Quote:
Originally Posted by i-215
I hate being the "NIMBY" in this case. It just feels weird for me to be on the other side of a development issue for a change.
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Feel that, as a big transit guy who tends to disagree with you, it does seem weird to be agreeing with you as much as I am. Strange times lead to strange friends it seems.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that downtown has been thriving compared to most downtowns post-covid, and with all of the new development it's continuing to get better. As good as the Jazz and sports in general are to this city, we will do relatively fine without them, we have a top-tier university, great museums, a large convention center (albeit should be consolidated into 1 or 2 blocks), an amazing symphony, interesting history, pretty good art, and
sighs the church, all of which provide interest and tourism to the city.
On the other hand, the Jazz, and any other major league team in Utah, NEED to be downtown, SLC or otherwise. I can't shake what Shaq said about SLC out of my head whenever this discussion comes up. If SLC is boring for people from elsewhere, how much worse will Draper be? Or Lehi? or South Jordan?
With all of this in mind, we cannot give Ryan Smith whatever he wants, not unless it benefits the city. If Smith leaves, I have my doubts that the Jazz or our new NHL team will succeed. As much as I'm pro-NHL or pro-Investment, we need to leverage what we have as much as Smith is leveraging what he does.