Position Available: STRONG Salem editor/curator (aka blogger)

Your humble reporter is relocating from Salem soon, so this blog will either have to retire or to find a new editor/curator/writer/activist to take over.  A collective of people would be ideal.

With the advent of corporate-controlled social media that monitors your every online moment and monetizes it for the benefit of advertisers and the social media channel, blogs may have seen their best days in the past; however, for those who value a true local perspective without the loss of privacy, local blogs are ideal.

If you (singular or plural) are interested in assuming the editorship/curatorship of this blog and continuing its mission to put people ahead of cars in Oregon's capital city, drop a comment.

Well Done to the Salem City Council for Refusing to Throw More Good Money After Bad

Congratulations to the Salem City Council for being willing to walk away from a sucker’s deal on a fancy new bridge, with a liar’s budget of $425 million.

Like the people in Congress brave enough to point out, in advance, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would not solve the problem it claimed to address, would cost a fortune, and would only make things worse in the region where we were supposedly “helping,” those council members who did the right thing will face a lot of bitter hostility from a deluded “Build it Now’’ cult that claims that the secret “silent majority” opinion in Salem is pro-bridge — even though the council members opposed are a solid ⅔ supermajority of the council.  A fan letter to the council majority who stood tall tonight:

Tough crowd, tough vote, but I hope you all know you did the right thing. You won’t be thanked enough by those who appreciate what you did, and you will be bitterly and unfairly criticized by those for whom “come together” meant “Do it our way.” 

The philosophy of this project has always been to get the camel’s nose under the tent, and you are the first folks to stand up and say “No.”  

Good for you — regardless of how much hate and discontent is thrown at you, you should feel good about yourselves for having the courage to go against the boom boom boom of a wrongheaded drumbeat trying to stampede you down the wrong path.

Letter to the Mayor and City Council

9 February 2019

Honorable Chuck Bennett, Mayor of Salem
and the Salem City Council

RE: The Need to End the Salem River Crossing EIS with “No Build” Decision and an Official Lessons-Learned Inquiry Into the Project

     Time is short before your Monday meeting, so I won’t repeat the many objective reasons you should end the Salem River Crossing EIS with a “no build” decision. Suffice it to say that its most adamant bridge boosters doomed the SRC at the very start by their absolute refusal to deal fairly and honestly with alternatives for dealing with cross-river traffic. That key failure destroyed all public confidence in the SRC oversight team and its technical management staff and, therefore, all sense that the EIS process had any integrity.

     The inherent flaws in the SRC project and oversight team approach are so common in government projects and were so glaring that they jumped out at me in 2007 when I arrived in Salem as a complete newcomer, having no preset ideas about a bridge. But I moved here from Lansing, Michigan, another capital city of similar size, which suffers terribly from highway projects that were sold as “revitalization” and “progress” but that only served to hasten and deepen the city’s decline.

     So, while new to Salem, I  knew that projects sold as “vital” for “progress” may just be ways to burden city residents to benefit wealthier suburban and rural neighbors and development interests. In Salem, there were enough red flags to make me investigate more closely, and I soon saw virtually every hallmark of a classic highway boondoggle.

     The money spent on this project is a sunk cost, and the pain stops as soon as the spending does. But there is ongoing pain that has not stopped, pain caused by the deep corrosion of trust in the network of city, county, state, and local government officials and staff who have managed the SRC EIS process. Thus, even after ending this EIS by adopting a “no build” recommendation, there is more you need to do to address the forces that made this process go so expensively haywire.

     To address that collapse in trust, I urge the Salem City Council to commission a “lessons learned” inquiry into the SRC EIS by convening and funding a serious independent panel with expertise in public policy, project management, and public involvement to study the project from start to finish. The goal would be ensure that the complete record of this project is preserved and that everyone connected with it is interviewed, so that a penetrating, unvarnished history and analysis can be published in two to three years.

     We need such an inquiry because we very much need to understand the root causes that made the SRC process go so badly astray. Right now, Salem is updating its comprehensive plan and wrestling with structural deficits caused by past unproductive development decisions, so we should understand the weaknesses in how we make such crucial decisions.

     If we can identify what caused the Salem River Crossing project to go so badly and expensively off-course, we may be able to avoid repeating those mistakes in the future and to help all Oregon.

     We are coming into an era of unprecedented challenges and painful consequences felt from decisions made long ago. So we have neither the time nor the money to repeat the mistakes that plagued the SRC in the future. We face serious, rising environmental threats, systemic and growing fiscal shortfalls, and ever-wider and deeper inequality and poverty in our city. Thus we cannot be satisfied just to pull the plug on the SRC. We must also seek to understand what kept the SRC on the front burner of city politics for over a decade, consuming resources and attention needed to address many more serious problems in our community.

     After your meeting Monday, I expect I will be able to give two loud cheers for your decision to select the “no build” option as the outcome of the SRC EIS. For the full three cheers, and for the benefit of all Salem, please also commission a post-mortem study of the SRC EIS project, so that we may salvage some learning from the SRC process and do better in the future.

-->

Stay Tuned for Similar Analyses for Salem

Terrific article at StrongTowns.org about an analysis a guy did for Denver, CO, showing that, surprise! The downtown neighborhoods pay the freight for the much wealthier suburbs.  Two graphs (one of tax revenue per square foot (by neighborhood) and one showing costs for infrastructure in those same neighborhoods) speak volumes.

Bottom line, our autosprawl development pattern -- the same one replicated all over America -- from Denver, CO to Dover, Del., from Anchorage AK to Miami FL -- isn't just hurting our health and the environment; it's also the reason that cities everywhere are broke. We've taken an inheritance of productive development and squandered it on low-productivity development modes that essentially punish the people who impose the least costs on the public fisc and make them subsidize those (usually much wealthier) people who impose the greatest costs.

Property tax paid per square foot by neighborhood.

Click to view larger. Neighborhoods above the break even line generate enough tax to pay for their true cost of infrastructure. Neighborhoods below the break even line create annual infrastructure liabilities for the City of Denver, despite their property taxes.

LOVESalem morphs into STRONG Salem

Now that it appears that the threat of the gigantic billion-dollar-boondoggle of the "Salem River Crossing" is finally going to go to the graveyard of bad ideas, all the energy and effort that has been properly spent opposing that disastrous plan can be put to better use.

Thus, it's time for the people of Salem, Oregon, to start creating a positive agenda for a better Salem, a Salem that can afford nice things (because it has stopped developing in an unproductive way that only benefits developers and burdens the rest of us with the costs they have externalized while grabbing all the profits for themselves).

And so this blog, first created to raise the alarm about the dinosaur-thinking behind that "Salem River Crossing" -- the "Bridgeasaurus Boondogglus" -- can now morph into a blog with a much greater positive focus and provide a place to promote ideas for a STRONG Salem, inspired by the brilliant work being done by the group STRONG TOWNS (StrongTowns.org). STRONG Salem will now focus on being the "localization hub" for applying STRONG TOWNS thinking to harness the opportunities and solve the problems we face here in Salem, Oregon.

If you want to become a contributor, drop a comment and let me know how to reach you.

Something hopeful for a change

This is what happens when Americans don't bother voting - a society where we expect tiny children to master lockdown drills rather than expecting politicians to stand up to NRA terrorists

Bring some sunlight into Oregon's tax picture

This is a great idea: Although this is somewhat late -- now that businesses have successfully almost eliminated corporate taxation in Oregon and put the entire burden of paying for government services on individuals and families -- better late than never!

Spread this among your friends and neighbors, and ask them to download & sign the petition and mail it in.

transparencyoregon.org

Sign the Petition for Corporate Transparency – Transparency Oregon

5-6 minutes

---

The People of the State of Oregon enact this law, to be added to and made part of  ORS Chapter 317.
 
SECTION 1.
(1) All publicly traded corporations (including their affiliates and subsidiaries) that are required to file an excise or income tax return under ORS chapter 317 or 318 shall file with the Secretary of State the statement described in Section 2 if of this Act.

(2) For tax years ending between and including January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2017, the statement required by this section must be filed with the Secretary of State on or before March 15, 2019.

(3) For all tax years thereafter, the statement required by this section must be filed at the same time as the corporation’s state tax return is filed, but no later than November 30 of the year following the end of the previous tax year.

SECTION 2.

The statement required under section 1 of this Act shall be on a form and filed in a manner prescribed by the Secretary of State and shall contain:

(1) The name of the corporation, the address of its principal executive office, the corporation’s business activity code, the type of corporation and the name and address of its registered agent;

(2) The corporation’s 4-digit North American Industry Classification System code number;

(3) A unique code number, assigned by the Secretary of State, to identify the corporation, which code number will remain constant from year to year;

(4) The name and principal address of any corporation or other entity that owns, directly or indirectly, more than 50 percent of the voting stock of the corporation filing the statement;

(5) State Taxes. The following tax-related information reported on the corporation’s income or excise tax return filed under ORS chapter 317 or 318, or, in the case of a corporation included in a consolidated state return, reported on the consolidated state return:

a. Taxable income reported on the corporation’s U.S. corporate income tax return;
 
b. Total additions claimed, each addition individually enumerated;
 
c. Total subtractions claimed, each subtraction individually enumerated;
 
d. Apportionment percentage used to calculate the corporation’s taxable income in Oregon, including the apportionment factors for property, payroll and sales, individually enumerated;
 
e. Net operating loss deduction;
 
f. Oregon taxable income;
 
g. Total tax liability in Oregon before credits;
 
h. Tax credits claimed and carryforward credits, with each credit individually enumerated;
 
i. Total tax due;
 
j. Total property or real estate income and interest in Oregon;
 
k. Total wages and compensation in Oregon;
 
l. Total sales in Oregon;

(6) Domestic and Offshore Activity Not Otherwise Reported. Total deductions for management services fees and for royalty, interest, license fees and similar payments made for the use of intangible property to any affiliated entity that is not included in the consolidated state return, if any, that includes the corporation and the names and countries of domicile of the entities to which the payments were made.

SECTION 3. Any corporation submitting a statement required by section 2 of this Act shall be permitted to submit supplemental information that, in its sole judgment, can facilitate proper interpretation of the information included in the statement.

SECTION 4. If a corporation files an amended tax return, the corporation shall file a revised statement within 60 calendar days after the amended return is filed. If a corporation’s tax liability for a tax year is changed as the result of an uncontested audit adjustment or final determination of the Department of Revenue or by the Oregon Tax Court or Oregon Supreme Court, the corporation shall file a revised statement within 60 calendar days after the final determination of liability.

SECTION 5. A statement submitted under sections 1 to 4 of this Act is a public record to be maintained in the office of the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State shall make all information contained in the statements for all filing corporations available to the public on an ongoing basis in the form of a searchable database accessible through the Internet. No statement for any corporation for a particular tax year shall be publicly available until the first day of the third calendar year that follows the calendar year in which the particular tax year ends.

SECTION 6.

(1) The accuracy of the statements submitted under sections 1 to 4 of this Act shall be attested to in writing by the chief operating officer of the corporation and shall be subject to audit by the Department of Revenue under the normal procedures applicable to corporate income tax returns.

(2) The Secretary of State may impose annual penalties of up to 0.25% of the corporation’s gross receipts in Oregon on any corporation that fails to comply with the requirements of section 1 to 4 of this Act. The penalty may not exceed $1 million annually. The Secretary of State shall publish the names of any corporation subject to a penalty.

(3) The Secretary of State may promulgate any rules necessary to implement and enforce the provisions of this Act.

Libraries: What Salem needs a lot more of, in a lot more places

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.
― Anne Herbert

Derived from: Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope. ― Gilbert Shelton

The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.
— Albert Einstein

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

Yo, que me figuraba el Paraíso / Bajo la especie de una biblioteca.
I have always imagined Paradise as a kind of library.
— Jorge Luis Borges, from Dreamtigers

You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, that has been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians.
― Graham Chapman

The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man.
— TS Eliot

I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.
— Virginia Woolf

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.
— Walter Cronkite

Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.
— Sidney Sheldon

A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life.
— Henry Ward Beecher

A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.
— Andrew Carnegie

Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.
— Neil Gaiman

When in doubt, go to the library.
— JK Rowling, from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future. Just ask Ray Bradbury.
— Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, from Beautiful Creatures

A library is a miracle. A place where you can learn just about anything, for free. A place where your mind can come alive.
— Josh Hanagarne, from The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family

One can never have too many librarian friends.
— Jennifer Chiaverini, from The Wedding Quilt

Good librarians are natural intelligence operatives. They possess all of the skills and characteristics required for that work: curiosity, wide-ranging knowledge, good memories, organization and analytical aptitude, and discretion.
— Marilyn Johnson, from This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.
— Sarah J. Maas, from Throne of Glass

When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian.
— Joan Bauer, from Best Foot Forward

I don't think I'll be able to help you find that.
— No librarian, ever.

Beautiful Evidence of an Ugly Predicament

https://earther.com/this-climate-visualization-belongs-in-a-damn-museum-1826307536

Climate chaos deniers hate being called climate chaos deniers because it echoes "Holocaust Deniers," the term for people who look at the Mt. Everest of evidence and testimony about the Holocaust and try to create doubt about it in order to try to wash away the moral stain of being a person not bothered by the Holocaust.

In other words, calling people who deny climate chaos equivalent to people who are Holocaust Deniers is actually pretty apt.

Of course, there's a vanishingly small chance that the deniers are "right," in the sense that there is some not-understood supernatural force at work that is a stealth climate forcing agent that somehow mimics the effects of all the well-understood climate forcing factors while not being detectable.

But the folks who cling to that notion -- that they are all brave Galileos, while  all the scientists working diligently to warn the world about perils of our present course are all closed-minded groupthink groupies persecuting the embattled Galileos -- are still deniers, because they're not doing science at that point, they're doing religion, appealing to an invisible supernatural force to explain natural phenomena.

That's why they insist so adamantly that people who recognize that humans are driving the climate off the stability cliff are part of a religious cult of "AGW" (anthropogenic global warming") -- because it's always projection with these people, about everything. See, Donald Trump, who unerringly accuses others of what he is doing.