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."
Dear Active Citizen:
Please mark your calendar and plan to attend the Salem City Council meeting on Monday, July 14th at 6:30 p.m.where the demolition of a designated Local Salem Landmark is on the agenda for a public hearing and Council action.
Salem Community Vision opposes the demolition of Howard Hall on the former Oregon School for the Blind property now owned by Salem Hospital. We agree with the Salem Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) that voted 6 - 0 with one abstention in June to deny Salem Hospital's application to tear down Howard Hall.
The HLC found that the application from Salem Hospital did not meet three of the four requirements necessary for them to approve the application.Salem Hospital did not show that ...
* The value to the community of the proposed use of the property outweighs the value of retaining the designated historic resource on the present site.
* The designated historic resource is not capable of generating a reasonable economic return and the demolition is economically necessary.
* No prudent and feasible alternative exists to rehabilitate and reuse the designated resource in its present location.
Salem Community Vision will ask the City Council to uphold the decision of the HLC, and we will suggest that Salem Hospital needs to reissue a Request for Proposals to re-purpose Howard Hall in a way that will benefit the Hospital and the community.
Howard Hall is the the last building left on the Oregon School for the Blind campus. It has stood on the campus since 1923 and is the only building in Salem designed by famed Oregon architect John Bennes. It has been deemed eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It served as a dormitory at the School and thus is precious to the memory of generations of blind and visually-impaired Oregonians. There is no reason to tear down a historic building that can still be put to good use. But this is what may happen if citizens do not come to the July 14th City Council meeting with a simple message: "SAVE HOWARD HALL."
You can read more about this in the Salem Weekly:<http://www.willamettelive.com/2014/news/historic-howard-hall-fate-undetermined-hands/>.
I hope you will plan to come and to speak up.
Sincerely,
Susann Kaltwasser, Chair
Salem Community Vision
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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