Unofficial Minutes of the Salem Commission on Disabilities, September 2009

The regular meeting of the Salem Commission on Disabilities was held at SATV on September 15th, 2009.  Present:  Jack Harris, chair, David Martell, Debra Lobsitz, Jean Harrison, David Tracht, David Moisan, Jean Levesque, Michael Taylor, Andy LaPointe, Charlie Reardon, co-chair, Jean Levesque, Assistant ADA Coordinator and Mike Sosnowski, City Council Liaision.

SATV Audible Bulletin Board

Jack:  First, I apologize to Dave Gauthier for having him in the agenda as “Ron Gauthier”.  I’ve asked him to come and talk about the audible bulletin board that was on SATV.  I know Andy and Dave Moisan have been talking about this.

Dave Gauthier:  We have three bulletin boards, scrolling announcements that run on each channel 3, 15 and 16.  We used to videotape the announcements on Channel 3, and we had volunteers who would read each announcement to tape.  That tape was run as a program every week.

The problem we had with this is that we did this with older technology.  As we upgraded we found we couldn’t do this anymore.  Andy and I have been trying to come up with a temporary solution.  I’ve been talking with David Moisan, who does the IT work at SATV, about how to resolve this.  Dave and I are talking with the manufacturer of our system, Tightrope Media Systems, to see what they can do.  We’ve reached out to them but haven’t heard anything back yet.

I have no idea how hard it would be to do this;  I’m not a programmer.

Dave Moisan:  I’ve done a preliminary back-of-the-envelope calculation.  Everybody knows that software comes in version numbers, 1, 2, 3.  Windows is at 7.  Mac is at 10.  The highest level of function we need is a bulletin board option that offers a synthesized voice channel of the text information that goes into the system.  There are issues with audio since we broadcast TIC Network and we would have to sort those out.  If I recall, their bulletin board software is 4.8.  It isn’t a simple update that they can give to us in version 4.8.3.  It may be a version 5 or even a 6.  They may even have to put another category of (meta)data in there.

We have enough to do with them in getting our new computer to convert DVD’s into their system, without this.

I had the idea of taking the text data they already provide to get a voice along with the visual announcements.  It’s technically feasible for me to do it.  But it’s probably not smart for me to do this.  It’s not a good project for SATV to undertake right now.

Jack:  SATV was the only station to do this originally in 2000-2001. 

Is there anything the commission or the SATV board can do to contact the software vendor to ask them to support this?

Dave Moisan:   You can contact Tightrope.  I have contacted them on more than one occasion.  I would tell them this is an important area for them to look at.  With time, this could be easier for them to do.  It’s never the final word with this sort of software;  there is always something new we want.

Keep writing.

We have the individual pieces, oftentimes, but getting all these many components to fit together.  No one makes everything and oftentimes, no one makes the one thing you need.

Jack:  My hope is that we can somehow get across to them the importance of such a system.  And two, the feedback they may get knowing that there are people in their market who appreciate these features.

David G.:  You can contact Tightrope.  They’re very responsible.

Jack:  If we can keep the pressure up.  If new technology can come about that would make it possible to do these things, it would be good.

Andy:  Why is this so difficult.  Why don’t we have volunteers?  Why not a blank screen with voiceovers?

David G.:  Andy and I have discussed this.  We try to make our channel serve as many of the audience as possible.  A blank screen with audio would use up our resource.

I have a couple of ideas I’ve brought up to Andy:  Is it possible to use our software to output text announcements for people to read?  Or is it possible to get announcements to TIC Network to read?

Andy:  I’ve talked with Ron Bersani of TIC Network and I can see what they can do to help us.

David G.:  We could take selected announcements and read those.  Announcements that won’t expire for a few weeks.  Perhaps not every week, but every other week.  I think if I can get other staff involved, we might get something going, even if it’s only part-time.

Andy:  How can I help?

Jack:  Here’s my suggestion.  Ron Bersani and TIC would be something to explore.  Then your other idea of announcements every other week.

Andy:  It would be nice to come up with something. Salem has had its audible bulletin board on longer than in many other communities.  It’s not only for the blind, but it also benefits those who are multitasking and not able to pay attention to the screen.

Dave G.:  It will be up to Dave M. and Andy and me to figure out the easiest way to proceed.  I definitely want to speak with Mr. Bersani.  If that doesn’t work out, we’ll work on the other thing.

SATV is supportive of the disability community and of the Commission.  I’ll come back in a month.

Jack:  I have a guest next month;  come back in November.  If you can get some letters from the SATV board and the Mayor’s office to send to Tightrope to support this effort, it would be good.

I’ll leave you four to work out a meeting and I will thank Dave Gauthier for showing up.

Tavern in the Square (Old Business)

Jack:  Several of you have gone on a site visit of Tavern in the Square.  There’s a site plan in your packet.  We have a major problem.

As everyone knows, Tavern in the Square wants to establish outdoor seating outside the restaurant in the grass and the trees, at the corner of Washington and New Derby Sts.

Between that area and the restaurant, there’s a sidewalk that runs parallel to the building along Washington St.  To get their liquor license, they need to be able to have contiguous seating between the restaurant and the seating area, this is a state regulation.

The problem that the Commission runs into, that I have personally run into, is that when they block the sidewalk, you don’t have a direct path of travel.  Under the ADA regulations, there’s not a lot about this.  I have written to the MOD asking them to look at this.

If this were Hamilton or Wenham, Danvers or Peabody, it might not be a big deal but with a world-class city with thousands of tourists from all over the world, to put a barrier and obstacle with outdoor seating is a big deal.  They’re not the only ones who do this;  Rockafellas does, and Puleo’s does.  It’s like a maze!

Jean Levesque:  Are they saying the tables have to be on the sidewalk?

Jack:  To comply with state liquor laws, there has to be contiguous seating.  If you notice on the plans, if that sidewalk is blocked, there is another sidewalk that goes out and around.  My contention is that that route is not a direct path of travel and takes one away from the buildings.

Jean:  It’s not wide.

Jack:  No, it’s not.   Andy might attest to how difficult or challenging it may be to take that route.

Andy:  It might be difficult for those unfamiliar to Salem.

Mike S.:  The City Council wants to invite the Commission and others to speak about the impact that this would take.

Jack:  Personally, I will make clear, I am not against outdoor seating.  It would be an asset, particularly to this city, but this represents a barrier.  We talked about Rockafellas, and Essex St., some years ago.  We need a clear vision where we don’t block the direct path of travel, and that is up Washington St.

We also run the risk, I’ve said a thousand times, of someone coming in and filing a complaint about the path of travel and that could cost the city.

Andy:  We talked about this before:  Crossing Front St., from the bank, would be to go straight, and follow the walkway parallel to the building?

Jack:  You would take a right from Derby to Washington St, go straight and cross Front St.

Andy:  I’m trying to envision this:  The new path, is it ADA compliant? 

Jack:  It is physically ADA compliant;  the sidewalk is wide enough, the slope is right, etc.  The part that is not compliant is that the [alternate path around the bus shelter] is not the direct path of travel.

Andy:  I prefer the direct route.  People from all over the place come to Salem and talk about Salem, if you come to the lunchroom of the Carroll Center.  Someone who is blind and a cane user can run into serious difficulties.  They could get sighted assistance, but lots can happen.

Jack:  Talking about people in motorized chairs, canes, moms with carriages.  [Dave Martel:  emergency personnel]

Jean Harrison:  What about the incline at the corner?

Jack:  They’re taking the curbing out and grading it to level [at the corner.]

As I understand from Councilor Sosnowski, the Commission will be formally asked to attend a meeting about this sometime in the future.  I’ll let people know as soon as I get the invitation.

Jean L.:  As Councilor Sosnowski says, that comes under the jurisdiction of the SRA.   There’ll be 20-22 tables that’ll be serviced from the restaurant when it’s open.  Will the sidewalks be closed?

Jack:  Yes, the sidewalk will be closed to the public per state law.  Issue is that when the sidewalk is blocked, there is not a direct path of travel.

Jean L.:  The sidewalk becomes part of the restaurant when it is in use?

Jack:  Yes.  Mike, does that become technically the property of the restaurant when it’s open?

Mike S.:  That’s never been determined.

Charlie:  Is that sidewalk to belong to the restaurant year round?

Mike S.:  I’m not comfortable with handing them city property to get a liquor license.

Jack:  Not necessarily to defend Tavern in the Square, but they are the only ones to go through the paperwork to do this.  Others have just thrown their tables out on the sidewalk.  I give them credit.

Andy:  We went to some other licensing board meetings with another restaurant and I had trouble walking through there.  It’s still there.  There are quite a few incidents I have made known to the board, but they’re still there.

Jack:  Was there an ordinance on outdoor seating?

Mike S.:  There was a jurisdictional war over this that was not decided.

Jack:  I’ll let everyone know.

David M.:  Brief comment;  I’m not going to get into what Tavern in the Square is doing specifically, but I took pictures at the site.  I came there from the north.  There’s another restaurant on the corner of Front.  There’s a bottleneck there where you can go straight up Washington, or take a right to the bus shelter.  There’s another intersection on the sidewalk further down where they will block off.

I miss the direct path of travel, but there’s a lot of street furniture on that stretch of Washington St.  A lot of people are coming and going from  Front St., and the other bottleneck further down at New Derby.  Tavern in the Square could do everything right, but there’s still a bottleneck.  We know well Front St. is a perennial problem.  They have to fit in to our downtown and that’s the real problem

Salem Willows Bathrooms (Old Business)

Jack:  The bathrooms at the Salem Willows were vandalized.  A portapotty was torched, and an excursion boat was broken into.

Jean S.:  The new bathrooms were a great improvement.

Jack:  Jean Harrison and I have noted the toilet paper holders are too far from the toilets.  We hope this is fixed when the vandalism is fixed.

Market Basket T Stop (old business)

Jack:  Jason and I have been working on having the T stop at Market Basket directly.  We are hopeful this will happen before the first snow

Project Lifesaver

Andy:  We’ve gotten $450 towards Project Lifesaver.  We are going to the Rotary Club to close our funding gap.  Once done, John Jodoin of the Salem Police Dept. will write a letter of intent to the company.  And training will be arranged.  We have money from Dominion and the Trust Board, and we are closer.

Charlie:  What do they need?

Andy:  $1200.  There are more calls I need to make

Four First St.

I talked to Tom St. Pierre about this, and to Jason, and we are keeping on top of the situation

Jean L.:  Was a letter sent to the company?

Jack:  Yes

David Martel:  I have been keeping people in my complex updated.

Salem Common Playground

Jack:  There was a request of $30,000 towards the Salem Common Playground?

Mike S.:  This is not from the city, part of it came from the Salem Common Neighborhood Association.  This was just a formality;  it’s a done deal.

Jack:  I’ve looked at the regulations.  The only regulation regarding accessible playgrounds is path of travel;  you must be able to get to them.  But there’s nothing about the equipment itself.

I’ve talked with Tom St. Pierre about this and I have suggested that 25% of the play area, one or two pieces, should be made accessible to the disabled.

Accessible structures do tend to be safer for children than regular playground structures.  We want to get Parents United to go for it on that basis.

MAAB Bypass Road (old business)

Jack:  You have a packet about the bypass road bike path issue.  The interesting part is, this decision is coming from the counsel at MassHighway and not by the project manager.  Hopefully this will get resolved.

Sober House (old business)

Jack:  The MAAB has taken jurisdiction of this matter and ordered any tenants in the second floor to move out (he wasn’t supposed to have tenants, but advertised on Craigslist.)  The owner now wants to make this into a single family house.  We have to look very closely at the letter of the law.  There are two businesses on the first floor that are not accessible, which the MAAB has also taken jurisdiction on..  I talked to Tom St. Pierre and not heard from him.  There was a fine hearing last month and the owner was given one month to comply.  They won’t give him a break the next time.  The building department is keeping a very close watch.

Lyceum Renovations

They didn’t trigger the 30% rule and they didn’t trigger the $100,000 amount.  The only work was on the first floor and the only change was to rebuild the ramp in the rear of the building.  They asked for a variance for the front door.  I suggested they get a portable ramp for the front door and an automatic door opener.  The variance was accepted.  The Lyceum doesn’t have to follow our recommendations but they were strongly suggested to.  It will open this week and I will check them out myself.  They’ve been very cooperative.

Market Basket Parking Lot HP Spaces

Jack:  The MAAB has been getting complaints about water puddling in the handicapped spaces.  Someone complained to the MAAB and I have been in touch with their real estate person who assures me they will repave and set the pitch so that water trains off.

Formal Interpretation of  CMR 521-22.2

Jack:  Tom St. Pierre asked us to interpret the required width of sidewalks based on the problems we had at Marlborough Road.

This is very timely as I just got the completed project plans for the Bridge St. reconstruction project.

Jack:  The width is 48 inches for compliance.   The absolute minimum width is 36 inches.  This does not include the width of the curbstone itself.

Mike S.:  That’s a very important point.

Rt. 107 Highland Ave. (new business)

Jack:  There are finally audible signals at Wal-Mart. Charlie and Andy can elaborate:

Charlie:  We went down there to check the timing.  One thing we found is the crosswalks are not straight.  One curbstone is offset from the one across the street.

Andy:  That’s ok if the audible beacons are located at the curbstones and they are at a reasonable volume level.  This is Highland Ave.

We had a problem with Ravenna Ave.:  There were a lot of complaints with the audible signals so they turned them down.  That’s a waste of taxpayer money and does no one any good.  Jack, can you write a letter to MassHighway asking that the audible signals be turned up in volume?

Andy:  Most of Highland Ave. is not residential.

Andy:  The ones by Wal-Mart have a tactile strip, and you can get to them, but the locator beacons aren’t loud enough.  The state department has trouble with the levels.  I talked with Sue Cranney (you remember Sue?)  She suggested writing Dave Knowlton.

Jack:  I talked with him this morning.  He suggested talking with Don Giardi about the levels.  The road does belong to the state, but it, like the T station, it’s not clear on exactly who is responsible.

We were going to ask Tom Muxie to come out and check the pole placements and the walk buttons on the poles.  Regulations only say the poles be “reasonably placed”.

Charlie:  Tom’s in a wheelchair so he’ll be able to tell us if he can reach the buttons on the pole.

If I get stuck on Highland Ave., there’s no way in God’s green Earth, I’m going to be able to cross the street with traffic.

Jack:  When you hit the button to cross the street, the law says you have the time and right of way to cross no matter how long it takes.

Andy: There’s a law against robbing banks, too.

Hawthorne Hotel Parking Lot (new business)

Jack:  The hotel is restriping their lot.  A suggestion was made, a great one I thought, that they lay a stripe down marking the sidewalk area.  They did so and I give them a lot of praise.  There was a letter from the community praising them for doing that.

But something not so good:  At their other lot at Essex and Union St. (across the street from the hotel), there isn’t a curb cut at the sidewalk.  There’s a curbstone and a phone pole.  You can’t use the sidewalk unless you go around.  I can’t imagine why they did this.  I alerted Jason to this and like the leech I am I will hang on him until this is fixed.

Talking Books Demonstration (other business)

Andy:  Couple of toys I have.  First thing I have, is two different reading devices.  The first one is from National Library Services, free to the blind and print-handicapped.  These replace the old cassette machines.  These use cartridges.  The cartridges plug in and there are voice prompts.

There are braille symbols on the buttons and buttons for bookmarks, playback, fast forward, speed and volume.   A pause button, a backup (rewind) button,  keep your finger on it and it goes to the next chapter.

It has a very good voice.  Only problem is there are only 50 books, though there are more every time.  National Library Services has a download service for computer users.

The book reader has a slot for a flash card, and a remote controller for people who need alternate controls.

There is a headphone jack as well.  Any questions?

Jack:  They’ve come very quickly.  I talked with Andy about his and signed up on a waiting list and got it right away!

Andy:  This device is free.  They’re phasing out cassettes.

The next device is the Victor Reader.  This is not free. It’s smaller and you may not hear it as well in this demonstration.  It works like a computer;  it connects to your computer with a USB port and you transfer files to it like a flash drive.

You get the books in ZIP files and they’re specially encoded;  you can’t play the files in an MP3 player.  You hit buttons on the keypad—1,4, 6—to get individual folders to play.  [sound of Reader reading a chapter.)

You can buy books from Audible.com to work with this;  pretty much anything.  Some books are read by the author, others not.  You can also set bookmarks and highlights;  you can list bookmarks.

Jack:  Big question.  How much?

Andy:  $325.  This is life changing.  It has headphones.  It has a 1” external speaker which sounds great.  You can download podcasts.  You can download a Braille file and it will be transcribed to voice.

You can hit a key—7—and something to search for and it will search through your text book or Braille book for the terms.

[inaudible]:  How do we get the free reader?

Andy:  Call the Perkins Library, 1-617-924-3434 and get an application to join the library service and get one of these machines.  Just keep in mind that the inventory of books is very low, it’s a new system.

The Victor machine is made by Humanware, a Canadian company.  1-800-722-3393.  This is one of the best investments I ever made!  You can also take customized notes, on say a textbook.  I can literally put a thousand books on there and search them.

Jean L.:  Any charges for the books?

Andy:  National Library Service books are free.  Downloaded books from them are also free and don’t need to be returned.  You can put as many books as you want on an SD card.

Another device to demo:  This is a thing I think is very valuable for the average person:  Sierra Systems KeyRinger.    This is a key locator.  Nothing better.  $20 for a pair.  Push the button, and the other end, attached to my keys, will beep for 30 seconds until I shut it off.

I have a big yard.  I use these on my deck.  It’s saved me hours going on my deck.  It’s fun when there are three or four of these going off all at once.

This is great for any blind person who needs a locator.  One end could go on the fridge, and the other end on your keys, your remote, etc.

$20 and call 1-800-776-4888.

It’s weather resistant;  I’ve had it in the rain.  It’s advertised as being able to be run over by a truck;  someone dropped one in a field in the rain.  They found it and it worked.

Andy:  Questions?

Jack:  Ever take the sailing course again?  No?  We’ll see you taking the sailing course again with Maureen.

Jack:  Next meeting is October 20th.  There will be community meetings on the city’s five year plans.  I have invited Jane Guy to come.

I cannot be there;  there is a statewide transportation conference that I have been invited to, so Charlie will chair the next October meeting.

Charlie:  Anything to do with the RIDE?

Jack:  Yes, this will be part of the meeting.

Mike S.:  What about the tourist trolleys?  Are they accessible?

Jack:  I did witness the Salem Trolley pick up two disabled individuals.  They got on board and hopefully had a good trip.

Thanks very much and see you in October.

Question One

Most readers know there is a initiative question one on our ballot this November.  Question One, if passed, would abolish the Massachusetts income tax, putting us in the company of states like New Hampshire and Florida, which have no income tax.

Supporters of Question One want to “send a message to legislators”.  Opponents predict Armageddon.  That’s simplified but not by much.  The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation points out that of  the $32 billion dollar state budget, $12.5 billion comes from the income tax.

That’s not an small drop, nor is it “cutting the fat” as the libertarians might put it. 

This week, we got a taste of what the consequences would be like:  Governor Patrick announced his Fiscal Action Plan to close a $1.7 billion gap in the state budget.

$1.7 billion.  Not $12.5 billion.

Notably, these cuts are hitting programs for people with disablities and the elderly.  People are already screaming.  The state’s  audio service for the visually impaired, TIC Network, is getting its budget cut.

In the past week, I’ve read this and other articles on Patrick’s budget cuts and have been drawn to the comments before reading the articles themselves.   There are several tropes—commonly expressed ideas—I’ve seen in those comment threads that I just have to respond to.

On cuts to elder services:  One commenter on Boston.com talked about her elderly mom and the problems arranging care for her.  The retort was:  “Well, you should be responsible for looking after your parents!”

Well, yes.  But who can do it alone?

I helped care for my mom in the last three years of her life.  It’s been over 14 years since she died.  I do not regret looking after her for even an instant.  Never did I think of running away.

But I didn’t do it alone.  Mom had an array of care workers to look after her.  She had elder services to look after ordinary things like transportation.  She had visiting nurses.  She had a homemaking service.

Caregiving is very hard work with no small amount of stress.  Even after I admit I loved my mom so much I’d do the three years with her over and over, I say also that it changed me for the worse, just from the emotional stress that all caregivers experience at one time or another.   

A caregiver is more often than not an adult daughter, maybe the youngest or oldest in her family.  Maybe she has the “least” amount of obligations to look after Mom (or Dad).  Does she give up her job to look after her?  Can she? 

This applies no less to people with disabilities and those who care for them.  A child who becomes disabled can upend a family.

What happens when no one is there for the caregiver?  Elder abuse is already worrisome.   A few years ago in Nevada, an elderly man was dropped off in the street in his chair and a pack of diapers;  his relatives were too stressed to look after him any longer.  Will we see elderly and disabled left in the streets of Salem?

Responsibility is nothing without support.  The state service agencies, however maligned, are for many the first, last and best source of support.

“Just fire the managers!”

We all love Indians and hate chiefs.  Management has a role, though;  do we want all our caseworkers to do all their own management tasks?  How about closing offices?  Would that be a good idea?  If you’re in Springfield and your caseworker has to work out of Worcester, maybe that’s not so good.

“Vote for One and send a message!  Those no-good hacks will never let it pass anyway!”

Then what’s the point?

We hate our legislators.  They are hacks.  I distrust them all, from Washington St. to Beacon Hill to the Capitol.  I have never known a government that was not ineffective or corrupt, I have never looked at a politician with anything but cynicism.  My earliest memories of being politically interested is in reading “All The President’s Men” in grammar school.

That’s all true.

So why are people saying they’ll depend on the legislature to set things right?

As someone at Governing.com pointed out, taxation is equivalent to legitimacy in our government.  Ever since Proposition 2-1/2 was passed in 1980, we have not believed in our government, and we have not trusted it.

That’s the real problem.

One final meme to address:

“Well, Deval will just undo the changes after Question One goes down!”

I don’t think so.  From the Globe:

State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill said yesterday that the state must take dramatic steps - borrowing at a higher interest rate than usual and tapping the state's rainy day fund for $310 million - to make sure it has enough cash to make local aid payments due next week to cities and towns.

The extraordinary moves are a direct result of the troubled credit markets roiling Wall Street, and they portend more dire decisions looming for state lawmakers, Cahill said. The turmoil arises as state revenues are decreasing, making access to credit even more important.

"This is no longer a Wall Street issue, this is a Main Street issue," Cahill said. "I don't want to be constantly beating a dead horse. But it's a crisis. A full-blown crisis. We have to slow down or cut spending."

Whatever happens with Question One, this is not over.

UPDATE:  Excellent suggestions from Steven Crosby via CommonweathUnbound, but of course this isn’t as “fun” as watching people yell at each other.

UPDATE 2:  Vic DeGravio reminds us that mental health programs are already seriously affected by the cutbacks.  I know from personal experience that mental health programs have been the unwanted stepchildren of health spending in the state.  Small wonder it is going to get worse.  Another trope in the comments:  “Well, just cut the waste!”  

Sure.  Not.

Downtown Salem named A Top Ten Neighborhood: Last Gasp of Gentrification?

As has been widely reported in the News, and the Gazette, the American Planning Association has named Downtown Salem as one of its Top Ten Neighborhoods:

One of colonial America's most storied towns, downtown Salem, Massachusetts, blends 17th century history and architecture with a 21st century pace and liveliness. The neighborhood's picturesque Common, eccentric street grid, and profusion of archetypal old houses belie a humming, mixed-use district with dozens of retail stores, more than 50 restaurants, and 400 newly built residences.

Given the neighborhood's success in retaining its historic character while incorporating modern-day changes to make the area economically vibrant, compact, and sustainable, downtown Salem has been named one of 10 APA Great Neighborhoods in America for 2008.

To be fair, this is a great victory for Kim Driscoll.  Three years ago, Mrs. Driscoll was the assistant city manager in Chelsea, the once-troubled small city just north of downtown Boston.  In the 1980’s, Chelsea was in state receivership, but starting in the 90’s, the city gentrified at a fierce pace.

Driscoll had to have wanted that for her city of Salem. 

Indeed, during one mayoral debate, Driscoll bragged about the steep rise in property values in Chelsea, at the time the city was listed as the 2nd highest increase in values for a town in the Commonwealth.  Her opponent, Kevin Harvey, was less positive about this fact, saying that it was a list he didn’t want Salem to be on.

And now Kim has it.  She has the steep rise in property values in downtown.  She has, in her city, $300K condos named after Hawthorne.   Even my ward councilor is caught up in the gentrification wave with his support of the Salem Jail redevelopment.

We make our money downtown from “history”, tourists and ever elevating property values, rather than the industry and business of years past.

Salem celebrated this honor in a ceremony this past Wednesday with our state rep Keenan, state senator Berry and Congressman Tierney.

I wasn’t invited.

I’ve lived downtown for 13 years.

People at the ceremony were given T-shirts (“Downtown Salem/I Live Here!”)

I don’t have one.

I’m slighted.  Snubbed.

This Top Ten Neighborhood honor is not for the long-time citizens who have quietly worked for Salem’s benefit, but more for the up-and-coming dynamic individuals who can pull down $500K mortgages for tiny condos. 

Kim, the Council and the administration got their wish.  So too did the condo owners.

But what will happen to them in an economic collapse?  What will happen to us, when we can’t make money out of churning property values and Halloween visitors?

If your condo is foreclosed upon, will the same city officials who feted you, return your calls?

One last quote:

Other signs that downtown Salem no longer is just a draw for tourists, says former city planning director Bill Luster, who has lived downtown for several years, are the neighbors he sees when walking his dog, going to the drugstore, or doing other everyday errands. "There's definitely a neighborhood feel to downtown now," he said.

I’ve been around, Mr. Luster. 

Where were you?

The Courthouse Shouting Match

It's been a month since the most recent public meeting was held on the courthouse project. I haven't really wanted to comment on it. I was at the meeting recording it for SATV and I have never felt more alienated in my city than when I was there. Nevertheless, my thoughts and photos follow. This will be a long post.

This is the proposed design for the Courthouse complex at 30% design completion:

[Source: Goody Clancy 30% Courthouse Site Plan and Renderings [PDF] at salem.com Studies and Reports.]

"It's ugly! It's too big! It doesn't fit the "character" of the City! It doesn't look 'historic'!"

If it were a knockoff of a McIntyre design, I'm not sure it'd be much better. When I see that courthouse I see my building in it:

This is where I live. Notice the similarities in the window treatments.

Or consider this familiar view outside my parking lot:

This is a view of the Essex County office complex at the back of the courthouse, taken a few years ago at winter sunset when the rotary still existed on Washington St.

This building was constructed in the mid '70s, at the height of the Brutalist architecture fad. It's an ugly building in the same way that Boston's City Hall is ugly. Yet, it is a familiar sight from my building and I never get tired of seeing it. It's become one of my favorite subjects to photograph, with all the lines and rectangular shapes that draw my eyes in, looming large in the frame as I shoot with a telephoto on Ash St, a half-block away.

(I enjoy photographing this "neighborhood" much more than I do the yuppie, twee, neighborhoods of Salem Common and Federal St! Another photo, and yet another!)

I can't get outraged about the design, even if it were presented as the final design rather than one that is but one-third complete.

The loudest voices in the courthouse shouting match were from those who wanted "history", whatever it is. The courthouse, according to them, should have been smaller. It should be "historic".

I believe they wanted the idea of a historic courthouse, the one you see in so many illustrations, and in films like "To Catch a Mockingbird". A cute little courthouse for a cute little sentimental historic town.

Except that Salem has never been such a place.

Salem has had a concentration of courthouse functions for as long as it's been a county seat. In a sense, the proposed complex just continues the historic pattern that has been a part of Salem's downtown for a very long time.

"The state just came in and railroaded the project!"

Um, no, they didn't. The courthouse complex has been discussed for a very long time. It may have even gone back to the construction of the District Court building (another Brutalist building) in the mid seventies, on the site of the former restaurant Grub and Grog's on Washington St. A courthouse complex, as the representative from DCAM told us at last summer's meeting, was in consideration for the Salem Depot site around 2000. The courthouse would be built on top of the Salem Depot parking garage. After 9/11 this was not seen as a good idea. (The experience of UMass Boston provides other good reasons not to do this.) There was even talk of relocating the courthouse complex to the old Danvers State Hospital site (now a residential development.)

As Patricia Zaido pointed out, this project has been in the works since its funding was approved in 2005.

The state is operating under some serious restrictions to get this courthouse in Salem. First, the existing buildings on the lot (except for District Court across the street) have to be preserved afterwards, and the complex must function while construction is going on. (The Registry of Deeds has already been temporarily relocated to Shetland Park.) And second, they must stay within the $106 million budget that has already been approved. Any delays would imperil this.

The state, as well, has some constraints to the design of a courthouse that they must follow. Any design must be functional and secure for several groups of people that use it: The judges and officials, defendants, witnesses, and jurors. All these groups must be safely managed and segregated until they have their time in court. The state has been very clear on this point. (It is to the discredit of the media that these details have never been mentioned, leaving people to imply it's a big courthouse just because the state wants it that way.)

In particular, juror services and amenities at the Salem complex are currently non-existent. Presently, if you want to erase court cases from the docket, for whatever nefarious reason, just let off the brake pedal as you move through Washington St. and run down the jurors herded across the street from the church that serves as a juror waiting room!

Now we come to the other controversy: The state will remove the east downramp to Bridge St. to accommodate the footprint of the court complex. The shouting against this was the most bitter I've ever heard in a public meeting anywhere. After the architect discusses the loading dock and sally ports needed to safely deliver defendants to the building, one guy goes "You don't need 40-foot trucks to deliver prisoners!"

I suppose if everyone on Federal St. conducts a sit in at the construction site, we might need those trucks! More to my point, there are 40-foot trucks outside anywhere you may live or work:

[Credit: iirraa on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.]

The courthouse has 11 courtrooms and it is a good sized office complex in its own right. Perhaps delivery trucks like these should be prohibited on Federal St? I'll support that!

The state cited traffic sensor data (PowerPoint) as evidence that the ramp was underutilized. Here's a picture of the ramp from last summer:

This was taken around weekday noon in summer I could have walked all the way down. I couldn't resist being a wise-ass when I suggested (during an unrelated meeting, when the topic came up) that this be Rowling's next book: "Harry Potter and the Magical Slip Ramp", as this ramp is purported to have the power to solve Salem's traffic forever. (Like the Bypass Road!) I though fewer ramps were good for the environment, or for urban character, or something to that effect.

I cannot think the state (specifically, DCAM, which is in charge of facilities) would take on the extra hassle of coordinating with MassHighway (working on the roadway) just because it felt like it.

What do I think of the courthouse?

I have some sympathy for those people worrying about traffic. Changes in traffic patterns are very hard to take and we have had outside consultants with failed plans come in before. Not to mention our home-grown Riley Plaza, Salem's quintessential failed urban renewal project.

I have a little sympathy for the architects who are concerned about the plans at 30%. One can hope the next spin of the plans will make it look better. Still, I could not muster much outrage if this were to appear outside Ash St. tomorrow.

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Polly Wilbert and the Federal Street crowd. They only want something that doesn't disrupt their property values. They would gladly sacrifice functionality towards a distorted sense of "history".

Right now, the state has every reason not to build the courthouse in Salem. The county government that concentrated our court system where it is no longer exists. Essex County disappeared as a government entity in the early '90's, except for the Sheriff's Department.

Were I head of DCAM, I would be looking towards Lynn or Beverly or Peabody, or even Danvers once again. Who needs a bunch of snobs?

I'd gladly let the courthouse go as well.

Except that if it goes, we probably won't get a new train station.

And we're in a recession that I think will get much worse, perhaps 1929-era worse. Worse than anything in my living memory.

That courthouse could loom large in more ways than one.

Postscript: Road reconfiguration has already started.

More thoughts on the courthouse.

Many More Are Jobless Than Are Unemployed - New York Times

A Floyd Norris article in the Times confirms what I have long suspected for years:  Despite the rosy unemployment figures of the past 10 years (around 4.1-5%), there are many who have either chosen not to work (stay-at-home spouses, say) or have given up trying to find work.

In the latest report, for March, the Labor Department reported the jobless rate — also called the “not employed rate” by some — at 13.1 percent for men in the prime age group [27-54]. Only once during a post-World War II recession did the rate ever get that high. It hit 13.3 percent in June 1982, the 12th month of the brutal 1981-82 recession, and continued to rise from there.

That is more than 1 out of 10.

I suspect it includes many people with disabilities.  Working with a disability is a complicated dance that's influenced by many factors:  The nature of the work, the nature of the disability, and the level of health care--and even the availability of care--that the person with a disability requires for a stable life that allows him or her to keep working.

People with low-level jobs (Wal-Mart, Dunkin Donuts') who get disabled just don't come back to work.  Some can eventually come back, and some do only to find their condition aggravated, so they can't work anyway.

Even with "higher-level jobs", a term that needs to be put in quotes following the collapse of middle management and the era of downsizing over the past 20 years, it is precarious for one who becomes disabled.

One may be told that their health-care costs are too high for the productivity they bring.  Or that adaptations would be too expensive.  Or, most likely, they are not "dynamic" young enough.

Near age 54 with a disability, unless one is in a very secure job, he or she may leave.  A friend of mine in her fifties fell down a flight of stairs during a power failure at her workplace.  She settled with them, but never went back to work anywhere and eventually became semi-housebound due to the fibromyaglia she contracted as a consequence.

Add in overseas outsourcing, where all the workers are able-bodied and there is no ADA to worry about, and it's a precarious position.    It always has been.

Many More Are Jobless Than Are Unemployed - New York Times