Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

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romann
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Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by romann » August 17th, 2017, 6:40 pm

FYI -

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/n ... 525808001/
Eclipse watchers will be allowed to camp overnight for free in Salem's 93 parks before the Aug. 21 solar eclipse, a move officials say will make the expected crowd easier to manage.
The plan is to allow Salem residents and visitors to save a spot for the 10:17 a.m. eclipse by staying overnight in a park at least one night in advance.
The city will allow people to use sleeping bags, blankets, small tents and lawn chairs.
Looks like they did it with minimum red tape, too - no need for reservations, no tickets, etc :)

Not sure what they mean by "at least one night in advance", though I might have missed it in the article (not planning to be there, just passing on if someone's interested).

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CampinCarl
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by CampinCarl » August 17th, 2017, 7:54 pm

It's funny because the City is basically allowing a free pass for this short-term camping big time in the City Parks but the Salem-Keizer School District is closing all of its properties to public access for the whole weekend. Interesting the different approaches as I was thinking of walking to the local elementary school track to watch it, now I'll just stay home or walk to the neighborhood park.

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BigBear
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by BigBear » August 18th, 2017, 12:07 pm

Is it any wonder our students are falling behind in science when an educational opportunity like this is boycotted by the schools? I know from past experience that schools don't like people on their grounds without paying for a permit.

I wonder how they will enforce the situation this weekend. I'm not watching the eclipse, officer, I was just passing through and it got dark, so I looked up to see if an airplane or something was falling out of the sky. ;)

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fetch
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by fetch » August 18th, 2017, 1:25 pm

The bigger travesty is the Salem-Keizer PS rather close their properties than be bothered to organize an elective something for their own students staying at home this close to the official start of the school year. Something free since so many of the 600+ events for in the state are for-fee and not every kids family can afford such. What a missed opportunity.

p11
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by p11 » August 19th, 2017, 4:20 pm

Not to worry, use of Beaverton School District areas are also prohibited for watching the eclipse.

Aimless
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by Aimless » August 19th, 2017, 6:55 pm

I think the school districts' non-participation could easily be liability related. They don't want to supervise or pass out eclipse glasses because these would incur expenses, and school districts are hard pressed for money ever since Measure 5 passed in the early 1990s. If the schools let people 'officially' use their property and they burn their retinas staring at the eclipse the school district could be liable for damages. It's part of what drives society these days.

On the 'bright side', I very much doubt the school districts will expend one extra penny to enforce this official 'ban' on eclipse viewing from their property, for the same monetary reasons they officially proclaimed the ban in the first place.

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CampinCarl
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Re: Camping allowed in Salem parks for night before eclipse

Post by CampinCarl » August 19th, 2017, 8:37 pm

I was out and about this morning until 1pm or so and it was very low-key and not busy around downtown. My theory is all the locals have stocked up on food and gas and are being cautious about going anywhere because the hype about horrible traffic has been so prevalent. ;) Maybe tomorrow will be crazy, I guess it we'll have to wait and see. We have an East-Southeast view from my porch so that's where we'll be watching.

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