Downtown Salem business owners and community members pressed city, public safety and nonprofit leaders Thursday, April 30, for clearer progress on safety, homelessness, cleanliness and the future of the city’s core.
The meeting at Grand Theatre brought together Salem City Manager Krishna Namburi, Fire Chief David Gerboth, Salem Center representative Jacob Espinoza and Jimmy Jones of Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency and The ARCHES Project. Hosted by Salem Main Street Association, the discussion moved from parking and flower baskets to community policing, emergency response, shelter policy and drug activity downtown.
The meeting opened with smaller, tangible efforts already underway. Salem Main Street Association is planning another downtown cleanup, launching a monthly Downtown Social Hour on May 21 at Encore Restaurant and partnering with Isaac’s Room to hang flower baskets downtown May 16. Organizers said youth connected with Isaac’s Room will help run the flower basket program, combining beautification with long-term investment in Salem’s young people.
Namburi said the city is trying to build on that momentum while facing financial limits. The proposed city budget continues Safe, Clean and Healthy Salem, adds two downtown community policing officers through paid parking revenue and launches a Prevent, Treat and Enforce pilot focused on substance abuse.
“We cannot be making a budget for one year at a time,” Namburi said, pointing to the city’s use of a five-year forecast. She said the city is trying to test new approaches, measure results and avoid committing long-term public dollars before programs prove they work.
Gerboth said one of those early tests is already showing promise. REACH, the Rapid Engagement, Assessment and Community Health team, pairs Salem Fire personnel with a Marion County Health & Human Services mental health professional to respond to certain calls involving overdoses, mental health crises, frequent 911 users and people with complex medical needs.
Before REACH, Gerboth said, the department’s default option was often a fire company, an ambulance and a trip to the emergency room, even when that was not the best fit.
“Now we’re actually connecting people with the right services, not just default services,” Gerboth said.
In its first three months, Gerboth said, REACH has helped some patients reach care outside the emergency room, reduced repeat calls among some frequent 911 users and freed fire and ambulance crews for more serious emergencies. The program currently operates 40 hours a week, with city leaders pursuing grant funding to expand it.
Espinoza said Salem Center is also trying to rethink what downtown can offer. Instead of treating the mall as a traditional retail center, he said the team is experimenting with events, entertainment and family-friendly activities that can make it a gathering place again. Ideas include an after-hours night market with Rhythm & Flow, laser tag, new food options and future uses for the former Macy’s and movie theater spaces.
“The mall used to be the place where extroverts would come,” Espinoza said. “We want to bring some excitement to the mall.”
Jones told the audience that downtown’s challenges cannot be separated from housing costs and larger economic pressures. He said ARCHES shelters hundreds of people nightly with partners, helps move people from the street into housing and works to prevent others from becoming homeless.
But he cautioned that Salem is not yet past the peak of the crisis.
“We’re still on the upswing of this problem,” Jones said. “What we’re trying to do in Salem is make it manageable.”
Questions from the audience centered on what many downtown businesses see every day: trash, drug activity, safety concerns, bike patrols, shelter policies and people who refuse help. City officials said the proposed community policing officers would restore a stronger downtown presence, while Namburi said the city is developing a broader downtown vision built around safety and support, environment and experience, and economic vitality.
The meeting closed with a focus on cleanliness, which local participants in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative selected as an entry point for downtown action. Union Gospel Mission of Salem was identified as an early partner in that effort through volunteers connected with its New Life Fellowship program.
The larger takeaway was clear: downtown Salem’s recovery will not come from a single fix. It will require public safety, social services, business investment and community ownership moving in the same direction.
