Talk:Salem Center (Oregon)

Notability

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While I am certain the topic is notable, the article currently does not demonstrate as such. The local paper and The Oregonian likely have plenty over the years. Aboutmovies (talk) 07:15, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Salem Shopping District?

Hi! I am discussing if the page should be moved and expanded. Salem has a huge Shopping Mall, including Salem Center. The concern is that this article is only including information about part of the mall complex, Salem Center. I think the article should be renamed Salem Shopping District(?) and that the article be expanded to the whole mall complex. On the bird eyes view photograph, the mall complex includes Salem Center, but also includes Liberty Plaza, which is apart of the shopping Complex. I believe that Liberty Plaza and the other parts of the whole shopping mall complex should be listed in this article, and the page renamed to something that includes all of the mall, not just the Salem Center, which is 2 buildings apart of the mall complex. Please reply about these suggestions. Thanks. CookieMonster755 (talk) 04:17, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

If the shopping center is notable, and I think it is, then it should have its own article. In essence, you are proposing a merge, which is an alternate to deletion, and we only truly delete a topic if it is not notable. There is nothing to prevent another article covering downtown. This article could certainly use expansion, and that could easily be done by someone with access to the SJ's archives. Aboutmovies (talk) 07:12, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Do you think I should create an article about Liberty Plaza than? I see what you mean... CookieMonster755 (talk) 14:42, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Liberty Plaza is absolutely not notable by itself. If it is considered a part of Salem Center then feel free to add that information to this article. Liberty Plaza used to be Lipman's and then Frederick & Nelson. What would be helpful would be to expand the Salem Downtown State Street – Commercial Street Historic District article. It needs to focus on the historic buildings though, and note Liberty Plaza and Salem Center are not within the boundaries of the district. Valfontis (talk) 19:37, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for clearing that up for me @Valfontis:) CookieMonster755 (talk) 00:31, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

I doubt Liberty Plaza is notable, but sometimes a little research shows otherwise. Take Shute Park Plaza, which if you drive by you would not think it is notable, just another strip mall. However, in researching some other things, I discovered the background received a lot of press, which ended up making it notable. You could still do a Downtown Salem article, similar to Downtown Portland, which could include Liberty Plaza, a snipet for Salem Center, plus some on the various historic districts, the waterfront park, the bridges, and the other shopping center that has Ross and Rite Aid. It could also cover the redevelopment beyond the shopping, as I think a few condo "towers" have gone up in the last 5-10 years. Aboutmovies (talk) 15:11, 18 March 2015 (UTC)

Personally I don't think Salem's downtown is all that notable, except for the historic district, but I live here and it I'm probably biased--like Aboutmovies said, it doesn't hurt to do some research. Be sure to review the notability guidelines. I think Eugene's downtown (note that's a redirect due to I-5 exit signs) is more interesting mainly because they made it pedestrian-only in the early 1970s and that ended up not working and it's taken 40 years for it to finally start to make a real comeback. It's been studied to death. On the other hand, I believe in the past few years Eugene was looking to Salem to figure out how to make its downtown work, so maybe you are onto something... One thing that is notable is the really wide streets downtown. The Boise Cascade redevelopment project on the edge of downtown is a potential semi-success story. Valfontis (talk) 16:04, 18 March 2015 (UTC)