Open House for Regional Transportation Plan; Thoughts on Walking Kuebler

The draft Regional Transportation System Plan is out, and SKATS has announced some open houses and other events. One is tomorrow, Wednesday, April 1st.

Carbon is a huge void at the center of the plan
Draft RTSP, with chart from CO2Now

The first thing to say about the RTSP is again that carbon is missing.

But it's important to understand that mostly the RTSP is a compilation of projects - not an originator of them - fed into it by the cities of Keizer and Salem, by Polk and Marion counties, and by ODOT. The document reflects the priorities and policies of its member organizations far more than it sets the priorities and policies.

So it's not like this is the best advocacy opportunity to lobby for including one project and cutting another.

It will be more useful, for example, to lobby the City of Salem for bike boulevards than to try to lobby the RTSP process to include them.

1,584 injuries = lots of unnecessary healthcare costs!
SKATS 2013 summary

Still, here are three things to consider passing along as public comment:

• We need more attention to carbon and greenhouse gas emissions
• The Third Bridge remains an enormous folly - that's one project it's totally worth criticizing.
• More and more cities are embracing "vision zero." We tolerate a lot of death and serious injury as acceptable "costs" of using the roads and of road-widening to reduce congestion. If we actually wanted to, we could do a lot more with reducing speeds and better engineering roads for safety.

The Open House is Wednesday the 1st. It's from 5 pm to 7 pm at 100 High St. SE, Suite 200, above in the first-floor lobby between Bar Andaluz and Table Five 08. Ah, it's a street-level, First Wednesday kind of thing. That's nice.

Want more? Read on...

Portland Road Study Posts New Memo; NGRAB Meets Thursday

On Friday the City posted a new memo to the North Gateway Redevelopment Advisory Board for the meeting on Thursday the 2nd.

The title is "PORTLAND ROAD CORRIDOR - OPPORTUNITIES AND NEEDS ANALYSIS OUTLINE" and it is in the meeting packet here.

In no small part because it concerns a smaller area than the citywide jobs and housing study, the EOA-HNA, it's more specific and, consequently, more interesting.

But first, though, if there's one overwhelming impression, it is this: Since there's already city infrastructure and all this undertutilized industrial land along Portland Road, why are we screwing around with the undeveloped Mill Creek parcel and our "Renewable Energy and Technology Center" instead of redeveloping along the Portland Road corridor?

Maybe there are good reasons, but from a glance it seems like they boil down to "shiny! new!" And shiny and new is almost always less sustainable than recycling.

Should this be the priority?

How is this more sustainable than redeveloping existing land?

In addition to carbon pollution, we also aren't probably talking enough about water.

Drought on the Front Page

Are we facing the prospect of a mega-drought?

Seriously, our planning for industrial and commercial development doesn't factor in the prospect of increasing scarcity of clean - and tasty - tapwater from our mountain source. If you don't want to drink water from the Willamette, this is important.

Fish and Flowers and Walking; A Quibble on Mill Creek

A little over a week ago there was some twittering chatter about big fish in Mill Creek. The days of a salmon run in the creek are in the mythic past, it seems, and so it was something to investigate!

At the Front Street Bridge there were fish! Lots of them.

Unfortunately, a reader confirms, the fish are almost certainly suckerfish - but they're big! 18 - 24 inches, maybe more. They're probably spawning.

Still, life in the urban creek is interesting.

We don't talk about life in the creeks enough, and our city parks and plans don't really involve the creeks much. It's like we only talk about them when there's flooding. Once the Boise project is done, there will be a path along Shelton Ditch and Pringle Creek almost continuously from 12th street to the Willamette River. That's going to be neat. But we have very little pathage along our other downtown creek, along Mill Creek.

Moreover, the paths always sit on the shoulder or benchland, well above the creek, never related to a wading pool or anything. Only behind the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs is there a picnic table at the creek. Mostly we turn our backs on the creeks.

So chasing down the fish story was a bit of a special adventure.

On Front Street where it and the tracks cross Mill Creek a very pleasant discovery was an old cherry or plum tree in bloom by one of the Truitt Bros. warehouses. Especially adorning the industrial area, it was a minor astonishment.

This year!

Unfortunately the tree blossoms will be mostly be gone this weekend but the early and sunny spring has offered special treats. Camas, for example, is blooming right now. Don't miss it!

Camas in Bush Park, the second week of April 2014
We're two or three weeks ahead this year - don't miss it!

With Mill Creek on the mind...

Carnegie Library Architect George Post, not Polk, Designed McKinley Elementary School!

You probably saw the hullaballoo over House Concurrent Resolution 13 observing the 100th anniversary of McKinley Elementary School.

The anniversary was also celebrated in the most recent issue of the newsletter by the Historic Landmarks Commission.

Salem Landmark, Spring 2015

It was interesting to learn that during the 1918 influenza pandemic, the school was actually used as a hospital.

But there's one important detail that's not quite right.

The city awarded the contract to build the school to the firm of Snook and Traver. The total value of the contract was $20,130.13. The city also paid architect George Polk $400 to complete plans and specification. In October 1915, construction on the McKinley School was complete.

But the architect wasn't George Polk, he was George Post.

October 9th, 1915

The Capital Journal says

Designed by Architect George M. Post, the building is regarded as much the best in this district, and has been constructed with economy and efficiency.

And the Statesman agrees.

Cherriots Board Considers Standing up 4 Transit

The Cherriots Board meets tomorrow, Thursday the 26th, and in many ways the most interesting item on the agenda is a resolution to participate in "Stand Up 4 Transportation" Day, April 9th.

From the American Public Transportation Association (APTA):

On April 9, 2015, APTA Chair Phil Washington is asking members to coordinate and hold events and advocacy in their local communities, while Members of the U.S. Congress are in their home districts during the Spring congressional recess. The effort is intended to convince federal officials to support passage of a good surface transportation bill before the expiration of the MAP 21 extension. Its focus will be on media events and rallies and other defined actions where participants might include mayors and other state or local officials, U.S. Senators and Representatives, and coalition partners in the community.

We need a new transportation bill - APTA

The hashtag and motto say "transportation," but the bullets are mostly about transit:

• Public transit and highway grants funded from the Highway Trust Fund cannot be made without an authorization bill. Congress needs to pass a new surface transportation authorization before MAP 21 expires on May 31!
• Show how public transportation spurs growth in your community, using Where Public Transportation Goes, Community Grows message.
• Outline how your community will be at risk if there is no federal funding, i.e., service reductions, layoffs, stoppage of projects, etc.

And it goes on with many more.

So here's a great opportunity for Cherriots to "Stand Up 4 Transit."

Cherriots' "New Vision"

Remember Gil and the idea of a "new vision"?

Crossing Wallace Road at West Salem Business District Open House Wednesday

Don't forget about the Open House for the West Salem Business District tomorrow, on Wednesday.

Open House on the 25th

They'll be showing a solid idea that has metastasized - and it needs a therapeutic intervention!

Marine Drive-2nd Street connection
overwhelms the path and park

For several months now there has been talk of making a connection along Second Street by going under Wallace Road. Earlier versions of the underpass showed car access terminating at Cornucopia, just a block or two in from Wallace.

Local MPO meets Tuesday, Draft Regional Transportation Systems Plan Released

The Policy Committee for our local Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study, meets on Tuesday, and they'll advance the 2015-2035 Regional Transportation Systems Plan with a public draft and public review process.

Carbon is a huge void at the center of the plan
Draft RTSP, with chart from CO2Now

The most significant thing about the RTSP is the donut hole: At the center of it there is a huge void where we should have talk and policy about greenhouse gas emissions.

In the complete document of 219 pages, the word "carbon" appears 15 times - but 14 of them are about "carbon monoxide" only.

"Greenhouse gas" appears 8 times, and the sentiment is summed this way:

Greenhouse Gases (GhG), which were a major topic in 2008‐2009 for the Oregon legislature, has not received much attention in subsequent sessions. It remains to be seen when the SKATS area will be required to address the issue as Portland and Eugene‐Springfield were required.

The Policy Committee has been skeptical, unwilling to do more than was "required." At last month's meeting on the 24th, they reaffirmed this:

At this point, SKATS is essentially unaffected by the greenhouse gas reduction process. SKATS was asked if they would like to perform a baseline assessment. The response at the time of the request was to wait....

Mike Jaffe expressed concern that SKATS might miss funding opportunities if SKATS doesn’t perform a baseline assessment. He suggested that the SKATS Policy Committee should consider this issue further....

Salem City Councilor Jim Lewis commented that it may not be prudent to appear uncooperative to funding organizations.

Commissioner Brentano commented that he believes that the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions is based on faulty information.

The Carrot has failed, and it's time for the Stick! As it stands now, the only thing that will move our MPO on this is the threat of penalty. Withholding funding is the only language that will have meaning.

There will be a public hearing on the RTSP on May 26th, and perhaps there will be more to say then, especially depending developments with the Legislature or DLCD.