City Council, May 13th - Minor Updates on OSH North Campus and UGM Shelter

Council meets on Monday, and this week it's the formal "information items," rather than action items that are of greatest interest. Status reports on the North Campus of the State Hospital and on the new UGM Shelter lead the way.

Proposed path system at the North Campus
They're just lines on a map

At the North Campus of the State Hospital, the Planning Commission approved the first development. It will have single-family lots on Park and D, but no driveways on Park or D, and the interior streets with cul-de-sacs will function as an alley. The multi-family portion will just have a parking lot system, and the provision for "pedestrian connections" looks problematic. Once it is built out, we will mourn the fact that the grid breaks down and there will not be a full set of interior streets. There will be lines on the map to "connect" Center and D Streets, Park and 25th, but these will not be very effective, and will be a set of Potemkin connections instead. If you are walking in the neighborhood, you probably won't feel "invited" onto the path. Instead, you will skirt the development and keep on Park, 25rd, and D. Streets signal "public space" in a way the path system does not, and the paths will look private, even though there will be public access easements.

North Campus: These amended conditions look hinky

The total effect will be for a compound, and the project does not appear headed to a vibrant outcome.  It's dull.

UGM will retain the green cottage, but demolish the other two
(via Streetview)

The Planning Administrator approved some changes to the UGM Shelter project on Division and Commercial. Two lots that had been excluded, with a century old cottage and a boxy storefront, will now be purchased by the UGM, and they needed to be folded into the site plan. Plans indicate the cottage will be saved, but the storefront demolished. The way the project greets Division Street looks nice and human and reasonable. Hopefully the businesses will be able to move and will not be adversely impacted. (Update: It's been appealed. Update 2: CANDO reports the appeal has been withdrawn.)

Greenhouse Gas Assessment points to Cars

The City's published the full draft greenhouse gas inventory, and it's all about the cars.

55% from transport - but only 1% of that 55% from the airport!

It was interesting to see the airport's contribution. I wish they'd added in the prospect of commercial air service.

But at the same time, it may be that it's more important right now to focus on the cars, not on the planes.

There's also more on why they consider the incinerator such a small source of CO2. So again, like with planes, it may not be very important to focus right now on the incinerator. (As a separate matter, heavy metals and other poisons might be a reason to transition away from it, but CO2 is not a strong reason right now.)

The incinerator is a very small source of CO2

Here's the revised pie chart with the proportions. It's all about the cars.

55% from cars, 1% from garbage

The draft report card is less easy to summarize. It is manifestly partial, very much a first draft and work-in-progress. The yellows indicate areas in which we have not articulated a target or standard by which to judge. These require more refinement to be useful.

Downtown Parklets Pilot is Underwhelming

Have you had a chance to check out the two pair of parklets downtown?

On Liberty Street, exactly the size of a parking stall

It's great to see the City employ a "tactical urbanism" approach to pilot a concept for which there had been some hesitation during the Sidewalk Study.

On Commercial street, four stalls worth

Even so, over on FB a note about the parklets occasioned nearly 100 comments and lots of emotion.

We have a climate crisis, we have a City budget deficit, we will have an algae problem in water supply again, and in a classic expression of "the color of the bike shed" what really gets people worked up is the temporary loss of 6 parking stalls on low-demand block faces.

Our Salem and GHG Assessment Holds Open House Wednesday

Today we have articles about a Spring heatwave and new news about the sixth Great Extinction in earth's history.

(the Oregonian)

On Friday the Eugene Register-Guard ran a piece about changes to whale movements and tide pool ecosystems in California.

Climate's affect on Tide pools and Whales
(Friday's Register Guard)

But making connections and threading climate through the whole remains elusive. Stories remain siloed and disconnected.

On Saturday stories about youth (and their future) and cap and trade legislation jostled against a story about our thirst for air travel. But the story was silent on increased emissions from air travel.

But no connection between airports and emissions
(Saturday's SJ)

It should be alarming that our desperate thirst for commercial air service is seen as an unambiguously good thing. But while "grad rate remedies" are important for parents and school board members, they do not loom over the future quite like climate.

Back in March

It would be "just great" for the adults to improve graduation rates and to trash the world those graduates inherit and attempt to inhabit.

Our Salem - Is a Climate Action Plan a Solution?

Last month the Advisory Committee for Our Salem met and received a presentation with some preliminary findings on greenhouse gas emissions as well as on other "indicators." On Wednesday the 8th, the City's hosting an Open House for the materials.

Places for Bikes City Ratings Ranks Salem Low Again

This morning Places for Bikes released their new City Rankings, and Salem stayed the same.

No surprise: Not so good (full scorecard)

Last year we were at 1.5 stars. This year we are also at 1.5 stars.

Interestingly, Eugene jumped from 1.9 to 3.4 stars.

Eugene makes a big jump this year, led by "acceleration"

This probably reflects some changes in formula and methodology, but it also reflects the "acceleration" assessment, which jumped from 0.6 to 3.8.

That seems like a little bit of overcorrection. It's not clear that things in Eugene have changed that much in one year.

So there's still a sense in which this is an evolving set of metrics, and further iterations will continue to refine it.

At the same time, the big picture is correct: Salem's not doing a very good job.

We are not meeting our targets (Our Salem)

There are some recommendations in the report and these might be interesting to visit in more detail later in another post.

Revised Missing Middle Housing Concepts Whiff on Parking

The City finally published the presentation boards from the April 30th workshop on Missing Middle Housing, and the way they are handling parking is going to doom the project to ineffectiveness.

Require 1 space  per unit even on triplexes

But these 3- and 4-plexes don't have parking!

Here are the posters and code concepts.

If we want missing middle housing to be as affordable as possible, and if we want to encourage more of it, insisting that large portions of a lot be allocated to car storage is inefficient and costly, and will hamper development of these.

Vick Bros Sell to Watt Shipp et. al., who form Valley Motor Company

In the Bicycle Week ad for 1919 we saw Watt Shipp's name among the other bike dealers in Salem. Shipp had built a general sporting goods business and diversified into blasting powder.

April 23rd, 1919

In 1919 Shipp made another move. Like Otto J. Wilson a decade earlier, Shipp decided to sell automobiles.

In April the Vick Bros decided to focus on tractor sales and this required a move to Portland. They sold their Ford dealership on High Street to a partnership that included Watt Shipp. The new dealership's name was Valley Motor Co.