Salem City Hall Elevator Dedication

Salem City Hall finally has an elevator!  We saw the elevator under construction when the Commission attended Mayor Driscoll’s proclamation of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this past summer.

Here is the ceremony:

And here is a walkthrough of the new elevator. Notice that there are two elevator doors, as you sometimes see in hospitals; one door covers the ground floor from the sidewalk while the other is at the level of the existing ground floor at City Hall.

This is "The Whirlybird", the old chairlift on the front staircase into the Council Chambers:

Beth Rennard, our city solicitor, used this lift every day.

She won’t miss it.

Restaurant at Jail to open next week

Reported at Salem Patch, the restaurant at the Jail, The Great Escape, will open Monday.

When I saw this in the open house, I had wondered if this would be the restaurant.  I seem to have guessed right.

Despite the guy from Northfields and the associated controversy over the green space, a restaurant operator came through after all. 

I’m not sure how they’ll do long-term, and I don’t know if I’ll afford to eat there myself, but I wish them luck.  Hats off to New Boston for their tenacity in seeing this through.

Salem State University

I got this postcard in the mail over the weekend.  Governor Patrick signed the legislation Wednesday that made Salem State a university.  The bill had passed a week before the signing so there was enough time to get the cards out.

Starting a 4th year of blogging

I have recently completed 3 years of blogging.  By tradition, I have a picture of my mom, Jeannette.  This year, I found pictures of her cat Frisky, her most recent and last pet.  She is minding Mom’s motorized scooter;  Scooters like hers are now commonplace but this was really something in her day that helped her independence.

Another Frisky picture:

She’s with me, her “daddy”.  I could not leave the house without her at my ankles. (“DADDY GOES!  DO NOT WANT!”) When I did leave, she would tell Mom endlessly and at length in many words, “PAPA GONE!”  (And then, coming home, she would see me—and totally ignore me!  “NOT TALKING!  YOU WENT OUT”)  It’s been 16 years and I miss them both.

My past year’s blogging saw an old Salem blogging duo go away, and a new one emerge.  A dear friend of ours passed on. I saw a lot of rancor and strife, no small amount from myself.

We saw the design for a new Salem Depot go forward, and I also saw blogging burnout.  I’m still fighting that—if it were not for SATV and my work on the Commission I would be lost..

My apartment was rearranged when a new elevator was built in my building this past year.  It still isn’t open yet but hopefully soon…

Last year I missed the groundbreaking ceremony for the Salem Jail.  The ribboncutting was yesterday.  I missed that too.  But I did go to the open house!

To another year of blogging!

Barbed Wire is Gone at the Salem Jail!

 

As promised, the barbed-wire fencing around the Salem Jail has finally been removed!  (A second, inner wall, was partially dismantled when the Jail was closed and demolished when the renovation began.)

In other news, the new courthouse is now easily seen from the same corner:

Salem Jail’s Open House

There was never a time during the Salem Jail’s existence that people would be waiting to get in to the Jail, but it happened yesterday during a scheduled open house.

There were about 30-50 people in line at any one moment and about an equal number of people in the Jail itself.  Several hundred people likely went through.  (Relatively few people visited the other buildings in the open house, the jailer’s building and the (reconstructed) carriage house.)

There wasn’t much overlap between the areas we were allowed to visit in the open house, and the parts of the Jail that Dan Stanwood took me through two years ago.  The open house took us through the eastern side of the building facing the parking lot;  the tour was mostly on the west side.  (Dan offered to take my party through more of the facility but we were short on time and I had had enough video to make the show out of anyway.)

The front entrance hasn’t changed much from then:

Now:

The pay phone pedestal is still there!  If you’re observant, you may have noted the white metal wheelchair lift in the old photo.  Inmates with disabilities were brought in with the lift (and stayed on the first floor as the rest of the building was not accessible.)

Today, there’s a ramp, or what appears to be one.

Inside, one of the old cells near the entrance has been preserved:

This will be part of a small museum.

The new Jail has an elevator:

Reportedly, the hook on the ceiling of the dining area upon which people were hanged, is still there in one of the units:

One of the units:

In a few months this could be someone’s home.

My Flickr stream of the old Salem Jail.

My Flickr stream of the Salem Jail renovation, including the open house.

Is the Salem Jail Greenspace really that small?

Proponents of a parking lot for the Salem Jail green space all say nearly the same thing:  “It’s a dinky little space near cars and traffic!  Why do you want it green?”

Indeed it doesn’t look like much now, littered by construction on the north end (a backhoe was busy laying down sewer pipes, behind the black van in the photo, this afternoon) and that same van and many other vehicles parking on the south side, “my” side.

But is this space really that small?

I set out to take measurements to find out.  I used my feet and a cheap pedometer:

This is a cheap pedometer one can find at Wal-Mart and like stores.  The McDonalds chain was selling ones like these a few years ago as sort of an adult Happy Meal.

This one, like most, can be calibrated to your step size and show your miles walked;  I use it to make sure I’m really walking that far when I go to Salem Willows in the season (which can’t start soon enough!)

To set a pedometer like this, the best way is to walk a known distance, say a city block, several times and average out the number of steps taken.  Then divide the distance in feet by steps taken and multiply by 12 to get your step size to enter into the device.

Since there are few spots in Salem with mile markers accessible to pedestrians, I used Daft Logic’s Google Maps Distance Calculator to get the distance of a block I walk every day, the stretch from Essex St. from Washington Square to New Liberty.  It’s about 446 feet, from the Philips Library corner to Armory Park outside the PEM entrance. 

My pedometer and my notes say I walked this in 160 steps, so that corresponds to 33-1/2 inches.  Can’t put this into my pedometer so 33 inches is good enough.  Neither it, nor my feet, are precision instruments.

Combine this with high-school math and some walking to get a rough measurement of square footage.

I’m not a civil engineer or a surveyor, but this should be close enough to get some idea.  Many people can’t visualize what square footage really means and this is a good way to visualize it.

I visited several parks in my neighborhood and compare them against the Jail green space, which people have suggested be named “Monopoly Park” (A name I would enthusiastically endorse!)

Is Monopoly Park really big enough to be a “real” park?

You might be surprised.

SATV’s Annual Meeting for 2010.

Pictures from last week’s Annual Meeting

Bridge Street Reconstruction Begins

Salem Jail Park 2010-03-13 006, originally uploaded by dmoisan.

Bridge St. reconstruction starts today. There'll be an informational meeting at the Carlton School tomorrow night at 7. I won't make that meeting. The neighborhood is no stranger to construction projects like the Veterans Riverway and the Veterans Memorial bridge, and this project is the end of an overall plan spanning over 30 years.

This Salem News article has the usual cynical commentariat about flagmen, corrupt officials and lazy workers.  Yawn.  I love how there are always magical private sector pixies about that would finish projects instantly if we only stood back and let them.  I seem to recall, though, reading over the years of private sector, excuse me, Private Sector contractors getting paid by the day and padding projects.

My colleague Charlie will bear it worse than I will since I live a good distance south of the construction.

(For such a “tiny insignificant greenspace”, it’s remarkable just how much it insulates me from most traffic, especially since I’m just feet away from moving cars on the Ash St. side of my parking lot.)

Salem So Sweet 2010

I wandered about downtown for Salem So Sweet 2010’s ice sculptures.  This the one outside Cornerstone.

But, oddly, my favorite was a new sculpture outside Tavern in the Square:

It’s commercial and not at all whimsical but I like it.  Shrugs.

Last Signs of Winter in Salem, 2009-2010

We’re seeing the end of winter.  And ready to turn the page to spring, no doubt.

First Big Storm, Winter 2009-2010

A lone car waits for the light at the Veteran’s Riverway.   I measured 7-1/2” outside my apartment at 8 AM this morning.

First Snow of the Season, 2009

First snow of the season.  I’ve never seen snow on tree branches this early in the season, in the sun no less!  This after a very mild November when we broke the record for first freeze—formerly Dec. 2nd, 1975.

Sidewalks were passable since this wasn’t a big storm.

It’s Halloween Today!

It’s begun!

At this time of day, this is a family event, and the crowd’s reflecting that so far.  I didn’t see the LaRouchites today, which I’m glad for, nor have I seen some of the more edgier people one sees at night.  Then again, I haven’t walked through many areas today such as Salem Common and the “Haunted Village”.

I’m concentrating on the concert and fireworks tonight.  The stage was being set up when I walked by:

I’m going to set up near District Court, crowd permitting.  My personal camera and tripod are much smaller than SATV’s so I won’t be noticed.  I did get appropriate attire:

See you tonight!

Not only ghosts around in Salem

Witches, ghosts and demons aren’t the only inhabitants of Salem today.  These LaRouchites are holding court just two blocks from my house at the Visitor’s Center.  They’ve usually set up at the Post Office a few times a year, without the offensive signs.  Wish I had given them a “helpful gesture” but it’s not in my character.

Halloween Scanner Audio

Once again, I expect a very busy Halloween downtown in the next few nights.  If you can’t be downtown, or if you want to know what you’re getting into, listen to my police scanner feed.  It has Salem, Beverly, Lynn and Peabody PD and FD, MBTA police, NEMLEC (I’m assuming the command truck will be out there again this year.) and the Eastern Route commuter rail.

Direct link if you can't see the player

Have a good time!  I’ll be at the concert and fireworks downtown on Saturday night, filming for YouTube.

Sign of the (Halloween) Season

The carnival next door to SATV started going up this morning.

More from Salem Senior Recognition Days

Senior Tea at Brookhouse

Mel Simons.

Scenes from the Salem Senior Recognition Days opening ceremonies

Pols have a chat.  John Keenan, Kim Driscoll, John Tierney and Dan Brinsky, representing Senator Berry.

Mayor Driscoll and Vice Chair Sosnowski wait for their turn to speak.

Pat Sosnowski greets Congressman Tierney.  Also looking on, Pat Reed and Teasie Riley-Goggin.

Pat spends time with a new friend from Northeast Animal Shelter.

Videos in Massachusetts: No Kids Allowed?

The Salem News alerts us to a bill recently filed by a state senator that could keep images like the one I took of the 2007 Haunted Happenings Parade above, off this website and virtually anywhere else.

Quoting the News:

You'll see that reality reflected in the pages of The Salem News. Open the paper any day of the week and you'll see photos of local kids — playing sports, taking part in school plays or community projects, or having fun.

It's something you'll find in most community newspapers, but a nanny-state law being pushed by a Newton senator would effectively end all that.

A bill filed by Sen. Cynthia Creem would make it illegal for newspapers, TV stations, Web sites or anyone else for that matter to show images of identified kids under 18 without the express written consent of a parent or guardian. If they do happen to show such an image, they face stiff civil penalties.

As the News points out, it’s a bad idea with a lot of unpleasant and expensive implications.

SATV could not broadcast the Haunted Happenings Parade, which features many of Salem’s schoolchildren plus innumerable numbers of kids and parents who throng the sidewalks along the route in their costumes.

With the demise of the Heritage Days Parade, this is virtually the only large celebration in Salem that is done for its citizens, and its children.  SATV’s webcast is watched by expat Salemmites and Halloween celebrants worldwide.

Not only that, the hosts of the telecast often point out interesting costumes and ask small children who they’re dressing up as and what do they think of the parade.  People watch the reruns afterwards and say, “Hey, Melissa, I saw you on TV!”

When I took that picture above, I was in a trolley on the route with my friend Leo Jodoin.  I had no idea who those kids were or even where their parents were.

No way could I have posted that image if the proposed law were in effect and no way could SATV have broadcast the event.

I couldn’t have taken this picture, either:

I’m not a bit sorry for this one;  it was a great shot!  It portrays my favorite statue in Salem, and the girl sitting on Samantha’s broom with her gives it, and Salem, real exuberance and energy.

Pedophile hysteria—which has undoubtedly spurred Ms. Creem to file her bill—has made me think of an old meme I heard when I was growing up.

In this meme, African explorers would go in the jungle, find tribesmen, take out their cameras, and get themselves speared. 

It seemed, according to the myth, that the tribesmen were afraid of the camera:  It would steal their souls.

That’s no myth.

That is our fear.