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:

@dianadickey88 Six years on that River Crossing Task Force, but this plan *never* proposed or reviewed. TF was waste of time & $$.
— Darlene Strozut (@Enstone) April 9, 2013

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.

Councilors

	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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.