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?

More on Audible Pedestrian Signals

There are more verbal pedestrian signals in Salem.  These new signals are on North St.

Now, why again aren't these downtown at the train station, or at St. Peter St.?

If MassHighway thinks these signals are so precious and too expensive to put downtown at the bypass road, then why are they here?

First Accident on the Bypass Road

Bypass Road 2008-10-08 003, originally uploaded by dmoisan.

The aftermath of the first accident on the bypass road, as a MedFlight helicopter leaves the scene. I didn't see the accident itself, but judging by the scanner traffic, it involved a motorcyclist and was near the bend in the road where it meets Bridge St.

Update: Salem News has the details. It was a motorcyclist with "non-life-threatening" injuries. (Then why the Medflight?) According to several commenters on the Salem News, the motorcyclist was going 80 southbound from Beverly. He hit the bend and went flying. We are supposed to be surprised?

For Randy Moisan, 20 years on the bus are over

I’m doing something different on this blog.  I have a foster brother who drove school buses for the city for 21 years.  He wrote a great letter to the Gazette last spring, reflecting on his years with the city.  Since the Gazette doesn’t post letters online, I want Randy to have his moment on my blog so I have “volunteered” him to guest post:

To the editor:
Where do I start? Oh yeah, how about at the beginning. On March 21, 1988 I was hired by Jim Parisian to drive the field trip/athletic bus for the city of Salem’s School Department. Little did I know at that time how long and how much I would enjoy this job. This was supposed to be a temporary job until I found a “real one.

The first week on the job started with a literal bang. The leased bus I was assigned to drive was torched overnight and damaged the rear of the high school. I couldn’t believe when I was shown what remained of the bus: The front end was completely gone and the tires were burnt so much that there were only rims left. What a way to start off a job, but I stuck with it.

I learned how to get to the sporting fields by Salem’s greatest coaches, Ken Perrone and Al Giardi, and even got lost taking Charlie Maihos’ softball team over to Lynn Classical. I started out being the driver that followed everyone to eventually being the driver everyone looked to for directions.

I drove in and out of Boston all the time and loved it. I watched the Big Dig happen all around me and only regretted coming back in September every year because so many changes happened over the summer months and I had to learn the new routes around Boston.

I really loved driving the kids of Salem and was considered the cool bus driver because I never stayed on the bus — I would join them on field trips, helping teachers chaperone or watching the games. I even got to sit on the parquet floor at the old Boston Garden with. our basketball team during a championship game. I was there when Jeff Juden was being scouted and I remember the Saugus game, watching the radar gun, seeing him throw over 90 mph. I still have the bail he signed for me after he got recruited to the Houston Astros.

There was only one school year that was really
tough on me. That was when Salem High’s class of
2000 were seniors. They were in kindergarten when
I started driving a bus and I watched them grow up,
even though I hadn’t changed a bit, or so I thought.

I loved saying “good morning” to every kid on my bus as they got on and “have a good day” when they were leaving. I even let them know they were missed when they were out sick. I still have many of the gifts given to me over the years by the children and their parents.

I will miss being seen in a store and being run up to or pointed at and hearing the kids say, “that’s my bus driver.” How many looks did I get when some of those special angels would run up to me and give me a hug to say hi in a store and I would never return it, but say “I don’t do hugs,” showing that it was the child and not me initiating it. Those were the tough parts of the job, because I knew that some of those kids really needed a hug back.

These are just some of the things I remember fondly about being a bus driver. I could go on and on about the kids I drove, but sadly all things must come to an end. For personal reasons I resigned my position on April 11, 2008 so for the first time in 20 years and 21 days, the city of Salem does not have everyone’s favorite bus driver at the wheel of a bus. I will cherish all of those years driving Salem’s children.

To the Salem School Department and all of my bus driver friends, thanks for all of the great memories. To the parents of all of the children I drove over these 20 years, I thank you, for the greatest gift: getting to drive your children.
Randy Moisan
Dunlap Street, Salem

Ironically, the year Randy was hired, I got a temp job as a bus monitor for a week where I got to ride around in one of our special-ed vans with Jan, one of Randy’s fellow drivers.  Even though it really wasn’t my kind of work, it was an interesting job and I really enjoyed working with Jan.  Sadly, Jan succumbed to cancer shortly after my time on the bus, so I never got to tell her personally.

The past nine months have been very difficult for Randy and I as we deal with some very personal and emotional issues.  But one thing is clear from his letter:  He loved Salem.  My deep cynicism makes it impossible for me to appreciate this fact, but there it is.

This school year is different without Randy, no doubt.

Politics for People With Disabilities

[My friend, Rob Park]

With less than six weeks to the presidential election, it’s almost too late to make a decision on the race;  around this time, most people are firming up their opinions.  One always forgets about people with disabilities, some may consider them “special interests”, but the issues that face people with disabilities can, do and will affect all of us.

Poynter Online, the online journalism website, and Susan LoTiempo have “Disability Related Questions for Politicians”:

Health care. A shaky economy. Unemployment.

Those are the hot-button issues being debated during this presidential race, and as usual, the candidates take such broad stands that even the most complicated issue becomes a one-size-fits-all sound bite.

But citizens with disabilities (there are 54 million of them) would like some specifics before they cast their votes. It's not just that the devil is in the details, but that their futures may very well depend on those details.

Since our job as journalists is to ask the questions, it's also our job to get the specifics on the record. Unfortunately, it's rare that a reporter asks a disability-related question, but it's time to start.

It has been long past time.  For years, journalists had the same time-worn tropes for people with disabilities.  We were “heroic”, “poor”, “crippled”, “elderly” or “veterans”.  Put on a pedestal to be pitied.  It has taken people a long time to realize that people with disabilities are a very diverse group.  Most of us are not single-issue voters,  yet the decisions that made can even affect our ability to function and even live in our society.

The Ohio Legal Rights Service has prepared a comparison of McCain’s and Obama’s positions on various disability issues.

Disability awareness in our politicians doesn’t end, nor even start, with the Presidency.   We may contact our congressman for action for laws like the ADA, but the action is all with the state reps, state senator, mayor and councilors.  Disability politics, like other politics, is local, to borrow Tip O’Neill. 

And, of course, with my Commission.  In 2009, we have a city council and mayoral election, as Kim Driscoll runs for re-election.

It’s hard to figure out where candidates stand on disability issues.  Nobody will say they’re against people with disabilities, of course.   I and the Commission have been criticized before, but that’s not common.

I and my colleagues  have several months to figure out what Salemmites with disabilities should be looking for in our elected and appointed officials.

In the meantime, Patricia Bauer has an excellent blog on disability news (no RSS feed, though).

Salem’s Downtown Now More Accessible

[Sidewalk curb cut outside the Knights of Columbus Hall.  This was scheduled to be repaired around Sept. 20th, due to the steep dropoff and gap between the sidewalk and the street.]

The Salem Gazette writes about an initiative by the city to improve sidewalks for people with disabilities.  I’ve blogged this before, but it’s in the media now.

There’s no denying that Salem’s rippling brick sidewalks and bumpy cobblestone streets are quaint, but how accommodating are they for people with physical handicaps?

Not very, says Salem’s Commission on Disabilities (SCD). At the commission’s request the city has begun constructing several downtown streets to carve out small sidewalk ramps, called curb cuts, that enable people to more easily reach street level.

The majority of the curb cuts are being installed along Essex and Washington streets at about eight different locations including in front of the Salem Public Library. More will be constructed in coming months along Lafayette Street near Salem State College. According to city officials, construction will be complete in time for Halloween to greet incoming tourists.

The Commission has long had mixed feelings about brick sidewalks.  When they’re new, they’re as easy to navigate as concrete sidewalks.  When they’re old, not as much. 

Worst, as usual, are the cobblestones on Essex St. downtown:

Charlie Reardon, 73, is happy to see these changes but say that downtown streets still remain a problem. Walking with a cane, Reardon has trouble navigating the cobblestone areas of the Essex Street pedestrian mall, especially during events when merchants set up tents along the brick sidelines.

“I try to stay to the right or left … but pedestrians often occupy this and it makes it hard to get around,” he says. “And God help the poor soul in a wheelchair. Those cobblestones jar your insides out.”

I’ll spell this out so people can understand.  The downtown you see today is not the one in McIntyre’s day.  It is a simulation.  It was built in 1976 in an downtown revival fad that attempted to revitalize areas by making them pedestrian-only areas.  The cobblestones were there to make it appear historic. 

They’re not authentic.

They’ve caused more problems with pedestrian traffic flow downtown than any other architectural element.  The Commission regularly has to monitor pedestrian flow and wheelchair access during Haunted Happenings, and our work would be much easier without those stones.

Before you post the inevitable comments telling me to move, consider:

“This is a large tourist city,” Andrew LaPointe, a member of the SCD, points out. “There are 50,000 people in the nation who are disabled … A lot of them come to Salem … We are trying to make the city more comfortable for them.”

The ankle not sprained by a cobblestone may be your own.

In other good news, the Witch House is being made accessible.  The entrance and several important passages are being widened for chairs.  It won’t be done in time for this Halloween, but it should be ready by tourist season next spring.

St. Peter’s St.

Robert Moran writes another column on my neighborhood .  He has a comment on the small (unnamed) park outside my building:

In front of the old jail, on the corner, a park was born this month. With wild flowers, shade trees and a couple of benches, it is already a stroll-through for Salemites. It provides excellent vantage to enjoy pigeon games and watch Bridge Street traffic integrate with the new bypass.

To prevent lingering, road builders installed a god-awful pedestrian crossing bell at St. Peter and Bridge. If annoyed park sitters find the bell irritating, they might pity the tormented residents of Morency Manor and Jefferson Apartments. A stone’s throw from their windows, builders installed additional (deci) bells.

It is indeed annoying and frustrating but not deliberate.  I have a long history with that particular pedestrian signal.

Over two years ago, I and the Salem Commission on Disabilities (myself, Jack Harris, Charlie Reardon, Andy LaPointe and the mayor’s chief of staff Jason Silva) met with the bypass road’s project director, Sue Cranney of MassHighway.

We wanted “talking” pedestrian signals, made by Polara Engineering, at St. Peter’s St.  We had wanted these also at Bridge and Washington St. at the train station, but we were told (in 2006) that the signals were already ordered, so we focused our attention on St. Peter’s St., which would not be completed until the end of the project two years later.

Ms. Cranney agreed to our request and told us the extra cost upfront would not be an issue to her budget.  We had every reason to believe that

Fast forward to now.  As soon as I saw the ringing signal—which was not what we asked for—my chairman, Jack, contacted Ms. Cranney.  She told him the signal was in compliance.  This is technically correct.

But the Polara signal has already been used in MassHighway projects in Salem!  You can find these talking signals at Marlborough Rd., Vinnin Square, and most notably at Salem State College’s Central Campus opposite Jefferson Ave.

I have been left to wonder why MassHighway would use the Polara signals in some locations but not others.  None of the locations of these signals are anywhere near hospitals or other “places for the disabled” (which is usually how accommodations take place when someone feels sorry for the disabled).   Marlborough Rd. is a residential area even more so than St. Peter’s St., Vinnin Sq. is a commercial area with few pedestrians.  The Polara signal at Jefferson and Loring services busy Salem State College, but the area was merely a residential DMZ between North and South Campus (Central Campus did not yet exist) when the signal was installed.

MassHighway recently rebuilt the busy Coolidge Corner intersection in Brookline with Polara signals.  Here’s what they look and sound like:

These signals adjust their volume to overcome ambient noise and to be quiet at night.  They wouldn’t disturb people on my corner.

More importantly, they are more vandal-proof than other pedestrian controls and are cheaper to maintain.

MassHighway is trading off their cheap acquisition price for the extra expense that the city will have, once the project is turned over to them.

It is an understatement that I am disappointed in Ms. Cranney.

Many might wonder, why do we need these signals in Salem?  We’re not Brookline.   

Or are we?

Coolidge Corner is a busy place for pedestrians going to and from businesses and the trolley down the middle of Beacon.

Washington St. and Bridge St. is busy with pedestrians.  They go from place to place at the intersection.  They also go to the train station.  Lots of people do.

Since the city and the state have both decided to move forward with the courthouse project, there is and will be much pedestrian traffic, not only at Washington and Bridge but also at North and Federal.

Since the city wants to keep pedestrians moving through downtown Salem, I suggest that Kim Driscoll might make some calls to MassHighway before the project is transferred over. 

Oh, and Robert, people live in the neighborhoods you write about.  Just saying.