Salem Poised to win two Safe Routes to Schools Construction Grants

ODOT announced today that two Salem projects are being recommended for Safe Routes to Schools funding in the latest round of construction grants.

Both projects look to be approved

They said,

The Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee is recommending 28 projects for funding, totaling $31.4 million, for ODOT’s Safe Routes to School Competitive Construction Grant Program. This grant provides state funds to build safety projects—such as sidewalks and crossings—within a two-mile radius of schools to address barriers to students walking and rolling to school. These funds will focus on under-resourced communities and safety.

In August 2024, ODOT received 51 applications from across the state for the Safe Routes to School Competitive Construction Grant Program totaling $67.8 million in needed safety improvements. The committee and staff put in more than 100 hours reviewing and evaluating potential projects using the scoring criteria and priorities determined by the committee in early 2024. All applications addressed barriers to students walking and biking with needed safety improvements.

The Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee met on Nov. 21 and Dec.16, 2024 to approve a recommended project list for the Safe Routes to School Construction Competitive Grant Program for the Oregon Transportation Commission’s consideration. The commission will vote on the project list at their Jan. 16 meeting.

Back in July Council had reviewed these two applications and it is terrific Salem looks to win awards on both.

But both cross-sections on Market Street and Pringle Road are untouched, still optimized for capacity and speed.

In an article not yet in print, which we'll discuss more in a day or two, former Councilor Stapleton said

“We really need to lean into that conversation [about safety] as a community and see what we value more,” Stapleton said. “Do we value being able to drive fast and not have any kind of delay, or do we value the lives of all residents?....The No. 1 thing we know is that speed kills,” she said. “The faster a vehicle is going, if they hit a cyclist or somebody walking, the lesser their chance of survival is, and also the same is true for somebody driving a car.”

This, exactly this. This is the discussion we need to have, and this is the tone advocates like Salem Bike Vision and Safe Routes should lean into. It's the cars, their drivers, and speed.

As the ODOT release says, the OTC will meet mid-month to ratify the approvals.

Doggerel from New Years Day in 1868 and Reprinted in 1925 points to Reconstruction

On January 1st, 1925, the afternoon paper published a fascinating poem from January 1st, 1868.

Peter D'Arcy on right with City and RR VIPs
for Union Street Bridge Opening, March 1913
(Oregon Historical Society)

January 1st, 1925

Peter H. D'Arcy would have been a newsboy of 13 or 14 when he wrote it. (It's not difficult to imagine he also had some adult "editorial" assistance, but we are unlikely to know for sure!) Later he was Mayor, and the old Whitlock building undergoing renovation is more formally called the D'Arcy building. His father had built the big house with a classical portico on Church Street.

Come all ye readers, far and near,
And hear the News-Boy's greeting!
The old year's gone, the new one's here,
And still Old Time is fleeting.
And since Old Time is on the wing,
And will be ever flying,
Why should we fear to laugh and sing,
And be forever sighing?

The whole poem (click to enlarge)

One section in the poem is of particular interest. It appears to criticize President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and foe of Reconstruction, and praise General Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, as a potential candidate. Johnson had not yet been impeached when the poem was written. Describing "Old Andy" as "the Freedman's Moses" seems very sarcastic, and it's hard to understand what all is going on. The difference in Freedman/freeman may be significant and racialized. I do not grasp all the subtexts and nuance and implications. It may be possible to come back to this later.

If Alderman should go astray,
Or Congressman be drunken -
If Senators should fall away
To depths of vileness sunken -
Should Presidents their power abuse,
Prove faithless or unstable -
We'll tell them their P's and Q's
As well as we are able.

While criticizing every man,
And every false deduction,
We'll speak as mildly as we can
Of Andy's Reconstruction.
Because Old Andy once agreed
To be the Freedman's Moses,
That is no cause why he should lead
The white folks by the noses.

Since this our Moses has turned back,
Forgive us, gentle reader,
If we keep on the good old track,
And seek some other leader.
Another leader, brave and true
(And may he soon be GRANT-ed),
Whose steady feet on Freedom's ground
Are firmly, surely planted.

Our hosts are gathering for a fight -
A conflict of opinions,
As fierce as that our armies fought
With Treason's bloody minions.
But God will surely speed the right;
Let no true freeman doubt it,
GRANT is our leader! name of might,
Let every freeman shout it.

Reconstruction in Salem is an ongoing matter of interest. Early organizing here for Suffrage, Temperance, Black education, and even Spiritualism started and might even have flourished in that period following the Civil War. The arrival of the railroad made for trade in ideas as in commerce, of course, but the national moment was Reconstruction. We usually understand Reconstruction as something that occurred in the former Confederate states, and a new book argues that we should understand it more broadly.

Manesha Sinha's book from earlier this year, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, offers a framework for thinking more about this organizing in Salem.