Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 4

[jubguy3]

Should we stone them or throw acid on them? How about strategically hiding them in the City Creek parking ramps for a little holiday fun? We could always spit on them if worse comes to worse. You guys are like a snuggie gently encasing me next to the gentle crackle of a fire at a heartfelt holiday party for puppies and kittens and hedgehogs. Or a warm glass of apple cider in a cozy cabin in Deer Valley. Just kidding.

[Scraperdude801]

Originally Posted by bflatflat9

I thought you were semi-cool till now.
Okay Mister Salem, we'll have you begin the purge; cast the first stone.

Having read Comrade's posts for years now, I think it is safe to say he was being sarcastic to point out how heartless and idiotic a certain poster was being.

[bflatflat9]

Originally Posted by Scraperdude801

Having read Comrade's posts for years now, I think it is safe to say he was being sarcastic to point out how heartless and idiotic a certain poster was being.

I've been reading for years also, so that is why it took me by surprise.
I'm not slow witted, I swear. But if I took it seriously when I shouldn't have, then this right here is a FULL apology to Comrade right now.

[Future Mayor]

I think that something needs to be done to address the homeless issue even more than it currently is, however I am not in favor of opening the library 24/7 simply so the homeless have a place to hang out.

$650,000 a year for three years? That's a nice little chunk of change, and I think a better option could be developed. I do like the idea of having a sort of community center near the shelters that serves as a daytime and evening place for the homeless to hang out. It would be a great place for service agencies to set up a little table or office for information and to provide help for those that do want to improve their situation, and for those that don't give a —, it gives them a place to watch videos on the internet for a couple of hours at a time. Why not do that as a three year pilot program rather than keep the main open 24/7?

The RDA owns everything west of Rio Grande, why not use the $650,000 to spruce up one of those buildings inside, provide some computers, books magazines etc. Rent free, because the city already owns it. Hell call it the Gateway Branch of the Library. And I agree, the Main Library REEKS, and having the source of the smell there for 12 more hours in the day is not going to help the situation.

I don't see the proposal to convert Hollywood Connection into a homeless shelter as being heartless, why should all the facilities be located downtown? It still provides access to transit, for those that actually look for jobs, and as one of Utah's larger cities WVC should shoulder some of the burden for Utah's less fortunate.

[asies1981]

Post on the Ball Park Apartments

[Palladio]

Moderator? Somebody?

Can we please clear this forum of such hateful vulgarity?

Whether the intents are playful or not, these are real people with real lives we are talking about. Just because the have serious addiction or lack of permanent housing doesn't give us the right to joke about the value of their lives.

[UTAZLoVer]

Originally Posted by Palladio

Moderator? Somebody?

Can we please clear this forum of such hateful vulgarity?

Whether the intents are playful or not, these are real people with real lives we are talking about. Just because the have serious addiction or lack of permanent housing doesn't give us the right to joke about the value of their lives.

I agree.

[Hatman]

While I don't agree with the un-friendly comments, I certainly don't think they ought to be banned or erased. I do agree with them in so far as we all recognize that the homelessness and panhandler problem is often seriously discouraging many people from wanting to visit downtown. Everytime I've gone there for as long as I can remember I've been asked for money or food or clothing or even drugs (once). It's not that I'm a sheltered person - I've lived in many parts of the world where this sort of thing is standard fare - but it does start to wear on you after a while. Why go downtown when the suburbs offer the same amenities without the petitions for cash, the smells of the camps (which makes you wonder how sanitary the rest of town is...), and the nagging feelings of guilt that always come from telling these people off. I know panhandling and homelessness are two separate problems, but to the public they appear as one.
The maddening thing is that SLC may not even be that bad in comparison to other comparable cities, but because our suburbs are so clean and sterile it makes SLC look like an epidemic by comparison. This means that in order to change people's perception of the extent of SLC's homeless problem, it needs to be cleaned up to a nearly unattainable level.
I wish there was a good and simple way to solve this problem. But wiser minds and more motivated activists than I have been working at it for some time, and still it remains. I think that if this problem is going to be better addressed than it already is, we need to acknowledge that it is a major problem that SLC faces in the downtown vs suburbs debate. And to get peopleis attention, other people's anger needs to be able to be expressed without too much personal/moral risk.
Just my opinion, mind you.

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by Hatman

While I don't agree with the un-friendly comments, I certainly don't think they ought to be banned or erased. I do agree with them in so far as we all recognize that the homelessness and panhandler problem is often seriously discouraging many people from wanting to visit downtown. Everytime I've gone there for as long as I can remember I've been asked for money or food or clothing or even drugs (once). It's not that I'm a sheltered person - I've lived in many parts of the world where this sort of thing is standard fare - but it does start to wear on you after a while. Why go downtown when the suburbs offer the same amenities without the petitions for cash, the smells of the camps (which makes you wonder how sanitary the rest of town is...), and the nagging feelings of guilt that always come from telling these people off. I know panhandling and homelessness are two separate problems, but to the public they appear as one.
The maddening thing is that SLC may not even be that bad in comparison to other comparable cities, but because our suburbs are so clean and sterile it makes SLC look like an epidemic by comparison. This means that in order to change people's perception of the extent of SLC's homeless problem, it needs to be cleaned up to a nearly unattainable level.
I wish there was a good and simple way to solve this problem. But wiser minds and more motivated activists than I have been working at it for some time, and still it remains. I think that if this problem is going to be better addressed than it already is, we need to acknowledge that it is a major problem that SLC faces in the downtown vs suburbs debate. And to get peopleis attention, other people's anger needs to be able to be expressed without too much personal/moral risk.
Just my opinion, mind you.

I do agree that SLC's contrast to our suburbs is an issue, but it's not the city's. WVC, for example, is a fairly good suburb on many standards (except for chesrerfield and 31st south - or maybe it's just my clean perception coming in) but it appears bad because the rest of the valley is so clean. If you were from Watts and Detroit, the shock of driving around East Shore in Daybreak would be tremendous, and vice versa. Many suburbs of SLC (including rich suburbs like Millcreek, South Jordan, Draper, and Cottonwood Heights) do encompass the stereotypical clean and beautiful suburb, and why the constrast scares many people from the suburbs (a food and art scene can be scary to us Costco shoppers), and I think people only want to make SLC even cleaner to bribe the suburbs in to downtown. This is why City Creek is so influential.

[RC14]

My biggest concern is specifically the panhandling.
While I agree that there are not many bad neighborhoods in the Valley and the homeless problem may not be as bad here as it is in other major cities, I'm not sure the same is true about panhandling. I work at a hotel and I've noticed panhandling is a big turn off for visitors. My understanding is that while other cities may have a large homeless population, they aren't as aggressive when it comes to panhandling.

I think those red change boxes the city put up a few years ago to discourage panhandling were a great idea. I have noticed that some of them have signs by them telling people not to support panhandling. I think those should be at every TRAX station and that the system that announces the time until the next train should also inform riders about those change collectors and discourage supporting panhandling. I think this would make it difficult for panhandlers to guilt trip people into giving them money. It would also help riders realize they are actually encouraging bad behavior and not really helping to solve the problem.

[StevenF]

Originally Posted by RC14

My biggest concern is specifically the panhandling.
While I agree that there are not many bad neighborhoods in the Valley and the homeless problem may not be as bad here as it is in other major cities, I'm not sure the same is true about panhandling. I work at a hotel and I've noticed panhandling is a big turn off for visitors. My understanding is that while other cities may have a large homeless population, they aren't as aggressive when it comes to panhandling.

I think those red change boxes the city put up a few years ago to discourage panhandling were a great idea. I have noticed that some of them have signs by them telling people not to support panhandling. I think those should be at every TRAX station and that the system that announces the time until the next train should also inform riders about those change collectors and discourage supporting panhandling. I think this would make it difficult for panhandlers to guilt trip people into giving them money. It would also help riders realize they are actually encouraging bad behavior and not really helping to solve the problem.

I remember those red parking meters and found a few of them to be broken or things stuffed into them so they wouldn't accept anything. I am sure the Panhandlers didn't like them.

[Comrade]

I'm more irritated by religious proselytizers than homeless panhandlers.

[SLC Projects]

Time to help get this forum out of a tailspin......

Looks like two new buildings have been added to Salt Lake's diagram.
http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?

The Grand America Hotel ( it's about time )
and
Radisson Hotel Salt Lake City Downtown
Thank you "Level" for adding those two buildings. This now gives Salt Lake City 26 total buildings on our diagram. We still have a few buildings that need a drawing like the new Federal Court House, Hilton Salt Lake City Center, Broadway Centre, First Security Building, an updated Walker Center building, both Boston AND Newhouse buildings just to name a few. So if anybody who are drawers have the time, please, please add these buildings to SLC's diagram and let's get this updated.

Anyways, just wanted to try to add something somewhat development related.

[ToysNoiz]

Finally.

I think the Radisson may be too tall, though.

[AllOutOfBubbleGum]

This is such a great read about downtowns coming back.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2...ial&utm_channel=Business&linkId=10918041

[ajiuO]

old bayleafe cafe

Bayleaf café by ajiu0, on Flickr

[ajiuO]

It would be cool if a bunch of users would leave a short comment supporting this idea...

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=6827550&posted=1#post6827550

Thanks

[Stenar]

Envision Utah is going to have a huge survey on the future of Utah and they want 50,000 responses. People in this forum definitely need to be among the responders.

Go here to reserve your spot as one of the 50,000: https://confirmsubscription.com/h/y/0ACEA25B33379234

[asies1981]

Photo update of the Seasons at Denver Street.

[Comrade]

Ralph Becker announced he'll be running for a third term. He's being challenged by SLC city councilman Luke Garrott, who, like Becker, is a Democrat. Garrott is basically running on the idea that Becker is too big for SLC and spends his time advocating for national interests and causes instead of fighting locally.

Last week, Becker was named the president of the National League of Cities. He had served as vice-president in 2014.

I like Luke, but his case isn't persuasive enough for me not to vote Becker next year.