One Utah

Cold, tired, soaked to the skin with my dogs barking, I stumbled back to the Becker HQ this afternoon holding a soaked precinct list in my grubby hands.

Every neighborhood is unique - I’m realizing this the more I walk. Each neighborhood has its own character, feeling, smells and sounds. This morning, with my walking partner, I hit a neighborhood between 4th and 5th East, from 2100 to 1700 South. Most of the houses in the area were comfortable, bungalow style houses, I’d guess the oldest are about 80 years old, with a sprinkling of newer (within the last 15 years) houses. To me, this neighborhood had a comfortable feeling - like an old friend in a way. An area of people who live and work in the city and who get what it means to live in a real neighborhood where you know your neighbors and they know you and you know whose black dog that it, whose tortoise shell cat is over there.

It is obviously a politically active area - I saw lots of campaign signs. I also ran into the usual array of people whose response amounted to “There’s an election this year?”

One man said to me, “What happened to that Mary? Um . . you know Wilson. She’s a nice girl.” (I explained that she came in third in the primary and it was between Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler.) “So who is this Ralph guy?” I told him he’s an urban planner and state legislative leader. “Is he a Democrat? Cause I’m a Dem and I won’t vote for someone who’s not.” I said, “He’s a Dem.” “We’ll I’ll think about him.”

In one house, I was told the key issue for that household was repealing Amendment 3 making same sex marriage illegal in Utah. In another house I was told, “You know we’re not sure what is most important. Transportation, education, economy and growth, development.” In another house, “I like the character of the city. I want to keep it intact.”

In one house, they said, “We were big Wilson supporters. We’re disappinted she lost.” I said I understood the feeling but offered, “If you want a strong, progressive leader, Ralph is your guy. He’s every bit as progressive as Jenny Wilson or Rocky Anderson, but his personal style is such that he invites people to work with him rather than resist him.

One woman said, “Wow! You’re out in this weather for Ralph Becker?”

“Yeah.”

Yeah, it’s only going to get colder from here on out and when you believe in something, it’s easier to walk around for two and half hours in the rain.

This entry was posted Saturday, September 29th, 2007 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Ralph Becker. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.