STRONG Salem is for everyone who wants to help and participate in getting Salem, Oregon, to quit chasing Growth Ponzi Scheme plans and instead become a resilient, fiscally responsible place that lives by the wisdom that "Communities exist for the health and enjoyment of those who live in them, not for the convenience of those who drive through them, fly over them, or exploit their real estate for profit."
I made the video (link below) to get more public support for buying the Marine Drive right of way so that we could create a trail that connects the neighborhood to downtown. Please share it with others.
I am available to answer questions. The video is only two minutes long.
Mark Wigg
p 503 588-2524
c 971 600-6607
POBox 831
Salem OR 97308
Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.
The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.
The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.
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3 comments:
This is a flawed idea, alas.
Marine Drive is a Trojan Horse for the Third Bridge. In the TSP it is a mid-sized "collector" street that will quickly morph into an arterial/highway.
Advocates for a right-sized Marine Drive should hold off until the Third Bridge is dead. Otherwise the prospect of a trail will simply be a casualty of a bait-and-switch for the arterial/highway OR-22 connector that will plow through existing homes and degrade Wallace Marine Park.
The idea of a third bridge has been in the plans for 40 years. The idea is not going away. The city does not have money to build a road along Marine Drive. The city has money to buy the r/w for Marine Drive. Why would you want to deny the thousands of people along Wallace Road a chance to bike or walk to downtown in a park-like setting? The Croisan Scenic Way Trail is on street r/w. It is being used and no one considers it a Trojan Horse for that street. If enough people used the trail, there would be less congestion on Wallace and less demand for a bridge.
Our goal should be to kill the Third Bridge, not to let it continue. The proposal for a trail is part of a strategy of accommodation rather than a strategy of critique.
If the City purchases the ROW for Marine Drive, funds for construction are very likely to be included in the next bond measure.
I think you very greatly overestimate the number of people who would use a bark mulch trail as a transportation alternative to Wallace Road. People will park at Wallace Park and bike or jog along a bark mulch trail, but it will not be attractive to bike/walk commuters or errand-runners. I think the Croisan Trail is mainly being used for recreation, not for commuting.
Finally, there is not a billion-dollar project like the Third Bridge currently attached to an extension of Croisan Scenic Way. There's no sense in which the Croisan Scenic Way trail is a Trojan Horse for anything.
And if that were paved, it might not even be harmful at all, as it would make a much better utility cycling connection than the present unimproved trail, which is mainly useful for mountain biking recreation.
So the comparison to the Croisan Scenic Way trail only goes so far.
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