North Front Street Study wins $2.7 Million Grant

This morning online, but not yet in print, the paper has news that on Wednesday the Feds announced that Salem had won a $2.7 million RAISE grant to write a study and plan for Front Street north of Union Street.

Brief one-pager in announcement

There's really not much of substance in the announcement, and so the story (paywalled) is mostly context and a rehearsal of the background.

The one-page fact sheet mentions "nine at-grade rail crossings" missing "crossing gates or warning lights." But it does not mention anything about studying relocating the rails. This remains a confusing part of the study concept. The railroad runs right down the center of Front Street there! That's a real multi-modal challenge. How it deals with the railroad will be one of the most interesting, if not absolutely the most interesting, part of the project. (And what about running a WES extension down the line, which is the former Oregon Electric route, and about which there is more and more talk?)

Earlier this year the City had said "The total budget is expected to be between $2.5 and $5.0 million." The grant amount of $2.7 million is on the low end, and that could shape expectations for the final plan. 

See previous notes on the former Truitt Bros. Cannery and prospects for a future project, very much at the center of the Front Street analysis. It's hard to see the timeline on redeveloping the cannery site, since reshaping Front Street will be years away.

Salem Still Scores Poorly in People for Bikes City Ratings

The annual City Rating from People for Bikes is out, and Salem still rates pretty poorly, though perhaps with a tick upwards.

Rating summary

Last year Salem received a numerical rating of 17/100 and was in the 35th percentile overall. We've moved up to 48th percentile! The rating itself of 17 or 23 is surely within a margin of error, though. 

They included chart of seven years of scoring, but also included a weird set of comparables. It would be better to see mid-sized cities in Oregon.

Ratings history (in blue)

All four cities moved up, and it would be interesting to know if the increase is more in a change to the algorithm than real change in Salem and the other cities.

The only significant change I can really think of is the segment of new bike lane on Union Street.

Analysis detail

An important part of the rating, highlighted above in the chart of comparables, is "adjustments to speed limits." 

City Council, June 24th - Baseball

Earlier this week a person many regarded as the greatest living baseball player passed away.

SF Chronicle full front page, Thursday

A century ago, Salemites saw another great, Hall of Famer Bullet Rogan, at Oxford Park, the current site of Santiam Wine and Fitts Seafood.

April 16th, 1921

In opposition to the ballpark improvements neighbors say the benefits accrue solely to private business, and they are opposed to the supposed "commercialization" of the ballpark.

But this is a cramped, narrow view of benefit.

Don't Miss Make Music Day

Sometimes it's all too easy to look with some envy at festivals and public life in other cities. But today, in a direct and unambiguous way, Salem is at the top. Appreciate greatness, Salemites! Seize the moment!

Make Music Salem

Make Music Day is a truly great festival of public space and creativity. It's in the streets, not principally in a park, inside a fence, or in any way restricted. (Though some performance sites have a fence, like Gaiety Hollow, the garden and home for Lord & Schryver. But they have to be free!)

All over the Salem area

It's huge here! The organizers have done a remarkable job with the concept. How often does Salem legit get mentioned with New York and Philadelphia, cultural centers and cities far, far larger?

In the company of larger cities

Alleys, sidewalks, parking lots!
Kids, adults, pros, amateurs on a lark!

So don't miss this fabulous expression of creativity, art, and life.

Steinbock Junk Moved Around a Century Ago, Likely Last Tenant of Big Central School

Over at the Mill they recently posted a "then and now" set on the corner of State and Front.

Steinbock Junk on south side of State Street at Front
(Detail, WHC 2022.044.0138)

With the Furlong Porcelain Empire and the two brick buildings still around, the Manning Building on the corner gets much of the attention.

Downtown Historic District Nomination

But the plain gabled building, sided perhaps in plain corrugated metal, is of interest, H. Steinbock Junk Co. It's been replaced by the Meredith building, currently with the locksmith, and we don't think about the older one at all. The Downtown Historic District Nomination says it was part of Jerman & Pugh's Livery and Feed, and then it "housed 'junk.'"

March 2nd, 1926

We have not given enough attention to "junk"! The "junk problem" was at the center of conversation and debate in the development of our first zoning code. It was not only a discussion of aesthetics and "curb appeal," it was also at least partially ethnically and class coded.

April 16th, 1903

The site on State Street may have first been associated with junk dealers when J. Brownstein & Son moved from Albany to Salem about 1903.

Gussie Belle Brown Apartments at Former General Hospital Site in for Site Plan Review

The first phase of the Gussie Belle Brown affordable housing project has been submitted for site plan review with the City. It is an administrative approval process and there is no formal Public Hearing.

Phase 1 along 23rd Street

The project may be the second actual housing proposed on any of the new MU-I, II, and III zoning. The first, I believe, was the project on MU-I for the corner of Bush and Commercial Streets in Sleepy Hollow. So far that seems to be the only project that meets the spirit of new MU-type zoning.

Other recent projects do not meet the spirit. You may recall a medical clinic in a MU-I zone, and a car dealership and coffee shack going in on a couple of MU-III parcels. Certainly the MU-III zone has seemed a continuation of older commercial zoning, and the "mixed use" part a real misnomer, something that allows the City to talk up the great extent of new mixed use potential. But it reality it's pretty vaporous. The City should consider renaming MU-III so that overall maps of "mixed use" zoning in the city area give a better sense for what is likely and possible rather than what is merely theoretical and highly improbable. Mixed use types would still be allowed, but the name would reference the primary kind of usage rather than a misleading one.

MU-I zoning

The parcel here for the proposed apartment complex is all or nearly all zoned MU-I (apparently there's a tiny bit of CO zoned land also).

According to SRC 533.001,

The purpose of the Mixed Use-I (MU-I) zone is to identify allowed uses and establish development standards that promote pedestrian-oriented development in vibrant mixed-use districts, encourage a mix of compatible uses in multi-story buildings, and emphasize active commercial uses on ground floors facing major streets.

As laudable and necessary as this project is, it is not that. It's a standard issue apartment complex with a single use. There's no real mixed-uses, and it doesn't greet the street like a streetcar era set of buildings might.

Concept drawing from 2023, looking SE
Phase 1 in back, and phase 2 in foreground

Developers are asking for several exceptions.

A Footnote on the Giles Packing House Girls and Millrace Park

The other day over on FB the Mill posted a neat image of the "Giles Packing House Girls."

via FB

It led to a longer post about the H. S. Gile Packing House, part of the Willamette Valley Prune Growers Association.

A Sanborn map and footnote suggested it had been where the Vick Bros. building is today, currently part of the Salem campus for Western Oregon University.

With a Sanborn clip, flipped 180 degrees

But the note also said "at the southwest corner of Trade and High Streets...." The Vick Bros. building is on the northeast corner. Something wasn't right!