Civic Center and Millrace Park shared Designer with Failed Eugene Pedestrian Mall

Some readers here have objected to criticism of the landscaping at the Civic Center and along the Millrace, both earlier this month and also over the years.  The lack of activity in those spaces has over the years been a consistent theme.

In one sense they have a point, as it is not strictly speaking the landscaping itself that is only at issue.

It's grown in a lot (1974 & 2023)

Right now it's pretty lush and green. It could be a pleasant place; and if you like solitude, it might be a very inviting place.

The criticism is about context and edges, about the whole, and not necessarily about individual features in the landscape. It is about the way the area functions and the way the edges fail to supply users.

Here is an image from midday on Friday. It was gloriously sunny, and there was only one other person entering the area from the crosswalk at Trade and High.

Millrace Park on a weekday mid-afternoon

There was also one couple at an outside table at Gamberettis. So there were four of us total in the immediate area at that moment. Even at midafternoon on a weekday, there should be more activity!

How often do we see this level of activity?
March 12th, 1973

The designers certainly envisioned more activity.

Parking not Strolling was the Focus for the Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area

Over on FB there's a proposal for refreshing the paths and park areas in the Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area. Since those areas are not likely to be very significantly altered in the near or even medium term, investing in maintenance and refreshment is reasonable and valuable.

But in discussing it, particularly as trying to understand it as a kind of "stroll garden," we abstract it too quickly from its historical and current urban context.

The Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area is slack, underused space. It is a waste of valuable downtown land, redeveloped on a surburban, office campus model.

The area in 1975 (see it in the newspaper below)
(Salem Library Historic Photos)

We can better understand the space as an "ornamental emptiness," which might direct attention to our strategies for ornamenting it and why it stubbornly remains empty.

Ornamental Emptiness and SAIF, 1974
Salem Library Historic Photos

Back in 1975 the whole concept and space was anchored by a parking garage. It was very much understood as a drive-to destination.

LTE, November 1st, 1971

Even in 1971 people questioned the cost and utility of a very large parking structure. As the project developed and then was actually constructed, later pieces in the papers focused on the parking garage and on SAIF, and did not focus on the path system and landscaping as any kind of independent value or feature. They were always fitted in secondarily, ways to fill the resulting voids.

Radburn as Dead-end, Pedestrian Displacement System, and Super-Sized Cottage Court

via Rockefeller Archive Center

There's some talk again of Radburn, New Jersey, and it's worth considering what it does and does not actually accomplish.

"Downtown" Radburn - strip mall and 4 lane stroad

As it reaches us today, modified by successive layers of development, the small commercial district doesn't connect very well to the path system. So you can't go end-to-end anywhere meaningful on the path system.

No path connections in the "downtown" part

Instead, it dumps you out onto standard stroad development. There are busy four lane stroads that make a crossroad where the commercial district is located. Most of the buildings are strip mall type with parking lots.

Didn't include enough commerce
(Rockefeller Archive Center, note added)

At inception, the small business district was formulated by a command-and-control model and central plan, and is also not sufficient for a real town. That strip mall at top was a public square in the first concept plan.

City Council, December 5th - Housing Crisis and Road Safety

With the holiday season, Council meetings come in a rush, one-two-three in consecutive weeks. They meet again on Monday.

A couple of items on our housing crisis lead the way.

They will extend "Emergency Declaration related to unsheltered residents through December 31, 2023." This will help get the microshelter villages and safepark site up and going.

Perhaps emboldened by recent action in Portland and Bend, they will also start a "policy review" on "unsheltered homeless." On the surface this looks like it will include the search for ways to criminalize people camping. Others will have better things to say on many of the details. I want to focus on one element:

What reasonable options exist to the City to protect human life by restricting outdoor sheltering near busy or high speed roadways?

We should remember that being sheltered in a single-detached house with a mortgage is no guarantee of safety.

The house was no protection, in 2017 via Twitter

Speed is the problem. We should protect human life by curbing car abuse and jaydriving.

Front page this week

Here's a larger list of deaths during the phase that prompted the declaration of emergency.

Killed in 2022

• George Heitz and Moira Hughes (inside their own home)
• Jowand Beck, Luke Kagey, Joe Posada III, and Rochelle Zamacona (camping on Front between Union and Division)
• Unknown person (on Cordon Road)
• Unknown person (on Lancaster Drive)
• Unknown person (on Lancaster Drive)
• Charles Dwayne Hatfield (I-5 in Linn County)
• Wesley James Crossman (RR)
• Vince Edward Fouts (Woodmansee Park lot)
• Cassandra Sullivan (I-5)
• Cynthia Lynn Perry Rizzo (Sunnyview Road)
• Kelly Joseph Fields (Cordon Road)
• Michael Ernest Summers (I-5)
  

Killed in 2021

• Unknown person (I-5 and Market Street interchange)
• Rachel Bunting (while operating a bus for Cherriots)
  
• Blake Saville (on bike)
• Christian Kennedy (on Silverton Road)
• Galina Dvorskaya (south Commercial)
• Marlene Moreno (downtown crosswalk)
• Becky Dietzel (on North River Road)
• Unknown person (on Church St downtown)
• Aleta Pierre-Kelly (Mission Street)
• Eileen Johnson (on bike)
• Unknown person (on bike crossing Salem Parkway)
• Anthony Garza (on bike, crossing I-5)
• Christine Klug (on I-5)
• Unknown person (Lancaster Drive)
  

Killed in 2020

• Jaime Le Ann Hall (on skateboard) 
• Sharon Pritchard
• Mario Lopez-Lopez (walking a bike)  
• Unknown person via SJ (on I-5 near Market St)
  
• Andrew Otho Polston (biking on Windsor Island Road)
• Jolene Braasch Berry (on bike)
• Richardo Morales Avila (in McMinnville)
• Octavious Calloway (on I-5 near Market St)
• Selma Pierce
• Hermilo Mata Jr.
• Unknown person (on mobility scooter) 

Some of these, particularly those not named, were likely camping, and are people envisioned as subject to the "policy review."

But our problem with death in or near the roadway is fundamentally a driving problem, not always, or even often, an "outdoor sheltering" problem. 

Both I-5 and railroads are access controlled, and those operating vehicles on them have long stopping distances. They do necessarily imply different standards than for urban streets. But a busy street like Lancaster Drive or Front Street is still an urban street, and we should not apply the same standards we would on I-5.

Hopefully Council and Staff will undertake this review with nuance, not victim-blaming, and properly center the fact we have a driving problem also.

The Edgewater Path along Highway 22 and Interpretation of R. S. Wallace

With the construction and new green crossbikes on Wallace at Edgewater, it's clear the City and ODOT really want to push the Edgewater path, tucked in and meandering a little between Highway 22 and Edgewater Street.

Dust, exhaust, zooming cars on Highway 22

I never use it because it's crappy. 

It connects to no front doors of any businesses or other destinations. Edgewater Street itself is much more useful in that regard. And no business has a back door that connects to the path. Everything is fenced and hedged off.

Related to that isolation, it has hidey-holes for unsavory characters, and few eyes and ears on it. I would never use it after dark.

Where Edgewater is flat, the path runs up to the berm and levy for Highway 22, and the path has these low rolling hills and reduced sightlines. In several places it runs right along the highway, exposing you to dust, exhaust, and the sensation of traffic at highway speed. It's not comfortable at all.

As a line on a map it looks theoretically like it might be useful, but as anything a person directly experiences at ground-level, it is objectively terrible.

Orchardist or Capitalist? Our Public History of R. S. Wallace

Nearly a decade ago, out of the Vision 2020 project, the City installed "welcome" signs with maps on one side and historical, interpretive collages on the other. I had not seen the signs on the Edgewater path because they are hidden. If the City wants people to see them, they should be relocated to places where people actually want to travel, not deployed as lures to attract people to dead zones.

Historical signage on canneries

Here's one near Patterson and Murlark, focused on canneries. It at least has an entry at Waymarking. (Since Oregon Fruit has moved, it's a little out of date now, unfortunately.)

Near the end of the path at the intersection of Rosemont and Edgewater, by the old West Salem City Hall, there's another sign on transportation history. This one is so badly sited at the highway off-ramp that even the crowd-sourcing at Waymarking hasn't taken note of it!

Though the sign is at Edgewater and Rosemont, fully half of it is about Wallace Road. Here is shows a dirt road with a wagon and horses, and says "Below is Wallace Road, seen in 1889..."

Part of historical signage at Edgewater and Rosemont

The image is more recent than that.

Enhanced Crosswalk at Orchard Heights Park Could be Helpful

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meets tomorrow the 13th, and in the packet is a request for letters of support for a couple of project applications at the MPO. (See notes on the pre-application phase at SKATS here and here. Both projects scored in the bottom third initially.)

One of them is new: A project for sidewalks along Orchard Heights Road in West Salem and connections to a new internal path in Orchard Heights Park.

Pre-app project description

In the meeting packet is a plan view, but there are two options called out, and it's not exactly clear what is understood as the "essence" of the project.

For the moment, let's consider the parts that would be in the road right-of-way.

Crosswalk and path proposal at Orchard Heights Park

The current conditions on the inbound and downhill side show a sidewalk on the west/south side and a bare shoulder into the shrubbery on the east/north side.

The bike lane has a dashed weave across a right-turn only car lane as it widens for turns onto Chapman Hill Drive.

Since people biking are going downhill, they might be able to keep up with cars, but at the same time, people in cars often misjudge the speed of people biking downhill, and this weave with a right-hook hazard probably works only for very confident people on bike.

City Misses Cut on Grant to write Urban Trails Plan, Downtown Dining, Chief Announcement - Bits

Earlier this summer you might recall that the City was applying for a Transportation and Growth Management grant to fund an Urban Trails Plan.

City of Salem missed the cut

A couple weeks ago the State announced the winners, and Salem's application didn't make the cut. There were 41 total applications and 14 winners.

Previously:

• "Proposed Urban Trails Plan at Planning Commission"
• "City Council, July 27th - Urban Trails Plan Grant Application"

More Street Dining

A few have mentioned this already, and in one of the City Manager's updates last month was news that the City is working on a year-round program for street dining.

City Council, July 27th - Urban Trails Plan Grant Application

Council convenes on Monday, and they will consider supporting the grant application to fund an Urban Trails Plan.

But as important as local items are, just now there's a national crisis with a nascent secret police and an escalation of incipient Fascism and Authoritarianism.

Yesterday front page in DC
These are events of national significance

It's not just about rowdy BLM protests and vandalism in Portland, but is about kidnapping and secret police going out to multiple American cities, targeting American citizens, and subverting the Constitution. A couple of days ago Senator Wyden spoke ominously about "fascist practices I never thought I'd see on American soil...If the line isn’t drawn in the sand right now, America will be staring down the barrel of martial law for months to come."

That's far outside our usual scope here, but it's even more urgent now to consider national politics.

The trail system as envisioned in 1999
(black circled segments of particular interest)

Back to Council, about the Urban Trails Plan, see the note on it at the Planning Commission. Travel Salem and the local Safe Routes to Schools team have also endorsed it.

Proposed Urban Trails Plan at Planning Commission

After sitting out a few years, the City is looking to submit a TGM application for an Urban Trails Plan. On Tuesday the 21st the Planning Commission will consider whether formally to support it with a letter.

From the City's memo to the Planning Commission:

The Public Works Department is preparing to apply for a grant to develop an Urban Trails Implementation Plan for the City of Salem. We are seeking a letter of support for our application from the Salem Planning Commission....

Urban Trails Implementation Plan—Summary of Proposed Project
Public outreach has consistently identified urban trails as a priority in Salem. The City of Salem has adopted plans that call for a significant network of future off-street trails. Off-street paths are included in both the Salem Transportation System Plan and the Comprehensive Parks System Master Plan. A recent code amendment (SRC 800.065(4)) increased the City's ability to require connections to existing or planned paths and trails. This new code language has drawn attention to the need for more clarity in the hierarchy of trails, appropriate design standards, and guidelines for trail alignments. Action items include: differentiating between classifications of trails, similar to the classification of roadways; developing design standards; establishing implementation guidance; and possibly refining code language to support development requirements. The goal is to have a unified urban trail plan with clear priorities and a path toward implementation.

If you read here regularly, you'll know about deep mixed feelings on trails and paths.

1. Too often they are offered not as a complement to a complete set of on-street bikeways, but are conceived as a substitute for street connectivity, and function as pedestrian and bicycle displacement systems: To get people on foot and on bike out of the way for zooming cars.
2. Since we have made little headway on housing and homelessless, paths attract camping. Most campers are not threats, but some campers are aggressive, hostile, and criminal. These can make paths unusable or unsafe. Cars are problematic, but other drivers are eyes and ears; paths are sometimes very isolated especially in the dark and in winter and lack eyes and ears.
3. Maintenance is often not a priority, and unless the creation of new paths has ongoing operational budget attached, brush trimming, sweeping, and pavement maintenance is a problem.

via Twitter

Still, paths can offer pleasant connectivity that wide streets cannot.

City Should be Cautious about Permanently Abandoning Croisan Scenic Way for Trail

You might recall a year ago, Salem Area Trail Alliance hosted an open house for the trails along Croisan Creek and around Sprague. They drew attention to one trail in particular, along the alignment for a future extension of Croisan Scenic Way.

The current trail along a future extension of Croisan Scenic Way
(See SATA Skyline and Croisan Trail System Topo Map)

This month they are trying to rally support to make the trail permanent.

Call to action for the Croisan Trail! There will be a presentation about the Croisan Trail at the SWAN neighborhood association meeting tomorrow, December 3rd, 6:30 pm at Salem Heights Elementary School. The action item is to get a motion to go to City Council to ask that the right of way where the trail sits be taken off the transportation plan to prevent future development along that corridor, and preserve it for recreation. Please show up if you can-- warm bodies are needed!

Councilor Nordyke attended the meeting and has expressed an initial level of enthusiasm.

Councilor Nordyke reposted the notice

Revisiting Marine Drive and West Salem Loop Concept After the SRC

While the SRC remained active, Marine Drive seemed like a dangerous Trojan Horse, a way to smuggle in just enough of the bridge package to make that bridge and highway inevitable.

Now that the Record of Decision is for no-build, and the MPO is reverting Marine Drive from some kind of arterial back to a collector-rated street in their plans, it may be time for a reassessment.

I'm not sure I am at all very enthusiastic about Marine Drive, and I think its helpful qualities are still being oversold, but it may be more reasonable to be neutral on it rather than strongly opposed. And there are still questions about how it fits the edges of Wallace Marine Park. But it could also helpfully connect missing middle houing, or bigger apartment blocks, in a configuration that works well with the Union Street Bridge and walking, biking, or busing in low-car lifestyles.

At the same time, proponents of a trail system in West Salem are making the rounds, and that idea, which piggybacks on the Marine Drive right-of-way, may deserve reassessment too.

Marine Drive, power line ROW, Edgewater
(via Facebook)

Still, for all the reasons in "The Prospect of more Biking on Paths in Salem" I remain doubtful about too much emphasis on paths.

1914 Knighton at Hillcrest Worth Extra Care and Attention

Since we did such a crappy job with Le Breton Hall at Fairview and Howard Hall at the Blind School (see especially posts from 2013-2015), it's worth thinking more about the earliest building at Hillcrest, the former State Industrial School for Girls. That building might still be an instance of institutional architecture, but the State Architect was William C. Knighton, whom we celebrate for Deepwood from 1893 and the Supreme Court building completed in 1914. Stylistically it might be a minor example of Knighton's oeuvre, but as part of the history of State institutions in Salem, with each round of demolition the surviving buildings, like this one, gain significance.

The first building at Hillcrest was a Knighton
It looks like it could be cleaned-up and restored!

April 13th, 1914

Stream of Mystery and too much Open Space: Shelton Ditch and Pringle Creek Paths

As of last weekend, the Cherries at the Capitol hadn't started to open. Some earlier ornamental varieties were in perfect bloom elsewhere around the city, including Mill Race Park by Pringle Plaza, but not the ones at the Capitol.

This weekend they'll probably be opening, and in the gaps between any rains, be sure to enjoy them!

Incidental to the interpretive panel on the Winter Street Bridge was a reminder of the plaque for the Shelton Creek Bridge of more than a generation ago.

Shelton Creek Bridge and Dedication Plaque, 1984

Minto Bridge and Dedication Plaque, 2017 - City of Salem

And that brought to mind the installation this past year of the dedication plaque for the Minto Bridge.

There's no sustained comparison here at the moment, but it's interesting to remember and consider how shiny, new, exciting things fade into the background to become mere furniture we take for granted.

The walk was also a chance to consider in more detail some of the locations and concepts for the "Arts and Parks Corridor" some have discussed.

Camp under Center St Bridge Shows Problems with Ramp Spaghetti

The ramp spiral under the Center Street Bridge

On Facebook there's a post about the camp on the spiral ramp under the east side of the Center Street Bridge in Riverfront Park. In less than 24 hours, it's gained quite a bit of traction, even gone fully viral. It successfully cranked up the outrage machine.

But the camp's been around for a while, and under the canopy of the bridge deck the area's always been attractive for camping.

The camp in early December 2017

The poster on Facebook says sarcastically, "thanks for letting them take over a pedestrian and bicycle path."

I'm not sure this criticism is offered in good faith. (Have they ever criticized any other blockage by cars of bike lanes or other problems with sidewalks and walking paths? It seems more likely that the blockage is merely a stick for beating on the campers. It's not important, however, to speculate more on the motives of this particular person or their criticism.)

Bike Tax, Scorching at Minto, Lyons Retirement - Newsbits

You probably already know about the proposed expansion for the $15 bicycle excise tax. The Department of Revenue wants to "simplify" collection, and others see the need to correct the errant miscategorization of battery-assist ebikes. There are a few other elements that might seem to need a "fix."

Funny that it was front page news

BikePortland has a more focused story on it. They report there's a formal Work Session on it today at 5:30pm, in Hearing Room D.

(I haven't spent much time on it because while it is a very dumb tax, it is a small tax and not a catastrophic tax. It has seemed like there were much more important focuses for criticism, advocacy, and protest. Our bike shops, too, have mostly rolled with it. If they aren't fussing, maybe it's not such a big deal.)

Scorching at Minto Park

The January/February newsletter of the Salem Bicycle Club has a bit on the problem of scorching in Riverfront and Minto parks. Back in October at a club meeting, City staff talked a little about it. "The biggest complaint...is cyclists going too fast." When I am on foot, that's certainly my experience. That's not to say that dog-walkers with too-long leashes or groups spread out all across the paths might not be annoying, but people on foot should the primary users, have the primary claim, and when we are on bike the rest of us should accommodate them, not the other way around.

(from the January/February Spokes)

New-ish "Pass with Care" signs all around Minto Park

Over the winter the City's installed new "Pass with Care" signs throughout the path system.

(More on the history of scorching here. It is unfortunately something of a perennial problem with people biking!)

Sheila Lyons

Sheila Lyons, manager of the Bicycle and Pedestrian program at ODOT, is retiring today.

So a tip of the cap and clink of pint to Lyons! She took over in 2007 from Michael Ronkin, and now it's time for another transition.

The Prospect of more Biking on Paths in Salem

Things are still slow at the start of the new year, and without much in the way of substantive things to think about, maybe it is a little interesting to consider - even overreact to, since there's not enough talk yet to conclude there's a legitimate trend really - recent murmurs about biking on path systems.

Without a strong commitment to separated bike lanes on busy streets, a commitment to a separated trail system is inadequate. Too often the trail system becomes an attempt to get non-drivers out of the way of cars.

You might recall the proposal for a temporary path on a Marine Drive alignment from the past couple of years in the SRC debate.

More recently, though we haven't yet seen a list of proposed bike share stations from Capitol City Cycleshare or from the City, last month they posted a note from one of the charettes for the update to the Riverfront Park Plan, and it showed some docking stations in the park itself.

Snapshot from a charette board with Capitol City Cycleshare

Over on the Council FB group, a person posted a note about Dutch "cycle highways," and in response another person writes:

I am so frustrated with ODOT and their Bicycle Planning office. They insist that bikes be in bike lanes within the right of way. Local governments follow those rules. As a bicyclist I always considered that dangerous, i.e. being passed by semi-trucks by inches. We've had kids killed in Salem by passing trucks. The Radburn system simply plans vehicular roads as separate from pedestrian bike paths. Again, Sunriver or Black Butte are local examples of communities that are intelligently planned. I worked on Livingston new town. Other good examples are Stevenage, Harlow, and Cumbernauld. The last one is a Scottish hill town with the shops at the top of the hill, then radiating paths to the neighborhoods. Vehicles are a totally separate network, with of course no sidewalks.There are some good ones in Sweden and Denmark also.

So there's a small cluster of some sentiment in favor putting bikes on dedicated paths apart from the street system.

That sounds great, but there are reasons it might be concerning.

Arts and Parks Corridor Concept Great for Walking, not for Biking

Arts and Parks Corridor concept (comments in red added)

This summer you might have noticed some versions circulating of a subway style map for an "arts and parks" set of connections.

That project now has a facebook page and a more focused advocacy effort.

Certainly, for walking it's an unambiguously terrific idea, and deserves full support.

But conceived as a set of bike routes, at present it is impossible, it it is likely to remain problematic.

This will be criticism of detail, not criticism of the "big picture" concept, please note! It's just that currently you can walk this route, but you can't really bike it, and significant, big interventions will be necessary for it to be a meaningful and useful bike route.

Historic Downtown Route and 2012 Salem Bike Map
(click to enlarge)

You might recall the first iteration of Travel Salem's "Historic Downtown" bike route. Like this "Arts and Parks" concept, it also tried to loop in Riverfront Park, Bush and Deepwood, the Mill and the Capitol. But it had fatal flaws that made it impossible to use.

This new concept is focused more on walking, and it may be that instead of trying to brand it for "Pedestrian and Bike," it should just be for walking, a walking map and set of walking routes. That's valuable by itself.

The chief problems for biking are numbered in red on the map at top.

Eugene Parklets Show Mixed Results; New Mill Race Path Skirts Industry

Thanks to an expert guide, beyond the desolate industrial park and the new bridges to EMX on the Fern Ridge path, there were a few other things to highlight from a recent visit to Eugene.

One of them was an opportunity to see the winning parklets installed on the street.

Three of the four winning parklets in Eugene
"Vivid Summer," on the left, is full; the other two are empty

Three of them were on Broadway just west of Willamette. This was an area that used to be fully closed to auto traffic and part of the downtown pedestrian mall. SW Oregon Architect has notes on the competition and plans and on a visit to the installations.

Though empty in this image, "Vivid Summer" was sometimes full
via Southwest Oregon Architect

On his visit he lamented that

during my quick stroll-by I found all to be unoccupied, despite plenty of passersby on a busy Saturday afternoon. They appeared forlorn and all too quickly forsaken.

This was not what I saw the weekend before, or what I heard about the weekend of Sunday Streets a week prior to that. I saw and heard that one of the parklets - but not all four of them - seemed to enjoy consistent visitors. That was the "Vivid Summer" project.

It may have offered better seating, better chances to mingle and socialize, and a more dynamic set of levels.

New Eugene Footbridges Will Connect Paths and Bus Rapid Transit

New footbridge across Amazon Creek at Buck Street
(Yeah, that's a paceline in the background on the Fern Ridge path)

With the Minto Bridge in the news this past week, it seemed like a good time to consider a somewhat similar bridge project in Eugene.

It was the top ranked bike/ped project:
Eugene's bridges connect streets and bike paths to transit

You may remember a few years back that Eugene and the Lane Transit District had put together a ConnectOregon application for lottery funding on three footbridges across Amazon Creek to connect neighborhoods, commercial areas, and the Fern Ridge path system to the westside expansion of EMX, Eugene's Bus Rapid Transit system, which opens September 17th.

The bridge project hit some kind of magic multi-modal trifecta, scored very highly, and secured funding easily.

Two of the three bridges are now complete, and this summer construction is proceeding on the third and final bridge.

Trail and Path System in new Parks Master Plan Finally Posted

In mid-December you may recall that the draft Parks Master Plan was released for public comment.

But it wasn't complete!

Yes, they were missing.

Well now they have the maps. You can see the full pdf here.

Here's Map 4, the Proposed Trail System!

In Chapter 6, "Recommendations," there are four "linear parks" proposed and some 50 "connector trails." They're hard to see on the dinky clip, so click through to the full pdf if you're interested.  Still, you can see the straight shot along a power line easement in West Salem, a riverfront trail along the Willamette River to Keizer, a 25th St./Airway Drive path, a long path along Kuebler/Cordon Road, an I-5 connector, and a Mill Creek path.  Plus lots of other smaller ones.

In Chapter 7 on "Implementation" and priorities, only two trails rank highly enough for "tier 1" listing:  The Croisan Trail Connector and the Minto Park Path and Bridge.