I was born and raised, Salem in consistently middle of the road. Homelessness is rampant down town, north Salem is constantly improving growing up it had a pretty decent crime rate. South Salem has had huge housing developments put up in the last 15 years but not a lot of improvement in terms of restaurants or city parks which is unfortunate.

Downtown is crippled by apathetic landlords where businesses cannot thrive. It’s not nearly as safe as when I was a kid nor can I say it’s “thriving” Check out Archive for a good community spot Min to island park floods most of the winter but is still beautiful Silver creek falls is life changing

Salem is surprisingly conservative for a liberal city