Portland Re-legalizes Middle Housing and Dumps Costly Parking Mandates

The Portland zoning reform for middle housing and small plexes passed Portland City Council today.

Portland removed costly mandated parking
and legalized middle housing citywide - via Sightline

For more see this written just before the vote, "Portland will pass the best low-density zoning reform in US history. The reform sets a new standard: up to four homes on almost any lot, or up to six homes for price-regulated projects."

Just as in 1926 Salem copied Portland's 1924 zoning laws, which codified exclusionary zoning, in Our Salem we should strongly follow this modern revival to re-legalize small plexes, eliminate costly parking mandates, and work towards more affordable and more inclusionary housing.

There will likely be more to say about the zoning reform, and the Sightline piece is a great place to start.

(Our 350.org chapter pointed out another recent Sightline article of interest, "Foresters Could Lead on Carbon Drawdown: Simple changes in management could double carbon stores in Pacific Northwest forests." It features the Deumling clan of Zena Forest and their more sustainable forestry practices, both harvesting timber as well as protecting water and wildlife at the same time. Well worth a read.)

Shaving a Foot off the Sidewalk and Bike Lane: At the MPO

The Technical Committee for the MPO convenes Tuesday the 11th and there's just a few items to note in passing. One of them is a perfect encapsulation for where we are: As we face our Climate Emergency, we are still screwing around, still dickering over reducing the width of sidewalks and bike lanes from six feet to five feet wide.

To economize, should we reduce sidewalk and bikelane width?

At MWACT last week, they were talking about maybe designating a specific member, or even adding a new member, as a representative for walking and biking, but the governance structures are never constituted to give these representatives much power or influence.* Generally these positions act as more a kind of greenwash. Until we see the State's walking and biking committee, OPBAC, really able to wield power and influence at ODOT, all of this action and review is on the margins, even literally, and that's why we see a whole agenda item to fussing over whacking a foot of the sidewalk and bike lanes as a value-engineering move.

At MWACT last week (separate from the MPO)

How about we whack down the auto travel lane instead? I bet it's more than 10 feet wide! Or even just delete a whole project for auto capacity?

As long as the framework remains so autoist, "bike-pedestrian representation" is too often merely ornamental and we are stuck with fiddling on the margins of things.

City Council, August 11th - Broadway, Cemetery, Grant School

Council convenes on Monday, and there are three interesting transportation items on the agenda.

Broadway at Pine Street and Counting Lanes

Deceptive language:
Edgewater at Rosemont with four lanes, not three

One of the items concerns the intersection on Broadway at Pine Street:

Shall Council authorize the City Manager to execute the Intergovernmental Agreement with the Oregon Department of Transportation for Right-of-Way Services for the Broadway Street NE at Pine Street NE Improvements Project?....

The Broadway Street NE at Pine Street NE Improvements Project will modify the left-turn signals to protective permissive (flashing yellow arrows); reduce the four-lane roadway to three lanes with a center turn lane between Salem Parkway NE and Pine Street NE; and install a right-turn lane on the northbound leg of Broadway Street NE at Pine Street NE

The City is using deceptive language for the project. It requires a very elastic notion of "reduce" to say that the City will "reduce the four-lane roadway to three lanes with a center turn lane...[and] a right-turn lane." When you count the lanes on a nearly identical cross-section on Edgewater at Rosemont in West Salem, if you count the center turn lane as a lane, you should also count the right-turn lane as a lane, and that yields a total of four lanes (the in-bound, opposite direction lane is assumed).

By including a right-turn lane in the project, this is no longer a 4/3 "reduction" from four to three lanes! It is instead a 4/4 equivalent and no net reduction on this segment.

For more on that, see the note from last month here, "City Poised to Oversize Broadway at Pine Street; Engineer offers Counter."

Cemetery Connection

Councilor Nordyke proposes some next steps on the prospect for a connection at the Cemetery between Candalaria and Fairmount neighborhoods. (Mont/mount is confusing with Rosemont and Fairmount!)

Mighty Oak Breaks and Tumbles at the IOOF Pioneer Cemetery

On a walk over the weekend, it was surprising to see a tree toppled over in the cemetery. It looked like the Oak had a bifurcated trunk, and one of the forks had failed.

Half of an old Oak fell in the cemetery (August 1st, afternoon)

The toppled canopy spread out a ways. The branches wrapped over and around several monuments, but it was not possible to see how much damage if any the tree fall might have caused.

Yesterday evening, crews were wrapping up after removing the branches and piecing up the trunk.

Most of it cut up and removed (August 3rd, evening)

The monument for James Davidson, one of our five Veterans of the War of 1812, was intact.

Driver Strikes and Kills Mrs. Denison during Elks Convention in 1920

The Elks Club held their annual state convention in Salem in 1920, and "thousands" of visitors came to the city. Over the weekend downtown streets were crowded and several drivers crashed into people on foot. On person died, and the case suggests shifting attitudes in normalizing autoism. Streets were for cars.

July 22nd, 1920 focused on Elks convention

July 23rd, 1920

The first stories are clear about the crowded streets and suggest an aggressive driver. From July 23rd, 1920

Right-of-Way Is Taken [on] Crowded Street, One Dead

Mrs. E. K. Denison [E. E. Denison, I believe], age 71, is dead and her husband seriously injured as the aftermath of a convention crowd accident at the corner of State and Commercial streets, Thursday night. Mr. and Mrs. Denison [were] in a group of pedestrians passing along Commercial street and were caught by a car driven by G. W. Wineland, of 1041 South 13th street.

Witnesses of the mishap asserted that Wineland's car had spurted up to about 12 to 15 miles per hour in an attempt to get the right-of-way from Dr. D. X. Beechler, who was approaching from the north on Commercial street. In order to avoid a collision with Wineland's car, Dr. Beechler "killed" his engine and permitted the car to pass. Witnesses stated that Mr. Wineland's attention was drawn to the Beechler car and that he did not see Mr. and Mrs. Denison until his machine was upon them.

That Wineland had absolutely no right to take the right-of-way from Dr. Beechler and to proceed in such a head-long fashion is the opinion of Chief Welsh and others who witnessed the accident. Wineland was not arrested.

In an effort to avert the disaster, Wineland threw on all brakes and stopped within the length of his own car. After the accident, Mr. Wineland left his machine, but according to statements made by him to Chief of Police J. T. Welsh, did not leave the scene as reported but assisted in conveying Mrs. Denison to the hospital, where she died within a short time. The car had passed over the aged woman's head and chest, death being pronounced as due to concussion of the brain.

Mr. Denison. who suffered painful hip injuries [,] was taken to a hospital by Dr. B. F. Pound and Chief Welsh. As usual with large crowds, much thoughtlessness was displayed, the hundreds of curious crowding upon the injured people and interfering with the efforts of those who were administering to the aged couple....

Ponzi Enterprise Collapses, Gives Birth to "Ponzi Scheme": 100 Years Ago

Here's an interesting diversion. 100 years ago the empire of Charles Ponzi began to unravel and his name appears in the paper for the first time locally.

The very first story was published in Salem on July 29th, 1920. Interestingly, only the morning paper, the Statesman, published stories and the Capital Journal was silent in the afternoon, even after the story blew up the next day. They finally picked up the story on August 2nd.

That first story on July 29th is flat and neutral: "The accounts of Charles Ponzi, dealer in international postal coupons, who has obtained several million of dollars from the public on his promise to pay 50 per cent profits, will be audited by county and federal authorities."

July 30th, 1920

By the next day, the stories about the "stamp juggler" were far more lively. From July 30th:

PONZI SAYS
IS OFFERED
10 MILLIONS

Italian Millionaire Stamp
Juggler Tells Pressmen
New York Banker Wants to
Buy His Business

SUSPENDS OPERATIONS
DURING INVESTIGATION

New York Postmaster States
That Such Fortune in
Stamps Impossible

BOSTON. July 29. A New York banker offered him $10,000,000 today for his business, according to a statement Ponzi made to newspapermen tonight. He added that he had not decided whether to accept but would hold another conference with the banker.

Ponzi added that he intended to resume his operations In Boston and other cities where he has branch offices when the district attorney's auditors have completed their investigation, if he did not accept the banker's offer.

He [said] he had been informed by his secretary that he had paid out to customers today about $250,000.

The three-day run on the coffers of Charles Ponzi by doubling investors ia his quick-rich scheme of international postal exchange, continued today while new believers in the possibility of abnormal profit took their money to a rival a few blocks away.

Ponzi, having agreed with District Attorney Pelletier to accept no further deposits until investigation of his accounts had been made, stood in his enlarged offices and saw every thing going out, with no new funds coming in; but although payments in the last two days are estimated to have exceeded a million dollars, he was honoring every demand.

NEW YORK, July 29. Postmaster Patten today declared that the entire world's supply of international postal coupons is not large enough to enable any person to accumulate the fortune which Charles Ponzi, the Boston financier [,] is said to have made through coupon transactions and foreign exchange.

In order to make $8,000,000, the sum which Ponzi is credited with having realized from his operations, 160,000,000 coupons would have been required, according to Postmaster Patten.

"To have made his money in these coupons would have oeen impossible," said Mr. Patten, "for the reason that enough have not [been] printed to permit it. There are not enough coupons In the world. Here In New York we keep not more than 27,000 on hand, the demand for them is so small."

The records of the New York post office, Mr. Patten explained, show that only $370.50 was paid to redeem coupons during the three months ending June 30 and only $360 worth of coupons were sold here during that period.

After nearly daily updates on the developing story, by the middle of August authorities had arrested Ponzi. We all know how the story ends!

August 13th, 1920

On Climate: Maybe Stop Digging First? At the MPO

Our local Metropolitan Planning Organization meets today, Tuesday the 28th, and they'll be discussing prospective greenhouse gas reduction rules coming from the State.

Agenda item on GHG reduction rule-making

One of the questions is about staging order and phasing.

Five (or six?) concepts for GHG reduction rulemaking

There are several wrinkles in play, and I have not followed this part of the analysis or debate, and so it is hard to have a firm opinion.

But at a more intuitive, if perhaps superficial, level, it seems like we should apply the old bromide: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."