Transportation Advocate to Run for City Council!

You might remember the op-ed in the paper a couple years back in May.

And you might have seen him at City Council or at any number of the Salem River Crossing meetings.

Over the weekend, Scott Bassett announced that he is running for City Council in Ward 4!

Back in January, according to Salem Weekly, there was no formal candidate:

In Ward 4, restaurant lobbyist Steven McCoid has filed, but not gathered all his signatures. He has no opponent.

I don't know if McCoid has filed, but if he has, now he'll have an opponent.

Ward 4 is in the outer south part of town, the "south gateway," as the neighborhood association is named, pointing to where Commercial joins I-5.

Bryan Johnston park encapsulates some of the challenges:

Bryan Johnston Park along Mildred Lane

• Mildred is completely overbuilt to a three-lane cross section with turn pockets
• Not surprisingly, speeding and hill-hopping on Mildred is a problem
• Development across from the park is fenced off from the road
• Houses show their backside to the park - contrast this with the way front porches smile on Bush Park along High Street
• The neighborhood is completely auto-dependent, and all businesses are on Commercial Street
• Just a block away, Lone Oak lacks sidewalks
• In the other direction a block away, a developer tried to have a cul-de-sac in opposition to Salem development policies for a connected road system, and it continues to be a challenge to get appropriately connected development grids.
• And, you know:  Kuebler, and here and here, etc.

Although there are pockets of cheap or undeveloped land on the edges of the city and Urban Growth Boundary in Ward 4, it's probably a place where we should seek to minimize growth and steer it instead to Ward 1 or other places more centrally located.  So that's a place where the narrow or specific interests of the ward constituents might not coincide with the interests of the city as a whole, and a Councilor representing this ward has to balance these sets of interests.

But while "jobs" will probably always be most everyone's #1 priority, transportation's not far behind in importance. And a Council member can almost certainly have more direct influence on transportation policy than on job creation.  Bassett would be a champion for a balanced transportation system - one that improves conditions for people who walk and bike and take transit, acknowledges that those who can choose not to drive make things easier for those who do need to drive, and one that zeros in on lower-cost solutions for people who drive. Rational transportation policy, I tell you!

Head on over to his facebook page and give him a like!