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Silverfall, you are right in that the majority of graffitti and trash strewn streets does indeed occur pretty much in N Salem. But that's the perspective I'm coming from. Just because I have a limited income doesn't mean that I wouldn't like my living area to be pretty and it seems like TPTB of Salem seem to have forgotten N Salem entirely when having those "Beautification" talks. It's like who cares if N Salem is made prettier to these guys, as if they think it's all scum/peons/peasants etc who live here. A lot of people here aren't gangstas, rednecks etc...just poor, but appreciate pretty surroundings nevertheless. All I'm saying is that it would be nice if some attention could be paid to these areas rather then all the good stuff going to South, that's it.
I'd like sidewalks on Hayesville for instance, especially with the rash of distracted drivers in this town and the high incidences of pedestrian/car collisions.
Actually Northgate is a designated rejuvenation district by the city and there used to be financial incentives for developers to go in and revitalize. The problem is that no investors/developers have jumped that far north yet.
Hayesville is not in a rejuvenation district but I think the area off Silverton Rd would be the next one after Northgate. The problem with east Salem and roads is that there are three governments that manage the roads, the City of Salem, Marion County and ODOT. I am sure you are aware that there are many pockets of non-annexed areas out there so it is just a mess. You can have city streets that surround a neighborhood that is not in city limits, leaving the roads to Marion county. That area is a governmental mess of epic proportions.
One of the biggest problems is that where the other parts of Salem have fairly active neighborhood associations, the east side is sorely lacking in citizen involvement. The neighborhood associations are the ones that apply for the grants for the park improvements, etc. Just south of you, the neighborhood association has been lobbying for improvements to McKay park. If you live by Hayesville then you don't have a neighborhood association. These groups are really important because they are the ones that harp on the city for improvements for a specific neighborhood or to express concerns.
Summertime, everytime somebody asks me what part of Salem I'm from I literally cringe. It's embarassing to admit to living on this side of town precisely because it is filled with lower class type people who think nothing of tossing sh*t out their car windows.
I feel like I always have to explain that I'm a culinary school graduate (the eats on this side of town are a whole OTHER thread lol) who has probably read thousands of books. I'm not a methhead/welfaerie/food stamp queen/person of Wal*Fart..I swear !!! I'm just stuck here..forgive..forgive lol
But yeah...about the food on this side of town. Please..not all of us here want to dine at Hometowne Barfette or McDonalds exclusively. I would LOVE a Trader Joes on THIS side of town or a Lifesource. But alas, I have to cross into a whole other universe to shop at those places lol.
Bandon, I understand where you're coming from about NE Salem. My wife grew up in that neck of the woods back in the 80's & 90's (McKay grad), and says it was okay when she first got there, but by the time she left, it was not very nice, and has only gotten worse since then when she's returned.
I haven't had an issue with Salem. The school my son goes to, Weddle, is 75% hispanic but still maintains high ratings . . . the same ratings other schools in Oregon are held to with mandated testing. I will add his school has the highest percentage of hispanics in this city. Most I looked at were 15 -30% . . . not sure where you're getting 80 and 90%. For stats check out greatschool.org.
The only beef I have with this city is the lack of sidewalks and walking paths. I enjoy walking and jogging and get tired of dodging cars. I moved from Eugene, OR, so I might've grown up a bit spoiled in that department though.
I agree with everything you just said, Bandon. My biggest beef with this city is the lack of sidewalks and walking paths . . . I jog daily and get tired of dodging cars on sections of road.
Also, just because of the lower income bracket that the N and E parts of Salem may fall under, doesn't mean the city should ignore it . . . it still represents this town. An overall lack of pride for our city and it trickles down from the higher ups. Perhaps city garbages are needed. I'm religious about picking up my dog's crap when we're out running and I have to carry it the whole way home, unless I illegally use a business' dumpster, which I loathe doing.
I do love the easy going atmosphere and family oriented parks and events . . . those I enjoy!
whoever posted salem has the nicest people has not been anywhere but the west coast. people in the midwest and south-I've been to both have a lot friendlier people than salem, oregon. People in salem stay to themselves, no one says "hi" to you as you walk by, I think salem has some of the most unfriendly people myself but like I said I've been all over the U.S.
Well, if I may. After reading through seven pages of rants, complaints, whining, and the typical Eco-Corridor 'blame everyone else but the reigning philosophy of DWL tree-huggers,' my foray into investigating the area where some of my relatives used to live, has shown me this:
You folks complain about the destruction of the beauties of Oregonian nature, without recognizing that, if you came here to 'escape San Diego' (as one writer noted- and I am not blaming him/her, but when it was noted that the 'rot' followed one year later, do you think there might be a connection between the mindset of So Cal, and its' importation into OR- or don't you folks use the term 'Californication'?) it was the 'escapees' who brought the problems with them- these problems didn't just 'appear.' (In short, moving anywhere- except for a job that mandates relocation -is not a 'right', in some sort of a perverse narcissistic desire to 'escape' the bad things in life yourself, while leaving everyone else in the mess you didn't have time to fix, is both immoral and disingenuous. If you have no connection to the land, your heritage, your people, and the society that has organically grown up around those givens, you are the problem, when you transplant your laissez-faire 'me-ism' to your new locale, only to leave it five years later, etc.)
Next, the one woman who was honest enough to note that hispanics now clog the entire Salem system, yet had to defend herself against the modern 'N' word (Racist) is indicative of the elephant in the room. I read someone else noted that graffitti in foreign languages is 'all over,' yet which political philosophy engenders that mindset, that Steve Sailer calls 'invite the world, invade the world'? WHY have people from Mexico in Oregon in the first place? They don't have a 'right'- indeed, Arizonans said they didn't even have the right to BE in the country... just like Eisenhower said, in a saner era (Operation *******) To be blunt, Salem was never a part of Aztlan, now was it?
And, as the writers over at blogs like Occidental Dissent, and SBPDL.com continuously dissect this fallacious pov- stats, news reports, personal anecdotes, and just plain common sense have noted time and time again this truism: crime rises in proportion to the non-White element of a metropolitan area. But, because that is the eleventh commandment of myopic liberals one must never discuss, we can't 'talk about' these sorts of things, because they are 'divisive.'
Yet, aren't muggings, rapes, assaults, and the attendant loss of 'the good life,' also just as divisive- especially when the problem is right before your eyes? Of course these crimes are divisive! Looking at any municipality, when the percentage of whites goes below 90%, things change. When the percentage of whites goes below 50% (as in Detroit) we enter into, not just poverty, but third world, with a frightening rapidity and predictability, that only the most die-hard Obamanite can deny.
So, if Salem is changing, I would suggest that looking to the tenets of a failed presidency, a failed ideology, and a failed demographic denial that changes things for the worse, would be the first areas to address, not the last, if one wants to 'reclaim' Salem.... or any other American town that still has a chance to BE saved.
And that means, that one's MIND needs to change...first. Not one's geographic locale. For the 'deniers' who moved to Oregon from So Cal for 'yuppie Lebensraum,' merely exchanged their failed philosophy for a decade or more, until their philosophical presuppositions (enacted by their subsequent voting/purchasing patterns), 'destroyed' their 'new Whiteopia,'... i.e., exchanged Paradise, and put up a Parking lot (or a Starbucks)."
All the while (of course) denying that that was what they were searching for...... a whiter area, where they could look down on the 'racist' types. What utter hypocrisy.
I now understand why the demographers call your part of the world a 'fantasy nation' - Ecotopia.
Well, Father John, after reading your epistle twice, I think I agree with you.. if the theme of the plot is that we immigrants from other
states, left due to the deterioration of said states, and came to Oregon, or any OTHER state, only to find the same deplorable conditions, then yes, that is a truism.
However, I also feel that the deplorable conditions became worse as the lower elements of society moved into this once quaint, quiet town of Salem. There may have been litter and irresponsible animal owners, and unskilled drivers BEFORE the rest of us came
into the Valley of Decision, but when the riff raff decided to come
to Paradise, it soon became Paradise Lost.
The mindset indeed has to change. But if it was the same in their other town as it is now in THIS town, forget change for the better. It is ingrained within them.
Many people here in Salem struggle with the adverse behaviour of the riff raff. We clean up the litter they leave on the roads and meadows and back alleys.. we pick up their abandoned pets and take them to the Shelters. We rescue the neglected animals and find homes with responsible owners. We re-plant trees when beautiful old Douglas Firs and Oaks and Beech trees have been
slaughtered.. you get the picture. Some of us try to undo the
mess that the riff raff have created.
And you may ask who are the 'riff raff'?
They are those who have no sense of beauty, no sense
of keeping a parking lot free of shopping carts that they
decide to leave out in the lot instead of in their designated
stalls. They are the ones who drive through red lights, who
don't obey the rules of the road, and who steal appliances
when they leave a rental.. or who leave an animal inside of
a rental when they depart, this going unnoticed by the landlord
for days and days.. *yes, that has happened here in Salem.
Maybe there is a demonic force hovering over this town.
And the principalities of the air are winning the battle.
Whatever it is, Salem and its environs, is sadly lacking
in the element of humanity called morality and compassion.
NOT to say that all 150,000 ++++ are in that category.
But it only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel.
Yet, aren't muggings, rapes, assaults, and the attendant loss of 'the good life,' also just as divisive- especially when the problem is right before your eyes? Of course these crimes are divisive! Looking at any municipality, when the percentage of whites goes below 90%, things change. When the percentage of whites goes below 50% (as in Detroit) we enter into, not just poverty, but third world, with a frightening rapidity and predictability, that only the most die-hard Obamanite can deny.
For you to be equating crime with race is irresponsible and frankly racist, that is a correlation not causation.
The CAUSE of crime is poverty. Poverty is caused by a lack of education. A lack of education is caused by poor teachers and over crowded classes rooms coupled with standardized tests that don't help everyone, that in turn is all caused by a lack of funding and oversight into how the money is spent.
Again .. I agree with the analysis that poverty and poor education
are main causes of crime.
On the other hand, it is systemic in various cultures to be rebels
without a cause. You can evaluate a Hispanic family of 10 people,
2 being adults, the 8 being children, and there will inevitably be
at least 3 kids who are on the streets, in gangs, and doing drugs.
Why? Same parents, same home life, same value system for each
kid, but 3 of them rebel.
When you look into the overall population of prisons across America,
what group is the most visible? What groups have not been law-abiding
citizens? When the illegals cross into the United States, how many of
them are upright and responsible citizens of their own country and why
should we assume they will be upright and responsible in THIS country,
especially since they have arrived illegally, leaving their trash as
bread crumbs along the path to a 'better life.'
And what is their 'better life'????? Check out the ghettos, the
low income rentals, tent cities, the underpasses and the fields.
Next, check out the jails, the holding tanks, and the penitentiaries.
It IS NOT RACIST to call a spade a spade.
RACISM is a misnomer. If a person of color is decent, God-fearing,
holds a legitimate job, pays his taxes and rent or mortgage,
good for them. IF they DON'T settle in and become lawful
residents of their chosen community, it is NOT RACISM to
have the opinion that they are a blight on society.
Caucasians fall into the same categorizing... white trash..
white upper class, white middle class.. all the same
evaluation of our fellow earthlings.
The term RACISM is from the days of African slavery.
It does not have any semblance to what we see today.
It was RACISM to make Rosa Parks sit in the back of a bus.
It isn't RACISM to label persons of other cultures as slothful and
lazy slobs, when they do not give back to society in gratitude
for the opportunities given to them.
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