Early Suffrage Advocate and Lawyer, Olive S. England Deserves to be Remembered Better

Back in 1912, after failed attempts in 1906, 1908, and 1910, the Oregon amendment for woman suffrage was close and took several days to count.

Olive S. England, c.1898
(via OE and WU Law)

Like this year, Election Day was November 5th. By the 8th, victory had finally become clear.

November 8th, 1912

The morning paper first went to Olive S. Enright for comment.

A couple weeks later as a celebration was organized, listed as Olive England Enright she was to give the welcoming remarks.

November 21st, 1912

Olive S. England, as she most often seems to be known, has not been discussed much at all in Salem history. In the Oregon Encyclopedia article on Woman Suffrage she is not mentioned. It is plausible, perhaps likely, that she was not a significant figure in any statewide context.

Even so, she is certainly an interesting and significant person in local Salem history and deserves more notice.

Climate Committee Reviews Idling Campaign and Get There Challenge on Monday

With the flooding in Spain following flooding in Asheville and Tampa Bay and other nearby places from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, extreme weather has been in the news of late. The Climate Action Plan Committee meets tomorrow on Monday the 4th, and they continue to think too small.

Emissions-intensified congestion (NY Times)

Hurricane costs (Sunday)

On the agenda are updates on the "idle reduction campaign" and the "Get There Challenge."

A Zoning Primer: Another Legacy of Herbert Hoover

In the fall of 1924 the morning paper serialized excerpts and adaptations from a Department of Commerce pamphlet on zoning.

A Zoning Primer

Back in 1922 a committee appointed by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover published "A Zoning Primer."

October 3rd, 1924

After a couple of years it and its issues registered strongly enough for the morning paper to serialize it in the "Better Homes" Sunday section. You may recall that the Realtors had started discussing and advocating for zoning in the early fall of 1924.

The Commerce Department committee did not hit the theme of "undesirable citizens," as the Realtors felt free to do, and instead focused on equality, "applicable to all." The leading theme was stabilization of property value, which even if you didn't own property still applied, at least theoretically.

"Keep Kal Koolidge" in the Campaign of 1924

100 years ago the election was heading into the home stretch. The morning paper, the Statesman, was all in on Calvin Coolidge and started running ads and also supportive editorial content for him.

October 19th, 1924

The afternoon paper, the Capital Journal, did not support Coolidge.  On Halloween in 1924 they were starting to wrap with a note on the Klan.

October 31st, 1924

Repeatedly over the fall they had highlighted Klan support, riffing on the popularity of the slogan, "Keep Kal Koolidge."

Long Vacant D. A. White Seed Building may be Revived!

Here's some great news!

D.A. White Seed building (2010)

The new owners of the D.A. White Seed building on Front Street at State have started a file at the City with a proposal to rehab it for office space.

Basement and first floor concept plans

That would be so terrific. It's been neglected for so long, and just about any use that keeps the shell and structure intact would be a boon to downtown. Heck, by now anything is better than a dilapidated ruin.

The process is just starting and structural engineering, as opposed to any aesthetics of design, has always seemed like the main barrier. It needs a lot of work. It's easy to imagine any number of decision points where the project fails to pencil out. There's still a ways to go before any construction.

Outside the Historic District (City of Salem)

Significantly, the building is not within the Downtown Historic District and will not have to go through the usual historic preservation process and set of requirements. On the one hand, the developer will have more freedom to alter the building; but on the other hand, more cost effective solutions than straight-up restoration may be available. The initial set of drawings includes only the floor plans, and not any elevations of the facade. So it will be interesting to see how much of that is preserved.

But someone is trying something finally!

The first announcement in December, 2023

Earlier the SJ had reported on intent to rehab, but at that time it seemed a little remote and improbable. This latest step is meaningfully more substantial.

Good luck and best wishes for great success! This will be fun to follow.

City Council, October 28th

In light of reluctance to advance a concept for new City revenue in a "Livability levy," City Council on Monday has an opportunity to think more about the system of property tax exemptions.

On the agenda is a proposed renewal of an Enterprise Zone for E-commerce. But the Staff Report says, "There have been no E-commerce Zone applicants between 2020 and the date of this resolution." This looks like real evidence the City doesn't need it!

Council should take the opportunity to think more critically about the benefits of these exemptions.

Also on the agenda is the quarterly business development report, and its vagueness and generality is also evidence that we don't think critically enough about the costs of inducements to new and existing business.

When will the Enterprise Zone expire?

The report, previously text only, now has photos and more snazzy design. It references instances of property tax revenue "once the...Enterprise Zone incentive has ended," but no indication that the exemption is definitely going to end. Businesses will sometimes create an expansion for a new round of exemption, churning things so they remain exempt.

An entry on a different business and set of incentives says

It is located on the newly-constructed Logistics Street SE. Logistics Street SE also provides new multi-use path connectivity through the centrally located 100 acres of wetland area.

But the whole Mill Creek Corporate Center area is utterly car-dependent, and "multi-use path connectivity" here is theoretical and Potemkin show, not anything in reality for real people.

The quarterly reports should be more analytically detailed and read less like the puffery of a press release. They don't actually have enough information for Council to think critically about trade-offs and about real success and real failure.

Fairview Hills Revives as Single Detached Housing Subdivision

With Fairview on the mind, in research a new project emerged for the last parcel. Last month a revived project there initiated a file with the City.

2004 concept plan and 2024 proposed plan

The New Project is just Houses

The new project is a ways away yet, and it retains the same ownership, Simpson Hills LLC and the name Fairview Hills. It is also associated with Holt Homes, a large home-builder with sites in Washington and Oregon.

It's for 552 single detached houses over about 102 acres, with a street pattern that mostly goes downhill rather than across the hill. The green space roughly corresponds to the greenspace in the 2004 concept (see image at top). The zoning is "Fairview Mixed Use," with nearly all of it in a "mixed intensity" (aka "medium intensity") overlay.

The mixed-intensity area comprises primarily residential uses, along with a mix of small-scale neighborhood commercial, employment, and public services uses. Buildings will be a mix of one-story to three-story detached, attached, or stacked housing types sited on smaller individually-owned lots with private yards and street and/or alley access, or larger lots under multiple or separate ownership with shared street and/or alley access. Townhouse development is appropriate at the higher density range.

Simpson Hills 2012 Refinement Plan (detail)

At Lindburg Road the lower half of an earlier concept from 2012 (itself a modification of the 2004 concept plan) had more apartments and townhomes, and more of a parking lot than street system. It also had a little commercial cluster. It's density was a little over 13 homes per acre.

Proposed street, alley, and path system
Green runs downhill, blue dashed across the hill

This new Fairview Hills deletes all that and reverts to more conventional patterning with streets and single lots — though there are several alleys also for garage access. Interestingly, not all blocks have an alley.