Salem in 2009

World Events

• Hamas rocket attacks on Southern Israel answered with air strikes in 22 days of war. This conflict ends with a cease-fire and the Israeli forces withdrawal from Gaza.
• North Korea conducts a second successful nuclear test.
• The Icelandic government and banking system collapses amid the "Pots and Pans" protests by the citizens. This resulted an Icelandic Constitutional assembly of 26 common citizens of no political party. The new Prime Minister, Johanna Siguroadottir, is first openly lesbian head of a national government.
• An AirFrance flight from Brazil to Paris crashes in the Atlantic, killing all 228 passengers on board in addition to the entire crew.
• US Jobless rate hits 10.2 % despite stimulus measures.
• Congress wrestles with health-care reform as debates continue.
• The outbreak of H1Ni, "Swine Flu", is a global pandemic.
• Sonia Sotomayer becomes first Hispanic justice on Supreme Court. (My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor, 2013)
• Barack Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
• Academy Awards: "The Hurt Locker" (US), "The Secret in Their Eyes" (Argentine). Prize-winning books: "Let the Great World Spin", Colum McCann and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

In Salem
After an intensive local campaign, 20 months and three competitive phases, the Salvation Army was awarded a portion of the Ray and Joan Kroc fortune to build and operate a Kroc Center in Salem. The Kroc grant provided nearly $35 million for construction and the same amount for an operating endowment, but the Salvation Army asked Salem residents to kick in $8 million, a royal sum in the city of about 154,500, without many deep pockets. They charged into fund raising. More than 1,700 donors pitched in, from kids who held penny drives, to foundations and individuals such as Gerry Frank who gave $1 million to help pay for the center's aquatics center. In all, residents raised more than $10 million. The center is faith-based and no tax dollars were used.

When you visit
The Kroc Center is within the circle of Bill Frey Drive and can be reached by car from Portland Road or Industrial Drive. There are bus lines that accommodate the site. The doors are open to visitors seven days a week and receptionists will supply information about recreational programs, classes and other services.
Salem sold the Salvation Army this 11-acre parcel in the Northgate neighborhood, which borders Keizer and is defined by industrial properties, a city natural park area, housing and vacant lots. Designers, craftsmen and construction workers built an angular, L-shaped structure, filled with materials and decorative themes that evokes Oregon: boulders from the Columbia River Gorge, sturdy wood beams, and massive glass walls that let in ample light even under slate-gray Northwest skies.

Other events

• Linda Norris, the City Manager, conducts community meetings before the first Budget Committee meetings in April to explain the shortfall in the city budget and cuts that would have to be made. The Library is reduced from a Department to a division of Administration and the Director position eliminated. Other department responsibilities and personnel are shifted in order to cut the budget by $5 million.

•  In May, the transformation of the Union Street Railroad Bridge and Trestle is complete and opens to the public with an official ceremony and parade led by Mayor Taylor. Three interpretive panels had been produced by Ed Austin, local designer and author of books about regional railroads, and were places at either end of the bridge and trestle. The bridge was an immediate success and was filled with local families, bicyclists, individuals with their dog companions, and visitors to the city. The lofty walk over the Willamette River gives views at one of the widest parts of the river to the north and toward the city and Willamette Slough to the south. The Trestle continues over Wallace Marine Park and at the end, paths lead down into the park or straight on the Wallace Road in West Salem. (The pedestrian/biker path closed in November in order to encapsulate the lead paint, but opened again in May of 2010.) This City of Salem project has already gained recognition, winning an Engineering Excellence Award, the Oregon Heritage Award and the national Transportation Planning Award.
• Sanyo Solar of Oregon LLC opens a $40 million plant in Salem. In the 80-acre Renewable Energy and Technology Park, Sanyo's 130,000-square-foot factory houses the first two steps of solar manufacturing: growing crystals and slicing them into wafers.
• Oregon State Hospital continues to be the target of complaints about patient care while the demolition of the historical buildings continue on that site. Taking measures to save the original front aspect of the "J" building has been a local concern: the tower has been removed for repair. Creating a museum to honor the former patients and the staff is still being planned within the renovated building.
• Broadway Town Square, a TELOS mixed-use project on the site of the former Eagles Building at the intersection of Market and Broadway is completed with a ribbon cutting as the Salem Cinema moves into the new 3-theater facility. Town homes, apartments and retail spaces are also available.

Historic and Modern buildings at Willamette University: Gatke and Ford

• The modern, copper-clad Ford Hall rises next door to the historic Gatke building on the Willamette University campus.
• Several other construction projects are put on hold during the economic crisis. Downtown they include demolition of the First National/Wells Fargo Bank on Liberty Street for a mixed-use project including the parking lot where the old City Hall stood and prospective building on the McMahon Furniture Store site. The Meridian and Rivers condominiums projects are completed.
• In legal and criminal news: Sunwest Management Inc. and founder Jon Harder of Salem are sued by the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission; parents are arrested after three children report abuse since their arrival from the Ukraine in 2003; Marion County Sheriff Russ Isham resigns after accusations of personal misconduct.

Salem in 2008

World Events

• The Australian Prime Minister formally apologies to the Stolen Generations: children of Aboriginal descent who were removed from their families to work for white families. In Canada, there are apologies to the indigenous First Nations for the removal of their children to Indian Residential schools.
• An earthquake strikes Sichuan, China killing at least 87,000 people. In August the Summer Olympics are held in Beijing.
• Israel invades the Gaza Strip in response to rockets fired by Hamas.
• Iran opens it first space center and launches a rocket into space.
• In the US national economic collapse, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual declare bankruptcy. The Dow-Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest one-day decline in history.
• President Bush  signs the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to prop up banks, automakers & mortgage agencies. The "Great Recession" begins.
• Illinois' Democratic Senator Barack Obama wins the US presidency with 53% of popular vote. Our first African-American to hold that office.
• Academy Awards: "Slumdog Millionaire" (US), "Departures" (Japan). Prize-winning books: Shadow Country, Peter Matthiessen and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz.

In Salem

Hollywood Station

Portland Road was once just that: the highway to the city north of Salem. With the construction of I-5 in the 1960s, that changed: without the commercial stimulus of heavy traffic, Portland Road's economy faltered. Beginning in 1972, urban renewal attempted to make the area more productive and more livable. One of the most recent and most attractive projects is the area formerly the Goodwill site. The triangular property, owned by the Salem Urban Renewal Agency, is bounded by Portland Road, Brooks Street, Pine Street and the new senior facility, Center 50+. It was sold to Hollywood Renewal LLC, comprised of Mountain West Investment Company. (No commitment of public resources, in the form of a loan or grant, was required of the agency to support this project.) By 2008, unfortunately the year of the great "Recession", the new residences of Hollywood Station (above) are completed and ready for occupancy. The project includes 24 town homes and a 2-story, 23,ooo square feet office/retail building. This is one more civic project in North Salem where the business community and the city staff work together to make living in Salem more attractive for both the long-time residents who have shared its history and the newcomers who will make it their new home.

When you visit
Perhaps you have also driven east on Pine Street, or along Portland Road, during the last few years, wondering what the new highway configurations, landscaping and construction would produce. We may expect that even more improvements are on the way for the old Hollywood business district. The senior center relocation, Center 50+ and the new businesses (we wish them well!), the KROC Center and this Hollywood Station have all brought welcome new enterprise to the area of North Gateway, truly the historic entrance to our city. The North Gateway Redevelopment Advisory Board is an avenue by which residents can provide input to present and future projects in this part of our city.

Other events

• As new structures rise in Salem this year, old ones are threatened. In January, the Oregon State Hospital had been issued a report from the US Department of Justice siting violations of patient safety, supervision and treatment failures. The hospital sponsored tours through the unused, historic buildings as plans for a $458 million renovation and reconstruction are being formulated. Local historic preservationists, lead by Hazel Patton, submit a successful, whole-campus nomination for National Register to protect the most valuable parts of the institution, particularly the "J" Building. The Historic Landmarks Commission hears evidence that many buildings most be demolished.

Justice Ginsburg cuts the ribbon opening the Oregon Civil Justice Center

• The Carnegie Library on State Street, for 60 years our Salem Public Library, is rededicated as the Oregon Civil Justice Center of Willamette University. The ceremony includes a ribbon cutting by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court.
• With the retirement of Bob Wells, Linda Norris becomes Interim City Manager: she is officially appointed City Manager in June. Sean O'Day became Interim Deputy City Manager in February and was officially appointed to that position in October.
• John Ritter, a local historian and former professor, serves this year as a historian for the Oregon Corrections Enterprises. He produces an Exhibit Guide outlining the 150 years of inmate work programs as displayed in the interpretive museum at 3691 State Street. Exhibit artifacts and background photographs on the wall outline the various programs that have been active in this time span. As the brochure explains: the exhibit begins when the State Penitentiary had its start as the Territorial Prison in Oregon City as a small brick structure and moved to Portland in 1854 where inmates were used to grade streets, crush rock and log trees. In 1866 the Oregon State Prison was moved to Salem and remains here. Over 24 artifacts, actual products made at the Salem institution, are displayed in the exhibit, including the infamous Oregon Boot, a devise worn by inmates when outside to keep them from "wandering away". Other exhibits illustrate today's work programs. For times when the exhibit is open to visitors, call 503 378 2449 or 503 378 2677.
• The new YWCA facility is opened in the Broadway Plaza, a TELOS construction on the northwest corner of the Market and Broadway streets intersection. (This YWCA facility closed in 2014)
• Delta ends flights from McNary Field after less then a year of service. However, Salem is moving forward with plans to expand the terminal and lengthen the runway. Lottery dollars will help pay the $4.75 million improvements.
• Barack Obama has a town hall meeting at the Armory during his campaign for president: Bill Clinton speaks at Chemeketa Community College less than a week later, and returned twice more, on behalf of his wife's campaign. Hillary Clinton answers the phone in her Reed Opera House campaign headquarters: Senator Obama visits the Iris Fair in Keizer.
• The red-light camera system goes into effect at two of the city's most dangerous intersections: Mission at 25th street and Commercial at Marion Street. If a car passes over the sensor after the light has turned red, a video is taken to record the vehicle's license-plate number. That information is forwarded to the police.
• Fire guts the governor's ceremonial office in the Capitol and damages the building. This brought back memories of the two previous fires that destroyed our Capitols in 1857 and 1935.