Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[mstar]

Thanks for posting those pictures, Reeder

[i-215]

Yeah, thanks for the pictures.

I'm going to be showing friends from NorCal a tour of Temple Square in early September, but I haven't been on site in a couple of years to see what shape it's in.

I may have my gripes with the church nowadays, but not with landscaping. The know how to landscape architect the crap out of a place. It looks fantastic!

[DCRes]

Eagle Gate Tower (World Trade Center) looks much taller and skinnier from that angle than it usually appears

[Atlas]

Skyline shot from yesterday

[bflatflat9]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Skyline shot from yesterday

IHC 4th floor. I was there last week. Possibly best shot to see almost everything we got.

[smartdev]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Skyline shot from yesterday

We are ready for a 600 footer with a crown or spire. No more boxy half-assed designs please.

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by smartdev

We are ready for a 600 footer with a crown or spire. No more boxy half-assed designs please.

Best I can do is a boxy 400 footer.

[zurich]

Originally Posted by smartdev

We are ready for a 600 footer with a crown or spire. No more boxy half-assed designs please.

Remove all of the trees in that photo -- looking at just the architecture, it looks very similar to what you would see in places like Midland, Amarillo, etc. Our skyline needs new life... its sad. I still love the downtown atmosphere, but just the skyline itself (buildings only) sucks!

[wrendog]

Midland? Amarillo? Lol wut

[i-215]

Originally Posted by zurich

it looks very similar to what you would see in places like Midland, Amarillo, etc.

I mean, it's better than Midland, TX. A LOT better than Midland, Texas.

[Atlas]

Nice downtown aerial from this flattering article:

[Orlando]

Thanks for posting. Great article! Though, for those of us non-tech workers with California wages, it makes affording homes, etc more difficult. That’s why I left Seattle.

[wrendog]

Thanks for the Amarillo aerial, Atlas!

[Rileybo]

Edit- I don’t know how to change frowny face. Happy photo

Additional recent skyline shot:

[Comrade]

Fun throwback to an anti-light rail rally in 1997:

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Skyline shot from yesterday

Love it. Great angle to see both Astra and Worthington.

[taboubak]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Fun throwback to an anti-light rail rally in 1997:

Light rail kills children lol 😆. We need that energy for cars......

[kickback256]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Fun throwback to an anti-light rail rally in 1997:

Looking up an old article and found some great mental gymnastics:

"But the way light rail kills is by diverting the money away from needed highways, like highway (U.S.) 6, and creating more congestion that creates more pollution. . . . And the whole bus system has become more inefficient since TRAX. The costs have gone through the roof and the performance has gone through the floor."

[i-215]

What's sad is knowing the kind of bratty right-winger I was as a teenager, I probably would've totally bought into the whole "light rail kills children" nonsense back then. But I was a teenager, so I didn't really care.



Here's an article from August 26, 1996 in the SL Trib. I'm curious to see which terrifying predictions came (or didn't come) to fruition:

• Coffin and a sign that read "Kill light rail before it kills your family"

People unaliving themselves in front of trains? Sure. People listening to music and not obeying the crossings? Sure. But in the history of the TRAX system, I can't recall many cases where it charged off the tracks, flew through a dining room, and slaughtered a Normal Rockwell style family who just sat down to a turkey dinner.

The coffin is a classy touch.

• any contributions would go to defray the cost of an anti-light-rail video

Ah man, I'd love to watch that. It's too bad it's probably long tossed in the trash.

• argued there is no constitutional basis for the federal or state governments to fund light rail or other types of public transportation

Ah, the old Tenth Amendment argument. Since the Constitution doesn't specifically mention mass transit, there is no authority for the federal government to fund mass transit.

Counterpoint: The commerce clause does give the federal government enormous power to fund transportation projects since transportation is used for inter-state commerce.

Utah legislator: Ah, but roads are used for inter-state commerce. Who is going to ship goods and services across state lines on a light rail train?

Counterpoint: Interesting point. But along those lines, what role does the federal government have helping fund widening projects on local roads in Salt Lake County, which routes never cross the state line?

Also Counterpoint: The Tenth Amendment DOES give the State of Utah enormous power to fund and build and operate whatever the hell it wants that is not excluded by the U.S. Constitution, including light rail systems. So GTFO.

• gubernatorial candidate Ken Larson who dressed up like Brigham Young

Young was a huge proponent of the railroads coming through Utah via Ogden.

Sounds like their opposition was pretty thin, beyond dragging a tacky coffin around and begging for money.

[Atlas]

Cool shot of Astra from the Utes' social media: