Salem Still Scores Poorly in People for Bikes City Ratings

The annual City Rating from People for Bikes is out, and Salem still rates pretty poorly, though perhaps with a tick upwards.

Rating summary

Last year Salem received a numerical rating of 17/100 and was in the 35th percentile overall. We've moved up to 48th percentile! The rating itself of 17 or 23 is surely within a margin of error, though. 

They included chart of seven years of scoring, but also included a weird set of comparables. It would be better to see mid-sized cities in Oregon.

Ratings history (in blue)

All four cities moved up, and it would be interesting to know if the increase is more in a change to the algorithm than real change in Salem and the other cities.

The only significant change I can really think of is the segment of new bike lane on Union Street.

Analysis detail

An important part of the rating, highlighted above in the chart of comparables, is "adjustments to speed limits." 

City Council, June 24th - Baseball

Earlier this week a person many regarded as the greatest living baseball player passed away.

SF Chronicle full front page, Thursday

A century ago, Salemites saw another great, Hall of Famer Bullet Rogan, at Oxford Park, the current site of Santiam Wine and Fitts Seafood.

April 16th, 1921

In opposition to the ballpark improvements neighbors say the benefits accrue solely to private business, and they are opposed to the supposed "commercialization" of the ballpark.

But this is a cramped, narrow view of benefit.

Don't Miss Make Music Day

Sometimes it's all too easy to look with some envy at festivals and public life in other cities. But today, in a direct and unambiguous way, Salem is at the top. Appreciate greatness, Salemites! Seize the moment!

Make Music Salem

Make Music Day is a truly great festival of public space and creativity. It's in the streets, not principally in a park, inside a fence, or in any way restricted. (Though some performance sites have a fence, like Gaiety Hollow, the garden and home for Lord & Schryver. But they have to be free!)

All over the Salem area

It's huge here! The organizers have done a remarkable job with the concept. How often does Salem legit get mentioned with New York and Philadelphia, cultural centers and cities far, far larger?

In the company of larger cities

Alleys, sidewalks, parking lots!
Kids, adults, pros, amateurs on a lark!

So don't miss this fabulous expression of creativity, art, and life.

Steinbock Junk Moved Around a Century Ago, Likely Last Tenant of Big Central School

Over at the Mill they recently posted a "then and now" set on the corner of State and Front.

Steinbock Junk on south side of State Street at Front
(Detail, WHC 2022.044.0138)

With the Furlong Porcelain Empire and the two brick buildings still around, the Manning Building on the corner gets much of the attention.

Downtown Historic District Nomination

But the plain gabled building, sided perhaps in plain corrugated metal, is of interest, H. Steinbock Junk Co. It's been replaced by the Meredith building, currently with the locksmith, and we don't think about the older one at all. The Downtown Historic District Nomination says it was part of Jerman & Pugh's Livery and Feed, and then it "housed 'junk.'"

March 2nd, 1926

We have not given enough attention to "junk"! The "junk problem" was at the center of conversation and debate in the development of our first zoning code. It was not only a discussion of aesthetics and "curb appeal," it was also at least partially ethnically and class coded.

April 16th, 1903

The site on State Street may have first been associated with junk dealers when J. Brownstein & Son moved from Albany to Salem about 1903.

Gussie Belle Brown Apartments at Former General Hospital Site in for Site Plan Review

The first phase of the Gussie Belle Brown affordable housing project has been submitted for site plan review with the City. It is an administrative approval process and there is no formal Public Hearing.

Phase 1 along 23rd Street

The project may be the second actual housing proposed on any of the new MU-I, II, and III zoning. The first, I believe, was the project on MU-I for the corner of Bush and Commercial Streets in Sleepy Hollow. So far that seems to be the only project that meets the spirit of new MU-type zoning.

Other recent projects do not meet the spirit. You may recall a medical clinic in a MU-I zone, and a car dealership and coffee shack going in on a couple of MU-III parcels. Certainly the MU-III zone has seemed a continuation of older commercial zoning, and the "mixed use" part a real misnomer, something that allows the City to talk up the great extent of new mixed use potential. But it reality it's pretty vaporous. The City should consider renaming MU-III so that overall maps of "mixed use" zoning in the city area give a better sense for what is likely and possible rather than what is merely theoretical and highly improbable. Mixed use types would still be allowed, but the name would reference the primary kind of usage rather than a misleading one.

MU-I zoning

The parcel here for the proposed apartment complex is all or nearly all zoned MU-I (apparently there's a tiny bit of CO zoned land also).

According to SRC 533.001,

The purpose of the Mixed Use-I (MU-I) zone is to identify allowed uses and establish development standards that promote pedestrian-oriented development in vibrant mixed-use districts, encourage a mix of compatible uses in multi-story buildings, and emphasize active commercial uses on ground floors facing major streets.

As laudable and necessary as this project is, it is not that. It's a standard issue apartment complex with a single use. There's no real mixed-uses, and it doesn't greet the street like a streetcar era set of buildings might.

Concept drawing from 2023, looking SE
Phase 1 in back, and phase 2 in foreground

Developers are asking for several exceptions.

A Footnote on the Giles Packing House Girls and Millrace Park

The other day over on FB the Mill posted a neat image of the "Giles Packing House Girls."

via FB

It led to a longer post about the H. S. Gile Packing House, part of the Willamette Valley Prune Growers Association.

A Sanborn map and footnote suggested it had been where the Vick Bros. building is today, currently part of the Salem campus for Western Oregon University.

With a Sanborn clip, flipped 180 degrees

But the note also said "at the southwest corner of Trade and High Streets...." The Vick Bros. building is on the northeast corner. Something wasn't right!

Willamette University Urban Renewal Project likely Salem's First

While looking up something on the Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area, a different URA nearly a decade earlier showed up. One for Willamette University, and not the Hollywood or Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Areas, now appears to be Salem's first. (But now we will be alert to the possibility of an even earlier one!)

July 6th, 1961

A concept for an area roughly bounded by Trade Street/Millrace, 12th, Bellevue/Shelton Ditch, and Winter Street was discussed at least as early as 1961.

It did involve large scale demolition and displacement. From 1961:

Included in the proposed area are 115 private dwellings, seven court apartments with a total of 52 units, two large apartment houses, a wrecking yard, lumber yard, beer distributor's warehouse, trucking company garage, rest home, tavern and three two-story commercial buildings....

After the property is cleared, it is offered for sale. In the case of the ten-block university area it will be sold to the school....

Planners said the procedure for launching the Willamette University project is similar to that used recently for Chicago University and other schools. 

In these cases, under the federal Urban Renewal Act, cities may launch such renewal projects....

In the case of the Willamette University extension area, much of the residential and court apartments property is of an older nature, although it is not of slum nature....

By 1970 it was largely completed.

August 25th, 1970

The popular understanding about the priority of URAs is reflected in the historical digest at Shineonsalem for 1971:

The urban renewal of the Hollywood district in North Salem begins. In June, the Hollywood Theater, which gave this suburban business neighborhood its name, was demolished. The Highland neighborhood has produced an excellent online history of Hollywood’s transformation....The Hollywood Theater, which gave the area its popular name, and Mootry’s Pharmacy, are now only fond memories of senior citizens. This was the city’s first Urban Renewal project.

If by "city" we mean the municipal corporation, "City of Salem," maybe this is correct on a technicality. But if by "city" we mean the general city area, then the WU project certainly appears to be the first. In any case, it does appear to have employed a kind of pass-through via the City of Salem, and the City proper did execute it. So at the moment it looks like it should be regarded as Salem's first Urban Renewal project.

We may come back to this in more detail another time. Resolving the questions about pass-through and priority, the nature of the buildings demolished, and the rhetoric around all that might be interesting. For the moment it is just something interesting to register.

(In the top clip from 1961, note also the "stream of mystery" roughly along Mill Street. Construction for the URA and the Parkway seem to correlate now with its disappearance.)

New Bike Map Out. Pick one up!

You might recall the note from two summers ago that Cherriots Transportation Options group was starting to update the bike map.

Available on paper and online

It's published now and being distributed to bike shops, Travel Salem, and also available at Cherriots customer service counter. Online the MPO/COG is hosting a pdf. (Also, a purely online version for mobile devices.)

If you want a paper copy, it's time to go grab one! Typically they run out.

2024 map

One new feature is the variable line width: Wide means the presence of a bike lane or wide shoulder, narrow means without. This adds a dimension to the assessment of traffic levels introduced in the 2012 edition. It also points out the "thinness" of our low-traffic bikeway/greenway system. We haven't installed diverters and traffic calming on very many designated low-traffic routes at all. We're stuck too much still with the 1970s concept for signed routes only. 

• See "Bike Club Advocated for Signed Bikeway Routes and a National Race in 1970-71"
  

Here's the development of the map over the last decade.

Kalapuya History and Debate on Baseball in SCAN this Week

This week SCAN has two real items of interest. The first is a book talk on Wednesday the 12th with Dr. David Lewis on his Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley, published last fall.

The presentation will keynote SCAN's annual meeting. Though the City's recurring calendar item says the meeting will be at South High like normal monthly meetings, the agenda itself says Pringle Community Hall, just west of the Hospital. That's been the customary spot for the annual meeting over the years and the calendar item is almost certainly wrong.

The topic is relevant!

Not harmful to Oaks and Camas

The other item of interest is at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Thursday the 13th, an updated and revised agreement on the proposed baseball improvements at Bush Park.

One of the lead questions has been "What about the Oaks and Camas?"

After an Initial Surge, Bike Club Urban Advocacy seemed to Fade in the 1970s

Between maps from ODOT's annual bikeway reports on 1972 and 1975, the number of Salem signed routes decreased significantly. This corresponds with an apparent decline in urban bicycle advocacy as recorded in the newspapers.

1972 ODOT report

The routes from 1972 correspond generally to the ones outlined in a piece from 1971.

April 30th, 1971

South Route: Leaves Bush Park on Davidson Street and follows Wilbur Street, Berry Street, Rural Avenue, Summer Street, Fairview Avenue, Bluff Avenue, Ratcliff Drive, Hulsey Avenue, Madrona Avenue (where it crosses Commercial Street SE at at traffic signal to be installed), Liberty Road, Stanley Lane, Ewald Avenue, Crestview Drive, Garlock Street, Neelon Drive, Browning Avenue, Oakman Street, Warren Street, Camelia Drive, Cunningham Lane, 13th Avenue, 12th Place, Joplin Street, Talisman Street, Joseph Street, Skyline Road, Kubler Road, Croisan Creek Road, and ending at South River Road at city limits.

East Route: Leaves Center of city at intersection of Winter and Mill Streets SE, follows Mill, 24th Street, Simpson Street, 25th Street, Mission Street, and then Turner Road to the southeast city limits.

North Route: Leaves center of city at intersection of Mill and 17th Streets NE, and follows 17th north to Silverton Road and then on Silverton Road to city limits. North Route also has a leg starting at intersection of 17th and D Streets NE and following D Street to Lancaster Drive NE and two legs toward center of city leaving from 17th Street and following Chemeketa and Court Streets NE.

West Route: Leaves Bush Park at Winter Street SE and follows Trade Street, Front Street and both Marion and Center Street bridges across Willamette River to West Salem. In West Salem it follows Wallace Road, Glen Creek Road, Kingwood Drive, Eola Drive and Edgewater Street NW.

The 1975 map shows fewer of them.

For example, on the 1972 map there's a loop in West Salem, a route north on the Liberty/Commercial couplet, and a route east on D Street.

1975 ODOT report

These all disappear on the 1975 map.

Bike Club Advocated for Signed Bikeway Routes and a National Race in 1970-71

Central to Carroll Quimby's bicycle advocacy was the formation and early days of the Salem Bicycle Club. Apart from their own internal histories and self-understanding, it is interesting to consider ways the club and club members were visible to other Salemites more popularly as mediated in the newspaper. There are several of the usual ride and race announcements, but these seem conventional and are of less interest here. More interesting is the advocacy and a little on leadership demographics.

February 28th, 1969

The announcement for the first meeting was in February of 1969. It was directly adjacent to a much larger article and photo for "the city's first parking lot," on the former site of the Schreiber and Klinger buildings on the north side of State Street between Liberty and High Streets.

It seems a little poetic that as the City was hollowing out the urban fabric for parking, bicycle riders were organizing for the modern and still current instance of a club.

May 27th, 1887

The first instance was probably this one, a Chemeketa Bicycle Club, from 1887. But clubs were not continuous, and there have been several formations since.

In 1969 our current instance was identified as the Salem YMCA Bicycle Club.

Carroll Quimby had come from a family with clergy, the Y was historically an expression of muscular Christianity, and in the first full set of elections for the second year of the club, two clergyman assumed positions of leadership.

February 2nd, 1970

Rev. Charles Farham was president of the club, and preached at First Christian Church. Rev. Cy Eberhart, chaplain for the club, was also chaplain at Memorial Hospital.

On Whose Bike did Gov. McCall Sign the Bike Bill?

You've probably seen the famous image of Gov. Tom McCall signing the Bike Bill on the steps of the Capitol in 1971.

Signing the Bike Bill, 1971 (Stathos Family)

One detail that is rarely noted in any historical discussion of the photo and the Bike Bill is the owner of the bike.

Research over the weekend on a wholly separate topic turned up a new answer. It led to some history in Salem that is worth a closer look, and there is almost certainly more to say another time.

September 14th, 1975

A piece from 1975 on a stolen bike contained the claim that "In 1973 former Gov. Tom McCall signed the first bikeway bill into law on the seat of the stolen bike."

Sustainable City Year Program Bike Presentations and Final Reception June 4th

Do you remember the SMILE lane concept from 2018/19?

The SMILE lane with stencil -
Michael Dooley and Daisy Jones, via UO

Probably not. It was generated by University of Oregon students when the rental scooters were popular and it was becoming clear that e-mobility needed greater consideration.

Five years later we might focus more on e-bikes.

But the problem remains the same. The mix of urban micromobility is changing and the electrified versions intensify conflicts with people walking on the sidewalks and paths. At the same time, more exposed users of the roadway deserve separation and protection from those in cars.

The bike lane needs to grow, both conceptually to accommodate users of electronic assist, and in width to accommodate a wider range of users at variable speeds.

The SMILE lane was a concept potentially useful in both.

The City's announced

the UO Sustainable City Year Program (SCYP) Bicycle Planning class final presentations next Tuesday, June 4, from 3:30-4:30 pm at Center 50+. Students will be presenting 18 projects displayed on posters showcasing ideas to improve bicycling in Salem. Members of the community will then be invited to interact with students, ask questions, and engage in their ideas. We’d love a big crowd of Salem bicycle advocates to connect with the students, so please help us spread the word to your networks.

Following the poster session, we will have a brief program (starting at 4:30) highlighting the over 20 classes that conducted applied projects over the academic year. Light refreshments will be available.

Here are three questions to consider.

Particular attention to Front and Edgewater

Sidewalkification: Shared paths vs. on-street protected lanes

Especially in light of recent conversation on Battle Creek Road and the sidewalkification of bicycling, it will be interesting to learn whether students leaned more towards path solutions or to in-street protected bike lane solutions.

Stalled Construction on Commercial Street yields classic #WorkzoneWTF

Back on February 26th, the City announced work on the new enhanced crosswalks on middle Commercial Street:

Phase 1 (Starting March 4, 2024) This phase will include the installation of a bicycle signal on Liberty Road S and a flashing beacon on Commercial Street SE at Triangle Drive SE. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers should use caution and expect some lane closures and delays.

During Phase 1, pedestrian access may be restricted within the work areas and temporary pedestrian routes will be identified around the work zone.

Through May construction seems to have stalled and the "temporary pedestrian routes" as well as bike lane alternatives are nowhere to be seen. There might be good reasons for all this, but as a matter of legibility to a random person on foot or on bike, it looks like an abandoned work site and a careless approach to non-auto travel. It's a #WorkZoneWTF.

Blocked! This week

The northbound bike lane on Commercial intersecting the new crosswalk at Triangle Drive has been completely blocked for weeks, and no apparent progress is being made in the coned and barricaded area.

Early in May from the other side

The sidewalk is also blocked and forces a person to cross a number of awkward curbs, bark mulch planting areas, and gravel. On strong two feet it can be hiked, but in a wheelchair or with a cane or other mobility device, it's functionally blocked. There's no clearly identified "temporary pedestrian route."

The City could have used part of the outer auto travel lanes and some barricades to construct a path for people, but in not doing so they seem unwilling to neck down the street for cars and drivers.

Still, with the barricades narrowing the visual width of the street, though not the actual car travel lane widths, it would be interesting to conduct a speed study for empirical data on any traffic calming. There's likely an effect!

Hopefully construction will pick up again soon, and at worst in the next phase:

Phase 2 (Starting in summer 2024) This phase will include restriping lane lines of Commercial Street SE to install dedicated bike lanes with high-visibility green markings.

During Phase 2, work is expected to occur in the overnight hours (9 p.m. to 6 a.m.) Temporary traffic control will include lane closures, limited sidewalk access, and delays along Commercial Street SE from Oxford Street SE to Madrona Avenue SE.