Salem Political Snark

Should lying on downtown sidewalks be banned between 8 am and 11pm?

Downtown Salem has a serious homeless problem.

This is obvious to anyone who visits the area. I go to a Tai Chi class on Court Street three days a week around 4 to 7 pm. I'm bothered by the trash, people curled up in sleeping bags, shopping carts filled to overflowing with people's possessions.

Last month I wrote "Seeing Salem's homeless sleeping outside stirred up these feelings." But I've got to be honest. I didn't share all of the feelings I had. 

Along with feeling bad about the plight of the homeless, I also don't like what homeless people are doing to downtown Salem. It isn't pleasant to see shopping carts on the sidewalk. Nor is it pleasant to park in the Chemeketa Parkade and walk down stairs reeking of urine.

Recently I parked in that garage on the second floor. A homeless person was sitting on the stairs leading down to ground level, talking on his phone, with stuff spread over the full width of several stair steps. He had to move some things aside so I could get by. 

An hour and a half later, after my Tai Chi class, he was in the same spot, but standing up talking on his phone. A woman walked up the stairs just ahead of me. I thought, “If I find it disturbing to encounter a homeless person on the stairs, I wonder how a woman walking up the stairs by herself feels."

We've got to get over a reluctance to talk honestly about downtown's homeless problem. It's possible to both (1) feel compassion toward homeless people and (2) feel bad about how homeless people are making downtown Salem less pleasant for visitors, residents, and business owners.

 

Screenshot from video shared in the blog post linked to below

 

Last month I shared an opinion piece by Carole Smith, who lives downtown and also leases space to several downtown businesses: "Downtown Salem's homeless problem is hurting businesses." Below are further thoughts that Smith emailed to me, along with information she's received from several downtown business owners about how the homeless are affecting them.

I'm planning to write another blog post about what the business owners said -- keeping their names confidential given how strong feelings run when there's any talk about restricting homeless people in downtown Salem.

Which is what Carole Smith suggests below: a ban on lying on sidewalks between 8 am and 11 pm, along with some other ideas. These proposals deserve serious consideration, even though a similar "sit-lie" proposal was rejected by the City Council in 2017. Some business owners tried to resurrect the idea in 2018, but it wasn't recommended by a Downtown Homeless Solutions Task Force.

 

UPDATE: Someone drew my attention to the Ninth Circuit ruling regarding homeless people sleeping in public places, like sidewalks. After looking at the ruling, and some news stories about it, it seems that the City of Salem could justify an ordinance that prohibits lying on sidewalks during a specific time period, like 8 am to 11 pm, since the ruling says:

Our holding is a narrow one. Like the Jones panel, “we in no way dictate to the City that it must provide sufficient shelter for the homeless, or allow anyone who wishes to sit, lie, or sleep on the streets . . . at any time and at any place.

... [footnote] Naturally, our holding does not cover individuals who do have access to adequate temporary shelter, whether because they have the means to pay for it or because it is realistically available to them for free, but who choose not to use it. Nor do we suggest that a jurisdiction with insufficient shelter can never criminalize the act of sleeping outside. Even where shelter is unavailable, an ordinance prohibiting sitting, lying, or sleeping outside at particular times or in particular locations might well be constitutionally permissible.

Anyway, here's part of what Carole Smith said in her email to me. You'll see that she balances compassion for homeless people with concern for their impact on downtown businesses.

 

I have been thinking a lot about homelessness, what causes it, what might be done about it, and hopefully how to relieve  innocent citizens from having to deal with a national crisis on their own.

 

Addiction and mental illness are both diseases. No one choses to be mentally ill or addicted. It happens to people just like cancer or many other diseases just happen to people. Why do we treat people with these two diseases differently than people with cancer, lupus, pneumonia, ringworm, etc? 

 

Both behaviors are classified as a “disease” in the United States, yet we continue to treat the victims of these diseases as if continuing on with their disease is a choice. It isn’t. They can’t help being mentally ill or addicted to alcohol or drugs. It's a disease they have little or no ability to control.

 

So, how do we help people with diseases?  

 

When you frame the question that way people have to acknowledge that diseases can, and should be, treated. How is it in the best interest of a citizen to sleep on sidewalks in freezing weather? If a child did this they would be in protective custody immediately. Why not adults who cannot take care of themselves? Why are they allowed to live in dangerous conditions?

 

Where has our sense of humanity and compassion gone?

 

The homeless need services. They need a home where they feel safe and are protected while they work on controlling their disease, if they have one. A home where they can be monitored to take their medications and counseling to help them cope with their problems more successfully. The same for addiction treatment.  

 

These are solvable problems but government doesn’t want to be bogged down by illnesses that are lifelong. Public officials prefer that citizens deal with the fall out from mental illness and addiction. We have to sweep up trash everyday, wash sidewalks, destroy needles and other drug paraphernalia, recycle the cardboard, hose out urine and feces from our doorways.  

 

And the homeless come back every night and begin the cycle all over again.

 

One solution to the homeless problem is to provide police services downtown at 8 AM each morning to wake the homeless and ask them to pack up for the day. Then at 9 AM, the Downtown Clean Team comes through downtown hosing sidewalks and picking up garbage from homeless campers.

 

The city budgeted $90,000 this year for “Clean Team” and $60,000 in next year's budget. Why do they clean in the afternoon instead of before the shops open each morning? It wouldn’t cost any more, just change the time they clean.  

 

We need a city ordinance that no one can be prone on public property between 8 AM and 11 PM.

 

Homeless citizens would be welcome to sit on benches but not to lay down, same for sidewalks. We have had homeless citizens sleeping until 3 in the afternoon in front of our building for weeks. Also, all shopping carts would have to be off sidewalks by 10 AM and moved into a designated area in a public park or parking garage.

 

Last week one of my tenants told me she made $22 of sales the day before. No one can stay in business when sales are hurt that badly. Another tenant sold $1,500 in November but his rent is $2,400 a month. Other businesses are choosing to move out of downtown and our customers are gone.   

 

Another fact many people are unaware of is that the type of homeless has changed dramatically.

 

In the past we had homeless people who had worked jobs, had families but had lost a job, had a medical emergency, or other bad luck. They mostly camped along the river away from the public. Today, the homeless population is much older and sicker. They have problems that prohibit them from using the services of the Union Gospel Mission.  

 

To enter the UGM, you have to be alcohol and drug free. To avail yourself of the beds in the UGM, you have to submit to chapel and religious teaching.

 

The addicts cannot enter the UGM because of their addiction, and the mentally ill people simply cannot sleep with 200 other men in a room. They get claustrophobic. Their illness makes it more comfortable for them to sleep outside so they can breathe. And certainly their needs are far beyond anything the downtown business community can help with.

 

It appears to me that Americans are more compassionate about their pets than their fellow humans.  

 

When a pet is homeless, it is rounded up, gets free medical attention, sheltered, fed, and is adopted to a new home. We don’t treat our homeless human neighbors half that well. It is shameful that we pay our taxes but the government we are funding has washed its hands of its responsibility to provide services.

 

Anyway, we are struggling for our very survival downtown.  

 

Businesses are being damaged everyday, customers are being driven off, businesses are checking their leases for expiration dates so they can move out of downtown, and the homeless are provided no services or help. 

 

UPDATE: Carole Smith just sent me this.

 

If you want a bit of good news in your article, the City of Salem has $2.5 million in their proposed budget for NEXT year [2019-20] to fund the Homelss Task Force recommendations. I assume it will pay for storage for their shopping carts, 24/7 restroom availability, garbage and laundry facilities AND the purchase and renovation of the Arches building north of downtown.  

 

They are using Urban Renewal funds for that purchase.  You should also note they are taking $5 million of Urban Renewal for Police Station improvements when they said they WOULD NOT.  So, the public is getting the police station they voted down.

 

Download 2019-20 proposed budget

 

Downtown Cherry Pits takes a satirical jab at Salem issues

I like satire. I admire humorous writing. And I appreciate efforts to improve downtown Salem. Downtown Cherry Pits is a funny satirical newsletter that hits on all three cylinders for me.

The March 2019 issue has a great cover.

There's a lot of good stuff in the other eight pages also. Check out the issue via this PDF file of a scan I made of it.
Download Downtown Cherry Pits March 2019

Or if you're lucky, there will be some free copies left in a box hanging on the wall outside 363 Court Street NE in downtown Salem (next to Lullu's).

Carole Smith is the creative force behind Downtown Cherry Pits, which was born last December as I reported in "Downtown Cherry Pits debuts as Salem satirical newsletter." Each issue has improved, in my decidedly personal opinion.

Here's the January issue if you want your brain to munch on another Cherry Pits.
Download Downtown Cherry Pits January 2019

The March issue features both humor and some serious examination of how the City of Salem has been managing -- or rather, mismanaging -- a Downtown Parking District tax that originally supported a downtown association and maintenance of parking garages. 

Here's a story in the March issue that talks about how that money has been frittered away on other budget items by Mayor "Chuckles" Bennett and other city officials.

A chart on page two of the March issue shows that after 32 years of parking tax money going to funding for downtown projects and support of a downtown association, from 2012 to 2017 the City Manager kept all of  the funds. 

This happened during the reign of City Manager Linda Norris, with the willing connivance of then City Councilor Chuck Bennett. I reported on this debacle in a couple of blog posts. I'll share an excerpt from each.

Should Salem City Manager be known as Exalted Emperor Linda Norris?
It deeply bothers me when "public servants" are pleased to suck up taxpayer money for their often-lofty salaries, yet fail miserably at their core job -- choosing to lord it over the people they should be serving.

Case in point: Salem (Oregon) City Manager Linda Norris.

A recent Statesman Journal story, "Will latest downtown group succeed?," only tells part of the sorry tale of how Norris did away with the existing downtown association so she could personally rule over how funds provided by businesses are spent.

...The SJ story by Michael Rose reveals that City Manager Exalted Emperor Linda Norris rules without the usual open government transparency demanded by Oregon's public records law.

After taking control of the EID money contributed by downtown property owners, Norris doesn't allow anyone to know what is going on with her and the "hand-picked" yes-people she has chosen to be her lackeys.

...This is amazing. Amazingly disturbing.

The top non-elected city official dissolves a duly organized downtown organization so she can take control of the group's money. Then chooses to keep records of her Imperial Pronouncements secret. I can't believe this would be tolerated even in Tony Soprano's New Jersey, much less in supposedly squeaky-clean Oregon.

City of Salem took over Salem Downtown Partnership for lousy reasons

A few days ago I talked with someone in-the-know about how the Salem (Oregon) City Manager, Linda Norris, ended up controlling on her own $215,000 in Economic Improvement District funds paid by downtown businesses.

It was a lengthy conversation. This person asked to talk with me because he/she was so disturbed about how the EID was handled, and liked my blog-reporting on other downtown issues.

I was on the phone with this person for about 90 minutes. I learned a lot about how the City of Salem ended up cancelling the contract Salem Downtown Partnership had to administer the Economic Improvement District (EID) money. 

The headline, so to speak, is this:

Norris and other City of Salem staff set up Salem Downtown Partnership to fail. Instead of working cooperatively and collaboratively with this duly-selected organization that represented downtown businesses, the City undermined its efforts in various ways.

Now, admittedly this is the opinion of only one person. But this person was in a position to be very well informed about what happened during the period Salem Downtown Partnership (SDP) had the EID contract.

And, no, this person wasn't either of the key businesspeople who got SDP up and running -- Carole Smith and Eric Kittleson. He or she prefers to remain anonymous.

Downtown Cherry Pits isn't enamored with a wanna-be, but isn't really, "downtown association" that goes by the name of the Salem Main Street Association or Salem Lame Street Association. Here's how the January 2019 issue describes the group.

It does indeed seem strange that a private group with a self-selected board of directors is acting as if it were a genuine downtown association -- which it clearly isn't. I wrote about the drawbacks of the Salem Main Street Association, and past downtown association follies by city officials, in "Here's why Salem needs a genuine downtown association."

Salem no longer has a downtown association. We need one. What happened at last night's City Council meeting is only one of many reasons why. 

But before I explain what transpired at the meeting, a bit of relevant history about how downtown lost its downtown association is in order. I wrote about this in a couple of blog posts.

...So here we are in 2017.

A new group, Salem Main Street Association, was formed in April, as I discussed in "New Salem Main Street Association debuts with questions and concerns." Among other things, I noted that the Association doesn't really deserve its name, since it doesn't have any members. 

Rather, it is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a self-selected board of directors. Meaning, the board established by the founders chooses new board members. Since there aren't any members -- such as downtown business owners -- Salem Main Street Association isn't at all like a real downtown association.

...I get the impression that Salem Main Street Association is angling to be treated like a downtown association without actually being one. I also have a suspicion that Mayor Bennett and other City officials want to have parking meters installed downtown, and they see the Salem Main Street Association as a willing accomplice in helping to make that happen.

Salem's homeless problem is hurting downtown businesses

Below you'll find a opinion piece about Salem's downtown homeless problem written by Carole Smith.

She and Eric Kittleson live downtown and lease space to several Court Street businesses. So they have an up-close and personal perspective on how homeless people are impacting Salem's urban core.

Smith submitted the piece as a guest opinion to the Statesman Journal, which declined to publish it. I have no idea why, since what she wrote is timely, provocative, and based on both her own direct experience and that of her tenants. 

I'm also sharing a video Kittleson took on a Sunday morning around 11 am. It shows how unattractive Court Street looked that day with homeless belongings littering the sidewalk, taking up both private and public space. 

Homelessness is a complex problem. Most homeless people aren't on the streets by choice, but by necessity. They deserve compassion. 

But we also need to have compassion for the downtown business owners whose livelihood is being impacted by the homeless. In her piece Smith describes several disturbing anecdotes about behavior by homeless people that is decidedly unacceptable. 

Salem keeps talking about dealing with the homeless problem. So far, though, that talk hasn't led to much action. 

I'm downtown frequently. It bothers me to see benches taken up not by visitors and shoppers, but by slumbering homeless people. It bothers me to see the entrances to businesses, which are private property, filled with the belongings of homeless people. It bothers me to use a stairwell that smells of urine. 

Those who live downtown and own businesses there obviously are much more impacted than I am by the homeless. Something needs to change. Soon. Here's the video by Eric Kittleson and opinion piece by Carole Smith.

Downtown Salem's homeless problem is hurting businesses
by Carole Smith

Homeless citizens were recently removed from City property under the bridge. The City Council has directed police not to remove homeless citizens from public property downtown unless there is a bed available in a facility. Does the City of Salem realize that when they clean out a homeless camp they drive them right onto downtown property? 

If the City can move homeless citizens from City property under the bridge, then why can’t they move them from public sidewalks and posted private property? What is the difference? Is it “humane” to leave citizens shivering and sleeping in 30 degrees on sidewalks with one cotton blanket? How is that humane, but sleeping under cover of a bridge is inhumane? 

Police are called several times a day to remove addicts and severely mentally ill citizens from downtown entryways, sidewalks, and private and public property. When business owners ask police to move homeless citizens so they can open their doors, the police recommended: “Just wake them and ask them politely to move.” Now store owners have been assaulted and injured by violent homeless people. 

Downtown businesses had a homeless citizen walking up and down the sidewalk in an agitated state, slashing the air with a stick and announcing “I am going to kill my wife, I am going to kill my children.” This lasted a month. One business had sales for the month of $1,500. That isn't enough to even pay rent. This is the damage the Mayor and City Council are doing to Salem businesses -- every day. 

A homeless citizen was sleeping in an entry blocking a fire exit. He refused to move. The police were called. It took several hours and five officers to move him. He was completely naked under his blanket because he had peed himself. He was seriously mentally ill and needed help, but the officer said there was nowhere to take him. But there were beds for homeless campers removed from under the bridge? 

A customer was attacked and seriously bitten by a homeless citizen’s pit bull in front of Starbucks. A local restaurant had a homeless citizen unzip his pants and urinate on their plate glass window with customers eating on the other side of the glass. When the owner called the police they instructed him to “Ask the man to move along.”

We have told the Mayor and Councilor Cara Kaser that there are buses of homeless citizens paroled from Portland jails unloaded at Rite Aid. Police officers have told us Idaho and Colorado are also busing to Salem. One business found a Facebook post from Texas offering free bus tickets to Salem because “we have better services here.”

The City needs to build a covered tennis court (or two) at Riverfront Park with a heated concrete slab. During the summer it can be a tennis court, in winter, a heated pad for homeless to camp on the warm cement. When it gets dirty, move them and power wash the cement and let them come back.

At least they are not hurting businesses, and they could be warm during the winter. Then, build “tiny home villages” to house them permanently and provide mental health and addiction treatments. 

I took this photo of a sign in one of the businesses shown in the video. It's humorous, but also sad, since no business should have to put a sign like this in their front window.

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. 

Downtown Streetscape plan suffers from Salem's parking space mania

I'm no mental health professional, but I'm prepared to diagnose a malady that is rampant in Salem: parking space mania. Some of the symptoms are:

-- Feeling that something is seriously wrong if it isn't possible to park in a downtown block where your intended destination is located.

-- Driving in circles around downtown looking for an on-street parking space even though a totally free parking structure with plenty of open spaces is close by. 

-- Freaking out at the prospect that any number, even just a few, of on-street downtown parking spaces will be lost, even if this would make the Historic District more attractive and vibrant.

I bring this up because I went to another Downtown Streetscape open house this evening. I've been to the previous open houses, and the notice for the one both intrigued and worried me.

Intrigued, because I was curious about what changes had been made to the concepts that seemingly were in close to final form last April, when I made a web page about them. See:

Worried, because as indicated by the language circled in red in the open house invitation, some unnamed "stakeholders" had a chance to weigh in on the Streetscape plan over the summer. I don't like that term, stakeholders, since I consider that the citizens of Salem are the ones with the biggest stake in every policy issue, including how downtown looks and feels.

I've gotten mixed messages as to who ended up influencing the refinements to the original Streetscape plan recommended by consultants. City Public Works staff reportedly had a say in this. I suppose this makes sense, though I wonder why they didn't provide their input during the lengthy period of public input on draft Streetscape proposals.

Tonight the team of consultants revealed what has been left out of the final design proposals I described in my web page. I wouldn't call these "refinements," but rather selling out to the above-mentioned parking space mania -- since I was told that concerns about losing on-street parking spaces led to the changes above.

They're delicately called "Longer-Term Projects."

What this really means is that the above-mentioned stakeholders, which I suspect includes some parking-space-crazed downtown businesses, put enough pressure on City officials to get the Mid-Block Landscape Pockets, Front Street Crossing, and Parklets Program shelved.

The frustrating thing is that each of these Streetscape design elements makes great good sense. 

Look at the photos of how much better Commercial Street, and also Liberty Street, would look if a couple of parking spaces were used for bulb-out landscaping that would calm traffic (without diminishing the width of traffic lanes) while beautifying the street. 

Likewise, the Parklets Program would utilize a few parking spaces in creative ways, either temporarily or permanently. But somehow parking space mania outweighed the benefits of making downtown Salem a more attractive place to work, live, dine, and shop.

The consultants told me that because Front Street is a state highway, it would take more time to improve pedestrian crossings between downtown and Riverfront Park. But this doesn't explain why those crossings have been removed from the Streetscape plan.

Gosh, would it really be so bad if parents, children, and other living beings were able to walk more safely and conveniently across Front Street to enjoy Riverfront Park, while maybe slowing traffic on that street down a little bit? 

There's no doubt that however the Streetscape project turns out, it will make downtown more attractive. It just is disappointing to see the aspirations for this project diminished due to input from unnamed "stakeholders."

Hopefully the City Council, acting as the Urban Renewal Agency board, will seriously consider reinstating the Longer-Term Projects as immediate priorities. The schedule above shows this could happen on February 19, 2019.

Salem Main Street Association is a failure

It's been almost exactly a year since the Salem Main Street Association kicked-off with high expectations, albeit with some valid worries, as I wrote about in "New Salem Main Street Association debuts with questions and concerns."

These related to (1) secrecy, (2) use of Parking Budget funds, (3) managing of funds related to downtown Salem, and (4) current board members/leadership.

About six months later, with essentially zero Main Street Association accomplishments to their credit, I discussed the City Council giving the group a $32,000 grant in "Here's why Salem needs a genuine downtown association." In that post I noted:

Some six months after its public kickoff, Salem Main Street Association just has a blank "under construction" web site nor any other online presence other than a Facebook page with no postings since April 12. This isn't a sign of a vibrant group that is reaching out to Salem citizens and the downtown community.

Yet it just got $32,000 from the City of Salem.

Well, nothing has changed.

The Salem Main Street Association still has no discernible accomplishments, nor any online presence, or any sign that it is reaching out to downtown business owners or citizens in general. Here's what pops up from a Google search: a Salem Weekly story and links to my blog posts about the organization.

Carole Smith, a downtown resident and business owner, drew my attention to the one-year anniversary of the formation of the Salem Main Street Association in a recent email message.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the announcement of the new downtown organization.  Are you thinking of doing a re-cap on all their successes?

So far I can’t find any website. The city gave them $30,000 several months ago -- what have they done with it?  The business owners don’t even know the name of the organization. We have NEVER received any communication from them.  

The Salem Downtown Partnership (SDP) only had 9 months of funding but we had over 40 businesses participating in First Wednesdays every month. We held customer contests with prizes. We had $5,000 Good Idea Grants (for businesses who work together to provide events, etc, that bring people downtown, or enhance the downtown environment).

SDP published a map showing downtown businesses on one side and  downtown restaurants and bars on the other. We compiled over 200 email addresses of downtown business and property owners. We communicated regularly with businesses and property owners via US mail and via Constant Comment.  We had a weekly newsletter.  

We had monthly board meetings which businesses and property owners were encouraged to attend. We held four Mainstreet committee meetings each month on which downtown residents, business and property owners participated.  We were a recognized Oregon Mainstreet Organization.  

We realized downtown merchants wanted more lights in trees during the holidays (and winter months) but there was nowhere to plug them in, and we wanted a cleaner downtown, but there were very few water faucets available for power washing, so we had grants we gave to any business or property owner so they could install an electrical outlet and/or water faucet at no cost to them.  We bought power washers and sidewalk scrubbers which the organization owned and used.  

What has this new organization done over the past year?  People don’t even know who they are and what their name is.  

Remember, you asked me to give them a chance.  Is one year enough of a chance?  I think this group is a big failure, don’t you?

Yes, I do think the Salem Main Street Association is a big failure. A year certainly is enough to give them to show what they can accomplish, which is essentially nothing. 

Their Facebook page has just 54 "likes" and only a couple of posts, the most recent being a December 2017 post about a Go Nuts Downtown promotion, which seems to be the only thing the Salem Main Street Association has been involved with since its inception. 

And their web page continues to be Under Construction with no content. 

Hopefully City officials will rethink its commitment to the Salem Main Street Association. The concerns I noted at its inception have been borne out. It isn't really an association, since it has no members, just a self-selected board of directors. And it is wrongly classified as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, which it clearly isn't.

In my January 2018 blog post, "Here's some problems with the Salem Main Street Association," I noted that it should have been formed as a 501(c)(6) organization.

Donations to a c(3) are tax-deductible, while donations to a c(6) aren't. Thus the Salem Main Street Association is competing for tax-deductible donations that are only supposed to be available to genuine charities, not business leagues. 

Also, there's the potential of business owners getting a tax deduction for a contribution to the Salem Main Street Association, which then engages in promotional activities that benefit those same owners. I'm not saying this has happened, or will happen, but the possibility of it happening is another reason for concern about the Salem Main Street Association being wrongly classified as a 501(c)3 organization.

Another way of putting this is that charitable contributions are supposed to broadly benefit people in a community, not specific business owners. 

As noted above, the City of Salem needs to reconsider its policy of giving money from Parking District funds to the Salem Main Street Association, at least until the Association reorganizes itself as a 501(c)6 organization.

Bestowing those funds simply isn't right given that the Salem Main Street Association isn't an actual association, lacking members, and that the Association has wrongly incorporated as a 501(c)3 charitable organization.

As was alluded to above, Salem needs a genuine downtown organization. After a year, it's become evident that the Salem Main Street Association isn't capable of filling that role. 

Images of Salem's Downtown Streetscape Project

If you love Salem's downtown -- I sure do -- you'll want to see these photos I took at last night's Downtown Salem Streetscape Project open house.

There's some exciting improvements in the works for downtown sidewalks, alley entrances, and Front Street crossings to Riverfront Park. Traffic calming features got me especially enthused, since whatever makes downtown streets less freeway'ish is a very good thing.

Click on the image below to see the Adobe Spark page I made. 

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. 

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.

Thirty great ideas for streetscaping downtown Salem

This afternoon I took part in the Trees and Landscaping Focus Group for the Downtown Streetscape Project.

About 20 of us, citizens and consultants, had a spirited 90-minute discussion in the Library's Anderson Room about downtown trees and other vegetation, though the discussion also included broader Streetscape topics.

Here's 30 great ideas generated by the Focus Group:

(1) Eliminate a lane of traffic on some downtown streets with three or four lanes so there's more room for trees and people on the sidewalks.

(2) Define the personality of both downtown and the entire city, then make Streetscape reflect that personality.

(3) Come up with a unified, repetitive, simple Streetscape design.

(4) Trees need room to grow. Give them that space.

(5) Don't forget habitat for songbirds and butterflies. Pigeons aren't enough wildlife for downtown.

(6) Beauty lies in vegetative diversity, not a monoculture of similar trees.

(7) Add evergreens to downtown, both conifers and broadleaf trees, for greenness after deciduous leaves drop.

(8) Create a City culture where trees are honored, and aren't cut down for no good reason like the U.S. Bank trees on State Stree were.

(9) Allow trees to grow large and gorgeous so they create a Wow! when viewed, not just a ho-hum OK.

(10) The downtown area needs more water walkways. Let's use our creeks and river to better advantage.

(11) Have a living Christmas tree on the Chemeketa Parkade to draw people into downtown rather than having a Christmas tree at Riverfront Park.

(12) Convert the top level of the Chemeketa Parkade into a a green space that can host the Saturday Market. Great views!

(13) Use some parking spaces for mini-parklets where people can sit and congregate.

(14) Focus on native plants. Bring local agriculture into downtown: filberts, grape vines, for example.

(15) Put business signs at street/eye level, not high up on buildings where they can be obscured by tree branches.

(16) Focus on people, not cars. No car has ever shopped at a downtown business, just people.

(17) Have some city-owned chairs that people can move around the downtown area for flexible seating.

(18) Have good pedestrian lighting everywhere. And have lights in trees for much of the year, not just around Christmas.

(19) A lot more awnings would be awesome. Make them wide and colorful. Think Paris! They'd shelter downtown visitors from both rain and sun.

(20) With GPS and smart phones, business signs aren't needed as much for way-finding. So make them less obtrusive and more attractive. Also, ditch the "sandwich signs" on the sidewalk, since they don't look good and take up valuable space.

(21) Include maintenance of trees, hanging baskets, and such in every step of the Streetscape design. Have drip systems for watering.

(22) State and Court streets should connect nicely to Riverfront Park, on one end, and to Willamette University and the Capitol, on the other end.

(23) Involve downtown business owners in the Streetscape project. 

(24) Have built-in underground reservoirs for watering.

(25) Have street level color in vegetation. 

(26) Downtown should have water features to drown out traffic noise and relax people.

(27) Have groves of trees and seating at the corners of blocks where they will be most visible.

(28) Use vegetation and planters to create a barrier between sidewalk seating and traffic. People will be looking at greenery, not vehicles speeding by.

(29) Give up some parking for great design, and people will flock to downtown -- like they do to 21st and 23rd streets in northwest Portland. 

(30) Have green walls, climbing vegetation.