All of the above points are very valid and very true in my opinion. I think Sandy city and the residents of the city are hoping to create their own downtown for two reason, probably more but I will focus just on two. One, they enjoy living in the suburbs yet they enjoy what the core city has to offer as far as employment opportunities, shopping and entertainment and they hope to have those same types of facilities closer to them. While many of us urbanites don't necessarily love Sandy there are those that do and like those of us that love DT SLC those Sandy lovers also want to have pride in their city and what it has to offer. By creating a DT Sandy this gives them that pride and allows them to create the downtown that they envision as the perfect downtown for them.
I don't have a problem with Sandy developing as an urban center, it obviously isn't the Core of the metro but I think it could eventually, over the next 20-30 years establish a nice core for the south end of the valley.
The problem I have is that they are trying to create all the "amenities" of a core city all at once. They want to have several skyscrapers and a large performing arts venue and think, that those will make them a downtown. They don't realize that it required baby steps to get there. I think they have a good base with City Hall, Jordan Commons, several office building around city hall that are 8+ storys. I think they aren't being patient. As the economy in Utah and the the Mtn West continues to expand and population growth continues these things will come in due time.
It isn't as if SLC doesn't want a 40+ story building or a "broadway style" theater it is simply that the demand hasn't been there until now and SLC is at a point maturity wise to take that next step and pursue those things.
As far as Trax goes, as conservative and thick skulled as many people in the city and state are. I am glad there was enough visionaries to see the future benefits of light rail for the city and despite the opposition were able to convince enough people to take the risk. I can't imagine the congestion I-15 would have if you dumped all the trax riders onto the freeway system. The most recent estimates for ridership is 60,000 passengers pass through downtown each day, that is not say 60,000 unique riders but simply a total. Either way that is a lot of extra cars that would be on I-15. I think Front Runner is the logical step and while I-15 is pretty crowded, I again think that the foresight of frontrunner must be praised. I think it is truly coming at the right time to offer transit options. UTA anticipated 5,800 riders a day in the first few months with roughly 12,000 within 15 years. I know that UTA had to estimate low because it's always better to do so in order to avoid criticism from opponents. Even if the actual ridership of Frontrunner is only a fraction of the actual vs projected ridership of trax, est. first yr 15,000 daily actual first year 21,000 daily, that is 140% of projected. That would mean at only half the that percentage FrontRunner will actually carry nearly 7,000 riders a day.
I hope all that made sense. I do anticipate Trax being expanded with in DT SLC to create a circular, I would estimate it will either continue south from Central Station and works its way to 400 S and connect to the Main/University line or it will continue down 400 W to 400 S. I would prefer the former.
With expansion of Trax and the completion of FrontRunner to Provo I would guess that Sandy won't be the only city that may develop it's own DT sort of identity.
Ok I think I rambled!
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