Hey Salem,
October is here, and Salem is leaning all the way into it.
This weekend, somebody is dropping a giant pumpkin from the sky in Gervais. There are llamas and sheep at the State Capitol. And Friday is First Friday, so downtown's galleries, Bush Barn and Deepwood are all open late, free.
If you read Sunday's issue, you already know roller skating at the ballpark starts Friday in Keizer. If you missed it, here's everything coming to Roto-Rooter Park between now and New Year's Eve.
Something new: what are your nine all-time favorite Salem businesses? We built a little site where you can pick them, open today or long gone, and see how Salem's favorites stack up on a citywide leaderboard. Don't see one of yours on the list? Write it in, and we'll get it added. Pick your Salem 9 here.
One ask this week: tell me about the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in your corner of town. Heritage Month runs through Oct. 15, and I want to cover the gatherings at churches, schools and community centers, not just the big ones. Hit reply and send them my way.
Jacob
Also, don't miss these opportunities to get connected in Salem:
The WHS Community — our $20/quarter membership for people who want to go deeper: connect with fellow Salemites, swap recommendations, and get the inside scoop on the city.
The Dinner Club — take a quick quiz, get matched with five Salem folks, and meet for dinner at a spot revealed the morning of. No awkwardness, just good company.
Quick ad and then we will get back to the story…
And right now, you can go looking for them.
Extreme Velocity’s Zombie Shoot is now open, turning the mall’s basement into a 50-minute survival adventure. Your group follows a guide, searches for a missing doctor, solves puzzles, and fights off zombies with airsoft rifles.
You get eye protection, a rental rifle, and a magazine of ammo. The zombies don’t shoot back. Small comfort when you’re the one heading downstairs.
Sessions hold up to eight people. Bring the friend who always says they’d survive a zombie apocalypse. Let’s see it.
Tickets are $25–$39 per person, depending on your session. It’s all indoors at Salem Center’s north building, with select dates through November 1.
May be intense for kids under 13; parental discretion advised.
okay, now back to the story…
Want to get your business in front of 55k+ Locals and support this publication? Click the button below and let’s talk!
🎃 Harvest Saturday: Giant Pumpkins, Llamas and Market Day
Saturday, Oct. 3, might be the most fall day on the calendar. Here's how to stack it.
Sat, Oct. 3 | Weigh-offs 9AM & 2PM, drop at 1PM | Bauman's, 12989 Howell Prairie Rd NE, Gervais | Weekend admission $20–$30
Growers haul in their heaviest pumpkins for two official weigh-ins, and at 1PM, one of the giants gets dropped from way up high. Weekend admission covers the 30+ festival activities too, including the new mechanical rooster ride and the 20-foot spider web on the ropes course.
Sat, Oct. 3 | 10AM–2PM | Oregon State Capitol, 900 Court St NE | Free
The Capitol turns into a farm day: llamas and sheep to pet on the plaza, a free pumpkin patch with a decorating station, face painting and live music from True North. Catch the Independence Wagon Wheelers square dancing at 11:30AM.
Sat, Oct. 3 | 9AM–2PM | 865 Marion St NE | Free entry
It's a five-minute walk from the Capitol, so make it a double. Only five Saturdays left this season, with the last market on Oct. 31.
Daily through Oct. 30 | 5504 Hazelgreen Rd NE | $12.50 weekends, $5–$7 weekdays
Can't make it to Gervais? The corn maze, hayrides, pumpkin patch and barnyard animals are right here in Salem. Weekday mornings are the budget move at $5 (no hayrides).
Hours: Mon–Fri 9AM–6PM, Sat 9AM–5PM, Sun 11AM–5PM
🏛️ What Salem City Council Did This Week
Salem's neighborhood streets are on track to drop to 20 mph. That was the biggest news out of Monday's City Council meeting, which also bought a riverfront warehouse owner two more weeks and reopened an old argument over who gets a seat on the city's Budget Committee.
I went through the full four-hour meeting so you don't have to. Everything below comes from the Sept. 28 meeting itself, and you can watch the video or pull up the agenda on the city's site.
🚗 20 is plenty (almost officially)
Council voted 8-0 to set a 20 mph speed limit on local residential streets and on quieter neighborhood connector streets, the ones carrying fewer than 2,000 cars a day. Councilor Mai Vang was absent. It's not law yet: the ordinance comes back for one more formal vote, called a second reading.
What changes: About 3,000 new speed limit signs, plus 13 radar signs that flash your speed back at you. Installation should start in early 2027 and take about a year, rolling out one part of town at a time. The city plans to start getting the word out this month with yard signs, postcards and social media.
What doesn't: Downtown, busy main roads and the unincorporated county pockets in East Salem keep their current limits. State law doesn't treat downtown as a residential district, and Marion County wants to see how Salem's rollout goes before following. School zones are already 20 mph and stay that way.
Who pays: A $2.8 million federal safety grant, with about $2 million of it set aside for the signs.
Why: A city transportation planner told council a pedestrian hit at 20 mph has about a 93% chance of surviving, compared with about 75% at 25 mph. He also cited a Portland State University study of Portland's version: most drivers barely changed their speed, but the odds of seeing a car going over 30 mph fell about 34%, and over 35 mph, about 50%.
The catch: There's no new money for police to enforce it, and staff acknowledged most of Salem's deadly pedestrian crashes happen on bigger roads this change doesn't touch. Councilor Shane Matthews voted yes but warned the city could be overpromising: "We don't have a law creation problem. We have a law enforcement problem." Mayor Julie Hoy said nearly every written comment against the change mentioned enforcement, and she committed to pushing for more officers. Councilor Micki Varney's take: "It's up to all of us to enforce it ourselves and set the example."
Five people testified, all in favor, including a Grant Community School fifth grader who told council she was nearly hit by a speeding car in a crosswalk on her way to the Boys & Girls Club.
🏭 A riverfront zoning fight gets two more weeks
The property: A 1.43-acre warehouse at 1505 Front St. NE, wedged between the railroad tracks, the Willamette Landing Apartments and the former Truitt Bros. cannery. The cannery site has city approval for 382 apartments but is still waiting on someone to build them.
The backstory: In 2022, the city's Our Salem plan rezoned the warehouse from industrial to mixed-use riverfront, part of a vision for apartments, shops and river access north of downtown that's been on the city's books since at least 1979. The businesses already there can stay. The owner, a local family trust that has held the property for 27 years, wants it switched back to industrial. The family's side told council the new zoning scares off tenants: the only serious inquiry in three years went away once the prospective tenant learned how the property was zoned. They also said they missed the 2022 process because the trust's founder was in hospice.
The Salem Planning Commission said no in June, and city planners urged council to agree. Willamette Landing, next door, opposed the change.
What happened: Councilor Paul Tigan moved to uphold the denial. Before it came to a vote, Matthews offered an alternative: send city staff and the owner back to the table one more time. That passed, and the hearing picks back up Oct. 12. Planners told council they've already met with the owner's team many times and don't see a set of conditions that would make the rezone fit the city's rules. Councilor Irvin Brown summed up the room: "This one is hard for me."
💰 Budget Committee seats spark a split vote
Salem's Budget Committee is the full council plus nine resident volunteers who review the city's budget every spring. Two of those residents, from Wards 2 and 8, asked for new three-year terms.
Hoy, who leaves office in January, moved to open both seats instead so council could consider other residents who had applied. "I don't believe that tradition by itself should determine an appointment," she said. Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, who won May's mayoral race and takes over in January, said the two incumbents had done everything asked of them, and that passing them over "sends the message that we don't care that you've shown up."
Hoy's motion failed 6-2, with only Hoy and Matthews in favor. Council then reappointed both incumbents 7-1, with Hoy voting no. Matthews and Tigan both said they'd like to revisit the rule that keeps other applicants from being considered when an incumbent reapplies.
⚡ Quick hits
Housing vouchers are slowly coming back. Before the council meeting, councilors met as the Salem Housing Authority board and heard that HUD has released the agency from "shortfall," a federal funding crunch that forced it to stop handing out new rent-assistance vouchers. Housing Authority Director Nicole Utz called getting out in under a year "pretty unheard of." The agency also landed 10 vouchers for young adults aging out of foster care and has applied for five more.
Neighbors raised concerns about the Village of Hope shelter. During public comment, four residents described drug use, litter and aggressive panhandling around the Center Street shelter run by Church at the Park, near Safeway, North Salem High and Parrish Middle. One noted the Safeway is the only full-service grocery store within about a mile, and that police and city crews made three drug arrests and hauled away a truckload of trash in the past two weeks. These were firsthand accounts, not crime data. Council took no action, though members said they'd follow up with city staff.
An award for Minto-Brown. The city's long-term plan for the 307-acre conservation area at Minto-Brown Island Park won the Oregon chapter of the American Planning Association's Excellence in Planning award.
October proclamations. It's officially National Senior Center Month and National Community Planning Month in Salem. Center 50+ will bring its updated strategic plan to council Oct. 26.
📅 Put it on your calendar
Thu, Oct. 8 | Planner Palooza | 4:30-6 p.m. | Xicha Brewing | Food, door prizes and city planners ready for your questions about growth, housing and the project on your street
Fri, Oct. 9 | Neighborhood cleanup with Councilor Nordyke | 8-10 a.m. | Fisher Road Park, 4350 Fisher Road NE | RSVP through her Facebook page so they have enough gloves and doughnuts
Mon, Oct. 12 | City Council | The Front Street hearing returns
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Have an event for us to feature? Submit your events HERE to get them added to the newsletter
🛼 Roller Skating at Roto-Rooter Park
Opens Fri, Oct. 2 | Hours TBA | Roto-Rooter Park, 6700 Field of Dreams Way NE, Keizer | $10 for two hours, skates included
Salem's most-requested missing thing is finally here, in a tent at the ballpark. Skateland 2 You runs the rink through Dec. 31, and a two-hour session includes skate rental. Days and hours were still listed as "coming soon" at press time, so check the ticketing site before you lace up.
🖼️ Salem Art Association Opening Reception
Fri, Oct. 2 | 5:30PM–7:30PM | Bush Barn Art Center, 600 Mission St SE | Free
Two new shows open: James Hockenhull's Words to My Story and The Work We Make, printmaking, embroidery and fiber art from SAA's 2026 artists in residence. Artist introductions start at 6PM, and both shows run through Oct. 25.
🎨 First Friday Art Walk
Fri, Oct. 2 | 5PM–8PM | Downtown Salem galleries and shops | Free
Wander downtown for pop-ups, live music and local art. The Hallie Ford Museum of Art is also open late and free, with Handmade Revolution: Craft in the Pacific Northwest on view.
🦇 Deepwood Pop-Up Boo-tique
Fri, Oct. 2 | 5PM–8:30PM | Deepwood Museum & Gardens, 1116 Mission St SE | Free to browse
Halloween shopping inside a Victorian house: spooky jams and sauces, ghost hats, jewelry and more in the solarium. Proceeds support the museum, and it's a short walk from Bush Barn.
🎻 Oregon Symphony in Salem: Tchaikovsky's Fifth
Fri, Oct. 2 | 7:30PM | Rose Auditorium, South Salem High School, 1910 Church St SE | See site for tickets
The Oregon Symphony opens its Salem season in the rebuilt Rose Auditorium. Cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe plays the West Coast premiere of Jessie Montgomery's These Righteous Paths, then it's Tchaikovsky's Fifth. Free parking; enter on the Howard Street side.
🎶 Willamette Family Weekend Concerts
Fri, Oct. 2 & Sat, Oct. 3 | 7PM | Hudson Hall, Willamette University, 900 State St | Free
Willamette's student ensembles open their doors to the whole town. Friday is the orchestra and choirs, Saturday is jazz, and the a cappella groups close it out Sunday, Oct. 4, at 1PM in Cone Chapel.
🕯️ Angel Street (Gaslight) at Pentacle Theatre
Opens Fri, Oct. 2, runs through Oct. 24 | Pentacle Theatre, 324 52nd Ave NW | Check showtimes and prices
The Victorian thriller that gave us the word "gaslighting" opens in the hills of West Salem. A husband slowly convinces his wife she's losing her mind, until a Scotland Yard inspector shows up with questions. Live captioning is available for some performances.
🏃 Steps 2 Safety Walk/Run
Sat, Oct. 3 | Check-in 8:15AM, start 9AM | Minto-Brown Island Park | 5K $35, 1K $15
Kick off Domestic Violence Awareness Month by showing up for the Center for Hope & Safety. Walk or run, a T-shirt is included, ages 6–15 get $15 off and kids 5 and under are free.
👟 Bowles Invitational Cross Country
Sat, Oct. 3 | 9:30AM | Bush's Pasture Park, lower Lefelle field | Free
College runners tear through Bush Park in the men's 8K and women's 5K. Grab a coffee, find a spot on the course and cheer. It's an easy add-on to a Saturday morning walk.
🌳 Garden University: How to Talk with the Trees
Sat, Oct. 3 | 10AM–11:30AM | The Oregon Garden, 879 W Main St, Silverton | $22.05–$27.30
Yes, really. Holistic educator Tsipora Berman leads an outdoor class mixing eco-psychology and mindfulness, and you'll record the trees' "responses" on your phone. Can't make it? It repeats Oct. 10, 17 and 24.
🏛️ Free Tours at the Newly Reopened Bush House
Sat, Oct. 3 | Tours at 12:15, 1:15, 2:15 & 3:15PM | Bush House Museum, 600 Mission St SE | Free
Bush House just reopened after its renovation, and first Saturdays are tour days. Pick up your free pass at Bush Barn and arrive five minutes early. Tours also run every Thursday and Friday.
🏈 Willamette Bearcats vs. Pacific Lutheran
Sat, Oct. 3 | 4PM | McCulloch Stadium, Bush's Pasture Park | Tickets at the gate or online
Family Weekend football in the middle of Bush Park. Not a Bearcat parent? Go anyway. College football on a fall afternoon two blocks from downtown is hard to beat.
🐱 Cats Just Wanna Have Fun: Paws & Purrsonality Gala
Sat, Oct. 3 | 5PM–9PM | Salem Convention Center, 200 Commercial St SE | $75
Salem Friends of Felines throws an '80s-themed party for the cats, with games and silent and live auctions. Leg warmers are encouraged.
🚒 Keizer Fire District Open House & Safety Fair
Mon, Oct. 5 | 6PM–8PM | Keizer Fire District, 661 Chemawa Rd NE, Keizer | Free
Tour the fire engines, meet the firefighters and browse the safety booths with the kids. It's a free weeknight outing in Keizer, but call 503-390-9111 to confirm before you go.
🏐 Corban Volleyball Home Matches
Wed, Oct. 7 & Thu, Oct. 8 | 6PM | C.E. Jeffers Sports Center, Corban University, 5000 Deer Park Dr SE
The Warriors host Bushnell on Wednesday and Warner Pacific on Thursday in Cascade Conference play. College volleyball up close, on a school night, in South Salem.
🚐 Fall RV Show
Thu, Oct. 8–Sun, Oct. 11 | Thu–Sat 10AM–7PM, Sun 10AM–5PM | Jackman Long Building & Columbia Hall, State Fairgrounds | $10, kids 16 and under free
Oregon's original multi-dealer RV show rolls into the fairgrounds with new and used rigs and show-only deals. Admission is cash only and good all four days. Parking is $10, with $5 off at the ticket window.
🔁 This Week's Regulars
Same time, every week. Pick one and make it your thing.
Tue | Céilí of the Valley Irish Dance Class | 6:30PM | $5 | All levels
Wed–Sun | Indigenous Northwest Biennial at Bush Barn | Noon–4PM | Free | Through Oct. 25
Any day | Volunteer at Marion Polk Food Share | Scheduled shifts | 1660 Salem Industrial Dr NE | Sign up ahead online
📌 Save the Date
Sat, Oct. 10 | Keizer Cultures Celebration, the first one ever | 11AM–5PM | Chalmer Jones Park & Keizer Event Center | Free
Oct. 10–11 | Salem Philharmonia: Brahms and Beethoven with pianist Monica Ohuchi | East Salem Community Center | Under 18 free
Oct. 16–17 | The Great Junk Hunt vintage market | State Fairgrounds
Sat, Oct. 17 | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | 8PM | Elsinore Theatre
Sun, Oct. 25 | Halloween Re-Engineered, indoor trick-or-treating | 10AM–2PM | Gilbert House Children's Museum
Interested in connecting with our audience and supporting the growth of this publication? Simply reply to this email and we can help you get started.
Thanks for keeping up with Salem this week!
Spotted something interesting in town? Drop us a note at [email protected]. We love hearing from you.
See you next Thursday,
Jacob