CANDO to moot Proposal for Crosswalk Closure

The downtown neighborhood association, CANDO, meets tonight the 15th at 6pm, and they'll be discussing the City's proposal to close a downtown crosswalk.

Footbridge replacement at stream of mystery last week

Though the weather's turning now, CANDO has a number of interesting things going on or just completed. The new footbridge over the vestige of a largely unknown downtown creek into Pringle Creek at Church Street, a "stream of mystery" one history calls it, is now complete, and the path along the north bank can be traversed.

Continued work on Pringle Creek's streambed and bank at Boise
also last week

Just a little downstream at the Boise redevelopment, the concrete slab over Pringle Creek has now almost all been removed, the streambed broadened and dotted with boulders, and bankside planting is beginning.

And of course they broke ground finally at the corner of State and Commercial for the apartment building.

Proposal to close a crosswalk downtown

The matter on the agenda is discussion on taking a position on the City's recommendation to close the north crosswalk over Front Street at Court Street. The Congestion Task Force wanted to make it easier for right-turning drivers to proceed from Court Street westbound onto Front Street northbound, particularly for unimpeded access to the on-ramp to the bridge.

DAB opposes closing the crosswalk on Front at Court Street

Back in June the Downtown Advisory Board opposed this, and CANDO should follow and echo their concerns. Closing the crosswalk is move hostile to walking and the City should not be embracing it. We should be making walking easier and more delightful. It is car travel that needs to be de-emphasized and de-subsidized.

(Also on the agenda is lots of talk about housing, shelters, and serving people who are unhoused temporarily or chronically.)

CANDO meets today, Tuesday the 15th, at 6:00 p.m. at First Christian Church on 685 Marion Street NE.

Addendum

Forgot about the Planning Commission tonight. (It didn't seem to merit a full post of its own, however.)

From the April 2019 Workshop

The Planning Commission proposes that

The matter of amending the Salem Revised Code to update Salem’s design standards for multifamily housing [specifically for "three- and four-family projects"] be set for a public hearing before the Salem Planning Commission.

Any date for the Public Hearing is TBD, so this merely initiates the process and is not itself anything substantive.

Over on FB, an advocate says

We should know this, but we did not know that it was going as a resolution to the Planning Commission without telling Neighborhood Associations and Land Use Chairs.

But this has been part of the Missing Middle project all year long. It should not be surprising that the Planning Commission was going to take it up. And since the date for a Hearing has not been set, this initiation seems like a procedure harmless to let go by without great fanfare. This does not seem like some nefarious scheme by the City.

There will be more to say later.