Well, it was nice while it lasted. The notion of a local street connection along Second Street and under Wallace Road seemed awfully promising, but it turns out it was too good to be true.
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Second Street Continues into Park to Connect with Marine Drive
It won't destroy the path to the Bridge, but it'll totally degrade it |
Last week at a couple of meetings on the
West Salem Business District Action Plan a
new conceptual plan brought Second Street into the Park and compromised the path system connecting with the Union Street Railroad Bridge.
Earlier versions of the underpass showed car access terminating at Cornucopia, just a block or two in from Wallace.
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Earlier concept seemed to show car access
terminating at Cornucopia; the path stayed path. |
But a new version (at top and detail below) shows a new street that pushes all the way into the park. The path system is pushed to the side (new road in magenta, path in cyan), displaces more of the new path between the trestle and Glen Creek, and once again shows how paltry is our commitment to non-motorized travel.
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| Why? (Detail from top image) |
The proposed changes don't destroy the path system itself, but they destroy the integrity of the park setting of the paths. Suddenly they are sidepaths beside an expressway. All this in addition to the ramp spaghetti of the OR-22 connector itself.
What seemed promising is now just the same-old, same-old. In this light it's hard to get excited over the other proposed transportation changes in the Action Plan.
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| Other changes |
It would be great to see a connection at Patterson or Murlark to Glen Creek. It would be great to have a flashing beacon and crosswalk at Eighth. It would be great to have more of a grid east of Wallace Road.
But if this is all contingent on making a Second Street - Marine Drive connection, you have to think real hard about that.
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| Open House on the 25th |
There's going to be an Open House on Wednesday the 25th, and this will be an opportunity to tell the City that car access needs to terminate at Cornucopia.
2 comments:
So the general idea is that the West Salem Business District sees business improving once there is an expressway taking traffic north to the new bridge (or south to Hwy. 22)? And business will also improve when there are more surface streets (and degraded bike/walk routes)? They should probably also consider unlimited free parking if they don't already have it - that would likely help West Salem businesses tremendously.
WTF! Does common sense disappear when one travels across the River to West Salem. Do they not get that the easier it is for people to drive at higher speeds through the commercial district, the less likely people will shop at those businesses. And why should the poor shrubs who live nearby have to put up with traffic and auto-centric development just to appease those people who don't even live there?
If Salem keeps it up, especially West Salem, they will be a bombed out shell that is no one will want to live in and that no business would choose to be located in.
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