Disclosure

It occurs to me that in the interest of complete disclosure I should state here that I am officially employed by the Becker for SLC Mayor campaign. So, to my legion of followers and every-word-hangers-on...there you have it. I outed myself.

There is a very well-written article in Sunday's Salt Lake Tribune about the campaign kickoff tour yesterday, which highlights in particular the depth and breadth of supporters:

"Ralph knows we don't live in a citadel," said Rebecca Chavez-Houck, who helped introduce her Avenues neighbor before a small gathering at City Creek Park. "There is no moat at 21st South. There is no moat at 600 North."

Former state Sen. Paula Julander agrees that the urban planner's temperament, along with his dedication to historic preservation, sets Becker apart from a mayoral field already crowded with 10candidates. "Ralph's key element is listening," Julander said.

...

Tony Milner, a Salt Lake City resident who introduced the candidate at Rose Park Elementary, said it "touches my heart" that Becker would first stop at a west-side school that serves minorities.
"Ralph is one of the very few political leaders that actually gets it," Milner said. "He realizes there's actually a west side to the city."

...

Jon Nepstad, an urban planner who turned out at an early stop with his dog, says he'd like to see more neighborhood connectivity in the capital. His fellow planner, Nepstad says, is up to the job. "The mayor needs to work in a more collaborative, not antagonistic, way," he said. "[Becker] will do a good job."

The roving campaign camp was also joined by state Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, and City Councilman Eric Jergensen, who both have endorsed Becker.

But for downtown business owner David Ibarra, the mayor's race is not a popularity contest. "We have one time to get it right," he said about the capital's planned makeover. "I believe Ralph, with his heavy planning experience, is the perfect match."

Becker for Mayor!

Go here

Too late...

A man in Texas thought that Muslims wanted his land (?! Those damn islamo-imminent-domainists at it again!) and in protest staged pig races.

Earlier this month, Baker conceded that the Muslims probably aren't after his land, but he said he had to go through with the pig races because "I would be like a total idiot if I didn't. I'd be the laughingstock now because I've gone too far."

Gatorade AM: a small yet undeniable sign of the impending apocalypse

So I'm back in the motherland, where apparently the Great Provider is test-marketing a new product. Or a new, ah, application of an old product. From the label:

Gatorade AM helps put back the fluids and energy you lose during a full night's sleep. It's the same scientifically proven formula in flavors designed for the morning.

Strong indications here that Rove has transitioned into the private sector already.

Tom Wharton on Utah's environmental myopia

It doesn't look like the Tribune published my letter to the editor (too brilliantly erudite? too crushingly scathing? too long? oh the pain), but Tom Wharton's recent column at least mentioned the travesty of the state government's short-sighted approach to land use management:

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. wants to turn over management of thousands of acres of roadless U.S. Forest lands to county commissioners, who too often have displayed only a willingness to exploit land we all own for short-term booms at the expense of a long-term vision.

The Bureau of Land Management seems hell-bent on ignoring its multiple-use mandates in a mad dash to exploit every last drop of oil and natural gas.

In sprawling Washington County, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson want to fuel poorly planned growth by selling public lands.

Utah seems too willing to give up thousands of gallons of west desert water to Las Vegas without a thought as to how it might impact the Great Salt Lake or fragile basin and range ecosystems.

Now if only someone would take the fantastically-named "Public Lands Policy Coordination Office" to the mat. I'm still mostly convinced that the Governor has not closely examined this situation, but has instead relied on the PLPCO to divine policy. We'll see.

Wilderness = the devil

I've grown to respect Governor Huntsman over the past year - his principled stances during the 2006 legislative session and his positions on high level waste and the value of education in Utah are commendable. So I was a little surprised to see that he was essentially getting rolled on the whole roadless forest designation situation. I'm guessing it has more to do with delegating to a rogue committee than actually reflecting his values. But I could be wrong. Here's the article, below's my letter to the editor.

Regarding Huntsman's roadless forest petition (Sunday, December 10):
Once again, Lynn Stevens and the Public Land "Policy Coordination" Office are in knee-jerk reaction mode, claiming that any effort to maintain roadless areas - on federal land, mind you, not state land - is the work of the devil. It's a shame to think that these "policy coordinators" are 1) being funded with our collective tax dollars, and 2) horse-whispering into the ear of the Governor the self-aggrandized, simplistic, and utterly short-sighted pablum that passes for policy advice. From the looks of it, the only coordinating that's happening is a simultaneous nodding of heads of a small group of ideologues at the notion that wilderness is evil and the maximum short-term exploitation of natural resources is good. Is there any back-and-forth up there in that fifth floor office? Any real debate? Anyone up there dare suggest that maybe, just maybe, roadless areas are good for our state's economy because they attract not only hunters and anglers but many other recreationists? Anyone up there willing to acknowledge that one of the things that makes Utah great is the vast amount of open space, and that slicing it up with more roads not only fragments critical animal habitat but also destroys the very thing that attracts untold numbers of people, as visitors and residents, to Utah in the first place? Even Idaho's figured that out, apparently.

Governor, please ignore this ill-gotten advice. It does not reflect Utah values, and it serves only the interests of a few polarizing politicians who have long forgotten the intrinsic value of leaving some places alone. Our economy, our quality of life, and our children's inheritance will all benefit from a thoughtful public lands policy that can actually see the forest for the trees.

Commie beef growing hippy e coli haters

A couple of articles on the value of eating locally have come my way in the last week or so - illustrating the health (i.e. avoiding e coli), economic, and nutritional benefits to knowing where your food comes from....For instance from the Salt Lake Tribune:

Today, it is called "value-added" meat, but it is really just a return to the old-fashioned way of raising cattle - the way cattle was raised before industrialized farming began more than 50 years ago.

And from the New York Times:

Today, according to the F.D.A., 35 percent of the fresh fruits and vegetables sold in this country are imported, and the figure grows every year. There are no regulations governing the countries or the plants from which produce is imported. Only 1 percent of the imported produce is inspected, the agency said, and only a small part of that is actually checked for bacterial contamination.

But who'd think that paying the extra few cents that it costs to buy local beef or vegetables is worth knowing that your food is 1) safely processed and 2) not laced with hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, etc. etc. ad nauseaum, and that your money is going to a farmer or rancher who lives in your state or at least your country instead of transnational corporate stockholders. Buncha communist hippies, that's who.

It's a terrible idea, internalizing the externalities.

Lance on Wal-Mart in Moab

Is Wal-Mart coming to Moab/Grand County? If so, what effect would it have on the area? R. Lance Christie has some insight:

A Wal-Mart Supercenter siting in Grand County is likely to damage our overall local economy for two reasons:

First, in 2002 the Austin Independent Business Alliance commissioned a report by Civic Economics, an economic analysis and strategic planning consultant. The question Civic Economics was asked is, has siting "big box" retail stores raised or lowered total tax revenues to the jurisdictions in which the stores were built?
The report found that, depending on the siting of the "big box" chain store, it could lower the total tax revenues to a community from retail activity. If "big box" chain stores are sited in large shopping campuses with many different, complimentary stores, overall shopping traffic increases as shoppers going to one store also browse and buy at neighboring stores, and total tax revenues go up. If a "big box" chain store is sited away from a shopping campus of complimentary retail stores, it tends to draw customers away from other businesses and causes a drop in overall tax revenues to local government.

The Austin report says the reason for the drop in total local tax revenues lies in what happens to the revenue stream from chain "big box" versus locally-owned stores. With a chain store, essentially the only money that remains in the community is that paid to local labor hired by the store. The rest goes to the national headquarters, with profits being distributed to shareholders around the world. With a local merchant, more money stays in the community in the form of salaries to management as well as staff; purchasing local accounting, advertising and other business services; and expenditure of some of the profits from the store locally by owners.

Second, we are told that an average Wal-Mart Supercenter here employs between 350 and 500 employees, 70% full and 30% part-time., with full-time employees starting at an average of $10.59 per hour nationally with health benefits costing the full-timer an average of $22 per month. Most of the wages among existing employers in Grand County: hardware stores, banks, grocery stores, landscapers, as well as the tourism hospitality businesses, run below $10.50 per hour without health benefits. According to Workforce Services, 40% of local jobs paid less than $8 per hour this June. In June there were over 300 vacant jobs, 177 full-time and 38 year-around; 123 offered $10 per hour or less. In 2006 we had fewer warm bodies in jobs in Grand County than we had in 1999: the workforce is shrinking slightly as new workers can't afford to move here because of high housing prices, replacing people who leave or retire. If a Wal-Mart opens here, I expect we will hear a "giant sucking sound" as the store poaches employees from existing businesses of all types. This will drive a large number of these businesses over the edge into closing, because as we learned at the June 22 "labor summit" meeting here, local businesses are already stressed and faltering from inability to hire enough staff.

As was pointed out by Lisa Roman at the labor summit, the official projection of the number of new residents moving into Grand County by 2010 is less than the number of vacant jobs now, even if all the new residents were available for workforce employment here. In fact, these are folks who can afford to pay the Grand County median new house price of a quarter million dollars with money they earn from somewhere else, and except for a few teenage kids, my bet is that none of the new resident family members in the next four years will end up in a job here. None of the non-resident people who bought new houses here since 2000 have taken workforce jobs here.

The "bottom line" is that, if Wal-Mart opens here, it will be on an isolated campus north or south of Moab, it will compete with all local employers for a shrinking workforce, and it will likely cause a net reduction in local tax revenues even if overall county retail sales increase. Under these conditions, local governments should not offer any inducements or bend any rules to get a Wal-Mart to open here. If Wal-Mart can find a suitable site for an acceptable price and build on it without getting any zoning changes or variances, so be it - they are entitled to equal treatment under the law. But it is clear to me that a Wal-Mart would have a negative effect on our local economy overall because of our peculiar local housing and labor conditions, and we should discourage a store siting here by any legal means available.

Sincerely yours,
Lance Christie, Moab


December 2, 2006
Letters to the People
Moab Times-Independent

Dear friends,

Land ownership

From the New York Times today:

The definitions of private and state land are complicated, given different administrations of the West Bank going back to the Ottoman Empire, the British mandate, Jordan and now Israel. During the Ottoman Empire, only small areas of the West Bank were registered to specific owners, and often villagers would hold land in common to avoid taxes. The British began a more formal land registry based on land use, taxation or house ownership that continued through the Jordanian period.

Large areas of agricultural land are registered as state land; other areas were requisitioned or seized by the Israeli military after 1967 for security purposes, but such requisitions are meant to be temporary and must be renewed, and do not change the legal ownership of the land, Mr. Dror, the Civil Administration spokesman, said.

As this article implies, land ownership in the Middle East is a major point of contention - though not just in the Occupied Territories. The American model of property and its attendant rights is not by a long shot universal, even among western nations.

Maybe this will raise the profile of this issue as it relates to depressed/nonexistent local economies, social anomie, and the development of insurgencies and terrorism in the middle east. To me, land reform is a fundamental but frequently neglected component of any strategy for addressing the roots of terrorism.

Thanksgiving brings a focus to local food

The Salt Lake Tribune has a series of articles on local and organic food in today's edition:

Buying from local farm takes root in Utah

From farm to feast: How healthful is your meal? How local? How safe?

Avoid the 'Dirty Dozen,' buy organic

It's incredibly vindicating to see these ideas becoming so mainstream. The e coli scare this summer may have been the tipping point, but better that than a more comprehensive disruption in supply from any of a number of other causes.

Supporting local food production should be a no-brainer for our legislators as well; if we should be subsidizing anything, it should be local food systems.