Cherriots and Downtown Advisory Board Meet Thursday

Both the Cherriots' Board and Downtown Advisory Board meet tomorrow the 24th, and while there are no action items to note here, there are some small moments in ongoing processes and projects that might be worth a little comment.

Cherriots

In the meeting packet some notes from previous meetings are a little interesting.

Senator Merkeley is not supporting new natural gas buses and is pushing for electric only.

Senator Merkley says "No" to natural gas buses

In a briefing on the Legislature, Director Carney is pushing for Cherriots and their lobbyist to think more about the connection between land use and transportation and the possibility for Cherriots to take positions on housing bills.

Director Carney asks about land use and transit

With the transition on the Cherriots' Board, particularly shifting to a younger generation, there is interesting change percolating.

On action items there didn't seem to be anything important to point out.

The Salem Area Mass Transit District Board of Directors meets Thursday the 24th, at 6:30pm, in Courthouse Square, the Senator Hearing Room, 555 Court St NE.

Downtown Advisory Board

DAB agenda for October 24th

The Downtown Advisory Board also meets, and they've got several items of interest.

It's great to see more talk about one-way to two-way conversions and perhaps progress on the sidewalk "streetscape" project. (It's interesting that downsizing the Union Street Greenway project, which was mentioned at SKATS recently, is not on the agenda.)

But what is this "Commercial Street Undercrossing Update"? Is that the path along Pringle Creek and connection from Mirror Pond to Riverfront Park? Or is there something else?

The prospect of a North Downtown Zoning Code Review is also interesting.

There will surely be more to note on these as they develop and more is made public on them.

In the packet there's also a short memo on the September 16th Open House on the DAB. Only twelve people attended, and that might be a little disappointing.

But it is good to note that people asked for

• A downtown grocery store
• More downtown housing
• Paid parking

The sample size is small, again, but these are good signs.

The Downtown Advisory Board meets Thursday the 24th, from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm in the Urban Development Conference Room, 350 Commercial St NE, underneath the Chemeketa Parkade.

24J Prioritizes Parking at West Salem HS

Planned purchase at West Salem HS for more parking

Last night the School Board met, and Salem Reporter has a piece on another instance of the School District prioritizing parking expansion, "School board unanimous in buying West Salem land despite community equity concerns." At South, McNary, and now West Salem, we see the School District supporting more free car storage for high school drivers, instead of investing in things like covered and secure bike parking that supports non-auto travel and reductions in carbon pollution. This support for parking is not consistent with a support for Safe Routes to School programming.