Brian’s Utah Weblog

Hallowe’en is the best holiday. You take the kids out to trick or treat and neighborhood kids come by your house for candy. It reminds you why you love your neighborhood and your neighbors.

Best of all, you can go out and tell your neighbors how you hope they’ll vote next week and all of them are home. I remember the year Todd Taylor (now Utah Democratic Party Executive Director) sent us out to canvass with sacks of red-white-and-blue locally made candies to give away to each household we visited.

Parking and traffic aren’t as sexy as new malls or theaters, billion dollar bonds, intense rivalries between the founding institutions of the city, or a national campaign to impeach the president. Parking and traffic won’t make the headlines of national and local news stores about our mayor’s legacy in January. What parking and traffic are is the lifeblood of commerce and the texture of day to day life.

Our mayor has given us unprecedented leadership finding ways for citizens and businesses to get together in our downtown. Visionaries like Rocky aren’t known for focusing to get the details correct right down to the stripes painted on the street but we are lucky to have a mayor who does.

About ten years ago the nation’s urban planners took note of experiments in Pennsylvania with back-in angled street parking. There is considerable evidence that it reduces collisions and makes traffic smoother while allowing easier loading on occasions when large items go into the trunk. It’s not for every street and needs to be evaluated and tested at each location.

Environmental Advisor Lisa Romney brought up the subject with Rocky early in his first term and he had already heard of it and wanted to try a demonstration. This is a common pattern with Rocky; when you first hear of a new idea in the research some technical specialty in public affairs, Rocky has already read the paper and thought about the possibilities for Salt Lake City.  As soon as plans could be prepared there were streets being restriped. The first two I saw were on the blocks of 1000 East 900 South and 300 West 200 South. The ones at 300 West 200 South are still there. Love them or hate them that kind of support for innovation from the mayor is a rare treasure for any city.

That was just the beginning of new parking ideas in Salt Lake City. Soon there was a citywide token system and more ways for downtown businesses to get access to parking garages for customers. On street parking was expanded in parts of downtown, too. But the biggest change came in 2003.

Broadway (300 South) and 300 East were rearranged to cut out a lane of traffic and add a row of angled parking down the center of the streets. Not only did the city add hundreds of new on-street spaces but crosswalks were added and traffic was calmed both of which drive retail business in commercial corridors.

It was unprecedented. On-street parking is by far the most valuable kind downtown. It doesn’t require a garage or take up valuable real estate with empty lots or require a long walk to businesses. It does encourage pedestrians and calm traffic making streets safer. On-street parking is a treasure and Rocky conjured up a couple hundred spaces from thin air.

There was opposition. Skeptics including the city council and Rocky’s opponent for reelection worried about losing traffic lanes and building an unfamiliar street design. But Rocky saw that fewer traffic lanes would make the street more walkable and that on local downtown streets demand for parking is more pressing than demand for through lanes.
Walking and biking along Broadway is a delight now. The through traffic takes wide 400 South where it belongs and businesses have thousands more potential customers every day.

Today the new street design and pedestrian improvements are being set in concrete and the final effect is beautiful. More parking, better walking, better commerce, and better neighborhoods all came from attention to detail and the basics of making our city work.

Thanks, Rocky.

Before Rocky was mayor our city had fine parks. Liberty Park, my own neighborhood park, was a treasure but like many city facilities it was falling apart.

The Seven Canyons fountain was closed because it didn’t have a filtration system that met health standards for children to play in it. The Issac Chase Home was closed, the row of giant cottonwoods was facing disease and decay, the Chase mill building was vacant and falling apart, the bicycle path was potholed and crowded, the concession building was an old shack, and springs were fenced off. It was a nice park but it was decaying.

Rocky arrived determined to improve our parks and open space and embarked on a program of capital improvements. The Seven Canyons fountain runs filled with happy children all Summer. We have a new fancy concrete grade separated bike path and separate jogging path. There is a new concessions building and a restored Youth City program building. There is a new playground thanks to Utah’s Rotarians. The restored Chase Home is an expanded museum of Utah Folk Art. Fences have come down and water features are restored. The Tracy Aviary has expanded and updated exhibits and habitat.

Fairmont Park and Jordan Park have seen upgrades and additions, too, as have many smaller parks. Gilgal garden has been protected with a permanent easement.  We have an open space fund that will soon be adding parks in neighborhoods like mine. The North Salt Lake watershed property in the foothills is being preserved. And a giant makeover for Pioneer Park is getting started.

Best of all, we have an entirely new city park on Library Square downtown that hosts the Salt Lake City Arts Festival and plenty of space for concerts, parties, or reading out in the sun on sunny Summer afternoons. It is the last open space we’re likely to get downtown and Rocky had to fight hard to get the Council to preserve it instead of privatizing it for development.

Not all the advances are due to Rocky alone. The city council adopted new capital improvement goals in the budget, the Olympics and Rotarians contributed, and the people voted new bonding for zoo and aviary improvements. But Rocky has been the leader making urban outdoor life better in Salt Lake City and we all enjoy it.

Thanks, Rocky.

We Salt Lakers look forward to electing Ralph Becker to be our next mayor and we should look forward because Ralph’s vision and experience will help make Salt Lake the great Americans city it can be.

But let’s also remember the things we have to be thankful for. One of those things is the vision and courage of Rocky. Sure, it hasn’t always been easy and I’ve been disappointed a few times as any advocate will be but on very hard issues, Rocky has made our city a better place.

Back in 1999 when we first elected Mayor Rocky there was no light rail in Utah. Over ten years of effort starting with corridor and study money set aside by great Utah Congressman Wayne Owens culminated in our first line opening just after the election. When Rocky was sworn in TRAX had just opened and skeptics had not been won over by its spectacular success.

The Olympics were coming in 2002 and there was a chance we could get money to build another light rail line along 400 South to the University Of Utah and its Olympic village quickly. Local support would have to be strong and unequivocal.

Unfortunately our city council voted to oppose 400 South light rail. Our city was looking at less mobility, more congestion, and a long hard fight to get transit money years later than we needed it. We wouldn’t likely even have the 400 South line today in 2007 if the Council’s decision held.

Rocky swept onto the scene even before he was inaugurated to persuade the Council. He shared his vision of vibrant and exciting walkable neighborhoods growing around transit. He organized special meetings. He negotiated understandings between UTA, UDOT, and the city.

The Council voted unanimously to reverse itself and support our TRAX line at its last meeting of the year. The Wasatch Front Regional Council, Federal Transit Administration, and Clinton Administration followed and 400 South TRAX was built on an accelerated schedule in time for the Olympics.

Today the 400 South TRAX line is exceeding ridership projections and helped persuade the people of Utah to fund four new extensions with a billion dollar bond last November.

Thanks, Rocky.

I was at Washington Square Saturday having a picnic with my family while the peace rally was going on. There were a few hundred people making their voices heard including the Progressive Democrats and the Quakers. The Quakers set up a large memorial of empty shoes commemorating soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in Iraq. The Ron Paul campaign set up a booth and warned us that none of the leading Democratic candidates are promising to pull out of Iraq. Rocky closed the rally with his indictment of the president’s blundering and abuse of our nation and our troops in Iraq.

Our mayor gives a great speech. The out of town relatives only heard a minute of it but they were impressed.

Update:  Wasatch Watcher has video.