A couple of weeks ago I watched the entire Salt Lake City Council public hearing on the Parley's Way Walmart rezoning proposal--live, on SLC-TV. It lasted three hours. Many of our neighbors showed up at City Hall that night to voice their opinions, including Terry Lynn Baucom (she was fabulous), Mary Mabey (also wonderful), Jan Haug, Peter Barth, and many others.
Given that so many of our neighbors participated, I thought you might want to scan through the video of the hearing, which aired again last night. The video is here; click on "August 23 City Council meeting." Terry is near the beginning, Jan is near the end, and Mary is the last speaker. (Mary said, "This will be the first time in my life I've had the last word.")
I was so impressed with our neighbors' throughtful comments that I wrote an op-ed about the hearing for the Salt Lake Tribune. It will be published in Sunday's paper, but it's online now. You can read it here. It already has been commented on by readers--some nice, others nasty, and when it's published tomorrow I am sure to be be excoriated by Walmart supporters.
I can totally see why people in the surrounding neighborhoods would be adamantly opposed to the rezoning Walmart has requested, but I can't figure out what would prompt someone to show up at City Hall to support Walmart--unless they work there and were paid to show up. Walmart supporters were wearing blue t-shirts that said "Yes to Walmart Rezone" and Walmart was handing out sandwhiches before the hearing, so maybe that had something to do with the limited support they received.
This issue has been extremely contentious, but I'm pretty sure my position is the right one.
As you might imagine, there was quite a bit of anti-Walmart sentiment at the hearing, so just for fun, I thought I would post a video Bob sent me this morning about "Wal-Martians." This is what we have to look forward to.
But in other news, my semester is off to a great start--fun classes, terrific students. Gus is doing well, Janie is healthy, Bob and I are busy, the Lindy/Chris and Jody/Logan babies are hatching nicely, and my courage paper is moving forward. Life is grand!
WOW! Way to go with an op-ed! I agree that an empty K-mart isn't improving anything, but boy do I hate WalMart and would hate to see it be there. I didn't watch the hearing- did they decide yet? When will they decide? Oi.
ReplyDeleteJody--the City Council has a vote for the rezone scheduled for Sept 6. It's likely Walmart will go in (with a remodel, rather than a new building) even if the rezoning request is not approved, but at least Walmart won't be given free reign to do whatever they want with the property. And, denying the rezone will reduce the liklihood that a Walmart store will live on the property for another 50 years. Based on what I've read and heard, I believe the City Council will not approve the rezoning request. So for now, we wait.
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