City Council, Oct 8th - Minto Bridge and Cemetery

The two big-ticket items for Council on Monday are the re-opened hearing on the alley adjacent to the Pioneer and City View cemeteries, and consideration of the funding strategy for the Minto Bridge and Path.

The City proposes to reallocate $3 million in Riverfront Downtown Urban Renewal Area funds for construction and to "increase the competiveness of future grant applications for the project."

According to the staff report, the City is $7 million short:

To date, $1,930,000 in Riverfront Downtown URA and $212,700 in South Waterfront URA funding has been committed to support design and permitting of the Bridge and Trail. Additional funding of approximately $6,200,000 for the Bridge and $800,000 for the Trail is needed for final design and construction....

To date, the only grant awarded is a $60,000 grant from the Oregon Business Development Department's Brownfields Redevelopment Program to fund environmental assessment in the location of the future Bridge and Trail. Feedback from other granting agencies indicates the funding gap for the Bridge and Trail is too large, leading to uncertainty regarding the ability to finance the project.

In order to shift the funds, the following reductions would be made - reductions to which the Downtown Advisory Board has given consent, it should be noted.

$1,300,000 - Reduce Existing Toolbox Loan Program Funds
$1,000,000 - Reduce Demonstration Grant Allocation
$150,000 - Eliminate Streetscape Funds
$550,000 - Reduce Ending Fund Balance
$3,000,000 - TOTAL

Without more information it's hard to evaluate the impact of these cuts, but I think it might be true that these are programs that have had difficulty soliciting applications, and so it might be that the money is in a sense idle and not being used as effectively as it might. So it may not be wholly accurate to characterize these as "cuts." Hopefully more detail will come out about this. 

At the same time, the strategy sure leaves the impression that we may not be getting the full story.

Bumps and Gables in NE Salem

You may recall a very brief note about speed bumps going in on NE 21st in the Englewood neighborhood. The project grew slightly to embrace bumps on Evergreen at the same time.

The bumps are going in this week, it turns out.

The location is on some bikeways, and with the traffic calming, Evergreen may now be even better for bicycling. Ellis is also an important east-west route with connections to a school and park.

Just to the east of Evergreen, and unlike Evergreen, Park street has a traffic light, which is critical for crossing Market street and connections north-south.  It will be interesting to see if perhaps with traffic calming on Evergreen, Park will gain more traffic and become less comfortable. It already has a couple of right-angled jogs, and some car drivers take the turns too quickly or tightly. 

In any event, projects like this might also consider the installation of sharrows and a 20mph speed limit.  You may recall HB 3150, which created the 20mph designation.  Portland is using it extensively and it could be a tool in Salem neighborhoods for traffic calming.

Neighbor complaints about car speeds were driving this installation, as I understand it.  At some point, hopefully, in some places we'll turn from a negative, complaint-driven process to a pro-active process, making things easier for people who bike.  It will be great to see the City install traffic calming to benefit people who bike before there's a documented pattern of complaints about people in cars. 

Further north, a new dental clinic just off Lancaster is going in.

A Bakfiets for Baby: Biking Family Style with the Allens

One of the best moments of last weekend was surprise at seeing a bakfiets in Salem on Saturday.

But not at all surprising were its new owners, Stephanie and Jim Allen.

The bike had just been in town for two hours when I passed by and saw it being rolled into the driveway. While such cargo bikes might not be unusual in Eugene and Portland, I'm pretty sure this is the very first one in Salem!  Congratulations to Jim and Stephanie:  Salem needs more of this!

Stephanie at Ventis

When babies are too young to sit up, the cargo box can hold the baby seat, and so for short trips, the bike can remain a useful vehicle for Mom.  The speeds are slow, safer than higher speed auto travel, and there can be direct visual connection between Mom and baby - not possible in a car.  Plus, think of the groceries it can hold!

Cargo bikes offer lots of possibilities to extend family time and family biking!

(Thanks to Stephanie for the photos!)

At State Hospital New Bike Parking for Employees; Cremains Memorial Update

Oregon State Hospital

With Nurse Ratched, the Cuckoo's Nest, and the museum opening in the news, it seemed like a good time to check in on the State Hospital.

Though the new construction has included at least 4 bike parking installations, two on the periphery and open to the public, and two other interior sites, they are uncovered and not always conveniently located.

The largest one is outside the physical plant building, but it is uncovered, lacks a curb cut so you can roll into the concrete pad, and is annoyingly distant from the doors, placed on the far edge of the lot, as far away as it can be. It sends more of a second-class message than a new state-of-the-art facility should convey.

Bike Parking at OSH - Exiled Across Lot, Uncovered

At least for employees, it looks like improvements are coming! A Minor Historic Design Review approved two shelters located on the interior of the hospital campus, one 18x10 feet, the other 26x10 feet. 

A number of State Hospital staff ride bikes to work, and there is no reason this new, modern facility should not also have more than the minimum for bike parking.

Building 60 with wall to be modified in shadow

David Maisel, Library of Dust

You may recall the debate over the cremains memorial. The Hearings Officer has issued his decision on the appeal, ruling that the evidence in the appeal was not persuasive, and affirming the decision by the Landmarks Commission.

This will be a fascinating and moving installation, and it will be most interesting to track its progress and its ultimate effect. I can't help but wonder if seeing all the canisters will be a shattering experience, and the site a place for devotions and grief of many kinds, far from the careless tourism some critics feared.

(Indeed, if there is carelessness to be feared, it could be from the way the museum may be milking the pop-culture status of Hollywood and film in order to make a spectacle out of the museum opening.)

Walk+Bike to School Day Inspires Reporter

Statesman Journal Education reporter Stefanie Knowlton wrote yesterday

Only four out of Salem-Keizer’s 65 schools signed up for International Walk to School Day Wednesday. And two of them already pulled out. “People aren’t into it for some reason,” said David Lemons, the PE teacher at Salem Heights, one of the two remaining schools. “I don’t understand it,” he said, “to me it’s a no brainer.”

About one Salem school, B+ noted the changes:

I have a friend who works in another elementary school here in Salem who saw a picture of that school taken back in the 1970’s. The bike racks are crammed full. Today, that same school (still in a neighborhood with many children, and with few major changes in streets or driving conditions) has a much smaller bike rack that rarely has many bikes in it at all. Her explanation: a combination of the psychology of fear, increased sedentation, and the perception that bicycling is for “poor kids.” So, now, each day there is a major traffic snarl around the school while many parents transport their children a few blocks to and from home.

So Stefanie's taking action - and for a longer distance no less!

Off my high horse and into a bike saddle. Lack of interest in Walk to School Day inspires me to bike 7 miles community.statesmanjournal.com/blogs/educatio… #SJnow
— Stefanie Knowlton (@SJEducation) October 3, 2012

Go Stephanie!

Look in the paper for an update at the end of her day of riding.

Green Apple Community Ride on Winter St via Flickr

Over at the Green Apple blog, Jeremy has a wrap about last Saturday's events and writes "About 50 kids and 20 or so adults attended the Bike Rodeo for bike tune-ups, safety class, and skills course. Later that morning about 40 kids and 20 or so adults took the 2 1/2 - 3 mile community bike ride from Grant Community School to McKinley."

Sounds like a nice event!

What happened at your school?

Thursday follow-up:

We made just in time for circle time, and I arrived to work on time on International Walk to School Day. #sjnow twitter.com/SJEducation/st…
— Stefanie Knowlton (@SJEducation) October 3, 2012

On the SJ education blog (unfortunately not in the blurb on the front of today's Mid-Valley section!), Stefanie writes that the experience far exceeded her expectations:

[a brief stretch of walking bikes up a hill] gave Alex a chance to pocket a few acorns. You can’t do that in the car. Next we zoomed down the 12th street hill. “Woohoo,” I yelled and Alex yelled, too.

We cut over on Hines Street and stopped for a train. That’s one thing that doesn’t change. Alex spotted a few train engines we never noticed before...

What a great morning. It made me realize that all those fears that kept me from biking (it’s too far, the cars are too close, too many hills or we’ll go too fast downhill), were unfounded.

I felt safe and in control the whole time, and Alex had the biggest grin when I leaned in and told him how proud I was that he biked to school today.

Bridge Designer Conde McCullough Subject of Lecture Wednesday

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 3rd, at 6:30 p.m. in Loucks Auditorium Robert Hadlow, Senior Historian with ODOT, and author of Elegant Arches, Soaring Spans, will give a lecture on bridge designer Conde McCullough.

McCullough's bridges on the coast, including the one in Newport over Yaquina Bay, highlight his career, but he lived in Salem for a chunk of his life, and many much more modest bridges are thought to have been designed under his guidance.

You may recall the Commercial Street bridge by the Civic Center, whose plans he checked, but who did not seem to be responsible for the design.

Currently neighborhood advocates are researching the Church Street bridge over Pringle Creek and Shelton Ditch.

It has many original lanterns that need repair, and preliminary research suggests it could be more closely associated with McCullough, especially as he lived just a block away.

Lanterns on Church Street Bridge

(You may also have seen the stone artifacts on the gravel bed below!)

Just how close McCullough was to the design of Salem's bridges in the 20s and 30s still remains a matter of conjecture, but the coast bridges that are indisputably his are magnificent.

There's a lot of talk about bridges these days, some of it contentious, but here's an opportunity for delight and maybe even a little wonder.  So check out the lecture!

New Bike Map Almost Gone - Call for Edits on Second Print Run

In less than a year the first print run of the new bike map is almost gone, and folks are planning a reprint!

One of the reasons for a slightly smaller initial print run was to make incremental and/or iterative edits easier, and it looks like things are working as planned!

Ray Jackson from the Mid-Willamette Council of Governments writes:

The Salem/Keizer, Marion/Polk/Yamhill bicycle maps (aka “Biking in the Mid-Willamette Valley”) are scheduled to be republished by Cherriots Rideshare later this fall –most of the 3500 from the first printing have been distributed to public agencies, bike stores and on to the public in the three counties. The maps need to be modified to include the revised route for the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway, so this is an opportunity to do some other minor editing. If people have noticed any mistakes or omissions in the bike map, please send them to me for consideration by October 12, 2012: rjackson@mwvcog.org

They aren't looking for major edits or revisions. One thing that's been mentioned several times is that for someone not familiar with Salem or an area, there might be enough street labels to use the bike map as a primary navigation source - a second map with all street names has sometimes been necessary to find a store or an address. The scope of this change or others like it may be too big for this round.

But still! It's great the map is in circulation, that there's clear demand for it, and that there is a means for updating and printing.

(Remember, the electronic version is available as pdf, lower-res jpegs, and kml for the googleearth.)

Thanks Ray and thanks to Cherriots!