Platform - William Legault Salem Massachusetts City Council

What Does a Ward Councillor Do?

This used to be an easier question to answer than it is today. There are two types of city councillors here in Salem. Seven, one for each ward serve. Their primary responsibility is to deal with issues specific to the ward. Some would describe it as being the “pothole” councillor and this is not inaccurate. There are many seemingly small issues that aren’t small at all to affected residents. However, they also are expected to be cognizant of city-wide matters, state level issues, and even federal issues that come up for discussion and vote.

There are four Councillors at-Large that are elected by a city-wide vote. Some will involve themselves in ward issues at the request of the ward councillor, and on occasion despite the wishes of the ward councillor. Nowadays the lines have become somewhat blurred in this regard through the actions of some of the at-Large types. This is not a bad thing.

The main responsibilty of any city councillor is to be accessible and responsive to the residents of the ward, regardless of part affiliation, whether they voted for the councillor, or whether they are in agreement with the councillor. Calls, texts, and emails should all be returned. This can be difficult when the conversation becomes personally disrespectful, but the effort needs to be made. Mending fences is important, although sometimes impossible.

Meetings in a active city like Salem are many and often. Regular council meetings, council committee meetings, board and commission meetings, there are over 30 boards and commissions and committees that are not connected to the city council are always happening. A councillor has to choose which to attend since it’s impossible to attend them all. The more a councillor attends, the better informed they will be, and the better their service will be.

A councillor should also inform residents as best they can. Email newsletters have become popular, and are effective to those that choose to sign up for them. Meeting with neighborhood groups, Salem loves their many neighborhood groups, is also important. But being out where one can be seen and approached in a casual setting can go a long way, as is regularly meeting with residents who choose not to participate in local politics outside of voting but like and deserve to be heard.

My pledge, if elected, is to be the single most accessible elected official in Salem.

Development In Salem

Salem has been in the midst of a building boom for the last 20-25 years, with a few slower periods created by economic issues. Ward 2, which includes a large part of our downtown has been impacted more than any other ward by all of the development. The question often asked is “how much is enough?”

For some it’s an easy question to answer. There are those who will tell you that there will never be enough development. We’ve been told over the last twenty years that “if a city isn’t growing it’s dying.” That may be true, to a certain point. It is indeed possible to grow too much, and even more importantly it’s also possible to grow too fast. Then there are those who say that all development is bad, that we should keep Salem as it is, or in some cases as it was in some bygone time.

My position falls in between. Yes a city like Salem needs to grow. But we can’t become stagnant. That’s what happened here in the 1960s when Salem wasn’t ready for the dramatic change in the world of large and small retail businesses when huge shopping centers and malls became all the rage among consumers. We were caught unaware and unprepared and basically city government panicked.

Salem’s initial answer to that change was to start tearing buildings down to make room for parking and to propose our own own regional shopping center as a part of a massive urban renewal program. Many historic buildings were lost to the wrecking ball, with many housing units also being among the victims. Included in the planning was a a four-lane roadway from Route 128 in Peabody to downtown Salem. Thankfully those plans were set aside after Ada Louise Huxtable, a well-known critic of of modern architecture and ardent supporter of preservation got involved. Her 1966 article in the New York Times about Salem’s wanton, scattershot destruction of it’s own history was a catalyst for new planning in Salem that focused less on demolition and more on preservation. Objections to this proposal by Peabody, who would have been greatly impacted also played a role.

Thankfully, under the leadership in the 1970s of Mayor Sam Zoll things changed for the better.

I believe that we have reached a similar, although not nearly as dramatic a point today. It’s long past time for our elected and appointed officials to take a deep breath, and begin serious discussions about what it is we want our downtown (B-5 district) to be in the future. What kind of buildings do we want, what kind of businesses should we try to attract. This also applies outside of our downtown with ambitious developments proposed for Commercial Street, the corner of Lafayette and Derby Streets, the old Jerry’s Building, and a new hotel at Washington and Canal Streets, among others.

Salem’s City-Wide Master Plan was put into place in 1979, updated in 1996, and has since disappeared from view. When was the last time a city official took a serious look at it? Is it still relevant today? Maybe, maybe not. Is it time for us to have a discussion about updating it or even creating a new city-wide master plan. My answer is YES IT IS! It’s long past time.

It’s also time to consider a master plan for the downtown, B-5 district. This plan would create rules and guidelines for what kind of building we want to see, and what mix of residential and business types we would like to attract. Would this discourage the larger developers from building here? Could we use it to attract smaller, more locally connected developers to build here? It’s worth a long, overdue conversation.

Growth is good, but regulated, controlled growth is better. We shouldn’t need to have someone like Ada Louise Huxtable open our eyes. They should be open already.

Bike Lanes, Bump-Outs & Bollards, Oh My!

Conversation over the last 15 years or so within city government and among the residents has often been about traffic and pedestrian safety. This is good in two ways. First it means that city government is making an issue of safe streets and sidewalks a priority. Secondly it means that people have taken notice are are expressing their own thoughts and opinions on the subject. Bike lanes, bump outs, and bollards are the most frequently discussed, but speed bumps, raised crosswalks and right on red are also points of contention with many folks.

Let’s get the simplest part out of the way here. I support safety measures on our streets and sidewalks. Any responsible elected representative, at any level should think the same way.

The problem comes with the planning process and then the execution of the plan. Everybody makes mistakes and city government is surely no exception. The bike lanes on North Street were a bold step that just didn’t quite work out as planned. Data from SPD seems to support that the average speed of traffic has slowed down and accidents have been less frequent and less severe. That’s good. But, there’s always a but, the layout itself, is confusing and needs to be reconsidered. There are complaints that emergency vehicles can’t pass other vehicles because there isn’t enough space. This is because many drivers don’t seem to understand is that the upright flex posts used to mark the edge of the lane between cars and bicycles are indeed soft and flexible. This allows a motor vehicle to drive over it without damaging body or the undercarriage. Some how the city has not found a way to get many drivers to understand this. It appears that the design as is, may son be reconsidered and possibly changed. I would support this. The newest bike lane on Washington Street between Front and Essex Streets was poorly considered. This is a protected lane (cars park between the street and the bike lane). Protected lanes are a great option. But as configured emergency vehicles cannot pass any cars that are in the lane of traffic heading to Town House Square. The space simply is not there unless a vehicle chooses to climb up onto the landscaped median. The sidewalk should have been made 8 feet or so less wide, which still would have allowed for sidewalk seating and some landscaping. With Boston Street and Lafayette Street coming up for overhaul in the next couple of years, we have to figure out how do do this better.

Bump-Outs – This is another safety feature that we are seeing more of every day. This is a safety feature that I love because it tends slows traffic down. Should we have them everywhere? No. But we should consider them on streets where traffic tends too move faster than it should, or where pedestrians have a wider street to cross. However, we should also consider any loss of parking especially in residential areas or near small businesses that depend on the 15 minute customer.

RAISED CROSSWALKS – I love this concept. A raised crosswalk is typically 3 to 6 inches higher than the street it serves. These are subtle reminders to drivers to slow down a bit along a selected stretch of road. Once drivers realize that they are in place, they will automatically drive a bit slower as they approach it. We don’t need to raise all of our crosswalks, but in high traffic or high speed areas we should always consider them.

BOLLARDS – You may have noticed bollards going up here and there in the downtown area. The new wide sidewalk on Washington Street has a few heavy duty bollards at the Front Street corner. These are basically anti-terrorism installations designed to prevent in incident like New Orleans suffered last year, or Los Angeles just a few days ago. Bollards were put in by the Salem Witch Museum a few years back to protect the guests on their sidewalk. Most of the complaints about these bollards seem to focus on the design or look of the bollard. One person’s art is another’s treasure.

RIGHT ON RED – I am a pedestrian and occasional bicycle rider. As a pedestrian I strive to avoid four-way intersections. I would rather walk a bit in one direction or another instead of crossing at the Washington, New Derby, and Norman Street intersection, one of the dirty dozen dangerous crossing points in Salem. Before we go forward with any new right on red ordinances we need to take a deep look at what new signalling technology is available.