.

Our talk got me to thinking about what Salem would be like if... where what follows the "if" is an outcome unconstrained by what exists today, because that would pretty much guarantee more of the same.

April
Leung vs. McCoid City Council race isn't getting attention it deserves

In this Year of the Woman, politically and culturally-speaking, I find it surprising that Jacqueline (Jackie) Leung's Ward 4 City Council race against incumbent Steve McCoid isn't getting more attention. 

...Leung and Varney are the most progressive candidates in their races. So as I noted last month in "Jackie Leung should get Progressive Salem support for her City Council campaign," it's strange that Progressive Salem, which works to elect local liberal candidates, hasn't made an endorsement in the Ward 4 race.

May
Five takeaways from Jackie Leung's Salem City Council victory

Like I said last Tuesday on election night, Jackie Leung's 53%-46% victory over Steve McCoid in the Ward 4 City Council race warms my progressive heart.

...There are lessons to be learned from political newcomer Leung's upset victory over an incumbent city councilor, especially when Micki Varney's 48%-52% loss to incumbent Councilor Jim Lewis in the Ward 8 race is considered. 

June
Five strange things about Friday's special City Council meeting about water problem

I'm a fan of strangeness. But there's pleasing kinds of strange and disturbing kinds of strange.

Watching yesterday's special City Council meeting about Salem's toxic algae water crisis via a Facebook feed gave me the latter sorts of feelings...disturbing.

July
Poetic goodbye to Old Lindbeck Orchard shows what's wrong with Salem development

I'm sharing a moving opinion piece by Jane Wille in today's Statesman Journal because we need more poetic feeling and less financial greed here in Salem.

As you'll read below, Wille is saddened by the loss of the Old Lindbeck Orchard property in West Salem, which she says is to become high-density retirement housing.

Last year the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blogger reported that it looked like a fenced gated community apartment complex was planned for the property.

This supposedly is progress. I'm not so sure.

August
I report on a talk with a reporter from Salem Reporter

Early on, I assessed Troy for possible mental illness after he told me that he has a journalism degree from the University of Oregon, noting that, given the declining fortunes of newspapers, if he'd been born a lot earlier, probably he would have gotten a degree in Buggy Whip Manufacturing shortly after the Model T became popular.

However, after Troy told me about his reporter experience in Roseburg and Vancouver, Washington, I realized that he's been getting paid for his writing, while I've earned precisely zero from fifteen years of blogging, and very little from the three books I've authored.

So if there was a crazy writer sitting in our Beanery booth, clearly it was me.

September
City of Salem comprehensive planning effort gets some well-deserved criticism

Well, that didn't take long. At 11:30 am yesterday, City of Salem officials sent out an emailabout the start of an effort to update the Salem Area Comprehensive Plan. 

A mere 19 minutes later, at 11:49 am, Michael Slater wrote a post on a Facebook page where Salem City Council issues are discussed that critiqued the Our Salem Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which a City of Salem web page describing the planning effort says "will be providing guidance to staff." 

October 
Eight large white oaks to be killed for a new Costco store in Salem

What's the value of eight lives? Is it greater or less than the desire of Costco to build a new Salem store on the graves of the deceased?

I'm talking about the lives of large white oaks, not humans. But those are important questions to tree-loving people like me, which includes many of the neighbors who live near the Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center where the Salem Costco is planned to be relocated.

November
Salem Public Library removing 30% of print book collection. Resistance is mounting.

Trigger warning: if you love books, and hate to see them mistreated, you might want to partially cover your eyes when viewing the photo below. I'm sorry that this blog post has to be so graphic, but as the saying goes, A picture is worth a thousand words.

(And this post is much longer than that.)

Because I figure that anyone who has read this far is a book lover, so is accustomed to reading words that far exceed what's on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, instead of trying to summarize the Battle of the Books between Scheppke and the director of the Salem Public Library, Sarah Strahl, I'm going to share verbatim the Scheppke-Strahl correspondence, plus some messages that Scheppke sent to me.

December
Broadway Coffeehouse does discriminate against gay people

It is clear that the Broadway Coffeehouse, which is run by the Salem Alliance Church, does indeed discriminate against LBGTQ people as my previous posts on this subject have laid out.

As you can read below, I've asked representatives of the coffeehouse and church if the coffeehouse would refuse to hire someone otherwise well qualified but who was gay, in a same-sex marriage, or engaging in same-sex sex. The same questions have been asked by a KATU reporter and by another interested person, Johnny Green.

Salem Chamber of Commerce needs to be less political

The most amusing quote in a recent Salem Reporter story by Troy Brynelson came from the outgoing CEO of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, Nick Williams.

Departing CEO Nick Williams said community debates are more heated than he can recall.

“I’ve been fortunate to be in this work for a little over six years and I’ve never seen it this divided before, which is unfortunate because at the local level we should be able to disagree knowing we’re going to bump into people at the grocery store,” he said. “I think the overarching theme is the way we seem to have lost our civility.”

Gosh, community debates in Salem are heated!?

Hmmmm. I wonder if maybe, just maybe, Nick Williams should have looked in the mirror when he wonders who is to blame for a large share of the red hot rhetoric. Let's count some of the ways the Chamber of Commerce has contributed to a rise in Salem's incivility.

(1) The Chamber has been highly political in recent years, much more so than the Chambers of Commerce in other Oregon cities.
(2) The Chamber set out to take control of the Mayor's office and City Council in 1998, succeeding in kicking out progressive leadership in an electoral coup that lasted until recently.
(3) The Chamber has been a big backer of a controversial new bridge across the Willamette, disregarding plenty of evidence that this would be a Billion Dollar Boondoggle. 
(4) The Chamber habitually endorses Republicans running for public office, even though Salem is a decidedly liberal city.
(5) The Chamber does its best to buy City Council seats. 

But maybe things are changing with a new Chamber of Commerce CEO coming on board, as discussed in the Salem Reporter story, "Tom Hoffert says he will emphasize partnership as Salem chamber's new CEO." Hoffert is quoted:

Leading the chamber offered the civic involvement he said he has been looking for. He iterated in talks with Salem Reporter that businesses, employees and all else are “interlinked” in local issues.

“For me everything drives back to community partnership. The business segment is your citizenry as well, it’s not a whole different segment of the community,” he said. “They’re your neighbors, your employees or employers.”

True. I just wish it hadn't taken so long for the leader of the Chamber of Commerce to recognize this obvious fact. It seems crazy for the Chamber to have taken such strong hard-right political stances when, as noted above, Salem citizens lean liberal. 

Why would a business organization choose to antagonize more than half of the population? When did supporting business become a monopoly of Republicans/conservatives? Plenty of business owners, of both large and small enterprises, are Democrats/liberals. 

I think incoming CEO Hoffert would be wise to tone down the political heat at the Salem Chamber of Commerce and focus instead on what a chamber should do: further the interests of businesses. 

Which means, arguably, that if the Chamber is going to take a political stand (which I don't think it should), it should set out to elect Democrats, as I discussed in a 2016 blog post. 

Democratic leaders tend to be better for the economy. Today the Statesman Journal reported that Oregon unemployment hit a record low in March, 4.5%. 

State employment economist Nick Beleiciks said in a release that the jobless rate shows the Oregon labor market is "stronger than it's been in decades." Beleiciks said people are "flocking to Oregon's labor force."

Oregon has a Democratic Governor and Dem majorities in both the state Senate and House. If liberals have been good for the state economy, why does the Salem Chamber of Commerce only favor conservatives for Mayor and City Council?

Likewise, on the national level the economy does much better when a Democrat is president. 

“The U.S. economy not only grows faster, according to real GDP and other measures, during Democratic versus Republican presidencies, it also produces more jobs, lowers the unemployment rate, generates higher corporate profits and investment, and turns in higher stock market returns. Indeed, it outperforms under almost all standard macroeconomic metrics.”

So another question is, if liberals have been good for the national economy, why does the Salem Chamber of Commerce favor conservatives for Mayor and City Council?

 

Wanted: an entity to save us from Trump. No experience required.

After enduring today's Trump news, which surpassed in scariness anything our Idiot in Chief has brought us since he became president, I'm reduced to viewing this blog post as akin to a message in the bottle.

Yes, I'm that desperate after:

-- seeing the stock market drop almost 500 points (again)
-- having the (competent) Secretary of Defense resign after Trump ordered him to remove all U.S. troops from Syria, a really bad idea
-- observing Trump go back on a promise (no big surprise) to sign a continuing resolution keeping the government open, so it looks like a Christmas Trump shutdown will happen
-- learning that the acting Attorney General refuses to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation after handpicking people in the Justice Department to advise him on this issue who (predictably) said it was just fine and dandy for him to be Mueller's overlord

I'm a long-time political junkie.

But I've never been so worried about the future of our country, and the world. Trump is the first president in my lifetime who lacks both any sense of morality or decency and is utterly incompetent to manage his own business affairs, much less serve as the leader of the free world.

Worse, Trump doesn't even want a free world. He prefers dictators to democracy, lies to liberty, hatred to helping others. 

Since Republicans seem content to let Trump carry on with his craziness, even if he drags the country down into a pit of economic, cultural, and existential despair, I'm calling out for help to some admittedly unlikely sources.

People of the future, if you've mastered time travel, send someone back to 2016 and prevent Jim Comey from holding forth on Hillary Clinton's damn emails. Plus, stop the Russians from interfering in the election and colluding with the Trump campaign.

Alien beings from an advanced civilization, if you're monitoring blog posts, take this one to heart. Feel free to hover a spaceship over Washington D.C. and beam up all members of the Trump administration to a prison planet in a galaxy far, far away. Then instruct the people of Earth to never let any more narcissistic psychopaths lead a country. 

I hope my fears are misguided.

I hope our country survives the last two years of the Trump presidency. I'm just deeply worried that given what happened today, Trump's descent into total meltdown is accelerating. After all, he still commands the nuclear codes.

Hey, I lived through the Cuban missile crisis. I was an elementary school student in California when we couldn't drink milk for a while because of above-ground nuclear tests in Nevada. I remember when home fallout shelters were all the rage, along with "duck and cover" drills in schools (as if these would work in a nuclear holocaust). 

But this is different.

I've always felt that the leader of our country was competent, even if I vehemently disagreed with his policies. Trump is hugely more terrifying, because not only is he incompetent, he believes in his own bullshit -- and he refuses to have anybody around him who challenges that crap.

In the short-term, we'll muddle through.

I suspect the government shutdown over the $5 billion Trump wants for his stupid border wall will last just two weeks. Once the Democrats take control of the House in January, Nancy Pelosi will pass a bill that restores back pay for government workers and funds the government, minus money for the wall. 

The Senate will go along, ending that problem. Which leaves all the other self-created Trump problems, plus whatever new ones he cooks up between now and then. 

So that's why I'm calling out to time travelers and alien beings. Desperate times demand desperate measures. Someone needs to stop Trump from wrecking our country and a large part of the world prior to November 2020, when I'm confident he will be voted out of office. 

Maybe Democrats and Republicans in Congress, with the aid of Mueller, are up to the job. I'm just worried that they aren't. 

 

Broadway Coffeehouse does discriminate against gay people

It is clear that the Broadway Coffeehouse, which is run by the Salem Alliance Church, does indeed discriminate against LBGTQ people as my previous posts on this subject have laid out. See:
Two reports of how Broadway Coffee House/Commons discriminates against gay people
Salem Alliance Church pastor talks about sin of same-sex sex

As you can read below, I've asked representatives of the coffeehouse and church if the coffeehouse would refuse to hire someone otherwise well qualified but who was gay, in a same-sex marriage, or engaging in same-sex sex. The same questions have been asked by a KATU reporter and by another interested person, Johnny Green.

Those representatives have refused to give an answer to whether the Broadway Coffeehouse discriminates against LBGTQ people. I even posed the question by saying that the job applicant was a member of the Salem Alliance Church, but is openly gay and in a same-sex marriage. The applicant just considers that it isn't a sin to have same-sex sex, as the church maintains.

Again, no answer. So it seems clear that the Broadway Coffeehouse is indeed a gay unfriendly place, despite their protestations that they are an "inclusive gathering place." I don't consider homophobia to be inclusive, loving, or what Jesus would do.

(I'm an atheist, but my understanding is that the root of the Christian belief that same-sex sex is a sin comes from the Old Testament.)

KATU reporter Joe Douglass contacted me after he read my first blog post about the Broadway Coffeehouse. Later, he sent me a Facebook link to a post where Douglass shared a statement from Robb Childs, the executive pastor for Salem Alliance Church. Here's what Douglass' post says. I didn't include the link to my blog post/article since it is above.

In response to accusations the Broadway Coffeehouse and Commons in Salem discriminates against LGBTQ people as described in the below article by Brian Hines, Salem Alliance Church, which owns the coffeehouse, sent me a statement claiming they don’t ask prospective employees about their sexual orientation. It also says, “We intentionally hire followers of Jesus,” and that the church affirms an “orthodox view of marriage.”

Robb Childs, the church’s executive pastor, sent me the statement. He would not answer follow-up questions as to whether the coffeehouse would hire LGBTQ people if their orientation became known and whether any LGBTQ people work at the business.

Following is the entire statement from Childs:

“Broadway Commons was built by Salem Alliance Church as an inclusive gathering place for anyone and everyone under a vision that church, community and commerce could come together for the common good.  Broadway Coffeehouse is a business/ministry of Salem Alliance Church located in the Broadway Commons building.

For nearly 100 years, Salem Alliance Church has been committed to loving all individuals through all of its ministries. We believe everyone is created in God’s image with inestimable worth, and therefore, we seek to treat every individual, even those with whom we might disagree, with dignity and respect.

It is with this mission that we operate Broadway Coffeehouse.  While we intentionally hire followers of Jesus at Broadway Coffeehouse, it has not been our practice to ask sexual orientation questions during the hiring process.

While Salem Alliance Church affirms the long-standing, orthodox view of marriage that the Church has affirmed for centuries, we have not sought to use Broadway Coffeehouse as a religious platform.  Instead, we strive to demonstrate a welcoming spirit and provide exceptional service to everyone in our diverse community.  Jesus had a beautiful way of interacting with the people of His day with grace and truth and we want to be a reflection of Him.  We love our community and we work hard to be good neighbors, open to all who visit our church, use our facilities or stop by for coffee as we serve our city following Christ’s example.”

It's disturbing that Salem Alliance Church calls homosexuality and same-sex sex a sin in the privacy of their sermons, but isn't willing to be honest about this in its public persona. Rather, in the statement above Childs dances around the question I, the KATU reporter, Johnny Green, and many other people want answered by the church:

Would you refuse to hire a qualified  gay person to work at the Broadway Coffeehouse if they were open and upfront about their homosexuality, even if they were a member of the Salem Alliance Church?

I don't buy the "we hate the sin but love the sinner" spin that Childs tries to get away with.

Same-sex marriage is legal everywhere in the United States. Same-sex marriage has the approval of 67% of Americans. Sexuality is an integral part of marriage. Science has learned that sexual orientation is wholly or mostly determined by genetics and isn't a choice. The excerpt is from the first link:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cross-cultural-evidence-for-the-genetics-of-homosexuality/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19172387

The cross-cultural similarities evinced by the Lethbridge study offer further evidence that being gay is genetic, which is, in itself, an interesting finding. But we as a society should challenge the notion that sexual preferences must be nonvolitional to be socially acceptable or safe from scrutiny. The etiology of homosexuality, biological or otherwise, should have no bearing on gay individuals’ right to equality.

Hating the sin of same-sex sex is the same as hating people in same-sex relationships. 

The bigoted attitude of the Salem Alliance Church and the Broadway Coffeehouse is rapidly becoming a relic of an unenlightened time, in much the same way that racial prejudice has endured among a minority of people in our country even though our laws and culture are moving forward on this front.

I will never set foot in the Broadway Commons now that I know how the Salem Alliance Church looks upon same-sex relationships. In short, as a sin.

In a continuation to this post you can read a comment on my first blog post from Luke, who apparently is a manager at the Broadway Coffeehouse. As you'll see, I took him up on his offer to ask some questions, but I never heard back from Luke, or anyone else. Two of my follow-up emails also are copied in.

Salem Alliance Church pastor talks about sin of same-sex sex

Here's some simple facts about the controversy over the Broadway Coffee House, and the Broadway Commons in general, discriminating against LGBTQ people.

(1) The Salem Alliance Church and the Broadway Coffee House/Commons are one and the same. I've been told that money from the latter goes to the church. (2) The Salem Alliance Church won't marry gay people, and the pastor is on record as saying that same-sex sex is a sin. You can read what he has said below.  (3) So anyone who supports the Broadway Coffee House/Commons by going there, or spending money there, is supporting a church that denigrates gays. 

This is why many neighbors of the Broadway Commons have been boycotting it. And this is why a letter to the editor in the Statesman Journal calls for a boycott of the Broadway Commons. 

Some people defend the Salem Alliance Church by saying this is a matter of religious liberty.

Well, sure, people are free in believe in whatever crazy thing they want to. But usually it isn't so obvious that the crazy people are running a business aimed at attracting the general public -- most of whom don't believe in the crazy ideas held by the crazy people.

The situation isn't all that different from the KKK operating a restaurant back in the days when the United States tolerated racial discrimination. If you disagreed with the KKK's views about African-Americans, you wouldn't feel good supporting the KKK's restaurant, right?

Likewise, below is what the lead pastor of Salem Alliance Church, Steve Fowler, said in a podcast of what I assume is a July 16, 2016 sermon based on Romans 1:18-2:1-2. That's the part of the Bible fundamentalists use to rail against same-sex marriage and same-sex sex. 

Fundamentalists like that aren't just alive and well in the deep south.

They're alive and well right here in Salem, at the Salem Alliance Church. Think ahout this next time you ponder going to the Broadway Coffee House or Broadway Commons. I've transcribed part of Fowler's sermon from about the 32 minute mark, boldfacing some parts about same-sex sex.

Yesterday I heard from a Portland reporter who had been trying to speak with a Salem Alliance Church pastor for the entire day. It seems kind of strange that church representatives are so sure that same-sex sex is a sin that deserves to be loudly preached about, but they don't seem willing to share their dogmatic views with a reporter.

This is what Pastor Fowler said.

When Adam and Eve have sex, it is not just union. It is a reunion. It is the image of God as represented by Adam. the image of God represented by Eve. And when these two opposite genders come together it is not just union, it is a reunion. It is a beautiful picture of what God is trying to get us to understand of relational intimacy that is represented in the Godhead.

And you will see a consistent sexual code from Genesis all the way to Revelation. In fact, in Revelation there is the marriage supper of the lamb. What is that? It’s reunion. It’s all the saints. It is everyone with Christ. And this physical oneness is a beautiful picture of that.

And you will never find in the scriptures any positive pictures of a same sex union. It just isn’t there. There’s this consistent sexual code. There’s this beautiful metaphor that’s presented in sexual oneness, as a picture of people of the opposite sex coming together. 

So we talk about running from sexual sin. Here’s what we’re saying. Any kind of sexual activity outside of a marriage with a male and a female, this is something we should not be engaged in. So if you’re married and you’re having sex with someone who is not your spouse, you don’t just need to resist, you just don’t need to fight it, you need to book it, you need to run.

And if you’re sexually active with someone you’re not married to, you need to run. If you’re engaged in porn or you’re going to strip clubs, you need to run. And on this topic, what God is saying is that if you’re engaged in same-sex sex, if you’re using a same-sex relationship in that way, you also need to run, you also need to book it.

And I just want to say to you, I don’t want you ever coming to Salem Alliance Church and walking out of here, and saying that guy never told us. This is exactly what it says. And we can work hard, and we can say we know better, or that’s the ice cream cone in the pocket, but friends, it’s what God’s word reveals.

 

Two reports of how Broadway Coffee House/Commons discriminates against LGBT people

Someone contacted me about a year ago about how the Broadway Coffee House here in Salem refuses to allow gay people to be employees, because the business is controlled by the Salem Alliance Church.

As you can read below, the pastor of the church believes this gives them a religious license to discriminate, sort of like how Agent 007 had a license to kill, even though under normal circumstances this is illegal. 

According to the Oregon State Bar, it is legal for religiously affiliated businesses to engage in discrimination against LGBT people. But this doesn't make it right.

Here's what the person who contacted me, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. I recall that this message came through Facebook after I'd written a blog post about how Hobby Lobby mixes religion with its business practices. 

I saw your post about hobby lobby, so I think I feel comfortable sharing more ...the "business" I am referring to is Broadway Coffee house. Turns out it is not an actual business and all proceeds go to pay church staff and support the church ministries of Salem Alliance Church .

Seems like something the public should be aware of, especially since I was told gay people would not be able to work there

Yes. I met with the head pastor a year ago to confirm that it was true . The pastor told me that the baristas are church staff and have to be employees of the church and follow church rules to work there . He also said that they do not need to follow non discrimination laws because they are an outreach ministry...not a licensed business. I think the general public should know this.

It feels very underhanded to keep that info from consumers. Myself and about 40 others who live around the coffee shop have been boycotting Broadway for over a year now . We just want them to put up a sign that says the coffee shop supports the ministry of the church and is not an equal opportunity employer. If they do that, we will end the boycott.

Today, the Statesman Journal ran a letter to the editor that made a similar point about how the Broadway Commons, which contains the Broadway Coffee House, discriminates against LGBT people because it is owned by the Salem Alliance Church.

Though Scott Rick focuses on not allowing same-gender couples to marry, I noted that he uses the phrase "discriminating against LGBT members of our community in various ways," implying there are other ways discrimination is happening -- such as not allowing LGBT people to work at the Broadway Coffee House. 

Here's the letter.

Boycotting Salem meeting place sends message discrimination won't be tolerated

By serving as a gathering place for the community, Broadway Commons is a major asset to Salem.

Unfortunately, the owners of Broadway Commons, Salem Alliance Church, are actively discriminating against LGBT members of our community in various ways, including refusing to allow same-gender couples to marry.

Religious freedom is sacred, but when any organization discriminates, we have an obligation to take action to bring an end to such discrimination.

In years past, the Bible was used to justify slavery and opposition to civil rights for African Americans. By discriminating against the LGBT community, Salem Alliance Church is continuing that unfortunate tradition.

Refusing to allow same-gender couples to marry is no different than refusing to allow interracial couples to marry.

By boycotting Broadway Commons, we can send a clear message that discrimination is not tolerated in our community.

Many private and governmental organizations use Broadway Commons for meetings. If you are invited to a meeting at Broadway Commons, please consider letting the meeting organizer know that you cannot attend due to the discriminatory practices of the Salem Alliance Church.

Scott Rick
Salem

Rick's call for a boycott of Broadway Commons, which includes the Broadway Coffee House, should be seriously considered by those in Salem who reject discrimination for any reason, including religious. 

I've never understood why our country tolerates discrimination in the name of religion when the same behavior is illegal for non-religious people to engage in.

What's next, allowing religious people to drive drunk if this is part of their belief system? Allowing anyone with a hateful belief system to discriminate? Why should a collective discriminatory belief system be treated differently than an individual discriminatory belief system?

The City of Salem has held a number of meetings at the Broadway Commons.

But recently public meeting for the Downtown Streetscape and Our Salem projects have been held elsewhere. It'd be good to know if this was because of the Broadway Commons' discrimination policy against LGBTQ members of the Salem community.

If so, great. Kudos to the City of Salem.

If not, then the City of Salem and other government agencies should make it a policy to never hold meetings at the Broadway Commons until the Salem Alliance Church starts acting in the name of love, not discrimination, like religious organizations are supposed to do.

Wow! City Council rejects approval of Costco plan

I'm shocked. And pleasantly surprised.

After hours of impassioned testimony, most of it against relocating a giant Costco big box store to property adjacent to residential neighborhoods in south Salem, the City Council just voted to reject the staff approval of the Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center.

The vote was 5-3, with Mayor Bennett and Councilors Lewis and Nanke voting against Councilor McCoid's motion to reject the staff OK of the plan for the shopping center. Councilors Andersen, Hoy, McCoid, Cook, and Ausec voted in favor of the motion.

Congratulations to the neighbors who testified eloquently about the problems Costco and its fueling station would bring to their area. The South Gateway Neighborhood Association and some individuals appealed the City's approval of the shopping center plan, which led to tonight's hearing.

It was democracy in action. 

Bennett said that he thinks Costco and PacTrust, the developer, will ultimately win in court. Well, I'm not so sure about that. It sounded to me that there were significant flaws in the traffic study carried out for the development. And other grounds for denying approval of the shopping center also seemed to have merit.

Tonight was a win for livability in Salem. There has to be a moment when people say enough is enough. That moment could have been this evening. 

Enough traffic. Enough congestion. Enough killing of trees. Enough adding to carbon pollution. Enough catering to corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens.

Geez, it was repeatedly pointed out that Costco is a wholesaler that requires a membership card to get in the door or buy gas. Yet the original PacTrust plan for this property was to have a shopping center that catered to the surrounding neighborhoods, not a giant big box store drawing people (and their cars) from all over.

Thanks to Trevor Phillips for posting some updates on the meeting on Facebook. Here's a photo that Phillips shared showing the large crowd at the City Council meeting.

And special congratulations to Councilor McCoid, a moderate conservative who lost his seat to Jackie Leung. So I believe this was his last council meeting. McCoid spoke briefly but to the point about why he made a motion to reject the staff recommendation to approve the project. Nicely done!

Tell the Salem City Council, "The plan for a new Costco sucks."

OK, don't take the title of this blog post literally. Actually I don't recommend that you email the City Council prior to their Monday, December 10 meeting and tell them that the plan for a relocated Costco in south Salem sucks. 

(email address under that link is [email protected])

Rather, express yourself with synonyms. Like, really bad idea; traffic nightmare; White Oak killing spree; doesn't fit with residential neighborhood. Check out two neighborhood appeals of the Costco plan for more specific ideas.
Download SNGA Appeal Letter dated November 7 2018
Download Anuta Appeal Letter Dated November 7 2018

I'm a Costco member. So a few days ago I got a letter from Costco urging me to support the plan to build a 169,000 square foot Costco big box store immediately adjacent to residences in the South Gateway Neighborhood Association area. 
Download Costco letter PDF

A couple of sentences in the letter particularly irritated me:

"On Oct. 13, 2018, the site plan application was approved by the City of Salem, but some have felt a need to appeal the land use decision to approve the project."

Felt a need? Believe me, people feel a need for a latte or ice cream cone. Appealing a land use decision is a whole other thing, requiring a heck of a lot of commitment, time, and money. It isn't something people undertake without good reason.

"It is a fact of life that individuals who oppose projects tend to make their objections known, while those in favor do not express their views." 

Hmmmm. A fact of life? I guess Costco staff haven't spent any time at meetings regarding the proposed Salem River Crossing or Third Bridge. Those of favor of the bridge haven't been shy at all about expressing their views. 

I am, though, going to take Costco up on their invitation to email the Salem City Council and make my voice heard. That voice is going to urge the Council to attend to the objections raised by neighbors, which make a lot of sense to me.

Of course, Costco has its own opinion, expressing itself in a gigantic response to the appeals that is virtually impossible for a normal human being to digest. I've got a slow Internet connection, living as we do in the wilds of rural south Salem, so the file took forever, more or less, to download.

One of the issues in the appeals concerns eight "significant" (old and large) White Oaks that the new Costco store would be built precisely over. So they'd be killed under the current plan, and a bunch of tiny White Oaks planted as replacements that will only take at least 100-200 years or so to grow to the size of the oaks already on the property.

I wrote about this travesty in "Eight large white oaks to be killed for a new Costco store in south Salem."

What's the value of eight lives? Is it greater or less than the desire of Costco to build a new Salem store on the graves of the deceased?

I'm talking about the lives of large hite oaks, not humans. But those are important questions to tree-loving people like me, which includes many of the neighbors who live near the Kuebler Gateway Shopping Center where the Salem Costco is planned to be relocated.

A City of Salem ordinance says that significant Oregon White Oaks can only be removed for a commercial development when this is "necessary." But Costco presented alternative site plans that preserve the eight trees. Costco just doesn't want to go with one of those alternatives. 

Here's a screenshot from one of the appeals.

I don't find the developer's (PacTrust) response to the neighborhood tree concerns to be very persuasive.

Note the buzzwords: "undeniably necessary," "still have an economically viable project," "plain to see." Regarding the latter, I tried to look at the sample site plans attached as Exhibit 5 and came up empty, even after doing a word search for both Exhibit 5 and Exhibit. 

Here's the entirety of Exhibit 5. The words "Exhibit 5 Sample Site Plans" with nothing else. However, Salem architect Geoffrey  James has prepared a document that shows official alternative site plans for the Costco project that do protect the eight significant white oaks. 

PacTrust and Costco just don't like those alternatives. To which I hope the City Council will reply, "Too bad. Pick one of them and save the eight oaks."

Downtown Cherry Pits debuts as Salem satirical newsletter

Great news for humor lovers in Salem! We now have a local version of Silverton's Silvertongue Apple-Peal. Carole Smith has fashioned Downtown Cherry Pits -- Exclusive to the Slutsman Journal as our town's satirical newsletter. 

After Carole told me that some copies were available at Lullu's (357 Court Street), I stopped by yesterday and scored the debut issue. It's more fun to read on paper, but here's a PDF file for general online consumption.
Download Downtown Cherry Pits Dec. 2018 newsletter

The newsletter also can be read in bite-size bits via the posts on the Downtown Cherry Pits Facebook page. Be sure to give that page a "Like" so you keep in touch with the newsletter, which hopefully will live long and prosper. 

Like I said in my post about the Silvertongue satire, humor is deeply subversive, being one of the best ways to get under the skin of the Powers That Be. 

Aside from being a way to express her sense of humor, Carole Smith is using Downtown Cherry Pits to take some shots at programs and policies that deserve to be filled full of holes. Here's a few screenshot examples:

I think Downtown Cherry Pits is off to a great start. I'm looking forward to additional issues. Salem needs this sort of biting satirical humor, since it is a good way to look at life less seriously, while also taking jabs at what needs some poking. 

A few people have criticized this blog for not living up to its name. Meaning, I haven't been snarky enough. Downtown Cherry Pits helps fill the snarky void in Salem's soul, for which I'm grateful. And Carole Smith's newsletter has impelled me to resolve to try to put more humor in my own writing. 

Lastly, I've got to give Carole a shout-out for outdoing the Silvertongue Apple-Peal on the financial front. Gus Frederick has been selling his Silverton newsletter for $1 at a downtown store. But Carole told me that the people who pick up the first 30 copies of Downtown Cherry Pits will be given $1. 

Apparently mine is waiting for me. 

Silvertongue Apple-Peal newsletter is a delicious Silverton satire

Humor is deeply subversive. It's maybe the best way to get under the skin of the Powers That Be. The Onion does a great job of this on the national level.

Yesterday I was delighted to be sent a copy of a first-rate satirical newsletter created by someone in Silverton. Oops, Silvertongue. Which is close to Mt. Angle. Pleasingly, the masthead says, "A Leisure Service of the Statesman Urinal."

(The Silverton newspaper, published by the Statesman Journal, is called the Appeal Tribune.)

Not an original putdown of the Statesman Journal, but funny nonetheless.

I haven't poured over every detail of the newsletter, but I wanted to share it ASAP, since great humor writing like this needs to be promulgated far and wide in these often-too-serious times. Enjoy.
Download Silvertongue Newsletter Dec 2018


I have no idea, just a guess, who produces the newsletter. It has a Facebook page, but the only clue I found to the identity of the twisted creative mind that fashions the Silvertongue Apple-Peal is above.

A comment on the post said "Thanks, Gus." A bit of Googling makes me think that Gus Frederick is a good possibility, in part based on the forehead resemblance on this web page. But I could be wrong, so if Gus Frederick reads this, and hates being associated with the Silvertongue Apple-Peal, don't sue me, bro.

I'm envious of the mind that creates the newsletter, though also worried about what would happen to my psyche if  I possessed a similar mentality.

On the whole, I think I'd enjoy that prospect.

If nothing else, I'd be able to laugh my way through the angry letters to the newsletter editor and threatened lawsuits that might be the lot of the Silvertongue Apple-Peal creator. Unless the Powers That Be in Silverton have more of a sense of humor than their counterparts in Salem, which I doubt.

OK... I'm worried that you might not click on the download link above and then enlarge the print on the PDF file to make it easier to read. So to induce you to explore the marvels of the Silvertongue Apple-Peal, here's a few screenshots to whet your appetite for the occasionally published newsletter.

This issue was a November 2018 election special edition. I enjoyed the NEPCO endorsements, even though I know next to nothing about Silverton/Silvertongue politics. Stu Rasmussen, a former mayor, is the only name I recognized in this thinly-disguised candidate list. 

Checking the results, Rasmussen/Ratsmucus lost. By a lot, 37% to 58%. So did Harrod/Horrid. Neideigh/Neihigh won, but so did all of the four candidates for three city council seats other than Harrod/Horrid.

Along with the rest of the newsletter, the classified ads are a work of creative art. Here's an example that I enjoyed. 

Lastly, some good news for Salem: downtown resident, business owner, and activist Carole Smith sent me the PDF file of the Silvertongue Apple-Peal. She asked what I thought about someone producing something similar for downtown Salem. I loved the idea. 

So did Carole, since she sent me a nicely laid out and creatively-written piece she whipped out in just 24 hours that I'll be sharing soon. Here's a teaser screenshot of the masthead. 

Carole said it would be fine to identify her as the creator of Downtown Cherry Pits, since it would be pretty darn obvious to many people who wrote it. Probably the same is true of the Silvertongue Apple-Peal. 

Wondering how the Silverton satire is distributed, I scrolled through recent Facebook posts until I came to this comment on a post:

Beautiful. Is it worth a dollar? Hell, yes. A lot more, in fact. Of course, I'm giving the Silvertongue Apple-Peal away for free via this blog post, so don't sue me, Gus.