Friday, April 19, 2013

Council says "Frack Earth Day, Let's Drive More!" Third Bridge Hearing on Monday

Earth Day is Monday, April 22nd.  It is also, as many have pointed out, the day Council has chosen to start the Public Hearing on the latest Third Bridge concept.

Even if the coincidence is accidental, it's still cheeky and ironic, don't you think? And dispiriting.

Proposed Alterations to 4D
During the last Council meeting, on April 8th, one member of the Task Force expressed her dismay to Councilor Diana Dickey:
The enthusiasm for a giant Third Bridge and highway might remind us of other notable "solutions" that turned out terribly wrong...

The other old ads here are pretty amazing too
Sometimes "the experts" are right, but sometimes they are so, so wrong.

This is almost certainly one of them.  Don't let the "Third Bridge" solution to traffic and congestion sedate and hypnotize the City and its neighborhoods!  The solution here is far worse than the supposed disease.  And there are other solutions that better address the legitimate problems.

In the meeting packet are letters.  The letters in favor of the bridge misunderstand many things, and are full of assertions and opinions unmoored from the dock of fact and best available information.  While there are some matters on which reasonable people can disagree, there are many other claims that are simply not supported by actual conditions and facts.  There's too much vague assertion behind the "need" for a giant bridge and highway.

A former City Councilor disparages transit and suggests that it will never be good, and that it is better to spend hundreds of millions on a bridge than to spend tens of millions on transit.

Former Councilor letter (email addresses redacted, highlights added)
One downtown business owner thinks that it is not possible to improve bike/ped facilities for millions or tens of millions of dollars, and instead the way to improve the experience for people on foot is to spend hundreds of millions on a giant bridge and highway.  He also looks forward to making Keizer Station the preferred shopping destination.

Downtown Business Owner
Another person thinks through-traffic is killing downtown.

Downtown Business Person
But in fact according to the official Purpose and Need document, "Truck trips accounted for 4.3 percent of traffic flow across the bridges in 2005."  This is not a large proportion of industrial pass-through traffic impacting downtown.

Salem Health thinks that the giant bridge and highway will actually make transit into Salem from the North better!  "New Opportunities!"  This is a fundamental misapprehension of the nature of the barrier constituted by the Parkway and intensified by a linking bridge and highway and ramp spaghetti.  It is also an abdication of their responsibility to promote public health by supporting active transportation.

Salem Health Letter
From a risk-management and infrastructure standpoint, Salem Health should instead be looking at all the little bridges in Salem that cross Mill Creek, Pringle Creek, and Shelton Ditch.  These will be at risk in severe flooding and earthquake events, and could isolate the hospital facility itself from the city.  The flooding, for example, that damaged the Winter Street bridge wasn't nearly to the level of the 1996 or 1964 floods - let alone the epic flooding of 1861.  And of course we are due for a Cascadian Subduction Zone event.

At the level of facts, probabilities, and best available information, a giant bridge and highway is the crudest and most expensive approach to a range of actual problems and other annoyances (which may or may not be real problems) that deserve a suite of more sophisticated and less costly solutions. 

Write your Councilor and let 'em know it's still a bad and costly idea and that the hearing schedule is too compressed for informed analysis, comment, and discussion.  Comments from folks who live in wards 3, 4, 7 and 8 (hilly West Salem and most of South Salem) are especially important.

No 3rd Bridge has the latest and they'll be updating often this weekend.

Salem Wards Click to open Ward 1 PDF Click to open Ward 2 PDF Click to open Ward 3 PDF Click to open Ward 4 PDF Click to open Ward 5 PDF Click to open Ward 6 PDF Click to open Ward 7 PDF Click to open Ward 8 PDF

Councilors

Chuck Bennett Ward 1 
Councilor: Chuck Bennett
Email:
crbennett@cityofsalem.net
Phone: 503-399-7801
Term Expires: December 31, 2016
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301
Laura Tesler Ward 2
Councilor: Laura Tesler
Email:
ltesler@cityofsalem.net
Phone: 503-399-7802
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301
Brad Nanke Ward 3 
Councilor: Brad Nanke
Email:
bnanke@cityofsalem.net
Phone: 503-399-7803
Term Expires: December 31, 2016
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301

Rich Clausen

Ward 4
 

Councilor: Rich Clausen 
Email: rclausen@cityofsalem.net
Phone: 503-399-7804
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301
Diana Dickey Ward 5
Councilor: Diana Dickey
Email:
ddickey@cityofsalem.net 
Phone: 503-399-7905
Term Expires: December 31, 2016
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301
Sheryl Thomas Ward 6 
Councilor: Sheryl A Thomas
Email:
sthomas@cityofsalem.net
Phone: 503-399-7806
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301


Ward 7

Councilor: Warren Bednarz

 Email: wbednarz@cityofsalem.net 
Phone: 503-399-7907
Term Expires: December 31, 2016
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301


Dan Clem Ward 8
Councilor: Dan Clem
Email:
dclem@cityofsalem.net 
Phone: 503-399-7808
Term Expires: December 31, 2014
Address: 555 Liberty St SE, Room 220, Salem OR 97301

Click on this link to email the entire City Council:
Citycouncil@cityofsalem.net

Citywide Ward Map


For more on the River Crossing / Third Bridge see a summary critique and all breakfast blog notes tagged River Crossing. The No Third Bridge advocates also have lots of useful information. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Southbound truck traffic impacts downtown much more so than northbound trucks. A bridge doesn't change that at all.

Velma said...

This is cool!