The wheels on Salem buses go ’round and ’round, but where they’ll stop no one knows. Fear of bus riders and others that utilize the transit mall has delayed the construction of a proposed location along Union Street between Liberty and High in downtown Salem.
After losing its permanent home at Courthouse Square at the end of June, the Cherriots transit bus mall has relocated twice, and a long-term solution is still years away. It is temporarily being housed on Cottage Street, where it lacks a proper cover to protect riders from the impending fall rains. Of more concern is the perception of those who utilize the transit mall.
Cherriots hoped to complete construction by mid-November, including some shelter for passengers. They would cover the costs, but no solution is going to be without side effects: the street would be closed to private vehicles, a few trees might be cut down, and some of the potential neighbors have expressed a strong lack of enthusiasm at being that close to the transit mall.
Cherriots CEO and President Allan Pollock said that this location was chosen precisely because it has significantly less traffic than the rest of downtown. It’s estimated that 3,500 vehicles a day pass through the area already.
“On average, every thirty minutes, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., twelve to fifteen buses will come in and leave at the same time. Then nothing for half an hour, and then busy again,” explained Pollock.
The August 16 city council meeting was dominated by surrounding businesses and property owners who are concerned about their personal safety, traffic, and noise generated by the transit mall.
One of the strongest voices against the proposed location was Chemeketa Community College President Cheryl Roberts. The college recently opened the Chemeketa Center for Business and Industry, which is located at the corner of High and Union Streets.
Roberts implied during her testimony that the transit mall would be a bad first impression to businesses that are looking to relocate to the area.
Chemeketa’s written testimony stated that they are already having problems with the public using their restrooms for taking “spit baths” as Mayor Taylor called them during the council meeting.
But Saigon Restaurant owner Hien Tran said that now that there are no public restrooms near the former transit mall, she has seen an increase in requests for using their restrooms.
She said, “I’ve got a problem with that – three to four times a day people come in to ask for the restroom.”
Mayor Taylor asked Roberts whether she saw any positives with the transit mall moving across the street. Roberts said no, but did admit that there are positives at their Lancaster location.
Contrarily, Pollock believes the transit mall would be a positive addition to Chemeketa’s downtown branch: “It would be close to front door access for Chemeketa and it would link [the downtown center] to the Lancaster center.” He added that the community college could use the transit station to advertise their classes: “They could promote the convenient access because they have limited parking and that would be an option for their students.”
City Councilor Chuck Bennett questioned the tone of Roberts’ comments. “It’s kind of jaw dropping to hear another public agency say that the clients of another public agency ‘don’t fit with mine’ – particularly the community college president,” he said. He went on to ask Roberts whether or not she was saying that the quality of Salemites who ride buses would be unfit in the locale.
Roberts responded that Chemeketa’s concerns are mainly due to traffic and noise, but insisted that safety was a concern, specifically vandalism.
The thing that concerns me is that you are somehow associating [vandalism] with the transit mall,” Bennett said.
When asked outside of the council meeting for specific safety concerns, Roberts couldn’t name any but said that Chemeketa would need more time to analyze possible safety issues.
She did not stand alone in her concern for safety. Inkspot owner Sue Kovalski testified that the area surrounding her business (and the proposed transit mall) has recovered from prostitution, transient habitation, and drug use in the last five years.
“We stopped having needles in our driveway and grass. Bums were sleeping in our dumpster. That’s all cleaned up now,” she said. “I just have this hideous feeling that with this transit mall these problems will reoccur.”
Kovalski went on to say that her female employees are already stating that they will be fearful to leave work after dark.
Where the perception comes from is hard to determine, but written testimony submitted by Chemeketa pointed to an article published by the Statesman Journal on August 8 as proof of increased criminal activity around the transit mall. They wrote: “[The article] even mentioned crime dropping in the area where the transit mall was located after that moved this summer.”
However, Lt. Dave Okada with the Salem Police Department said that the time period since the transit mall closed is too short to make any type of analysis on the area.
“We can’t attribute crime going up or down to the transit mall,” he said.
He said that overall crime is down for most types of crimes, according to FBI statistics. But that the study didn’t just cover the transit mall.
Pollock feels like the community’s negative perception of bus riders does not reflect reality.
He said, “Our ridership is a microcosm of the community as a whole. We have many hardworking people going to school, to work, and going about their daily life.”
Perception is one of the things that Cherriots will focus on by conducting surveys to determine ridership, ‘type’ of people, why they are riding the bus, and demographic, according to Pollock.
Some of the businesses close to the former location were surveyed concerning the safety concern.
“There was always a pretty strong police presence. I never, ever, ever felt unsafe,” said Dave Ballantyne, the manager at Ranch Records. “We’re losing some foot traffic, but our customers who ride the bus [are still getting here] … I’d rather have it there in front. It was a good bonus when we moved in,” he added.
George Miller, the owner of High Street Shoe Repair, said that safety was not a problem when the transit mall was active by his business.
“We have a security coordinator, the police, and security cameras,” said Pollock, adding that the temporary location at Cottage Street does not have as much security as the proposed location would. However, he said, “I don’t think there has been a marginal change [in incidents] either way.”
Bus rider and new student at Willamette University Matt Hoss said that he hasn’t felt unsafe.
“A couple people kinda talk to themselves on the bus, but nothing that surprises me. [People who are scared] have stereotypes built up about how people dress or look. I look past that and find out people aren’t that scary,” he said.
Kristen Sauer, a mother of three, takes the bus every day. “There are a ton of cops around the bus place. Security is fine,” she said.
Pollock said that most incidents involve minor complaints like smoking or littering.
He added that most of the police activity in the area involved the arrest of alleged criminals when they were spotted downtown after they had committed crimes in another location. “But crime in the downtown mall is very, very low,” he said.
Mayor Taylor said that bus riders are safe on the bus, but pointed to loitering in the transit mall as the challenging factor.
Pollock said that city ordinances do not prevent citizens from loitering, but that the transit district does.
“People are allowed to wait at the transit mall for the purpose of using the vehicles or conducting business. We are authorized to have them leave,” he said. “We can direct them to move on, but outside of the Transit District, we can’t control them. It’s an open, public space.”
He added that loitering will be minimized in the proposed location because there will not be a big open space for people to congregate.
If the delayed decision becomes a denial by the Salem City Council on the proposed location, Cherriots and city staff will begin looking at other options.
Pollock said that some people have proposed moving the transit mall out of downtown, but that it’s not possible immediately.
“If we had the temporary transit mall out of downtown, we would have to redesign all our routes and we don’t have the ability to do that this quickly,” he said.
“Perhaps as a long term solution there might be opportunities to change the business model, but for the short term it’s not possible,” he added.
Mayor Taylor said that she thinks the transit mall should stay downtown, or at least, very near the downtown area, because of the ridership from Willamette University, state offices, and Salem Hospital. “The transit mall brings not only customers, but employees. It is a part of downtown’s success,” she said.
“Intuitively, I know a lot of people who use our buses frequent the restaurants and shops in the area,” said Pollock.
Cherriots and Go Downtown! Salem are currently working on a joint survey to determine the impact of the transit mall on the proposed location. The data from the survey will be released soon.
Go Downtown! Salem Executive Director Suzi Bicknell, who worked for a major retailer downtown, said that she experienced first hand transit’s impact on local businesses when Sunday and holiday services were reduced.
“It had an impact directly on part time employees, night and weekend shifts, buses left before their shift ended and they couldn’t get to work on Sundays. We lost employees because of it. And sales were impacted with less holiday traffic,” she said.
Instead of the proposed location, Mayor Taylor suggested that Cherriots look at the section of Union Street between Front and Commercial next to Marion Square Park.
Pollock said the District has already considered this alternative, but that the impact on traffic would be much greater, with the buses turning onto Commercial Street without a traffic light.
“We would be adding buses to an already congested area. We would have to make more infrastructure improvements. Operationally, it would be a greater challenge than the proposed site,” he said.
For now, the race against the weather is on to provide bus riders with overhead cover, but he wonders if it will come in time, now that the City decided to postpone their final decision.
Pollock said, “We want to get [a cover] in place as quickly as possible for improved customer convenience. That’s unlikely now because of the 30-day delay. Once we get the approval we want to get started as soon as possible. We’ve been fortunate the weather has been cooperative.”
The city council will meet in 30 days to move forward on the proposed location. The wheels on the bus will keep stopping at Cottage Street until the dust settles on the debate.
