Archive for category Salt Lake City
Further Thoughts on the State of City Address
Posted by Glenden Brown in Equality, Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City on January 13th, 2010
As I ponder my impressions from last night’s address, I have some thoughts.
Ralph Becker is a good public speaker but not a natural one - my impression has always been that he’s not terribly comfortable in behind the podium. Last night’s speech reconfirmed my impression (if I had to guess, I’d say he’s pretty strongly introverted).
Ralph is a good mayor because he has a first rate mind. Everything he’s done as mayor – from fostering collaborative decision making to building working coalitions within the city – demonstrates that he has a gift for organizing and coordinating groups.
Finally, I like the way he has a vision for the city, he organized it in a simple, easy to remember way and then communicated it.
It makes me glad I spent months volunteering and knocking on doors and standing on street corners waving signs and generally working to get him elected.
Live-blogging the Mayor’s State of the City Address (Part Four)
Posted by Glenden Brown in Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City on January 12th, 2010
Let’s talk Open government.
I think he just put a nice face on the selection process for the public safety building and that’s not a bad thing since it passed. Read the rest of this entry »
Live-blogging the Mayor’s State of the City Address (part two)
Posted by Glenden Brown in Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City on January 12th, 2010
Okay, the City Council chamber is packed. That’s a good sign and the sound system is crappy.
Nice pro-forma opening – welcoming his mother as a new resident of Salt Lake. Congratulates JT Martin as the new chair and welcomes Stan Penfold as a new member (big round of applause).
More pro-forma stuff – energized by the job and the city’s potential and its citizens. Nice move – acknowledges the bad economic times.
“The place holds the potential but it is the people who tap into it and make it happen.” Nicely written line but he stepped on it.
Salt Lake City influences our neighboring cities – and that is part of how we have to govern; he points out that we are the centerpiece city of the region. 2009 accomplishments: livability. 2010 goal: livability.
“We all know what we have here . . . natural resources and scenery, world class university . . .”
“We model for our neighbors and surrounding states the kind of livability that makes a city great.”
- Environment
- Efficiency
- Equality
- Engagement
Highlights: Read the rest of this entry »
Live-blogging the Mayor’s State of the City Address
Posted by Glenden Brown in Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City on January 12th, 2010
Okay so I’m not great at this liveblogging thing but I hope you’ll bear with me.
in 2007, I volunteered for Ralph’s campaign for mayor – I knocked doors and walked almost every neighborhood in the city – two days a week, almost every week for months. Through that experience I met the very talented Curtis Haring and the mayor’s equally talented chief of staff, David Everitt.
According to KTVX, Becker will address:
This year’s theme is livability. During his speech to the City Council, Mayor Becker is expected to discuss the environment, equality and efficiency in government.
Last week’s Trib article said:
More specifically, his spokeswoman says, Salt Lake City’s mayor will focus his initiatives under “four E’s”: environment, engagement, equality and efficiency.
“There will be some revelations that are exciting,” Lisa Harrison Smith says about Becker’s third annual speech, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. “There will be a big announcement on sustainability that will happen in the first part of the year.”
In their own words: “Church Supports Nondiscrimination Ordinances”
Posted by Becky Stauffer in Bigotry, Equality, GLBT issues, Homophobia, Mormon LDS, Religion, SLC Politics, Salt Lake City, Utah Politics on November 17th, 2009
I’ve been thinking back over the many debates that took place here at OneUtah and elsewhere during the fight over California’s Prop 8. An argument I heard over and over from church members supporting Prop 8 was that legal precedents that applied in racial, sex, and religious discrimination cases did not apply for gays, and that gays could not be recognized as a protected class or group. I didn’t follow that arbitrary and twisted logic then and I don’t follow it now.
Today I reread the church’s statement to the Salt Lake City Council, there is no doubt in my mind that the church recognizes those with same-sex attraction as a distinct identifiable group entitled to the same legal protections the rest of society enjoys with regard to housing and employment. And the church specifically names this group rather than using a broad generic “all residents of the city” or something similar that would have been more palatable to the anti-gay crowd.
On the church’s own web site, the headline is “Church Supports Nondiscrimination Ordinances”.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has declared its support of nondiscrimination regulations that would extend protection in matters of housing and employment in Salt Lake City to those with same-sex attraction. [snip]
The Church said that while protections in housing and employment were fair and reasonable, the Church also remains “unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman.” Otterson also pointed out that this position was “entirely consistent with the Church’s prior position on these matters.”
Otterson added, “I represent a church that believes in human dignity, in treating others with respect even when we disagree — in fact, especially when we disagree.”
I think this is the biggest and most important change in this milestone announcement—that the church does recognize gays as an identifiable group in need of special legal protections. Even though the church stopped short of supporting full and equal rights for gays, this step is extremely important and paves the way for setting of new legal precedents that may eventually break down all barriers to full and equal rights under the law—including marriage.
2009 Election Results – Stan’s the Man!
Posted by Glenden Brown in Elections, Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City on November 4th, 2009
Stan Penfold by 226 votes for City Council District 3. The Trib described the effect “edging left” which is probably not accurate. Although Eric Jergensen was no Eagle Forum conservative, he wasn’t a progressive – Stan Penfold is probably to left of Mayor Becker on a wide array of issues.
Hope for Change at 350 SLC
Posted by Richard Warnick in Activist groups, Climate Change, Democracy, Environment, Free Speech, Global Warming, Liberal, National Politics, Salt Lake City, This Blog, Utah Politics on October 24th, 2009

I went to the 350 SLC rally today in a less hopeful frame of mind. After all, according to at least one poll, the well-funded denial campaign has made a dent in the number of people who accept the reality of global warming. And here was a group of young Salt Lakers who thought that heads of state gathering in Copenhagen this December were actually going to pay attention to them.
I came back more hopeful. The speakers, poets and singers lifted my spirits. Nichole Dunn, the deputy mayor of Salt Lake County, ran down an impressive list of local accomplishments from energy efficient buildings to encouraging solar power and a goal of planting a million trees. Utah is ahead of lots of other places in the progress that’s already been made, and if the rest of the world could catch up with us there might not be a climate crisis.
UPDATE: Salt Lake Tribune
Utahns joined countless others from 181 countries around the globe Saturday to call on world leaders and average citizens to take action to address climate change…
UPDATE: 350.org has photos and video from more than 5200 events around the world.
Jennifer Johnson: My Endorsement for District Three City Council Race
Posted by Glenden Brown in Salt Lake City on September 1st, 2009
District Three – that would be my neighborhood – covers Capitol Hill, the Avenues and Federal Heights. Eric Jergensen surprised a lot of folks when he dropped out, throwing the race suddenly wide open – in fact Jergensen had Mayor Becker’s support before dropping out. I still have their fund and support raising letter somewhere around the house.
Before getting down to cases, I have done some research, I have a couple observations. Read the rest of this entry »
Creamer Makes a Bad Joke Concerning Our Lives
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), American People, Free Speech, Republicans, Rob Bishop, SLC Politics, Salt Lake City, This Blog on June 8th, 2009
Paul Rolly wrote a great article on Sunday, (read it before it disappears), featuring a silly one liner from Steve Creamer which should stick in the minds and craws of all Utahns and make them demand answers for how this man got permission to exploit us. I challenge anybody to find one out of a hundred people in this state, (not including contributors to this blog), who wouldn’t be stunned to find out that years before Mr. Creamer got the contract to bring increasingly dangerous radioactive waste here, (through a corporation which had to change it’s name to Energy Solutions because the previous name became associated with corruption), he convinced some of Utah’s great leaders to approve projects here which turned out to be some of the most costly and outrageous failures to date.
In Sunday’s column, which illuminates the seriousness of Utah losing any media which would hold our leaders to account – a very real prospect these days – Rolly goes after a local program on K-TALK radio called “Red Meat Radio” saying:
Red Meat Radio’s hosts are Sen. Howard Stephenson and Rep. Greg Hughes, both R-Draper, who claim they are “setting the record straight” while actually promoting a narrowly constructed right-wing spin. They provide a scary insight into what would happen if the mainstream media ever goes out of business, as they admittedly wish for, and elected politicians become their own press watchdogs.
Rolly then goes on to recount Creamer’s comment on the program and the subject of this post:
…he boasted that his hazardous waste repository in Tooele County was so safe you could put the dirt from there into your grow box.
The article continues with:
…when a Tribune reporter accurately quoted Creamer’s claim on the program, EnergySolutions’ P.R. machine strongly complained, because she should have known that Creamer meant the dirt would be safe in 100 years, even though he didn’t say that.
Steve Creamer should be more careful about inflaming the outrage of the natives here. I’m happy to use this opportunity to illuminate the unwillfully ignorant or just plain too-young-to-know residents of this state.
From The Utah Division of Archives and Records Service:
In an attempt to improve the interstate, UDOT resurfaced a section of I-15 near Salt Lake City with a synthetic cement called syncrete (1989-1990). Syncrete proved to be less than the superior surface it was advertised to be, and the freeway surface began crumbling shortly after the project’s completion. In the end the UDOT tore out the syncrete and admitted that the experiment had been a failure.
That episode cost Utahs taxpayers many millions of dollars and damaged many cars, but Creamer also ruined the 1989 New Years celebration for some very unlucky Southern Utahns.
From Heal Utah:
On New Year’s Eve, 1988, the $23.5 million Quail Creek Dam failed, sending a 12-foot high wall of water over part of Washington County. The dam failure killed livestock, flooded homes and apartments, destroyed bridges, ripped out roads, deposited silt on farmland, and ultimately wreaked $12 million dollars in damage. Steve Creamer’s engineering firm, Creamer & Noble, engineered the earthen dam.
Obviously Creamer is the perfect choice for any Utah disposal project that will inpact our childrens, childrens, childrens…bleak future.
If any of this garbage is so safe that you can sprinkle it on your breakfast cereal, (and I’m positive I heard some jackass say that), sprinkle it on the breakfast cereal, in the home town, of the people who produce, and benefit from it.
The Warmth of Spring
Posted by Larry Bergan in 4th Estate (Media), Fox Lies, Free Speech, Rush Limbaugh, SLC Politics, Salt Lake City, Sean Hannity, This Blog on April 12th, 2009

Where can we talk about politics?
Not at church – It’s a place of worship!
Not at Thanksgiving dinner or other family gatherings, (those occasions are for football.)
Not at work – forget it!
At the park? We’re here to enjoy nature!
Now turn on the radio, shut up, and listen to Hannity!
I don’t carry my IMPEACH BUSH sign anymore, but I still love to go on long walks and if I feel optimistic, I’ll stop people to ask them political questions that pop into my head. Usually the same question throughout the walk or on successive days. It’s a poll I control, so I know the results are accurate.
The day after John Kerry walked out on us despite being handed the torch of Howard Dean’s revolutionary grass roots movement, I noticed a distinct unwillingness for people to engage in any conversation. The non-stop television campaigns, which are comprised mostly of head-scratching nonsense haven’t helped to make people engage in an intelligent conversation about the real issues for long, unless they happen to know what those issues are from sources other then corporate controlled radio and television. Hillary’s pants suits and Obama’s radical African roots just don’t inspire folks to let it all hang out.
Today I stopped every white man I passed and told/asked them this question:
“You’re a white man?” to which they would nod. Then I exclaimed, “they tell me you can’t get enough of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Glen Beck, is that true?”
The first response I got was depressing to say the least, and resulted in a very confrontational exchange where the man and his associate unapologetically informed me that they liked the radio pundits and supported the “teabagger” rallies. They were very angry that Obama had wrecked the economy. Although they didn’t immediately jump in their car, (which usually happens in these situations, and beleive me, I’ve had hundreds of them), they argued with me for about five minutes, before we both left in a huff, with me shaking my head in disbelief.
The rest of my 10 mile walk was an absolute delight!
I passed another 10 or so white guys and it was all thumbs up and handshakes. There were two guys who admitted they listened to the corporate shills, and even found them to be entertaining, but were visibly sheepish and embarrassed about listening. They were not at all confrontational and completely open to new views. I even had the feeling I had slightly steered them away from the abyss. A little while later I saw a little old lady emerging from the LDS ward house I used to attend when I was a kid and learned that she vehemently abhorred Sean Hannity.
Spring is in the air!
Mayor Becker’s Transparency Initiative
Posted by Becky Stauffer in 4th Estate (Media), Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City, Transparency on February 2nd, 2009

Last week I had the opportunity, along with a half dozen other local bloggers, of sitting down with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker for a casual discussion of city issues – truly informal and no holds barred. I thought it an unusual opportunity and was pleased to be included, even after I disclosed I actually lived in Davis County. But after all, as goes Salt Lake City, so go many surrounding communities. And for the bedroom communities, Salt Lake is where many of us work and play and we are greatly affected by the things that happen there.
A couple of other bloggers (here, here, just for example) have provided a good rundown on the topics discussed and resources available. Rather than repeat what others have written, I want to focus on what I think is a new important development; that is, Salt Lake City’s Government Transparency Initiative.
The initiative is still very new, but the web site supporting it is well-developed with many resources already in place. The Scope of Work is laid out in detail. The site has a Wiki, a blog, and a forum where visitors can enter comments or questions. And there’s a survey where they invite specific input from citizens.
It’s a work in progress and the city hopes to tap input from citizens in order to develop its transparency policy. I think they’ve made a good start. A significant amount of work has gone into the development of the web site so far, and the information provided is helpful. Salt Lakers should take a look.
Transparency has become a buzz word in government from the U.S. president on down. Salt Lake City seems to be taking this issue seriously. The real test will come in the implementation.
Bloggers or Journalists?
The above post is really more informational than opinion. But I thought it worthy of a mention here. But it also reminds me of one other topic from our meeting. The question arose as to whether bloggers were investigating and writing original news, or if we were simply commenting on news from media resources. We pretty much had to agree we got our sources from other media and our role tends to be as commenters to the news. Most bloggers do not have access to newsmakers. This is why a sit-down with the mayor was a unique opportunity for us. Still, I don’t see bloggers becoming the journalists of the new century–the decline of print media notwithstanding. I see journalists and bloggers as having very different roles. One being to report the news objectively, the other to attempt to keep everyone honest in the process.
State of the City
Posted by Glenden Brown in Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City, This Blog on January 14th, 2009
I have a confession to make. I dislike listening to political speeches; I don’t think I’ve sat through an entire State of Union – ever. I was going to attend last night’s State of City address and I just could not make myself do it. This may seem like an odd confession given my passionate interest in politics, but it’s a sad fact. Chances are good I won’t listen to Obama’s inaugural address from beginning to end.
That said, Ralph Becker’s 2009 State of City has some good stuff: Read the rest of this entry »


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