City Council, July 8th - Conservation Area at Former General Hospital Site

Has the City made some definite progress on the mystery of the Asylum Cemetery?

Project location, with site context notes added

At Council on Monday there is a set of "amendments to the purchase and sale agreements between the City and Salem Health and between the City and Green Light-Home First, LLC for the sale of the former Salem General Hospital site."

In addition to using bond funds temporarily on a pass-through for the sale, the amendments "allow the City to retain ownership of a 50,000 square foot Conservation Area and develop a park/memorial on the site within the 10-acre property."

Ordinarily the Staff Report would include a separate map of the "conservation area," but it is kept a little inconspicuous on the general site plan included as an attachment to the Staff Report. There it is identified as "archeological preservation area."

Conservation area (yellow added)

Sometimes the exact location of sensitive archeological sites are often not disclosed publicly, and downplaying it might be in play here. But information on the area is in fact in the Staff Report packet. It had been part of a second phase for the housing project.

There are possibilities other than the Asylum Cemetery, too. Its significance could be a just a parcel abutting the Jason Lee Cemetery; maybe there's a seasonal waterway or something in there also. There are possibly future trees as in parkland highlighted on the site plan map. Maybe there are other people not previously buried there to remember. It's not necessarily anything related to the Asylum Cemetery. But the language of "park/memorial" is suggestive. Earlier research had suggested any burials might be west of 23rd rather than east of it as had been supposed.

This will be interesting to learn more about.

Previously:

• "Mystery of the Asylum Cemetery Continues" (2019)
  
• "City Council, December 4th - Redeveloping the old General Hospital Site" (2023)
  
• "Gussie Belle Brown Apartments at Former General Hospital Site in for Site Plan Review" (June)
• And on an existing memorial, the Columbarium at the State Hospital, "Alterations for Cremains Memorial Bridge Past and Future" (2014) and "Cremains Memorial called "Elegant Masterpiece" by Seattle AIA Jurors" (2014).
  

26 Townhouses approved on Brush College Road

There's an information item on a set of Townhouses approved for a parcel next to Brush College Elementary School.

Mini Traffic Circles Date from mid-1980s and were Mostly Abandoned

The Grant Neighborhood project to paint around the mini traffic circles just north of Grant Elementary School led to questions about the origin of those traffic circles and how the conversation and debate might be similar or different from our current talk.

It appears they date from the mid-80s.

February 11th, 1985

In February of 1985 the paper published a picture of one and said

Turning some neighborhood streets into virtual obstacle courses has helped solve traffic problems in other cities and would work in Salem, way the authors of the city's new Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.

The tone and focus was very much in sympathy with drivers and not with other users of the road.

An editorial followed a few days later.

February 15th, 1985

They wrote

While the proposed traffic circles and throating in Salem are modest compared with those in Eugene, these are expensive means of fending off traffic. Because of their permanence, they must not be entered into lightly. 

Such devices should suit the overall traffic pattern of the Salem community, and not just be used as a palliative to satisfy a highly vocal neighborhood.

It appears that six mini traffic circles were constructed here in 1985 and four more in 1986.

Morning Paper Serialized Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here in 1936

Back in 1936, through the fall the morning paper serialized Sinclair Lewis' novel, It Can't Happen Here.

September 9th, 1936

September 13th, 1936

In an editorial they wrote:

The Statesman starts publishing today as a serial, one of the important novels of our time, "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis. It fictionizes "America under dictatorship." We publish it not to exorcise a bogeyman; but to educate the people in the technique of politicians without scruple, and even of those who may have good purposes but endanger political security by short-cut political methods. The translation from parliamentary government to a dictatorship may be catastrophic as in Italy with the "march on Rome"; or it may be gradual as in Germany where Hitler edged into power by degrees. In this country the course would be to make the congress subservient to the executive, a mere rubber stamp for his will; to strip the supreme court of its power to invalidate laws; to weaken and then to ignore the constitutional guarantees; and finally to abolish the congress and govern by decree.

The hazard they feared was stripping the Supreme Court of its power to invalidate laws, a weakened Court, but didn't account for an activist Court with too much power.

It's hard to imagine the paper today doing anything similarly principled.

Small Intersection Improvements Throughout the City

Three recent news items highlight incremental changes that will improve safety and comfort at several intersections around town.

Crosswalk Headstart

Back in February you might recall Councilor Stapleton made a motion which included a request for "an analysis of pedestrian lead times at intersections."

Moving with an unusual alacrity, the City is not publishing any study first, but is moving directly to implement the concept, giving people in the crosswalk a head start on drivers in cars. The first phase in the south half of downtown proper will start on July 8th, and the north half in September.

This is great to see! More please!

Early start for people in crosswalks - via FB

The US Department of Transportation features a picture from Salem, at Summer and Center, on their webpage on leading intervals. Note that the walk sign is lit, and the traffic light is red. There's also a sign with "left turn yield to peds on green." The City should consider publishing a list of intersections already employing a leading interval, which at least this one near the Capitol does. There's almost certainly more of them than we know about.

Featured image with the Feds

There was another part to Councilor Stapleton's motion, an analysis of "the feasibility of reducing speed limits to 20 MPH." 

Maybe we'll get to see that also, not merely a "Twenty is Plenty" program on residential, local streets, but speed reductions on busier, bigger streets, including 20mph for downtown.

For the moment, this downtown crosswalk safety project is terrific.

Here we go Again? Forecasts for 110 Degrees Lead into CAP Committee on Monday

The National Weather Service is forecasting a legit chance at 110 degree heat for this weekend.

Forecasting a chance of 110 degree heat

The official forecasts at the center of probability are still closer to 100 degrees, but there's a real chance for more. Plenty of events with a 1/3 chance of happening still and routinely happen.

Front page today

The paper is leading with the higher number.

North Front Street Study Likely to Reveal Interesting Archeology and History

As details about the funding on the north Front Street study come out, it is interesting to consider the archeological details which will complicate it. (In good ways mostly!)

Lots of photos taken from here

One of the biggest is a millrace that ran along Division and turned the corner north onto Front Street. It's under there somewhere!

Millrace on Front Street
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

You can see its course on the 1895 Sanborn map (click to enlarge), photographed from the mill at top and building in pink on the map below.  At the time the map was drawn the race was planked. The photo shows it exposed.