I love Salem . Visit often. Even plan on buying a condo as a second home. However, I have noticed how incredibly busy the town is getting as far as traffic! Has Salem grown too fast for it's own good? Needs a revamping in the area of traffic flow. Fast!

the people at Walgreens on New Derby St. need to know how many people will not go there because of the panhandling outside. isn't there a better location for a bus stop?
how about across from the inbound stop on Washington St?

Ron - Traffic in Salem is all part of the charm. That's what makes it a great walking city. But yeah...the biggest problem in Salem is the Lafayette Park and the surrounding buildings. Full of the biggest sh*tbags in Salem. Lafayette Park IMO is the second town dump. I say you get rid of it all together. Pull up the benches, rip out the trees, make it all concrete. I mean other cities put things in place to detract pigeons, why can't we do the same?

Not to mention all of the entryways into Salem are a bit of an eyesore. Lafayette Street falls apart right as you're about to pull into downtown. Boston Street is quite literally the scariest street in Salem. North onto Summer would be great if there wasn't a junkyard, Canal St is the home of the double jointed telephone poles and Family Dollar. That leaves Bridge St which is actually coming together nicely.

One of the things that bothers me the most about Salem isn't one location, it's the trash. All over. Doesn't anyone clean this town? We obviously can't leave it up to each person to clean up after themselves. It's embarassing.

I agree with Lisa, trash AND seriously filthy public rest rooms. Not that I use them myself, but when I am on artists row, I am always so embarrassed to see the tourist that need to use them, look so discussed when they come out. Cleaning public spaces would go a long, long ways towards making the city more livable.

Salem has changed so very much in the past 10 years. Some of that change has been for the better and some changes... not so much. The trash situation ALL OVER THE TOWN concerns me most. There needs to be more barrels that the trash can not be blown out of, and the DPW needs to be better about the pick up. At the playground on the commons last week there were empty plastic water bottles everywhere and the barrel was overflowing. As for Walgreens... the bus stop there makes the most sence for people who take the bus in that area. The "run-off" from the nearby shelter and the riff-raff hanging there needs to be policed better. That is the only other solution other than shutting the shelter and that surely isn't a good idea. I also wish people would stop smoking outside public buildings. I hate coming home from the post office and smelling like I smoked a pack of cigarettes.

Zach-i agree with you 100%

Hey, I'm always picking up the trash in front of my own house in Salem, which isn't even downtown (quite). Beer cans, McDonald's cups, candy wrappers...I've tended to blame the latter on the Collins School kids walking by, and put a trash can out front for them. Regrettably that tends to get used only by the dog walkers, who are welcome to it, but in general I have to conclude that we raise slobs in Salem.

Trash . We need more trash cans,no one wants to walk a block away to fine a barrle so they just drop it.Its not only down town.

Michelle, I agree totally. Between the pan handlers, smokers, and Police, that only care about certain things like sitting in the Peabody St parking lot watching for speeders go right passed them (while I watch them do nothing from my Peabody St apt).

The mayor has gutted the DPW to the point that things don't get done.It was so bad at the Willows that they now have a truck down there emptying barrells around 5pm,probably on overtime. They can't afford to do that everywhere. Rockett avoided that type of problem by not putting barrels on the wharf at all.The only thing Rockett cares about now is the hotel.

I believe having the ARMED GUARD outside the entrance to the Bank of America speaks volumes...

The armed ARMED GAURD....Stop in and ask why they have the armed guard you will amused.

The bus shelter at Walgreen's is not actually the bus stop. The actual stop is about 20 feet away.
The bus does not stop there, it has become the informal living room for various miscreants. I ride daily, my other choice is the Lafayette Park stop. Not an improvement, that area seems to be round the clock loosers, addicts and criminals. BOA? Thank god for direct deposit and online banking. Walgreen's, never go there. I would participate in community clean ups, but there don't seem to be any. The City and Police need to take action so we can get our city back from this hand full of non employable troubled bunch who won't do anything to help themselves. I' m sick of the gimme dolla guy and the I ran out of gas guy, I understand he just got out jail. Too bad for us. My response to them is "f" off. I don't miss the Spanish guy who screams at all hours of the day at on coming traffic. His outfits were however entertaining. Hope he never comes back. This is a year round tourist spot, why does the City and the a
Police allow this group to foul up our image. Getting rid of them would solve most of the trash issue. As well as improving our quality of life.

It's much more than a handful.Read the police log and notice how many people that get arrested give their address as the shelter.How can this be? The shelter is drug and alcohol free or maybe not? Drunks,drug usesers,thieves,agressive beggers and people commiting all kinds of crimes give the shelter as their home address.The shelter is the single biggest problem that is affecting every aspect of life in Salem.

for the record...there was an armed guard in front of the bank of america in the south end yesterday. has nothing to do with salem.

There are few issues at work here. The excess of vagrants and traffic/noise/safety issues are not going to get better without added police walking details to disperse loiters, ticket intersection blockers AND jaywalkers. Added DPW walking details, to report daily the main areas of trash overflow and abuse is also needed. MONEY is the key element here. We pay a decent amount in taxes. Where is it going, that we can't add these services?