Category Archives: Uncategorized

Pedal in the City: Summer Biking – Salt Lake City Trails Network

Salt Lake is quickly becoming accessible for hikers, walkers and bicyclists with its evolving trail system.  Recreationalists can now connect to all areas of the city without having to navigate highways and roads in many spots.pedalcity

Salt Lake City’s Trail system is part of an overall picture of Utah’s bicycling trail network. The Deseret News, in a June 2nd article entitled Utah is home to longest continuous trail network west of the Mississippi, about the Golden Spoke Bike Trail from Ogden to Provo, addresses the interconnection of trails that includes Salt Lake City.

‘With the conjunction of six trail systems, the Golden Spoke Trail becomes the longest continuous, multi-use urban trail network west of the Mississippi River.With the conjunction of six trail systems, the Golden Spoke Trail becomes the longest continuous, multi-use urban trail network west of the Mississippi River. “You can get on and off the trail wherever and each community along the way ties into it, providing an opportunity for citizens to be engaged and connected to each other and to activities in other cities,” [Commissioner Bret] Millburn said.’

Read the entire article here:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900020388/utah-is-home-to-longest-continuous-trail-network-west-of-the-mississippi.html

Salt Lake City has provided information to its urban trails by degrees of difficulty and access, from easy to moderate to challenging.

Visit the city website on the trail system here: http://www.slcgov.com/parks-public-lands/salt-lake-city-trails-network

Summer biking is here!  Take advantage of all the wonderful opportunities to see the city.

 

Dirt2Table: Celebrate Spring!

dirt2tableThe preparations for the 2018 Fairpark Community Celebration of Spring and Plant Sale are underway, scheduled for May 5, 2018 at the Northwest Community Center.

We are starting some varieties of peppers and tomatoes that we didn’t start last year, so keep your eyes open for our Catalog, which should be on the website by around March 15th. This year the big event will be on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), so mark your calendars!

This has been the mildest winter out of the last five winters at least, maybe longer. Die back on unprotected fig trees didn’t happen in Salt Lake valley this year. Speaking of Figs, at this year’s plant sale we are going to have three varieties available as rooted starts to plant here in our community. Also new to the plant sale will be some heirloom varieties of apple and pear trees as well as Aronia berry plants. It seemed like it was about time to start offering some perennial food producers in our community event. We will also have more varieties of FREE seeds for things like lettuce, spinach, beans, cucumbers, squashes and more. We provide the free seeds only on the day of the event, and not with pre-orders.

We are looking for some help with putting on workshops and answering questions for beginner gardeners, so if you are an experienced gardener or know someone that is, we would sure appreciate your help on the day of the event to help answer people’s questions.

There will be a lot of opportunities to volunteer to help with growing over 4,000 starter plants this year, so please reach out if you are interested. Write to dirt2tableslc@gmail.com or call 801-502-1991 to find out why and when volunteers are needed.

Education Corner: Tracking Education Bills

edcornerThe 63rd Session of the Utah Legislature is well under way.  There are many bills under consideration regarding Education.

The Utah State Board of Education (USBE) has a bill tracker on it’s website, which can be directly accessed at:

https://schools.utah.gov/file/97bec1b3-f073-4f1b-bc8e-0f19d7e6e690

While there are many pieces of legislation under review covering an array of topics, we would like to highlight bills that address student mental health issues.  

According to the Utah Department of Health, suicide rates among youth age 10-17 have soared, “growing at an average annual rate of almost four times faster than the rest of the nation”. This is a serious health concern among Utah’s children. Providing programs in schools to address mental health issues is one way of addressing this issue.

House Bill 264, Elementary School Counselor Program, authorizes the State Board of Education (board) to award grants to local

Education agencies to provide targeted school-based mental health supports in elementary schools; authorizes the board to make rules for grant applications and awards; and requires a local education agency that receives a grant to submit an annual report to the board.

Read the bill here (amended January 29th): https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/hbillamd/HB0264.pdf

House Bill 308 requires the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health to create a Telehealth mental health pilot project grant program for LEAs. The bill aims to provide increased access to students in underserved areas around the state, where it is often difficult to access services.  The bill can be viewed here:  https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/hbillint/HB0308.pdf

If you want to stay up to date on Utah Legislative activity regarding education, The USBE has an entire page dedicated to the 2018 Utah Legislative session which can be viewed at https://schools.utah.gov/policy/legislativesession.

 

Gateway Inn

As many of you know, the Gateway Inn on 819 W. North Temple has become a center of criminal activity in our neighborhood. An article in the West View community newspaper last Fall pointed out there is a strong disparity in the number of police calls coming from the Gateway Inn and its neighbors at the All Star and Econolodge. In the first 10 months of 2017, 750 calls were made regarding the Gateway compared to 250 at the Econolodge and 150 at the All Star.

Many serious crimes were reported at the Gateway including a murder last August. There have been multiple violent episodes there like 10 large fights, many drug calls and numerous calls involving guns or knives. Another murder happened in November.

The Fairpark Community Council is deeply concerned about the criminal activity taking place at the Gateway Inn. In speaking with police and community leaders, we have found the following to be true.

  1. People loitering outside the facility act as lookouts for the criminal activity taking place inside. They also deal drugs and facilitate prostitution.
  1. Police have complained Gateway employees tip off residents when SLCPD responds to that location.
  1. The current status of the Gateway Inn is an impediment to growth and improvement in our area.
  1. Police, the Mayor and our City Council are aware of the problems.
  1. At our January meeting, Detective Oliver shared a recent sweep arrested 45 people. All but two were released within 24 hours. The Health Department also went in and closed 14 rooms. All but two were reopened within a day. The owner went to the City and offered to sell the property for $8 million. This is a $1.5 million increase from the last time he offered. It’s a $6.5 million increase from two years ago.
  1. A study by West Side Studio last year suggested a city ordinance that limited stays in such establishments to no more than 30 days could help alleviate the problem. Given the hugely disproportionate amount of police calls to the Gateway Inn, it has been suggested their management help pay for police costs and additional security. Detective Oliver recommends any security hired by the Gateway be SLCPD. A City ordinance would need to be enacted for this to happen.
  1. What can residents do?

    Report every criminal incident in the area no matter how minor. Use the SLC app      or call the non-emergency number 801-799-3000.

    Ask the City Council and the Mayor for the suggested ordinances in paragraph 6.

    Ask the City Council and Mayor for increased police patrols in the area.

  1. The Community Council has spoken directly with the Mayor, our Council representatives, House Speaker Hughes, SLCPD, UHP Commissioner Squires and management of the Pioneer Park Coalition about this problem. Scott Howell from PPC spoke at our December meeting and Commissioner Squires will speak at our February meeting. Police action is taking place but the justice system moves slowly and everyone gets the due process of law.

The Gateway Inn is the largest source of criminal activity in our neighborhood. Drugs are being made and sold, women are being exploited and people are dying. It’s far past time to make a stand for our Fairpark neighborhood.