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"The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see his ugly side."
Popped into my head when I saw this depressing story, proving that the cynics were right that the closure of the Oregon School for the Blind was nothing other than a vicious real estate grab by the Salem Hospital. And for what!? A parking lot.
With a little imagination, it's easy to see about a million better uses. For instance, that property could be converted to a long-term care facility for people with high-demand medical care needs -- it's already residential, it's in a beautiful spot with great access to medical and to Bush Park.
The City Council needs to step up fast, or we'll lose a historic facility and gain a blight.
With a little imagination, it's easy to see about a million better uses. For instance, that property could be converted to a long-term care facility for people with high-demand medical care needs -- it's already residential, it's in a beautiful spot with great access to medical and to Bush Park.
The City Council needs to step up fast, or we'll lose a historic facility and gain a blight.
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4 comments:
Wow. To level the school for a surface parking lot or parking garage would be awful. The hospital needs to make it easier to be able to choose not to drive a car there!
Moreover, Church st is an important bike- and walkway, and to pump a bunch of car traffic through it would degrade the walking and bicycling environment badly.
This is entirely the wrong direction for the hospital, for the city, for the neighborhood.
Oh, terrible. This is what I feared would happen, but have been hoping wouldn't.
Hard to believe an 8-acre parking lot is the entire future of that once-attractive corner.
But truthfully that's exactly what opponents of the OSB closure always said, and now they've been proven right.
One wag once suggested that the hospital's toxic waste disposal facility (assuming there is such a thing) was the probable future.
So the parking lot's not the worst the hospital might have done for the neighborhood. But they were always ready to pounce on that land, one way or another, and now (surprise!) here they are.
How much faith is it reasonable to have in City Council's ability to control the town's second largest employer?
I don't know that it's a matter of faith with regard to the City Council here -- it's more a matter of hoping that enlightened self-interest prevails, in terms of the City Council seeing how ugly and destructive it would be to trade a beautiful, historic building and lot for more auto parking, right on the cusp of a permanent long-term decline in auto dominance.
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