Deconstructing the Construction

I took a picture of the installation of the I80 700 East Bridge. They built the bridge by the side of the interstate and are moving it inplace with a block and tackle arrangement. The bridge is massive. The freeway will have four lanes in both direction. 700 South has three traffic lanes along with left turn lanes.


The Columbus Library on 500 East in South Salt Lake sports a mission style facade with red tile roofing. The building says "Columbus School." I wonder if it was part of the Columbus Community Center?


After taking pictures of the bridge, I headed downtown for some errands, then took a small number of shots including the Grand American Hotel. The downtown construction. It looks like the second Key Bank tower is slated for destruction.

If I were wise, I would be spending more time following and taking photos of the two billion dollar demolition and reconstruction of downtown Salt Lake. Oddly, the big reconstruction doesn't captivate me. I prefer plans that evolve with time to grand schemes than in big politically charged development efforts.

The Incredibly Shrinking Salt Lake

The Tribune has an article on the shrinking Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City has been on a steady decline since the 70s. It shrank both under the ineptitude of DeeDee and under the dominion of Rocky. This last round of shrinkage is surprising because, in the latter half of Rocky's dominion, the city allowed a small number of extremely rich, extremely well connected developers to put in high density housing so that they servants would have a place to live.

Stuart Reid says the shrinking city was the result of Rocky Anderson's alienating the LDS. There may be some truth. I think the problem isn't just religious. Rocky's Salt Lake was hostile to all members of the middle class.

I think a better explanation is the tight zoning in the city that prevents people from being able to improve their properties. The way housing used to work is that homes would expand, contract and subdivide during people's natural lifecycle. People might add on a bedroom as the kids aged. They would split off an apartment when the kids went away.

Likewise, businesses would expand and contract.

The very fact that Salt Lake was counting on condos built by well connected developers for growth is a sign that the city has an unhealthy vision for its growth. Talking to home owners and small business owners, The Democratically dominated city has created layers of nightmare for anyone wanting to improve their properties. The only way development can occur in Salt Lake is for the property owner to allow the property to deteriorate so that their block can be zoned RDA. Of course, only the most politically connected can pull off an RDA development.

Portable Classroom

Workers were removing the portable classrooms from Churchill Junior High School. A few years back, Wasatch Junior High School burnt down. I assume this means that the new Wasatch school is up and running. I understand the new building includes an innovative concept called sprinklers.

Here are shots of the moving building:

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Bridge Relief

I took photos of the molds used for the relief designs to be placed on the 3300 South bridge. The process is simple. They make styrofoam cut outs and paste them in the concrete mold for the bridge abutments. The workers then pour in the concrete (as you would any mold). Let it dry. After pulling off the mold they remove the styrofoam, sand blast and they have a simple relief picture.

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I am happy that construction crews have started adding art to bridges.

The ancient greeks used to stick bas relief sculptures on everything. I guess you could make those by having people stick their face in plaster. The a mold from the facial indent.

Hmmmmm, if they need a model for an Adonis, I guess I could lend my chiseled visage. Of course I wouldn't want them to use my face for highway work as I would worry about all of the ladies becoming distracted while they drive by.

Riverpark in South Jordan

I finished labeling the pictures I took of the Riverpark area in South Jordan. This is a massive complex with two universities, a variety of class A office space and mix use facilities.

NOTE, I googled Riverpark, but did not find an official web site for the development. If anyone knows of one, please drop a comment.

The Facility is on 10600 South just West of the Jordan River. I doubt it entered the minds of the developers, but the people working in the complex have a nice bike path and walkway near their building. I wonder how many people bike to work ...

As a building buff, I am always happy to see quality new construction. I am especially happy to see mix use facilities. The Riverpark includes a variety of fast food and elegant restaurants. My first reaction was that the development was a bit like the DTC in Denver.

My second reaction was sorrow that this development did not take place in Salt Lake City proper. I feel sad that most of the development is happening in the South Valley. During the DeeDee Corradini and Rocky Anderson dynasties, there was almost no development in Salt Lake. It is true that in the last few years, SLC finally realized that WVC, South Jordan and Saint George were on a path to ecclipse the capital city in economic relevance. So, the city has reluctantly allowed some construction.

I have always rooted for Salt Lake City. Rooting for a loser results in a cynical attitude toward the world.

During my picture taking excursion, I was surprised to find that there was a new University in town called Neumont University. Neumont University's site says that they work directly with businesses partners to provide relevant education. Utah is in desparate need of new private universities if we wish the state to maintain a leading role in business and technology. I hope they do well. There is also a branch of the University of Southern Nevada. Go figure.


I love the mix use concept that is taking into place in developments like the Riverpark. I am sad that the development is not quite as well connected with the valley as I would want. Most people have to drive to go to work, and you really can't see the profile of the big buildings from the freeway, as it is in a gulch.

Reduce Government Consumption of Energy

(The point of this post happens halfway down)

It was fun taking a ride on the FrontRunner.

While riding the train is fun recreation, I can't see how this thing is going to solve the current energy crisis. Back of the envelop calculations tell me that government subsidized transportation will never be the most efficient means of getting around.

On this note, it is interesting that the UTA used the publicity blitz surrounding the grand opening of the FrontRunner to demand a rate hike. The press release notes that UTA will consume 6.1 million gallons of deisel a year. The amount of fuel consumed by UTA is increasing dramatically with each year. The article doesn't mention the amount of electricity, natural gas and gasoline they consume.

We don't solve the energy crisis simply by switching the mode of energy consumption from a private to public entity. Organizing one's life to use public transit does not necessarily reduce one's carbon footprint.

Organizing one's life to get the maximum return from the resources invested does. Biking and walking does the trick.

As for UTA. The UTA tells us we have an either or choice. Either they raise prices or cut service. Rising prices pushes mass transit out of the reach of many people in the valley. So, the either or thinking really doesn't hack it.

We need to have our eyes on the total consumption of fuel. As such, the UTA should be cutting inefficient routes regardless of what they do with the pricing.

Now to the Point

As mentioned earlier, McCain's tax vacation does not address the cause of our current energy crisis.

If our government wished to take a positive step to addressing the current energy crisis, what it should undertake a major effort to decrease the government's consumption of energy.

If the government wanted to make a positive impact on the economy, they should look at government consumption of energy. Imagine an emergency program where the US government program sought an immediate reduction of 5% of its consumption of fuel. If our governments were to cut their consumption of energy, it would reduce the deficit and ease pressures on prices. Its impact would be substantially greater than a gas tax holiday.

Unfortunately, what we seem to be doing is leaning more heavily on public consumption of energy as people try to find ways to curb private consumption of energy.

FrontRunning to Ogden

I appreciate free; So, yesterday -- April 30th, 2008, I jumped aboard the new FrontRunner Commuter Rail that runs between Salt Lake and Ogden. The new route opened on April 26th. UTA offered free rides from April 26th to April 30.

(I was planning on going to the opening ceremonies on April 26th, but went to a Rock Garden Show instead.

My orginal plan was to get off on every stop and take pictures of the environs. Unfortunately, as the train was standing room only, I decided to beeline it to Ogden and back.

In Ogden I took a walk up historic 25th, then down Washington Boulevard to the new Solomon recreation center. I then zig zagged my way back to the train.

Sadly, it takes longer to label pictures than it does to take pictures.

On the train, I engaged in several conversations about how things like architecture and our overall well being has improved in the last 8 years, followed by other conversations about how everybody hates George Bush and yearn for some indescribable change.

It is really amazing how the media has been able to convince so many sheep in America that the continued boom America has experienced since the Reagan revolution is a depression.

The way I see it ... life is not about how much we love or hate the glorious leader in a distant city. It is about the quality of life in our communities. During the Great Society of LBJ through Jimmy Carter, people turned toward Washington for answers. The local communities got worse. The trains disappeared during this era.

During the era from Reagan to Bush, people realized that Washington was not the answer and local communities started getting better. Like most of the stuff in our lives, the train has nothing to do with the President. It is odd, but Republican hostility toward mass transit helped improve it.

The Formation of Millcreek Township

As my car is currently parked in Millcreek Township; So, I decided to crash the township information meeting at Skyline High School on 3/18/2008.

A township is a new political entity created by HB40 a few years back.

Salt Lake County followed the traditional western settlement path. The valley was laid out with a dozen distinctive downtown areas. Small towns formed around the area. These areas grew into identifiable cities such as Murray, Midvale, Magna. Salt Lake City was the heart of the valley and the population center. The area around the established towns were administered by the county.

During the Great Leap Forward of the 60s and 70s, cities started becoming more progressive. They raised taxes and passed new restrictive zoning laws. The result is that the cities stopped growing, and the unincorporated areas boomed.

It is actually quite absurd. Most of the high density housing in the Salt Lake Valley is in unincorporated areas.

In the last 30 years, the unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County grew at a rate substantially faster than the cities in the county. Salt Lake City has a lower population than it did in 1976 when my family moved into this area. This area called Millcreek Township is Southeast of Salt Lake City. While Salt Lake City shrank, the population of the Millcreek Township area ballooned to 60,000.

The fact that people voted with their feet and fled incorpated areas should tell us something about city governments.

Anyway, in recent years, the cities in the Salt Lake County went on an annexation frenzy. To the consternation of businesses that made investments in the unincorprated areas, the various cities of Salt Lake County started annexing any property that generated tax revenues. The businesses being annexed were upset at the process. The cherry picking was likely to saddle the county with all of the people living in high density housing, but with no tax base to pay for services.

To give some breathing space, HB40 simply froze all of the city borders in the County. The unicorporated areas were declared townships. The Millcreek Township was so called after one of the neighboorhoods in the township.

Millcreek Township has no indentifiable downtown. Most people in the area address their mail as "Salt Lake City;" So, there is actually a very interesting dynamic: Here is a group of 60,000 people who opened the mail last week and found that they were living in a new thing called Millcreek Township, and that the township might soon become a city.

In the upcoming years, the people in this area have to decide if they want to turn Millcreek Township into Millcreek City, join other cities, or try to find a way to stay unincorporated.


One interesting proposal would be for South Salt Lake (about 20,000 people with a decent industry base) to merge with Millcreek. It is an intriguing proposal as South Salt Lake would give up its identity for a grab at the unincorporated areas. Millcreek Township would then get a little section of State Street and Main to call its own.

One voice in the crowd suggested the area merge with Salt Lake City. I doubt the people would want the big tax increase, and restrictive zoning that would follow.

I think there will be a push for the area to remain a township. However, it is absurd to have a different type of municipality in the state to serve the unincorporated areas. Simply becoming a city with no downtown is logically similar to the current township.

Regardless, it is an interesting process to watch.

A Walk Through a Brickyard

The truth is that I am jealous. NewspaperGrl just became a part time Google Rep. Apparently she gets to wander around with a camera and a pile of brochures. She takes a picture of the store. She then goes in the store and chats with the owners. She gets paid for her picture. If the store returns the flyers to confirm the conversation, gets gets paid for that as well.

The magical thing, of course, is the name Google. People give legitimacy to Google. They are the daddy long legs of the internet.

Oh well. Anyway I just labeled pictures from a walk around The Brickyard Plaza. The plaza has a nice little courtyard, but I didn't go in because most places these days tend to toss solicitors out on their haunches.

I think I will start doing write ups on city streets. When I want to stretch the legs, I will take a walk down an interesting section of a city street, take photos and write up a page. I did a page for 1300 East in Salt Lake.

As streets connect everything together and intersect with other links, it is possible to create tons of links. If I sprinkle in a few links for advertisers, the project would make a few pennies.

Salt Lake Art Blogs

The Utah Art's community is starting to blog!!!

I've noticed that several major art organizations in Salt Lake are slapping blogs onto their sites. I hope this trend continues. Such blogs raise awareness of the arts. Art organizations often have very interesting things to say.

I just made a new Salt Lake Arts blogs category to help them stand out.

The Utah Symphony just put up a post linking to Reviews from the blogosphere. Giving return links is a good way to encourage people to visit the symphony (Abravenal Hall Events).

IMHO, art organizations tend to be a bit aloof and are quite link stingy. I think the structure where an art organization has a separate free for all blog associated with their organization creates a structure where they can link into the local internet community while maintaining the high brow status of their main site.

Jay Heuman of the Salt Lake Arts Center seems to find this process:

"a dystopic marriage of convenience between evolving technologies and savvy marketing"

I hope that these art blogs can successfully draw people into the local arts.

Urban Iditarod

Apparently, in the urban version of the iditarod you put a dog in a shopping cart and run for 4 miles, then end up at a bar.

I love it when people add clever events to the Salt Lake Calendar. This event is on March 1, 2008.

CORRECTION: okay, you don't put a dog in the cart. That was just my imagination ... I am just into the idea of a world where dogs rule and people drool

New Photos

I took another round of photos of the 4500 South Bridge Construction. It was really cool. About a thousand people showed up to watch a bridge put into place. They used massive hydraulic moving equipment to move the old bridge out of the way and the new bridge in place.

Crowds lined Wasatch Boulevard, I215, the Churchill Junior High field and Olympus Hills Park.

I get a large number of hits on the Liberty Park gallery; so I took a few new pictures of that park. Last week, I took some pictures of the Trax Construction at the Gateway Plaza.

I also decided to do a walk around the new Granite School District Offices. As you can see, the Utah Public school system is really hurting for money. The district bosses have to work in substandard conditions. There are some who make under $100,000 a year!

Utah First Friday

I crashed the Utah First Fridays business networking meeting this morning. The keynote speaker was a John Bresee cofounder of Backcountry.com.

The title of the presentation was "WOW - Affiliate Marketing Does That?"

The actual presentation was about other online ventures of the company (I get the distinct impression that affiliate marketing is on the decline). I joined the BCS affiliate program back in 2000. In the following years I displayed their ad some 300,000 plus times. I had 1392 clicks, 10 sales and scored a massive $119.28 in commissions. The actually pay rates have been declining steadily. My rough estimates are that, to pay one year minimum wage salary, I figure I would have to pump about 300,000 hits to an online merchant. That is just about the size of the population of Salt Lake City proper. To actually pay a living wage, I would have to pipe through the population of the county through the merchant.

Speaking about the size of Salt Lake, I had to renew my license this year and took a trip out to the DMV in West Valley City. The DMV is interesting in that just about everyone in this valley has been through the building at one time or another. There are lots of buildings in Salt Lake filled with lots of people. There are very few, however, that have seen such a full cross section of the population. The building was full of the rich, poor, young (16+) and old.

The DMV is getting much more efficient. We used to have to stand in line 5 hours to get a license. If you weren't at the DMV by noon, you were hosed. It was horrible, you would get to the DMV at 2:00PM then watch all of the station closed signs pop up, and have to come back the next day.

This trip was over in 40 minutes. It is a funny set up. I stood in line for 20 minutes to get a number, then sat in a waiting area with my number for 10 minutes. Handing of cash to the teller, reading the line in the eye exam thingy and getting my picture was over in 10 minutes.

BTW, my telling you that I went through the DMV yesterday tells you that I am a Libra. I thought about asking the teller if she sees any differences in the people throughout the year. A person interested in astrology would do well to get a job at the DMV as the set up displays a full cross section of the population near their birthdays. If there really is a discernable difference between the astrology signs (which I doubt) a DMV employee would be in the ideal position to see the differences.

My other about town adventure was a walk through Murray City Park. The park was much larger than I had imagined. The park has a entrance gate and statue of Chief Washakie on State Street. So I always just imagined that the park was just a small rectangular slot of land with a few playgrounds. It turns out that the park is massive with three full size soccer fields, several baseball fields, an aquatic center, a massive ice skating arena, an arboretum, an ampitheatre, a half dozen pavilions and playgrounds. Facility-wise, the park dwarfs Liberty Park and Sugarhouse Park.

Parleys Trail

Yesterday I took some pictures of the news Parleys Trail bridge. This section of trail splits off the Bonneville Shoreline Trail crosses I215 on a spanking new pedestrian bridge then drops into Parleys Hollow. At this point the trail is sort of a bicycle path to nowhere. For road bikes, it is a trail that leads to the bottom of an 11% grade. Mountain and crossover bikes can go through a series of gravel and dirt roads then pop out of the hollow in a South Salt Lake neighborhood near Tanner Park.

The next phase of the trail project will dig a tunnel below I80 which will connect Parleys Hollow with Sugarhouse. When the trail is complete, there will be an uninterrupted trail from Sugarhouse to the top of Grandeur Peak.

Since the current trail doesn't actually go anywhere, I don't think it will have a major impact on the Salt Lake Cycling community. The Parleys Crossing project had a major impact on cycling as it connected two popular cycling routes (Foothill Boulevard to the U, and Wasatch Boulevard). As stated, the trail has an 11% grade. I actually perfer the grade of the neighborbood roads between Parleys and 3300 South.

Now that there is a trail going all the way through Parleys Hollow, I suspect that we will see another big showdown between the nature lovers and dog owners over the off leash status of the trail. Dogs and bikes simply do not mix. Dogs love to splash in the creek, which is in direct conflict with nature lovers apreciation for the biodiversity of riparian zones.

During the trail construction, they created a large fenced in area. I would not be surprised to find this area designated the "off leash" area. Of course, since the fenced in area is a half mile from the road, it really is untenable as a dog park. Of course, that is the way people win in politics. You force your opponents into an untenable situation and they give in.

I really love to take Coco on walks through the park. Unfortuanely there's now a very large number of pitbull owners in Salt Lake and there are people who like to take large packs of large dogs into the park. As the hollow becomes part of a green corridor, I suspect the park will soon lose its off leash designation. The tragedy of the commons is that the commons will always be trampled.

4500 South I215 Bridge

I took shots of the 4500 South I215 Bridge Construction. This is an interesting project. What they are doing is building the new bridge along the side of the freeway. They will then swing the completed bridge into place. this will minimize the amount of time that the freeway is closed.

The 4500 South Bridge is only about 30 years old. 4500 South has rather steep slope as it climbs toward the base of Mount Olympus. That extra lateral pressure adds to the aging of the bridge.

While labeling this set of pictures, I realized that I have big piles of pictures that I have yet to upload and label. This is a picture of a Hen and Chicks Plant in bloom that I took earlier this year. This plant does not bloom all that often. For that matter, it is about 20 years old and this is the first time I remember the plant blooming.

Salt Lake Muslim Festival

This sounds interesting: There will be a Salt Lake American Muslim Festival SLAM at Washington Square (This is the plaza a the downtown Salt Lake Library.

The festival will include: Vietnamese Dragon Dance, Kenshin Taiko Drummers, Phillipine, Peruvian, and Tongan Dancers, Easter Arts Central Asian Dances, Rinceori Irish Dancers, Chinese Dances by Fay Fay Ye, and Bien Flamenco, Sol de Jalisco Mariachi Band, Ahiska Turks Cultural Dances, Sister Maryam and Jose Bonilla Songs, Native American Indian Performance, Baptist Gospel Singer, and the Salt Lake Saints Jazz Band. The festival also includes speeches by Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Dr. Alice Rothchild of the Jewish Voice for Peace.

I am happy that such celebrations take place. I love to learn about different cultures. I could not help but note that only one of the acts in the line up is from the Middle East.

I highlighted the Turkish Dancers as they seem to be the closest to the Middle East of any of the acts. I could not find a web site for the group. Several web sites attribute this dance to the dancers. If you watch the video, you might want to translate the message from user mazinia which explains the dance. Errr, I don't think it is really a good example of the heart and soul of Islam.

In some ways I suspect that this very SLAM festival highlights the greatest fear of the Muslim world: marginalization. The fear is that multiculturalism will reduce all cultures to a circus act for a University professor's amusement.

Multiculturalism is culture that assumes all other cultures are a subordinate part of itself.

[***]I suspect that most of the people attending this event will be left leaning. It will include the small portion of the left that hold the viewpoint that they are united with the Islamic world against the people's enemy: George W. Bush.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

In actuality, I think things are more complex. This war on terrorism is largely about the Islamic World's rejecting the multiculturalism being forced on them by the west. Both the blowing up of the Buddhas of Bamyan and the World Trade Center were about rejecting multiculturalism. Conversely, our reactionary wars are about breaking the stranglehold of monolithic belief system in the middle east. From one perspective, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are about bringing multiculturism to the region.

Anyway, it sounds like the festival will be a fun event worth attending. The machine which cranks out this stream of festivals is getting more professional with each passing year. Yet I can't help but I sympathize with those who find the process of reducing a culture to an act on a multiring circus to be somewhat marginalizing.

[***] I changed this sentence. A commentor thought I said that 90% of the left believed that they were allied with Islam against Bush. What I wanted to say was that I suspect that 90% of the people who attend the festival will be left leaning. And that there are some people who see themselves as allied with Islam against Bush.

Cultural Celebration Center

I took a drive out to West Valley City to get some pictures of the new Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City. WVC is Utah's second largest city with a population of about 119,000. Salt Lake City has a population of about 182,000. If current demographic trends continue, both WVC and South Jordan will be larger than Salt Lake City in a decade or so. SLC is shrinking. It was about 220k when we moved here.

Now, I have to admit, I am a big city snob. My ideal world would see crowded urban centers that stop at the edge of a wilderness (with no suburban sprawl between). So, I am not all that happy with the current political situation where Salt Lake City languishes under the political ineptitude of Democratic leaders like Rocky Anderson and Dee Dee Corradini while the majority of growth happens in the vibrant suburbs.

For a while, Salt Lake City was able to pull the stunt where they used their historical political clout to divert tax revenues from the burbs back into the city. However, as should happen in a Democracy, the political clout is finally starting to follow the people, and the burbs are starting to get the cultural attractions.

Unfortunately, each time I drive out to WVC, South Jordan, Davis County or other business friendly suburbs, I am struck with the horrific reality that this is where the action is.

This new Cultural Celebration Center really stands out as a world class facility. At the heart of the facility is an Olmec Head that came from near WVC's sister city Veracruz, Mexico. This head was carved by the Olmec Civilization which is believed to be the ancestor of both the Aztec and Inca Civilizations. The Olmec Culture thrived from 1200 BCE to about 400 BCE. There is some speculation that the Olmecs were the first culture to invent the concept of zero. That could be what happened to them. They divided by zero then vanished.

HMMM, the Olmecs were one of those civilizations that lived in the BCs; so you would think that they knew their date system was counting toward something big!!!!!

The main attraction of the Utah Cultural Celebration Center is the World Stage Amphitheater. This state of the art amphitheatre hosts a variety music and cultural shows. The next item on their list is a production from Two Shields Productions, which does Native American Dancing and music. This event is on August 13, 2007 (more events).

The center is on a sixty acre park adjacent to the Jordan River.


After taking photos of the UCCC, I booked it on over and took some exterior shots of the E-Center and the new Hale Theatre.


The E Center was built in 1997 and was a venue for the 2002 Winter Games. From my understanding, the center was named for the important role that the natural logarithm plays in mathematics. Of course, a great deal of thing in my understand are the product of my imagination. Others say the E came from an ecommerce advertising campaign. I understand the Hale Center Theatre was built when the owners finally got tired of hearing complaints about their old theater.

Parade Pics

As I indicated in my last post, I decided to the go the the Native American Festival that runs in conjunction with the Pioneer Day Parade.

I realize that I have a reputation as a culturally insensitive clod. I just want to ease the readers mind and assure the world that I was on my best behaviour. It just so happens that I know all about the intricacies of the pale face/native interrelations. So just prior to the Powwow, I went to the liquor store to get some fire water to trade for beads. Unfortunately, Pioneer Day is a holiday and the liquor stores where closed!

My best laid plans fall one after another.

Even worse, I got to the powwow early. I ended up watching the parade and filled up my memory stick with parade photos. Anyway, I just started labeling the photos. My first picture of the parade is at the finish line of the Pioneer Day 10K.

It will take awhile for me to finish labeling the shots. Here are the Parade Pictures and Powwow pictures. Sorry about skimping on the powwow pictures. I couldn't get a good angle on the dance area, and I hate taking pictures of people (unless they are part of a public event).

State Sponsored Religious Services

I think it is important for a community to support its arts. A primary means for supporting the art is communtiy festivals like the upcoming Days of 47 festivities, and I would even give the sponsoring community bands and buying art from local artists is a very good idea since it helps employ local artists.

Anyway, I was looking at the Salt Lake Twilight Concert Series. This seems like it is going a bit overboard. The stated goal of thise series is to provide a venue for "nationally and internationally acclaimed performing artists" (not local artists).

The concerts are not part of a community celebration. It is just a weekly series of late night entertainment. The mission of the program is to provide "sustenance for the body and soul." At this state sponsored event you can get body art and psychic readings. The web site'ss goal behind this event sounds more like a religious service than a community event.

The line up has some really big names like Left Over Salmon. It is not like these are groups that have difficult selling tickets. Quite frankly, the state paying for top talent makes it harder for all the little local bands to get paying gigs at local night clubs.

The events aren't overcoming a deficit of live music. Salt Lake is on a crossroads which all but guarantees that music venues will fill up with top talent.

I do everything I can to support local art. I just am not sure if providing free tickets to top international talent is the best use of taxpayer's dollars. I guess my affinity is with the artists on the outside of the political structure.

Memory Grove Park

I decided to take a short walk through Memory Grove Park. The park is on City Creek between downtown Salt Lake City and City Creek Canyon. My favorite hike is Salt Lake City is to start at the Trax station at Cottonwood Canyon then to hike past Temple Square then to follow the sidewalk adjacent to City Creek through Memory Grove and into the canyon.

The ability to walk from downtown into the wilderness of the Wasatch is, in my opinion, the single biggest selling point of the city. This pleasant walk includes a variety of scenery with skyscrapers, church buildings, a ritzy neighborhood, public art followed by a long mountain trail that climbs into one of the most remote regions of the Wasatch Mountains. The road up City Creek Canyon is popular with hikers, joggers and cyclists. Bicycles are allowed only on odd days. Cars are allowed on even days, but I think you have to have additional permission to drive up the canyon. The lower portions of the canyon are a little bit trampled. The upper stretches are remarkably pristine.

While adding labels to the pictures, I discovered that Ottinger Hall is being rennovated by the Salt Lake Rotary as some sort of youth center. I also learned that Salt Lake will be the host of the 2007 Rotary International Convention this upcoming week. See the sites Rocky Mountain Rendezvous or Salt Lake Rotary for more information. Rotary Clubs tend to construct really cool things.

As for Memory Grove itself, I admit to being inspired by the monuments for the people who gave their lives defending this country. Monuments are important. They are both worth building and preserving. For example the World War monument was constructed in 1932 by people who may have been hoping that they would live in an era of peace, not knowing that worst things lay ahead. I was also impressed with Gold Star Hill which recognizes the pain of the Gold Star Moms who lost a child serving this nation.

In my book, the efforts to build parks and memorials are quiet important as they provide a valuable perspective of the events that shape the world. Above all, the monuments of the past serve as backdrops for the photos of the present.