Photo Speed Enforcement, Fairview Projects, Public Art at the Capitol - Sunday Bits

Photo speed enforcement installation this past week
on Commercial at Madrona

This week the City and a contractor have been installing the photo speed enforcement apparatus on Commercial Street at Madrona.

Even the Police said "eye-opening"

A few years ago during the Commercial-Vista Corridor study, the amount of casual speeding at this site was a little shocking. Based on that data, there is the prospect of over 4000 tickets a day! That's not going to happen, but speeding more than 10mph over the limit has been such a problem that it is nearly certain to yield a surprising number of citations, perhaps hundreds a day initially. These cameras should help moderate speed here, and it will be very interesting to see how it goes.

From the Commercial Vista Corridor study
If they were surprised at 1,100 over three months,
how about 4000 a day! (red comments added)

First Apartments at Fairview - "The Grove"

Finally, apartments at the Fairview site - "the Grove" in progress

Checking in on things at Fairview, it was great to see apartments finally going up. The various sub-developments have so far all been devoted to single detached housing, and it's important that some multi-family housing is being constructed.

Orientation of the photo at "The Grove" development

Locals Only

Very small "Local access only" and "no trespassing" sign

At Pringle Creek Community, they have posted no trespassing signs at the road and path entries.

This is a problem with the private road systems.

Pringle Creek Community doesn't want homeless camps on the lawn, doesn't want to spread the virus through any crowd, but it should also be possible to go through the interior of the Fairview parcel and not have to skirt it on busy roads like Madrona, Fairview Industrial, Reed, Battlecreek, and Pringle.

At the same time, the private road system allows for pervious pavement, non-standard widths and speeds, innovations and concepts that our public road standards don't allow.

There are trade-offs, and things don't resolve neatly on one side or the other. But this might be something to revisit as we settle in to waiting for a vaccine.

Pioneer Monuments in this Moment

Front page Saturday

Yesterday's piece on vandalism and cleaning at the Capitol may have missed a link to the End White Silence rally and march later that day. The earlier vandalism, mostly spray painting and tagging, had seemed mostly opportunistic and spontaneous, a vulgar middle finger to authority, and the statuary happened to be there.

But there's an actual argument to be made against the statuary, and the vandalism seemed to express this also.

Too much "empire," not enough democracy
Before the vandalism, Library of Congress
(They date it to 1934, but it came with the new Capitol)

The mottos, "Westward the star of empire takes its way" and "valiant men have thrust our frontiers to the setting sun," are about whiteness, maleness, and manifest destiny. Celebrating with "empire" should alone be disqualifying for a democracy!

The Legislature has more important things to consider right now. Public health, the economy, housing, police reform - all these are much more urgent. But at some point, perhaps tied to revisiting a seismic project, the public art program at the Capitol deserves greater thought. As one of the very first things a person sees when visiting the Capitol, and therefore a kind of policy statement, these statues no longer instantiate our highest democratic values - and perhaps never did - and we should consider how to reconfigure them, either with more historical commentary or removal to a more museum-like setting. Our most public-facing art should better express our values, not just uncritically celebrate something we see now as more profoundly ambiguous.

Addendum

A reader shares news from Eugene, where the debate over Pioneer monuments has been sharper.

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