Doggerel from New Years Day in 1868 and Reprinted in 1925 points to Reconstruction

On January 1st, 1925, the afternoon paper published a fascinating poem from January 1st, 1868.

Peter D'Arcy on right with City and RR VIPs
for Union Street Bridge Opening, March 1913
(Oregon Historical Society)

January 1st, 1925

Peter H. D'Arcy would have been a newsboy of 13 or 14 when he wrote it. (It's not difficult to imagine he also had some adult "editorial" assistance, but we are unlikely to know for sure!) Later he was Mayor, and the old Whitlock building undergoing renovation is more formally called the D'Arcy building. His father had built the big house with a classical portico on Church Street.

Come all ye readers, far and near,
And hear the News-Boy's greeting!
The old year's gone, the new one's here,
And still Old Time is fleeting.
And since Old Time is on the wing,
And will be ever flying,
Why should we fear to laugh and sing,
And be forever sighing?

The whole poem (click to enlarge)

One section in the poem is of particular interest. It appears to criticize President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat and foe of Reconstruction, and praise General Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican, as a potential candidate. Johnson had not yet been impeached when the poem was written. Describing "Old Andy" as "the Freedman's Moses" seems very sarcastic, and it's hard to understand what all is going on. The difference in Freedman/freeman may be significant and racialized. I do not grasp all the subtexts and nuance and implications. It may be possible to come back to this later.

If Alderman should go astray,
Or Congressman be drunken -
If Senators should fall away
To depths of vileness sunken -
Should Presidents their power abuse,
Prove faithless or unstable -
We'll tell them their P's and Q's
As well as we are able.

While criticizing every man,
And every false deduction,
We'll speak as mildly as we can
Of Andy's Reconstruction.
Because Old Andy once agreed
To be the Freedman's Moses,
That is no cause why he should lead
The white folks by the noses.

Since this our Moses has turned back,
Forgive us, gentle reader,
If we keep on the good old track,
And seek some other leader.
Another leader, brave and true
(And may he soon be GRANT-ed),
Whose steady feet on Freedom's ground
Are firmly, surely planted.

Our hosts are gathering for a fight -
A conflict of opinions,
As fierce as that our armies fought
With Treason's bloody minions.
But God will surely speed the right;
Let no true freeman doubt it,
GRANT is our leader! name of might,
Let every freeman shout it.

Reconstruction in Salem is an ongoing matter of interest. Early organizing here for Suffrage, Temperance, Black education, and even Spiritualism started and might even have flourished in that period following the Civil War. The arrival of the railroad made for trade in ideas as in commerce, of course, but the national moment was Reconstruction. We usually understand Reconstruction as something that occurred in the former Confederate states, and a new book argues that we should understand it more broadly.

Manesha Sinha's book from earlier this year, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920, offers a framework for thinking more about this organizing in Salem.

Prospects for The Cannery and north Front Street Lead in 2024: Year in Review

Though they haven't broken ground yet, plans remain conceptual still, and the prospect of tariffs and deportations with anti-immigrant sentiment threaten to make construction more difficult, the biggest development of the year — and it is the obvious one — is literally a development.

Former Truitt Bros. site and boxcars, c.1920s
(Oregon Historical Society)

Between the proposed Cannery project at the former Truitt Bros. site and the RAISE Grant to reshape Front Street north of Union Street, the plan for redeveloping the north downtown riverfront has to be the story of the year.

Aerial view looking eastish from river (The Cannery)

• Notes on The Cannery
• Notes on Front Street
  

Other Development

Other developments were significant stories, too. "Surge" seems too strong a word yet, but it was possible to see growing momentum for housing. The "Rivenwood" apartments at the former Nordstrom site opened as did Mahonia Crossing and Sequoia Crossings, construction started at Bush and Commercial (now called "the Cartwright"), and the City announced developers for the former UGM/Saffron site aka Block 50. Details for the Gussie Belle Brown apartments finally fell into place for construction and the second phase has been announced. Big plans for the former Boys Reform School and Prison Annex site were announced with preliminary approvals. Other projects are not yet formally announced, though they've started files with the City, and they will be stories for next year. Last year's plans for old City Hall site do not seem to have advanced in a public way. (The paper has a good roundup, though they continue to assert that the plans for the old City Hall site include Belluschi crater, but the developer has filed nothing publicly with the City for that corner.)

December

But, headwinds. In the context of tariffs and anti-immigrant actions, a greater proportion of projects may not be able to find the finish line. Impacts on construction will be a large and important story in 2025. It may be the story, as momentum for housing and infill from parking reform and incipient zoning reform strengthens further or withers.

Streets and Roads

Some may see greater progress or significance in the projects, but from here the street improvements were on the edges and did not represent any game-changer or paradigm shift. It was business as usual with tweaks.

In Hit and Run, Driver Kills Person on Murlark just north of Edgewater Street NW

Salem Police today confirm a driver killed a person on foot and fled the scene last week in close-in West Salem.

From Salem PD last week:

At approximately 8:30 p.m. Monday evening, December 23, Salem Police officers responded to the call of an injured man found in the roadway in the area of Murlark AV and Edgewater ST NW.

The man, age 63, was pronounced deceased at the scene by paramedics. The name of the victim is being withheld pending notification to the family.

The Salem Police Traffic Team is investigating the incident as a possible hit-and-run. Anyone who may have information related to this investigation is encouraged to call the Salem Police Tips Line at 5035888477.

An update today (see the separate rewrite at Salem Reporter for a good image from the video):

The preliminary investigation done by the Traffic Team determined the man found in the roadway on the evening of December 23 was struck by a vehicle that left the scene. The victim, identified as Steven Craig Bishop, was pronounced deceased by responding paramedics.

The hit-and-run fatality occurred on Murlark AV just north of Edgewater ST NW at about 8:30 p.m.

Video surveillance near the area where Bishop was found shows a passing motorist minutes before the call to police was received. In the recording, a white vehicle is seen traveling eastbound on Edgewater ST NW as it approaches Murlark AV NW. The vehicle appears to be a Jeep Grand Cherokee, possibly a 2015 or 2016 model year.

Investigators ask for the public’s help in finding this vehicle of interest.

If you are the driver, know the person driving in the video, or if you have information about the case, please call the Traffic Team investigators at 503-588-8477.

While Salem Reporter also has a just-published overview of all the deaths in the area on our roads, "2024 was the deadliest year in at least a decade on Salem’s roads, with 25 fatal crashes," the victim-blaming remains troublesome and misleading:

Some factors considered to drive the increase are growing use of smartphones, substance use and a lack of sidewalks. ...In an email, Hedrick said a majority of those crashes [involving people on foot and on bike] happened due to the victims not being visible and illegally being in the roadway.

Historian Peter Norton has been talking about victim-blaming, the development of the exonerative voice, and sophistry with cooked up stats for autoist propaganda.

The data was cooked up! via bluesky

Speed is the primary cause! At slower speeds many of these crashes are not fatal. 

See also recently here:

• On widespread usage of the exonerative voice, "Jaydriving and Lunacy in our Language" 
• And on blaming clothing choices, "The High-Viz Jacket won't Save You: Vision Zero Plan must focus on Drivers and their Cars."

This post may be updated.

Back-in Parking Falls out of Favor in 1924

When the article earlier this week on changes to downtown parking for 2025 was posted to reddit, the conversation there was not dominated by complaint. Maybe the tide is finally turning! Several commenters were aware of the difference between a parking supply problem, which we don't have, and a parking management problem, which we do have. Our parking discourse is getting better. That's a striking change from a decade ago, when petitioners forced the City to retreat from parking reform.

Front page earlier this week

Our approach to parking is historical. Different times call for different measures; what seems best for one era is backwards in another. Sometimes what seems best is based on an outright error. The discourse is always changing. One theme from 100 years ago was a call for head-in parking. Back-in parking had been the norm.

December 10th, 1924

You could substitute "paid parking" for "back-in parking" in these discussions!

Salem is held old fashioned. Present system of parking automobiles obsolete...."I was formerly in favor of the [free parking] such as we now have in Salem, but after traveling in 30 states and hundreds of cities, I find everywhere the [paid] system of parking."

December 11th, 1924

The SJ piece briefly alluded to a half-century of free parking, but merely implied that we had had paid parking previously. (It might have been worth a longer discussion of the previous eras of parking, as well as data on actual current occupancy rates in the parkades.)

We have had yet other changes too. There is nothing immutable about our parking arrangements!

Pedestrian Victim-blaming Playbook Halts new Stop Signs at Parrish in 1924

Within just a few months of opening Parrish School in 1924, parents were immediately concerned about speeding drivers on Capitol Street, which was the Pacific Highway at that time.

December 12th, 1924

In mid-December the afternoon paper said

Complaints of parents of some of the 860 children now attending the Parrish school that truck and car drivers are speeding past the school house without regard for the safety of the children are chiefly responsible for the agitation for immediate action.

A few days later an ordinance for stop signs was at Council.

December 16th, 1924

Alas, the victim-blaming playbook was already effective and support for the stops ebbed away.

Fad for Radium Quackery prompts Legislature to try out Radium Water in 1925

In the lead up to the 1925 Legislative session, the morning paper published a humorous moment in regional jockeying and health fads.

December 12th, 1924

100 years ago the morning paper announced "radium water will be tried out....This water is said to act as a preventative for goiter, cancer and whatever ails a person." It was a third option besides Salem tapwater from the Willamette and Portland area Bull Run mountain water. Between local pride and likely very real differences in taste, apparently a significant number of people did not like Salem water, which at this time still came from the gravel beds at Minto Island.

October 23rd, 1924

Radium was newly popular as a miracle drug. But it may have achieved quite the opposite. Or, perhaps it is better to say, it could be effective and helped usher people closer to the "door of the great unknown."

Hoover's Conference on Traffic Safety Established Link with Zoning

If you needed any proof of the close relation between traffic safety reform and zoning reform, the very first National Conference on Street and Highway Safety from mid-December 1924 saw a report that asserted, even created, a strong link between traffic safety, city planning, and zoning.

Traffic safety and zoning nexus, Dec. 1924

It's right there at the inception of our autoist paradigm!

Even though the conference was on safety, the primary problem to be solved was congestion and facilitating through-travel. In this report especially "safety" is deceptively understood and mystified.

Flow, not safety, is the main thing

Yet they understood the inefficiency of cars, "uneconomical in [their] use of street space per passenger." They also correctly identified the problem of "day storage space for automobiles" and did not mainly use the term parking, which laundered the notion of storage and absorbed it into the beautification of lawn and curb strip shrubbery.

They understood the geometric inefficiency of cars!

"Traffic movement is the primary consideration in designing streets": Again, not safety, even though that was the primary aim for the conference.