Committee reviews Haunted Happenings: safety measures, revenue trends and transit data

Chair Prozniewski convened the Salem City Council Committee on Community and Economic Development on May 12 to review the city’s Haunted Happenings season and related operational, safety and financial outcomes.

Jeremy, the city’s event staff lead, opened with an overview of revenues and expenses for October 2024–25 and longer-term trends. He said food-truck and vendor revenue rose in 2025 and that the city saved money on portable toilets after reissuing an RFP. Jeremy said the event produced a net surplus this year (reported staff calculation: $87,016) and that meals-and-room excise revenue for the quarter including October was $1,791,175.

Ashley of Destination Salem presented visitor data showing October visitation roughly level with 2024 despite weather and several ferry cancellations. "We were pretty pleased with that visitorship," she said, noting that Destination Salem is adding spend and origin modules to better capture how long visitors stay and where they come from.

Transportation Director Dave Pucharski reviewed parking and enforcement metrics: about 3,500 October resident permits, roughly 730 visitor permits purchased for October streets, and roughly 8,100 active permits overall. He described heat maps of tows and ticketing that concentrated around the Common, Derby and Washington Square North, and said shuttle ridership in the most recent October totaled about 10,000 users (down from over 20,000 in 2024). Pucharski attributed some apparent declines in transit metrics to changes in third-party measurement methods and said the city will seek clarifications from data vendors.

Police Chief Miller summarized public-safety operations during October. Miller described a two-tier street-closure approach—soft closures and more robust "frozen zones"—use of mechanical gates and borrowed pedestrian barriers, a downtown command post for concentrated dispatch and sector-based policing, and large mutual-aid staffing that included neighboring departments, MBTA police and state police. "The rain is a better cop than I am," he said when asked why calls were down; staff also reported a modest increase in Salem Police overtime costs of about 4% tied to contractual obligations and staffing levels for busy nights.

City fire and EMS officials described response planning that uses UTV-style response carts staged at key downtown locations and automatic aid agreements with neighboring towns. Officials said the carts allow rapid on-scene ALS-level care and can operate in crowds where ambulances cannot easily move.

Councilors pressed staff on data details and policy implications. Several asked why revenue for Pioneer Village and the Witch House more than doubled in some categories; Jeremy said he did not have the breakdown on hand and would supply details afterward. The mayor has proposed a $5 surcharge on Witch House tickets to generate non–property-tax revenue for the high school; Jeremy relayed the mayor’s estimate of $267,000 annually but said the portion attributable to October sales was not specified.

Councilors also asked whether train, ferry and shuttle declines reflected real drops or changes in how providers measure ridership. Destination Salem and transportation staff said Placer (the vendor used for visitor origin and volume estimates) has altered some metrics; staff noted that visitation appears to be spreading across September–November, complicating year-over-year October comparisons. Staff said they do not yet have robust data on ride‑hail (Uber/Lyft) trips and will explore additional data sources.

On street performers and the pedestrian mall, the city put out an RFP to curate performers and prioritize local acts. Creative Collective (represented by John Andrews) won the contract to manage performance zones and vendor curation on the Pedestrian Mall; the vendor will work with police and licensing to limit problems arising from unregulated busking. Andrews warned the first year will be challenging but said the goal is a safer, more curated visitor experience.

Business owners’ concerns about foot-traffic distribution returned in public comment. A statement read on behalf of resident and business owner Anna Campos said peripheral businesses on the Wharf reported sales drops "up to 30%" despite record visitor counts in core corridors, and urged temporary signage at barricades to direct visitors outward. Ashley said the city plans to add wayfinding and additional signage to help spread visitors beyond Washington and Essex streets.

Committee action: Councilor Smith moved to receive and file the report; the motion was seconded and the committee then adjourned. No formal roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript.

What’s next: Staff promised a follow-up with itemized revenue breakdowns (including Pioneer Village and Witch House), more detailed raw survey responses upon request, clarification from Placer and MBTA/Keolis on ridership methods, and continued work on curated performance zones and visitor wayfinding ahead of next year’s Haunted Happenings.