I was standing in the crosswalk on the north side of State Street facing north up Liberty. That first light up is Court Street NE; the next one up is Chemeketa Street NE; then there's the skybridge over from JCPenney to the Salem Centre mall; I give you Oregon's second (or is it third now) city on a holiday afternoon.
Now, Salem gets a lot of insults for being such a small, sleepy town. I'd like to say that, having grown up there, it's not a bad place really, People are as friendly as anywhere else in the Willamette Valley; Salem is a cute town, comfortable, pleasant on the eyes.
But take it as a clue that a lot of us–residents as well as expats–call it Snailem. And take it as a huge clue that despite standing in the middle of one of the principal downtwon shopping streets, at the crown, I was never in danger of being hit by any car–not once.
Roll up the sidewalks? They never even got them out for the day!
