Failing the unsheltered community has harmed us all.
Support Rocky for compassionate solutions.
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EFFECTIVE MEASURES TO IMPROVE SALT LAKE CITY’S
RESPONSE TO THE HOMELESSNESS CRISIS
Rocky Anderson
IMMEDIATELY
Protect people from becoming homeless in the first place.
We can achieve tremendous progress as we all come together—government entities at all levels, the business community, philanthropists, and churches—to attain a far better quality of life for residents, visitors, members of the homeless community, and businesses alike.
Please watch and share with friends and colleagues the video linked here, which addresses the crisis facing our entire city and the necessary solutions: www.rocky4mayor.com/2g.
- Eliminate encampments in parks and elsewhere throughout the city by providing a temporary secured sanctioned camp, remote from neighborhoods and businesses (e.g., the former Wingpointe Golf Course), with decent toilets, showers, laundry facilities, storage lockers, three nutritious meals each day, mail service, transportation, and professional outreach/case management workers to transition people out of homelessness.
- Provide comprehensive professional outreach and case management throughout the city for every homeless person on the street, in shelters, or in permanent supportive housing to transition them (depending on their current status) into a sanctioned camp, shelters, treatment, employment, and/or transitional or permanent housing.
- Enforce laws, with diversion from jail to effective treatment whenever possible, implementing the principles of restorative justice to solve problems (e.g., mental illness and drug addiction treatment) rather than maintain the status quo or simply to punish. There should be more focus on the demand side in enforcing drug laws to dry up the market for drugs and eliminate dealers. Return the duties of Salt Lake City Prosecutor to Salt Lake City, with full accountability on the part of the mayor and the administration.
- Provide adequate, vastly improved secure 24/7-all-year overflow shelter space (non-congregate if possible), with property lockers, so that unsheltered homeless people are never again left out in the sweltering summers or freezing winters (causing deaths and frostbite/amputations of fingers, toes, and feet) and avoiding negative impacts for residents/families and businesses throughout the city. Instead of scurrying each year to develop a winter overflow shelter (which traditionally has been inadequate, leaving many people without options other than being on the streets in the bitter cold), and instead of spending millions of dollars on temporary overflow measures, the primary focus (while making sure unsheltered homeless people are afforded shelter from the elements) should be on investing in permanent housing, where the investments will have long-term benefits.
- Provide adequate shelters—away from residential neighborhoods and in close proximity to other homeless services--that are vastly improved and welcoming to homeless people (i.e., safe, clean, without bed bugs, secure, with a respectful environment, and with property lockers); with effective facility and case management; effective transition to treatment, housing, and jobs; accountable to the public, with reporting of metrics of success; and with close proximity to other homeless services (eliminating “scattered sites”) to get unsheltered homeless people off the streets, protect them from the elements and crime, and transition them to housing, jobs, and appropriate treatment.
- Provide adequate residential and out-patient mental health and addiction treatment (for which the County must be responsible, since it receives the funding), including facilities for arrested people who would benefit from mental health and addiction treatment.
- Provide more cost-effective permanent supportive housing, with accountability for tenants, respecting the interests of residents and the neighborhood.
- Provide housing with wrap-around services, like Alliance House, for people with serious mental health and addiction disorders.
- Create a campus where all homeless services—including case management, legal services, a kennel, childcare, mental health and addiction treatment, and job training and placement—will be in close proximity to each other. (A model is Haven for Hope in San Antonio, Texas. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FzfI6gPB0k)
Protect people from becoming homeless in the first place.
- Require that developers relocate people displaced from existing affordable housing by developments.
- Provide abundant mixed-income non-market affordable housing at all income levels. (Quit depending on the neo-liberal “market” approach, where government subsidizes private developers instead of building excellent mixed-income housing itself.)
- Provide subsidies or low- or no-interest loans to help during financial crises for those at risk of becoming homeless.
- Provide accessible, affordable, and safe childcare so people can work to maintain their housing.
- Provide access to food pantries that focus on healthy nourishment.
- Provide adequate and accessible residential and out-patient mental health and addiction treatment.
- Advocate for a higher minimum wage, reform of eviction laws, and ability of municipalities to enact inclusionary zoning ordinances.
- Coordinate with prisons, jails, hospitals, and mental health facilities so no one will be released without housing.
We can achieve tremendous progress as we all come together—government entities at all levels, the business community, philanthropists, and churches—to attain a far better quality of life for residents, visitors, members of the homeless community, and businesses alike.
Please watch and share with friends and colleagues the video linked here, which addresses the crisis facing our entire city and the necessary solutions: www.rocky4mayor.com/2g.
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ROCKY HAS VIGOROUSLY ADVOCATED FOR SALT LAKE CITY'S HOMELESS COMMUNITY, RESIDENTS, AND BUSINESSES FOR DECADES
HOW MAYORAL CANDIDATE ROCKY ANDERSON WANTS TO DEAL WITH—AND HELP—UNHOUSED UTAHNS WHO RESIST SHELTERS
"First, immediately, and I would do this within two months or sooner after I become mayor, I would put together sanctioned camps — and there would have to be a separate one for families — and include in those camps optional shelter that is low- or no-barrier, where people can come and at least get out of the elements.
At those sanctioned camps — which would include parking for trailers, campers, trucks, wherever people are living — I would make certain that everybody has access to toilets, showers, laundry facilities, a community kitchen and food, and we could participate with churches and volunteers in the community, and homelessness advocates. We put an end [to unsanctioned camping], but we have a humane, decent alternative." – Rocky Anderson 
"Mayor Anderson was there to witness and record the raid when he noticed the man was not wearing shoes. He asked him why he was only wearing socks and the man replied he couldn’t wear shoes because of the condition of his feet. Anderson looked at his feet and immediately said, 'Get in my car. I’m taking you to an emergency room now.' "
"With the spirited, committed leadership of Luann Clark, the Citys Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND) has aided thousands of Salt Lake City residents in obtaining proper housing. In the past seven years, HAND has utilized nearly $30 million from a variety of local and federal sources to make available nearly 2000 units of affordable housing and over 350 units of market-rate housing. The projects HAND has completed include a unique project at our Veterans Hospital that provides transitional housing for homeless veterans; the remarkable Bridge Project on the west side, which provides affordable living and office spaces for artists and cultural organizations; the Jefferson Apartments, which provide low-income housing one block from a TRAX line; and Sunrise Apartments, a 100-unit housing development for chronically homeless people." - Rocky Anderson, 2007 State of the City Address
Throughout 2022 and 2023, Rocky has been filming and recording the stories and experiences of people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City. This playlist contains only some of interviews and footage Rocky has filmed. As Rocky continues filming, more interviews and footage will be added to the playlist. There are also videos of Rocky discussing the homeless crisis, solutions, and relating issues. Thank you to all of the people who have shared their experiences, hopes, and heartaches with Rocky as he campaigns for SLC Mayor with the goal of implementing real solutions for homelessness that benefit not only those experiencing it, but that benefit SLC residents, visitors, and businesses alike.
"Anderson added Wednesday that he would stop "cruel" police raids and evictions of homeless people from camps "until there are alternative options for them," instead calling for "secure sanctioned camps" much like Haven for Hope in San Antonio among other reforms."
In this short clip from Utah Stories, host
Richard Markosian and Rocky discuss homelessness and affordable housing and the responsibility of the current mayoral administration for the lack of solutions in Salt Lake City. |
"The opening of the shelter—financed with city, county and state funds—stands in contrast to Atlanta, where in advance of the 1996 Summer Olympics, police arrested 10,000 homeless people. Homeless advocates complained that the tactics were intended to scare the homeless away or cajole them to lay low during the Games. Officials there also offered free one-way bus tickets under a clean-the-streets program euphemistically called, 'Project Homeward Bound.'
Salt Lake City instead is putting out the welcome mat. 'We respect the human and civil rights of everyone, including the homeless, during these Olympics,' said Mayor Rocky Anderson, a former attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. 'We won’t be doing roundups or anything like that. This community is very caring toward the homeless.' " 
"Former Mayor Rocky Anderson vows to open [an approved, sanctioned homeless camp] or more camps with toilets, showers, laundry facilities, food and caseworkers in an attempt to quell street camping."
"What utterly inhumane, wasteful, cruel practices. And this is coming straight from Mayor Mendenhall. The buck not only stops with her: we know that this policy is driven by her. And yet she'll go out in the most hypocritical fashion and talk about how much she loves the homeless." - Rocky Anderson, interview on Utah Stories podcast
" 'In short, there’s an enormous, deadly Catch-22 crack in the system through which mentally ill people freezing to death are falling,' . . . 'It is the responsibility of our elected officials and employees whose jobs entail providing mental health services to mentally ill homeless people to provide a solution to this dilemma,' Anderson wrote."
". . . I'm not looking to have people, especially if they're mentally ill or drug addicted , to face a lot of punishment or retribution, I'm looking for them to be brought into the system and get some help." - Rocky Anderson
"Hale was living out of a tent when a chance encounter with former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson over the summer sparked a shift in her living conditions. Anderson, who is seeking to recapture his seat at City Hall and is campaigning heavily on homelessness issues, introduced Hale to officials from The Point, a low-income housing development at 2333 W. North Temple for seniors and veterans run by Switchpoint, a nonprofit homelessness services organization. Last month, Hale moved into her new place, paying $450 a month with utilities included. It’s a price modest enough to be covered by the Social Security she started collecting last spring when she turned 65."
"Former Mayor Rocky Anderson is calling for a sanctioned campground . . . 'If [the unsheltered homeless] preferred to be in tents then you could get that sanctioned campground, but I also think there are plenty of warehouses, there are plenty of places that we could find, like the courtyard in San Antonio, you could put pads down on the floor. They could have lockers where you can store your property. But right now, what happens: you pitch your tent, you are trying to find a place where you can exist, you have a job, then you get a warning that they are going to raid, they are going to take
your property if you are not there to get your stuff out of there so you can’t go to work.' " - Rocky Anderson |
"[W]e need to commit to get rid of all the encampments spread throughout the community, and, with that, some of the criminal element. But, you don’t do that unless you’ve got alternatives. That’s why we’ve got the situation we have now, those alternatives haven’t been provided. When the road home shelter was closed, it was a disaster in the making. . . [The "resource centers" are] all full, and they ended up with almost four hundred fewer beds among these resource centers that cost so many millions of dollars to build and to operate than were available with 1,100 beds at the Road Home shelters." - Rocky Anderson, City Cast Salt Lake podcast
"Mayor Rocky Anderson addressed the AMSA in a meeting held Thursday afternoon outside the Park Building. 'In Utah about 4,000 people are homeless every night,' Anderson said. 'What you are doing is absolutely inspirational. It’s great to see more and more young people that are stepping up on social issues.' "
" 'This is going to be remembered in history as a real turning point for how we work with those who are chronically homeless,' said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Eighty of Sunrise's 100 apartments have been leased, with the others expected to be filled in May. Residents will begin moving in April 5."
" 'The next person who dies of exposure on the streets of Salt Lake City will be a result of there being no plan, no implementation and no overflow shelter to provide for the safety of the people who are homeless in our city,' Anderson said."
"'We cannot have one more homeless person dying on the streets of Salt Lake City,' Anderson said as he led a protest outside of current Mayor Jackie Biskupski’s office Friday afternoon. 'We have no plan in Salt Lake City for when the shelters are at capacity and people are out in the cold.' "
After a 15-year hiatus, Rocky Anderson said he is running for mayor of Salt Lake City for a third time in November mainly running because of the homeless crisis.
‘We had people on our streets dying of the freezing cold, getting frostbite and having their fingers and their toes amputated — and that is an absolute crisis, and it was ignored,’ Anderson said. . . . ‘And in the process, confiscating their survival gear like tents, sleeping bags, and clothing,’ he said. ‘That is what got me going. Our city — everybody has been negatively impacted: our residents, businesses and members of the homeless community.’ |
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ROCKY’S ADVOCACY FOR RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSESS, AND FOR ADEQUATE SHELTER AND AN END TO CITY RAIDS AND CONFISCATIONS
Follow Rocky on Instagram
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"In the past, under Rocky Anderson, the sidewalk was washed and cleaned one to two times per week by the central business district. Now it is washed and cleaned one to two times per several months."
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"The retrofit fountain will be smart as well as clean, he added, because the filtration system will recirculate the 4,000 gallons of water. Mayor Rocky Anderson's zero-waste initiative demanded that, Graham said."
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"Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson rallied U.S. mayors Thursday to insist on immediate screening of all checked airline baggage—leading to some verbal fireworks with federal officials who say that just isn't possible right now. 'We screen all carry-on luggage, but we don't screen baggage that is checked. That doesn't make any sense,' Anderson said, adding it could allow the smuggling of bombs or hazardous materials on board.' "
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Surrounding himself with vivid paintings and spiced coffee at the Mestizo art gallery, Anderson caught all manner of curve balls during his first "Saturday morning with the mayor" forum since the Games.
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"[Mayor] Anderson told a large group of public officials Thursday that local politicians need to step up with public funding. There are other communities around the nation that are more than willing to pony up if Utah isn't, he said.
Anderson called the meeting of city, county, state and business leaders to present his Fairpark idea, which replaced his earlier plan that would've put the stadium downtown next to the Grand America Hotel." |
"Anderson said: "I'm pursuing MLS in Utah. I am absolutely committed to doing everything we can to put a deal together."
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The mayor [Rocky Anderson]- who last week asserted "everybody's been deceived," by RSL's efforts to recast its $7.5 million pledge for the sports park - expressed regret for Wednesday's tone. He also denied "smearing" Checketts - before taking some more swipes.
'It's great that we're finally at this point where Real is going to live by their word,' he said, adding if he ever deals with Checketts again, 'I'd like to get it in writing. 'I'm not sure [if he'll come through within 30 days]. If it were two or three months ago, I would have said, absolutely.' . . . Despite the detente, Anderson says the episode 'really saddens me.' 'I've always considered Dave Checketts a friend.' " |
Instead of building a bridge over Main Street, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson wants to close a block of the street to traffic.
Closing the block to vehicle traffic "would be a way to unify the development, encourage pedestrian traffic between both halves of it and enhance the other efforts by the developer to make the mall more permeable to pedestrian traffic while still preserving the view corridor and allowing for more sidewalk activity," [Anderson's spokesman, Patrick Thronson]said. |
"Mayor Rocky Anderson offered another compromise on Monday to resolve the fight over protest rights on the Mormon church's Main Street Plaza — a solution the church appeared to embrace.
The city would give up a sidewalk easement on the church-owned plaza — extinguishing free speech rights there — for 2.17 acres of church-owned land on the city's west side. Bishop David Burton said the mayor's idea represents a "workable solution" that he'll take to leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Anderson said the land gained by the city near the Sorenson Center in Glendale would be used for a community center. Developer James Sorenson has pledged $1 million and the Huntsman and Eccles families another $1 million to build it. The settlement would also require the church to and the city to split all costs and attorney fees." |
" 'We commend the mayor, who's here today, for all that he's done to bring about a resolution to that very difficult and serious problem,' President Hinckley said during a speech at a 10th anniversary celebration for the Joseph Smith Memorial Building."
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"Leadership is about more than choosing sides or stubbornly advocating for a position. Leadership must bring different sides together— and find solutions. With greater understanding of the facts leading to this dispute—and to the solutions I have proposed—this community can now come together in greater peace and harmony, more respectful of our diversity and of each other." - Rocky Anderson
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"Focusing on constructive problem-solving, rather than being solely concerned with enforcement and punishment, we established Crisis Intervention Teams, to ensure mentally ill people receive appropriate care and attention. Our view is that if the conduct is a result of a mental health problem, we should be focused primarily on resolving the mental health problem, not on punishment and retribution. . . " - Rocky Anderson
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"Mayor Anderson, who blames the malls for destroying a once-thriving downtown, said the church should have worked with urban planners and designers to create a blueprint for a genuinely urban streetscape that would evolve organically. Making the city walkable is particularly challenging here, the mayor notes, because each city block occupies a daunting 10 acres. 'We just need to learn from the mistakes of the past,' said the mayor, a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah. 'There's nothing I've read in any of the literature about downtowns or urban revitalization that says new enclosed malls are the answer.'"
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" 'I'm trying to solve the problem on a local and national level,' Anderson said. . .referring to the letter sent to some 50 other mayors and to his office's effort to direct contributions to Centro Civico Mexicano for airport workers' families. 'We're putting together packages of food and toys for five of these families,' he added."
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President Bush and some members of Congress want nuclear waste stored at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, which they say could divert the waste away from the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in Tooele County. Reps. Jim Hansen and Chris Cannon, both Utah Republicans, voted to establish Yucca as a permanent site, saying it could save Utah from the dangers associated with radiation.
The Salt Lake mayor, in his signature style mixing passion and documentation, warned otherwise. 'If the Yucca Mountain proposal were approved, huge amounts of nuclear waste would be transported through Salt Lake City every day for many years,' Anderson said in his Senate testimony. 'Salt Lake City will, by all estimations, see more traffic of nuclear waste than any other U.S. city except Las Vegas.' " |
"Almost four months ago, Anderson signed three executive orders: One restricts city workers’ acceptance of gifts. Another encourages managers to consider diversity when hiring. And a third is meant to protect gay city employees from discrimination.
His unilateral action outraged council members. Councilman David Buhler penned an angry letter to Anderson and persuaded his colleagues to ask [City Attorney Roger Cutler] for an opinion defining city government roles." |
"In preparing his veto, Anderson had city attorneys examine state laws that govern redevelopment agencies across Utah. Attorneys discovered that Salt Lake City's bylaws, which give Anderson the ability to veto, ran contrary to state statues governing redevelopment agencies. 'I was prepared to veto the board's action,' Anderson wrote last week to RDA chairman Van Turner. 'However, a review of state statutes has revealed that those who drafted the original bylaws went further in their effort to ensure a system of checks and balances than permitted by state law. State law . . . does not grant a veto power to the chief administrative officer.'"
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"'George [Shaw] is very committed to smart growth," Anderson said. 'We both see this as a great opportunity to pursue progressive urban-planning principles because we both think very much alike.' Shaw said Wednesday he does share the mayor's philosophy that limits sprawl and emphasizes alternative transportation and sustainable development. And he said he already has implemented such designs where he could."
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" 'Imagine being able to relax while someone else drives you to work,' Anderson began. 'Imagine being able to go outside and exercise without worrying about polluted air. Imagine being able to see the mountains year-round.'
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"'There are direct adverse impacts of this on Salt Lake City as a result of Legacy Highway with increased cars and increased pollution.' Anderson said Legacy proponents are engaging in a reckless plan that compromises precious wetlands and ignores the sensibilities of mass transit."
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"Environmental groups and Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson have long denounced the road. They argue that it would not only destroy wetlands, but would perpetuate sprawl and further degrade the Front's already murky air."
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING
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Rocky Anderson has innovative, evidence-based solutions to provide truly affordable housing to all income levels, including those who require deeply affordable housing in Salt Lake City.
“We know that it can be done. This sense of ‘oh it’s awful’ it’s happening all over the country, it’s absolutely not true, there are cities that are solving these problems that are making great strides in providing adequate housing. We can, and if I’m Mayor, we will provide adequate housing for all who are vulnerable in our community.” –Rocky Anderson 
AS MAYOR, ROCKY GAVE PREFERENCE TO CITY CONTRACTORS WHO PAID A LIVING WAGE. UTAH LEGISLATURE THEN PROHIBITED SUCH A PREFERENCE.
". . . Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson proposed a living-wage ordinance — one that would allow the city to give preference to contractors when they paid above the minimum wage. The Legislature shot down that proposal, arguing that various minimum wages in different communities and living-wage policies would harm businesses."
"In the past seven years, HAND has utilized nearly $30 million from a variety of local and federal sources to make available nearly 2000 units of affordable housing and over 350 units of market-rate housing. The projects HAND [SLC Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development] has completed include. . . transitional housing for homeless veterans. . .the Jefferson Apartments, which provide low-income housing . . . and Sunrise Apartments, a 100-unit housing development for chronically homeless people. . . In recognition of her years of brilliant, dedicated service and successes [in providing affordable housing], [SLC's Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development] LuAnn Clark received the Local Government Service Award from NeighborWorks America." - Rocky Anderson, 2007 State of the City Address
"[H]ousing advocates are joining the mayor's office in criticizing how the [Council's] policy addresses affordable housing in Salt Lake City. . . . Anderson's office maintains the plan could be detrimental to affordable housing projects in Salt Lake City. The city only receives about 10 applications for housing loans each year. Because the number is so low, Anderson's office thinks each request should be weighed on its individual merits and not precluded because it is in a certain census tract."
“We’re just going to have to tell developers ‘you can not come into our community and destroy affordable housing displacing people without providing adequate replacement.’ And I would say what’s adequate is providing more than what’s being destroyed—according to some formula that we can develop. But we’ve always got to be making progress, we’ve always got to be taking advantage of any opportunities to provide greater affordability in terms of housing in Salt Lake City.”
" 'We used to have rail lines running through here,' Mayor Anderson said, 'and it served as an effective barrier between the east and west sides of our city. This is now stunning open space.' The park is a beautiful amenity for this revitalized area and is adjacent to The Gateway apartment and commercial complex. The 392 Gateway apartments were home to members of the news media who covered the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, but today are an important new affordable housing resource for Salt Lake City."
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"The mayor and city council have a solemn duty to be responsible stewards of our neighborhoods and to achieve, through careful, innovative planning and execution: (1) sufficient mixed-income affordable — including “deeply affordable” — housing, with abundant open spaces, as is achieved in many nations around the world with nonmarket housing; (2) a standard of design excellence for a built environment we can all enjoy and of which we can all be proud; and (3) the preservation of the character of our diverse neighborhoods in all areas of our city."
"At the press event, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson spoke about the need for affordable housing, and HUD State Coordinator Julie Fagan highlighted the positive impact that the voucher program would have on the community."
" 'This is going to be remembered in history as a real turning point for how we work with those who are chronically homeless,' said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson."
"[H]ousing authority officials were joined last week by Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson and Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon at a press conference announcing the multi-agency plan to save housing for the 90 families [from being evicted from their homes in the face of federal cutbacks to Section 8 housing]."
"[T]hrough our housing rehabilitation program, the outstanding staff in Housing and Neighborhood Development, led so ably by LuAnn Clark, completed the renovation of 155 homes throughout the city, improving their energy efficiency and water conservation, as well as the neighborhoods in which they are located."
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"We need to get away from this neoliberal, market-based approach [to affordable housing]. It’s really corporate socialism, where we keep dumping millions of dollars into the pockets of developers in trade for a few units of affordable housing. The solution in most of the rest of the world is nonmarket housing. The city ought to be using its resources, its borrowing power to build mixed-income housing where people of all different income levels can live together, and then they pay according to their ability to pay. It’s absolutely time we do this." — Rocky Anderson
'Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes." - Calvin Jolley, Salt Lake Tribune
". . . Mayor Rocky Anderson drove a backhoe during the groundbreaking ceremony for Library Square Condominiums, an affordable housing complex with 29 units, of which six are designated for low-income buyers. . . 'I do think that there has been a downward trend in terms of the affordable housing from the ’70s up until recently,' Anderson says. '[But] we’ve been focusing very aggressively on adding components of affordable housing in just about everything we support, or in every project in which we participate.' "
"Thanks to the faith of Mayor Rocky Anderson and the City Council, the dream for upgrading the neighborhood along the light rail line is being realized."
"When Mayor Rocky Anderson stood up Friday and paid for his lunch with a speech, suggesting, 'This is going to be viewed in history as a turning point for the homeless,' Nuel Harris felt the mayor was speaking specifically about him."
"Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson's recommendations for giving city money to nonprofit groups that provide services such as low-income housing and after-school programs have left some grumbling and others cheering."
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Salt Lake City streets are riddled with more potholes today than when oxen hauled wagons around town in the late 1800s. Native sights at Liberty Park include junkies who milk needles at Rice Pavilion. Further into the park’s interior, blue smoke billows from a stone fireplace. Originally intended for family picnics, the hearth is now regularly covered by tarps to trap warmth for neighboring tents.
Downtown sidewalks slant asymmetrically toward curbs that crumble into streets that collapse into themselves.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall sanctions raids of the unsheltered in the name of sanitation — as if tactics of abatement resolve filth or homelessness. Tents appear, disappear and reappear as far east as Trolley Square. (I’m old enough to remember when the only sleeping bags to speak of on our streets unrolled on the parade route the night before the Days of ‘47 Parade.)
The City Council drones on about “affordable housing,” but their solutions are soberingly few. Property taxes continue to skyrocket. Landlords raise rents accordingly.
I purchased my first home in Central City in 2001. Today, I’m in my fourth downtown residence — immediately next door to my second and only a few blocks from my first and third.
I love Salt Lake City: our broad streets and attractive foothills, refugee community and growing diversity, local arts and literature, street fairs, farmer markets, the University of Utah and our mature underground music scene.
I stand in awe of the Wasatch, the Oquirrh, and what remains of the Great Salt Lake. Our wondrously beautiful state deserves a clean and thriving and progressive capitol — one that sets standards for other cities to follow instead of offering substandard living. There is so much to preserve here, so much to fix and build upon, so much that Mendenhall has proven she can’t get done.
In May of 2007, I saw then-Mayor Rocky Anderson debate Sean Hannity at Kingsbury Hall. I say “debate” because of Rocky’s fact-based, well-studied responses to each of Hannity’s bombastic claims and ridiculous arguments. Salt Lake needs a mayor with compassion and intelligence and grit, someone who embraces dialogue and transparency. We deserve a leader who champions those who lack privilege. We require a mayor capable of addressing tough issues before the problems of our city outgrow anyone’s ability to fix them.
I recall participating on a Zoom City Council meeting in 2021. I’d spent an afternoon measuring the depth of curb tops to gutter around my Central City/Liberty Wells neighborhood to raise awareness about a real infrastructure problem. The council’s reaction to my report: humorless, self-certain, drab, unresponsive.
“What a waste of time,” I thought afterward, believing still that civic engagement should represent time well-spent.
I voted for Mendenhall based upon a hope that she’d pull us from the wreckage her predecessor, Jackie Biskupski, left behind. Now, thanks to Rocky Anderson’s re-election bid, we can vote for more than hope.
Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes.
Sounds like I’m stumping for him, but I’ve never met the man. What do I know about Rocky? His work, his success, his vision. If I’m stumping, and no doubt I am, it’s for the future of our great city.
By Calvin Jolley | Special to The Tribune
Downtown sidewalks slant asymmetrically toward curbs that crumble into streets that collapse into themselves.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall sanctions raids of the unsheltered in the name of sanitation — as if tactics of abatement resolve filth or homelessness. Tents appear, disappear and reappear as far east as Trolley Square. (I’m old enough to remember when the only sleeping bags to speak of on our streets unrolled on the parade route the night before the Days of ‘47 Parade.)
The City Council drones on about “affordable housing,” but their solutions are soberingly few. Property taxes continue to skyrocket. Landlords raise rents accordingly.
I purchased my first home in Central City in 2001. Today, I’m in my fourth downtown residence — immediately next door to my second and only a few blocks from my first and third.
I love Salt Lake City: our broad streets and attractive foothills, refugee community and growing diversity, local arts and literature, street fairs, farmer markets, the University of Utah and our mature underground music scene.
I stand in awe of the Wasatch, the Oquirrh, and what remains of the Great Salt Lake. Our wondrously beautiful state deserves a clean and thriving and progressive capitol — one that sets standards for other cities to follow instead of offering substandard living. There is so much to preserve here, so much to fix and build upon, so much that Mendenhall has proven she can’t get done.
In May of 2007, I saw then-Mayor Rocky Anderson debate Sean Hannity at Kingsbury Hall. I say “debate” because of Rocky’s fact-based, well-studied responses to each of Hannity’s bombastic claims and ridiculous arguments. Salt Lake needs a mayor with compassion and intelligence and grit, someone who embraces dialogue and transparency. We deserve a leader who champions those who lack privilege. We require a mayor capable of addressing tough issues before the problems of our city outgrow anyone’s ability to fix them.
I recall participating on a Zoom City Council meeting in 2021. I’d spent an afternoon measuring the depth of curb tops to gutter around my Central City/Liberty Wells neighborhood to raise awareness about a real infrastructure problem. The council’s reaction to my report: humorless, self-certain, drab, unresponsive.
“What a waste of time,” I thought afterward, believing still that civic engagement should represent time well-spent.
I voted for Mendenhall based upon a hope that she’d pull us from the wreckage her predecessor, Jackie Biskupski, left behind. Now, thanks to Rocky Anderson’s re-election bid, we can vote for more than hope.
Rocky has a plan to cap property taxes, increase green space and green energy and generate truly affordable housing. He has alternatives to raids on the homeless. He’s more a political activist than politician, more a humanitarian than bureaucrat, and more a problem solver than grandstander. Maybe he’ll even figure a way to re-curb our walkways and fill all those holes.
Sounds like I’m stumping for him, but I’ve never met the man. What do I know about Rocky? His work, his success, his vision. If I’m stumping, and no doubt I am, it’s for the future of our great city.
By Calvin Jolley | Special to The Tribune
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yes-i want to help elect rocky for mayor!
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