Did Critical Mass ride in Salem During the 1990s?

Back in 2014 when the movie "Aftermass" was playing one night here, a reader suggested Critical Mass had been active in Salem for a while in 1993-94.

With fliers circulating for what might be a revival of Critical Mass starting this Friday, it was interesting to see about finding evidence for that earlier activity.

A preliminary search through newspapers did not find any local coverage, so if it was happening, it must not have been very big or very disruptive.

This editorial from 1995 on Critical Mass in Corvallis would have been certain to mention any Salem instance from two or three years before, but it is silent on that.

June 26th, 1995

In hindsight the editorial is also not very promising on "working quietly with government and motorists"! The "faster and easier" solutions have not materialized and Salem has not been successful on getting "more people out of their cars."

There was very occasional later coverage of Critical Mass in other cities, picked up from wire pieces and not localized to mention anything in Salem.

Bike Club Publishes Letter to Mayor and Notes on New Advocacy for Safe Streets

With the September newsletter, the Salem Bicycle Club strikes a new tone of urgency in calls for safer urban streets.

September Spokes

This represents a new level of interest for the club and should be noted! Historically this kind of local, urban advocacy has not been a strong emphasis for the club.

The tone and focus may be the result of club politics, however, and it will be interesting to see if the tone evolves. 

Reasonably they center the death of Marganne Allen, but they also pivot away from the Police coverup that followed an instance of a law enforcement officer apparently speeding and blowing a stop sign. They focus instead on a call for investing in safer road design.

Included in the newsletter is a letter to Mayor Hoy, who in the 2010s had served on the board of the club and even been Vice President of the club.

It has been a little disappointing to see, by what the Mayor has chosen to say and not say, more apparent sympathy for the Police coverup than for Marganne Allen. The same was true for the City Manager, who has conspicuously joined Salem Bike Vision on at least one ride. They were taking sides, and the side did not look very much like protecting people on bike.

• See in particular the information at Salem Reporter in "New details emerge on how Salem police managed DEA crash information"
  

The club's communications suggest that they see a real opportunity to improve that intersection. They apply the general and true observation, "Salem roads were not designed for bicycles," and apply it specifically to this intersection, saying "We are requesting the City of Salem make it a priority to identify and implement changes to improve the safety of this intersection...." They frame the cause of crash as primarily a problem of infrastructure.

New Family Ride this Saturday

With "back to school" feeling, Salem Bike Vision rescheduled their second ride.

Kidical Mass at the Grant playground, April 2010

On Saturday the 9th, this weekend, they'll hold a Family Ride and Festival.

Intended for community members of all ages, abilities, and comfort levels. We will start at Grant Elementary School and complete a roughly 4-mile group ride followed by snacks, games, and music.

On FB they add:

• Ride through a protected bike lane pop-up experience
• Get free bike safety checks and minor repairs provided by Northwest Hub
• Ride on the Winter-Maple Neighborhood Greenway with one of the advocates who helped make it a reality
  
• Meet with the region's Safe Routes to Schools Coordinator
• Play lawn games
• Paint a bike craft for kids
• Enjoy snacks and drinks while getting to know others interested in safe biking

It's scheduled for 1pm to 2pm, at Grant Elementary School, on Saturday, September 9th.

Salem Bike Vision Announces Summer Slate of Rides

Over the weekend Salem Bike Vision advocates announced three summer rides.

via Twitter

Each ride is aimed at persons with different riding interests and skill levels.

The three rides via signup form

You may recall back in April when they announced a grant award from People for Bikes. People for Bikes said:

With this grant, Salem Bike Vision (SBV) will host three community rides in 2023, working to educate the public about what makes for effective bike infrastructure and helping identify areas where safety is lacking. The organization will also engage local decision-makers around opportunities to use the city’s recently passed bond for safe bike infrastructure.

These are clearly community rides. But if the goal was "working to educate the public about what makes for effective bike infrastructure and helping identify areas where safety is lacking," the target group for the first ride, "those who use their bike regularly and feel comfortable," likely needs no education on effective bike lanes or identifying dicey areas. This is preaching to the choir, and may be a bit of wasted opportunity.

On the Decline of Cycling and a Grant for Salem Bike Vision

Yesterday the team at Salem Bike Vision announced they had won a grant from People for Bikes to support their advocacy with community bike rides and for more attention to improving quality and number of bike lanes in projects funded by the infrastructure bond.

via Twitter

That is great news!

The news was also a little old, having been announced by People for Bikes in December, and was something we totally missed here.

We don't pay as much attention to pure bicycle advocacy as we used to here on the blog, and this might be a good moment to discuss that again.

via Twitter

BikePortland published this week a long meditation on the decline of cycling in the last decade or so in that city, "My thoughts on the cycling decline and a list of theories to explain it," and you should read it in full. They identify multiple variables:

• A socio-political-cultural shift
• The bike scene is still too white and too centrally located
• WTF WFH (Work From Home)
• Erosion of public safety
• Infrastructure & traffic safety fears
• The enforcement problem
• Driving is too easy
• Bike facility maintenance (and lack thereof)
• Gas is too cheap
• Demographic forces
• The local advocacy ecosystem
• Bike theft
• The rise of carsharing and micromobility 

From here the most important have seemed to be:

1. Gas is too cheap
2. Driving is too easy
   
3. Slack land use with useful things spaced too distantly (maybe geography more than demography)
   
4. Infrastructure & traffic safety fears

The others are real factors, but they have seemed more secondary.

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Bike Bill by Strengthening It

The Street Trust and coalition partners are hosting a zoomy celebration of the Bike Bill and trying to build more support for a proposed expansion in SB 395.

via the Street Trust

After a March 4th Hearing the bill, SB 395, remains stalled in the Joint Transportation Committee. Here, Cherriots has indicated support and the City of Salem indicated qualified support.

Tell Rep. Evans to Support Safe Routes for All, SB 395

Support more bike bill! The Bike Bill expansion finally has a hearing, tomorrow, March 4th.

via the Street Trust

Last month BikePortland had a conversation with Senator Prozanski from the Eugene area. He's sponsoring the proposal to expand the Bike Bill, SB 395, and it's been stalled in the Joint Transportation Committee. They finally shook it loose for a hearing tomorrow.

Rep. Paul Evans' District

If you live in South Salem or West Salem in Representative Evans' district, he's the lone Salem-area legislator on the committee. 

Tell Rep. Evans you'd like to see more money devoted to low-carbon transportation, including walking and biking, and better safety!

For more see:

• BikePortland with more (follow-up, March 2nd) 
• A longer discussion focused on advocacy at Bike Loud PDX

Addendum

Look at this beautiful support from Cherriots!

It's great to see support from transit

Don't Forget, Take Sneckdown Pictures in the Snow!

Never let a good snow storm go to waste!

As you're out and about, or if you have a view from above, look for intersections and lanes with intact zones of snow. Those are "sneckdowns," temporary curb extensions and lane narrowings caused by the snow, and evidence of surplus width or other area in the roadway.

The zones with snow could become bike lanes, wider sidewalks, pedestrian medians or other road space reallocated for users other than those in cars. They are evidence for ways we have overengineered and overdesigned roadways for car travel and too-high speeds.

Here are a couple this morning from the City traffic cameras.

Broadway at Market (see The Hub!)

State Bike Committee Meets Thursday, Other Bits

The State Advisory Committee for bicycling meets tomorrow, Thursday the 8th, and several items are of some interest, though mostly they appear to be updates and informational only.

From ODOT:

SALEM – The Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Dec. 8 at ODOT’s Mill Creek Building, Mt. McLoughlin Room, 555 13th St. NE in Salem. Agenda items include a presentation about the Statewide Trails Coalition, discussion about the Safe Routes to School program and more.

The meeting is open to the public. Those who wish to provide comments are encouraged to sign up on the public comment sheet provided at the meeting. General guidelines: provide written summaries when possible and limit comments to three minutes. If you bring written summaries or other materials to the meeting, please provide the chairperson with a copy prior to your testimony.

Here's the interesting bits from the agenda (along with links to relevant notes here and elsewhere):

9:15 AM Statewide Trails Coalition – Stephanie Noll

9: 45 AM Modal Work Plan, OTC Meeting and Workshop – Jenna Marmon, Susan Peithman

10: 15 AM Break

10: 30 AM STIP ’15 -’18 and ’18 -’21 – Mary Beth Olson

11: 15 AM Lunch

1:00 PM Safe Routes To School – LeeAnne Fergason, Lynne Mutrie

1:30 PM Chip Seal Policy Revisions - Luci Moore - State Maintenance & Operations Engineer

2: 15 PM ADA Settlement Agreement and Transition Plan - Bob Pappe – State Traffic and Roadway Engineer

Most of these items appear to be retrospective, reviews of past decisions and projects and planning, and it's not clear that OBPAC is in a position really to alter or improve them. Instead it looks like they are just getting updates. One of them, though, is more forward looking.

Climate Change Talk Wednesday Conflicts with UGB Hearing on SRC

In an odd instance of scheduling, a little bit of inversion of the "think globally, act locally" credo, Willamette University Sustainability Institute and Chemeketa Community College are sponsoring a talk about climate change and equity at the very same time as the Public Hearing for the proposed expansion of the Urban Growth Boundary for the Salem River Crossing.

On any other day, a talk titled "Achieving Climate Equity through Institutional Change" could be very interesting.

Draft EIS, Chapter 3.4
on Environmental Justice

But there are very real questions about Equity and Environmental Justice posed by the Preferred Alternative, and the latest Energy assessment says it will consume the energy equivalent of 20 million gallons of gas to construct and then every year drivers will consume the equivalent of about 4 million gallons of gas MORE than they would under the No Build conditions.

So the SRC is also very bad for greenhouse gas emissions, and stopping it seems like a worthy goal for local advocates working on climate change and environmental justice.

The scheduling seems just a little strange, then, though you can't always choose when speakers are available, etc., etc.

The talk will be at 6:30pm on the WU Campus, in Ford Hall, Room: 102, the Kremer Board Room.

The next night, Thursday the 13th, there is a panel discussion on local advocacy:

Hear from representatives of five local and statewide groups making a difference, and how you can get involved. The panel will be moderated by WU Economics Professor Emeritus Russ Beaton. Speakers include:

• Gregory Monahan, PhD Chair, Beyond Gas and Oil Team Oregon Sierra Club
• Laurie Dougherty Co-Coordinator 350.org Salem
• Tamara Staton Regional Coordinator for the Greater Pacific Northwest Citizens Climate Lobby
• Shilpa Joshi Organizing Director Renew Oregon
• Nic Shipley President Students for Divestment at Willamette University

It will also be at 6:30pm on the WU Campus in Ford Hall, Room: 122, the Film Studies Auditorium.

Ford Hall is the copper-clad new building next to Gatke Hall (the old Post Office) and across from the Supreme Court building on State Street.

Grant Neighborhood Association on Thursday is Packed!

Jason Lee Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, circa 1912
via Streetview, 2012

The Grant Neighborhood Association has an interesting meeting for Thursday the 6th.

But first a note from last month's meeting:

The Jason Lee Church is combining its dwindling congregation with Englewood Methodist. They are looking for creative uses for their building. It would be worth our while to engage them and pursue uses and historic preservation of the structure.

Hopefully they'll find new uses for the building. It's a little chunky and blocky, and I do not think of it as among Salem's loveliest just on aesthetics alone. (Here's one of the Barrick postcards with an historic image. They pressed their own concrete blocks, so there's some DIY involved! The First Congregational Church on the Park Blocks in Portland is a little older, and altogether more graceful in comparison.) But by Salem standards it's more than a little venerable and it seems like a candidate to be deconsecrated and repurposed for secular ends. Right across the street there is one of Salem's old fire stations, now an office or something (see here on one of its southside mates), and the six-legged intersection on Fairgrounds and Winter has a pleasantly weird energy that seems ripe for a new vision and modest redevelopment.

And in that light, next month the November meeting looks interesting:

Jason Lee Church – future prospects
Heritage Films – Salem Heritage All Star Forum – Kimberli Fitzgerald
Capitol Building Relics form 1935 Fire – Alice LaViolette

I know NEN has some of the 1935 relics. You can see them in Mill Creek at Olinger pool, just on the west of the 13th St. footbridge behind ODOT. Does Grant also have some relics? That could be interesting!

And you might recall that Heritage video, which seemed so much more expressive, soulful, and vital than the "sizzle" video by the Chamber.

The latest on Marine Drive, Second Street,
and the Union St RR Bridge paths and trestle (July 2016)

On the agenda itself for the 6th are Marine Drive and the Union Street Railroad Bridge, the UGB amendments for the Salem River Crossing, and a lively discussion on the right size for a new Police Station:

[6] West Salem Business District Feasibility Study, Virginia Green;
[7] Salem Plan Amendment UGB Changes, Cara Kaser;
[8] City Water Rates Discussion;
[9] Police Facility Discussion
Keep Salem Safe – Yes on 24-399, Patrick Sieng;
Salem Can Do Better PAC, Carole Smith and/or Brian Hines;
Questions & Answers & Discussion;

That's a lot of meaty topics of citywide significance as well having neighborhood impact, and if you live in the Grant neighborhood it would be worth your while. 

The Grant Neighborhood Association meeting is on Thursday the 6th, at 6:15pm in the Library of Grant Community School, 725 Market St NE.

Strong Towns is about Creating Value - Market Value and Social Value

If you didn't already have an interest in the Strong Towns thesis, what would draw you in for the lecture on Wednesday the 5th?

I was trying to think of an image or idea that would attract someone who'd never heard of Strong Towns or Chuck Marohn and who didn't respond to the question, "How can Salem become a Strong Town?" Someone who hadn't already decided that there was a problem with the way we plan, design, and build our urban streets and suburban subdivisions. Someone new, even skeptical.

And I think it's the fiscal efficiency argument that seems key: Compact, downtown development is way more efficient in creating personal wealth for owners, jobs for employees, and tax value for municipalities than suburban or big box development. That's it. That's the key to the argument. Most everything else follows from that. It's a financial argument about how best to create value for multiple layers in a city.

Detail via Twitter

Of course Chuck also seems like a friendly guy. Though he doesn't really self-identify as a "cyclist," he's interested in bike transport as a valuable thing for cities and residents.

Provincialism as Liability: Earthquake may Strand Salem without Surgeons

Sunday's piece about earthquake prep touched on transportation and civic culture.

Are we overdependent on surgeons who live in Portland?

You might remember from 2010:

Promoting the Salem area to incoming physicians can be challenging: The cost of living in Salem is comparable to other parts of the U.S.; reimbursements are lower in small-population states such as Oregon; and Salem's demographic size can be a tough sell to a new medical school graduate from Chicago, Seattle or New York.

"Salem looks very rural," [executive director of the Marion-Polk County Medical Society, Dean] Larsen said.

And back in 2012 when the corporate office of Holiday Retirement relocated to the Portland area:

The exodus of Holiday Retirement's headquarters to a Portland suburb reflects a persistent problem for Salem. The City of Roses is viewed as the state's business and cultural hub. Executives with the money and means often chose Portland over Salem for their homes. Even the governor [Kitz at that time] lives in Portland and commutes to Salem. When businesses and their employees flee Salem for Portland, money and community leadership go north as well....

Company officials told the Business Journal that it wanted to be in a metropolitan area, close to a major airport as well as its vendors and investors. They also noted that many of Holiday Retirement's employees already lived in the Portland area....

And a couple of years before that, in conversation a substantial Salem business owner said that six of the seven senior managers chose to live elsewhere at that time.

When we want to define ourselves as "not-Portland" or "not-Eugene" or "not-urban," there are costs to succeeding in that, and the loss of highly skilled, highly educated specialists is probably one of them. Our proud provincialism goes overboard sometimes, and there are ways we might instead want to be more attentive to - indeed sometimes straight-up copy even -  things Portland, Eugene, or other more cosmopolitan cities do better.

via Twitter

We don't have to flatten our narratives into one-dimensional comparisons. We can say things like "I want Salem to be more like Portland and have more low-traffic bikeways, but I don't want Salem to be like Portland in having a much higher cost of housing." Useful comparison is more complicated than simple imitation!

For earthquake prep this is a secondary point, to be sure, and no matter what Salem was like, some people might still wish to live in Portland. But there are strategic reasons to reconsider our provincialism and attachment to Salem's "uniqueness" and to give more thought to times they might hinder rather than help us.

October 5th: Walk+Bike to School Day, Strong Towns Curbside Chat, ADUs

Wednesday, October 5th is a busy day!

Over at Just Walk, about a month ago they posted about October 5th's Walk+Bike to School Day.

In light of our autoism, the response was not wholly surprising: Crickets.

The only response was from the Sponsor, the former Bicycle Transportation Alliance. The Just Walk members did not find it interesting or engaging, it seems.

The event hasn't picked up traction elsewhere, and most are passing by it in silence.

So here's another reminder. Walk+Bike to School Day is next Wednesday, October 5th. There is swag!

Registering is simple. Sign your school up for Walk+Bike to School Day here. After you register, you can order fun, free incentives to motivate your student body to walk, bike, or scoot to school. All Oregon schools registered for Walk+Bike to School Day are eligible to receive $40 worth of free incentives. Order your prizes here.

Salem-Keizer schools that are registered:

• Grant
• JGEMS
• Washington
• Forest Ridge

So there's lots of opportunity, as they say! Sign up, hurry, hurry!

Eugene Sunday Streets and Other Impressions of the City

Over at the Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates, they've made a couple of field trips to Portland to learn more about infrastructure and to experience Portland Sunday Parkways. But Portland is a very different size and scale, and so much of Salem's self-identity seems to be constituted as "not-Portland" or "not-urban" that it remains an open question how strongly comparative appeals to Portland will actually engage the wider Salem citizenry, especially those who like to avoid Portland.

The glorious weekend was a terrific opportunity to check out Eugene's version of Sunday Streets. Salem also defines itself as more conservative than those wacky hippies in Eugene, but at least the cities are of directly comparable size, nearly identical in fact, and so in some ways it provides better examples, both positive and negative, for comparison and learning. Salem does have things to learn from Portland, but we also would do well to consider the examples of Corvallis and Eugene. While I long for the ambition of Portland's longer routes and greater frequency, it may be that more modest events provide a more realistic model.

If you visit Eugene often, little or none of this will be new or possibly even interesting, but perhaps some readers aren't often in Eugene, and maybe there will be something interesting here for you. Here anyway are a few observations. Sunday Streets was great fun, but it was other details that were actually more interesting.

Kesey Square, Sizzle Pie, Starbucks on the former Pedestrian Mall:
A Changing Eugene

If there was a single image and a place that encapsulated Eugene on the trip, it was the former Pedestrian Mall and changes in land use on it.

Same intersection, Willamette and Broadway, 1971
(University of Oregon)

There used to be a fountain at this intersection, and without the foot traffic associated with car passengers it had grown dead, dead, dead.

Now it is gentrifying, with a Sizzle Pie and Starbucks, and there a lively sidewalk and cafe life. In Kesey Square there were also food trucks, and just behind it is an outpost of Voodoo Donuts.

West Salem NA on Salem River Crossing and 2nd Street/Marine Drive Plan

Earlier this month, SCAN voted for a resolution recommending

the Salem City Council stop all work planning for a third bridge in Salem and turn attention to 1) locating fund to retrofit the existing bridges so they are operational after a major earthquake, 2) review remaining recommendations from the 1998 SKATS [...] to improve traffic flow and safety of the existing bridges, and 3) finding low-cost and no-cost ways to reduce single occupancy vehicle commuting during peak hours.

SCAN resolution against SRC
via N3B

The West Salem Neighborhood Association meets tonight, and they could have an opportunity to do the same.

From the agenda:

[4] Old Business

• UGB Expansion and Upcoming October 12th Salem Alternative Crossing Public Hearing;
• 2nd Street Feasibility Study Follow-up – Tory Banford – City of Salem;
• Salem Planning Commission Hearing Re: Development on Glen Creek and 9th Street update;
• Park and Grant Ideas – Linda Bierly;

A few years back, WSNA had opposed the Salem River Crossing, but the vote was close, and it has seemed like the current board and active members of the Neighborhood Association are more in favor of the Salem River Crossing and the associated Land Use actions coming up next month.

But if folks packed the meeting, it might be possible to turn the tide!

The West Salem Neighborhood Association meets at 7pm at Roth’s West, Mezzanine level, at 1130 Wallace Rd NW, tonight, Monday the 19th.

Rally, Public Hearing Thursday at Capitol Opportunity to Talk Transportation and Safety

On Thursday, September 22nd at 5pm, the Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Preservation and Modernization will hold a Public Hearing at the Capitol.

Our own Senator Jackie Winters is a committee member.

This is the final stop on a statewide tour of hearings and listening sessions. Previously they made stops in:

• Portland
• Ontario
• Hermiston
• Eugene
• Bend
• Medford
• Newport
• Hillsboro

At least theoretically, all this is to prepare for a large "transportation package" at the Legislature in next year's session.

New Downtown Housing Proposed for Corner of Front and Court

Here we go, there's no drive-through coffee shack for this corner!

Old Safeway at 245 Court - time for redevelopment!

Last month at CANDO there was talk about a new downtown housing project proposed for the corner of Front and Court downtown. Application for design review was just filed with the City this week, and the Downtown Advisory Board meets next week and will consider a grant application for $740,000 Urban Renewal funds to support the project. They're moving fast!

From the Urban Renewal application:

The redevelopment proposal [currently estimated at $9 million total] comprises a 43,790 square foot mixed-use building with 40 residential apartments on four floors over parking, ancillary uses and commercial space. The retail building is designed as a one story building of approximately 2,180 square feet. Parking is provided in an open garage and a surface lot that is tucked behind the buildings...A landscaped plaza is planned for the open area between the two structures and will provide both private and public open space...

Corner of Court and Front

The project site, approximately the quarter block at the northeast corner of Front and Court, is a parking lot with the early 1940s Safeway, and it seems likely the old Safeway will be demolished. No matter. The lot is just outside the downtown historic district, so it's not protected by that, and new housing is an unambiguously higher use for the land than repurposing the old grocery store shell, which had been remodeled already for offices. It has been vacant for a while anyway, and didn't seem to be in very high demand. Housing will be great. The small plaza and disposition of the parking sound appropriately urban.

At the Historic Landmarks Commission: A Footbridge, a Caboose, a Mid-Century Contractor

The Historic Landmarks Commission meets tonight, and the main course is the proposed clinic for the corner of Mission and Liberty. There's not much to add to the previous discussion. (There might be more to say on the zoning matter at the Planning Commission in a few days, however.)

So let's talk about the other stuff!

The new Court Street footbridge will have a different alignment

The new Court Street footbridge over Mill Creek will have a significantly different alignment, passing farther south of the old sidewalk and bridge, and with a little bit of swerve on the sidewalks. It's also going to be a little bit wider.

So that was interesting.

The bridge report table of contents!

But there's a crazy amount of engineering reportage that seemed to be required. Holy smokes that looks like a textbook instance of unnecessary red tape and administrative apparatus. It totally looks like something that should be simple made complicated. It's just a footbridge. Does it really require all that? Maybe it does, but wow.

Downtown Historic Bike Route Fails Family

There was a nice piece in the paper today about a family bike ride downtown. But while the piece is very "half-full" in perspective, it very clearly shows the problem with trying to bike downtown, and the extent to which we are willing to overlook it and give a faux-cheery pass to inadequate conditions for families and non-expert bike users.

Revised Travel Salem Historic Downtown Bike Route (detail)

From the piece:

Travel Salem provided exactly what I was looking for: a downloadable "Historic Downtown Salem Cycling Route" map.

Before continuing, I'll confess that our tour was a combination of cycling and walking. This mom errs on the side of caution when it comes to bicycling with kids. I'm very thankful for the new bike lanes recently created in downtown Salem, but when the map took us on busy streets where bikes and cars travel together, we walked our bikes on the sidewalk. [italics added]

If you want more detail on the route itself, there's a previous discussion here. Court and State Streets, the bulk of the route, are largely inaccessible for biking! It's not just part of the route, it's the whole thing, really.

The author and her family made it into a pleasant adventure, but broadly speaking, as a bike route meant for bicycling the route fails prospective users.

MassDOT Separated Bike Lane Guide

A "historic bike route" for tourists should be accessible to all skill levels, not just those willing and skilled to tolerate downtown traffic and its stress levels.

Downtown offers no good set of connections for families or causal cyclists. There's no different set of lines on a map that will solve this problem at the moment.

Instead, the problem calls for advocacy: Travel Salem needs to let Council know that Travel Salem can't undertake a tourism project they would like to do. Instead of going to Council and saying "things are great," please consider telling Council that things are difficult and you need help to make Salem bike-friendly for tourists.

The evidence is right here in print!