Category Archives: Fairpark Community

Dr. Jana Edward Tells us All About Jackson Elementary

It’s back to school season again and for this month’s West Side Spotlight, we met with Dr. Jana Edward, Principal of Jackson Elementary. This K-6 school is located in the north east quadrant of Fairpark is home to over 500 students as well as 35 teachers and administrators. Dr. Edward has been with the school for seven years, and has her Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah. As an administrator, she has always worked in bilingual education and she said she loves leading a dual emersion school that her child also went to Jackson. She said, “I love the community! They have been so involved and supportive of Jackson. Just look at our Community Garden! It happened in a weekend and we feel the support from the community!”

One unique aspect of Jackson as a west side school is their veteran staff. “The majority of teachers have been here for over 5 years, with several spanning their entire careers,” she said proudly. Jackson also has a preschool and an thriving Dual Emersion program where two thirds of the K-5 students are taught in both English and Spanish. Only three schools offer Dual Emersion programs in Salt Lake.
Edward is very proud that Jackson was the recipient of an “Apple Connected Grant” which equipped the school with iPads, MacBook Airs, Apple TVs and projectors. “We are the only one to one Apple supported elementary school in the district. We have professional development support from Apple and an entire program,” she said. The students are in an immersive technological environment where they are able to produce learning themselves while sitting in class, using iBooks creator, or KeyNote to make presentations for discussion. “Watching 2^nd graders using iPads to create presentations is pretty cool. We also use them for math fluency.” The school is also home to the Beverly Taylor Sorenson program where 3^rd through 6^th graders learn to play the violin. The after school program called the Gracenotes keeps students busy for up to 12 hours a week learning to play the violin and how to compose music.

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Town Hall Meeting June 30th on Proposed Fairpark Arena

There will be a town hall meeting on Thursday, June 30th in the Grand Building at 7pm (155N 1000W) to share information and answer questions about the 10,000 seat arena proposed to be built on the current site of the rodeo grandstand on the Utah State Fairgrounds. The proposal for the arena includes funding from the State Legislature, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, LDS Church and private funding sources. The Arena will house the Days of ’47 Rodeo, and will be able to hold other events throughout the year. “It’s a jewel. As a community, we have always recognized the importance and historical value of the Fairgrounds, not only for our community, for my community, for the state. This is going to help the state Fairpark to be self-sustaining to be able to keep the fair in Salt Lake City and on the west side,” Representative Hollins said. “This is an investment toward economic success and stability. After 20 years of studying, adjusting, and budget tightening it is time to allow the Fairpark to be a revenue generator we all know it can and will be.”

This is a potential game changer for the Fairpark, with potential to create revenue streams to make the fairgrounds sustainable going forward. The Fairpark Community Council supports the proposed arena and we hope you will join us at the town hall meeting to get more information, and find out how we can support this initiative. State Senator Luz Escamilla, Representative Sandra Hollins, Representative Brad Wilson, and State Fairpark Executive Director Larry Mullenax will be in attendance.

Fairpark Celebrates LGBT Pride Month in June

In Fairpark, we value diversity and appreciate cultures from all corners of the Earth. This is a neighborhood rich with a history of welcoming new residents from different backgrounds for generations. This month, we will be focusing on the LGBT Pride Month of June and we had the opportunity to sit down with one of our local west side celebrities, artist and drag performer, Miss Gia Bianca Stephens. Let’s get started neighbors!

LGBT Pride Month History

Did you know that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan? The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In major cities across the nation the “day” soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBT Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS. The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally. Utah Pride Day which was celebrated earlier this month drove record numbers to the Pride parade, the 2nd largest parade in the state only outdone by the Days of ’47 Parade. Utah is also the number one state for gay parents raising children.

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.” Maya Angelou

Gia Bianca Stephens – Rocky Mountain National Showgirl, Local Performing Artist

She’s even more beautiful in real life than she is in pictures. Tall, statuesque and stunning, Gia Bianca Stephens has been performing for years and could possibly be Fairpark’s most glamourous resident. Lately though, she’s been taking her talents to the national level.

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Stellar Success for 1st Annual Plant Sale!

Be proud Fairpark Community residents! The 1st Annual Fairpark Community Plant Sale was a big success. We achieved our aim of sending over 4000 healthy vegetable plants home to happy gardens both within our neighborhood and beyond.

After growing and selling the 28 varieties of Heirloom tomatoes, 16 kinds of Peppers, 3 Eggplant, and herbs we recovered the costs for growing the plants and we were also able to give away hundreds of packages of FREE Seeds, as well as pots, soil and seeds for the younger ones to take home and watch grow. Everyone had a really fun time, especially those that spent the whole day volunteering for the big event. From the end of February until May 14 over 400 volunteer hours into the growing and operating the event.

This event would not have been so wonderful without the dedicated hard work of volunteers. No amount of gratitude is sufficient to express how thankful we all are that these volunteers were able to give so much of their time.

We also couldn’t have done it without a few other pieces of unusually good luck. Two of these lucky breaks stand out. First to happen was getting the majority of the Greenhouse building materials donated. But by far the most important lucky break was being allowed to put the Greenhouse right at the wonderful Vegan Vietnamese restaurant, All Chay. We can’t heap enough praise on the kind and generous owners of that restaurant. Not only did they allow us to assemble the Greenhouse right against their front window, but they provided many hours of volunteer help with the project, from its assembly, to tending the plants and making sure the windows were always clean for the plants and for patrons to view the plants from the outside.

Fairpark also got some media coverage out of this project: KRCL, KUER and Salt Lake City Television.

For you patrons that supported our community by getting plants and planting them in our garden, please send photos of your garden and/or any gardening activities to dirt2table@gmail.com or text to 801-403-0121. Please add your general location (e.g., Fairpark) and your first name and any comment you’d like to add. We want to see your gardens and post them to our social media!

We are already planning for next year. Stay tuned for a re-branding and details about the 2017 event.

Garden on!

Get your Garden on with Fairpark Community’s First Annual Plant Sale!

Got Garden?

We have just what you need to fill it up!

After months of hard work by volunteers, the Fairpark Community Council’s First Annual Plant Sale is almost here! Almost 4,000 veggies and herb plants are being cared for by dedicated volunteers. The seedlings are growing like wild and will be sure to enhance any garden in our neighborhood with culinary delights.

Read more here (https://fairparkcommunity.org/?p=814) about how to pre-order your plants and pick them up as early as the end of April, and view full catalogs of the availalbe varieties of vegetables and herbs, as well as a full color listing of the vegetable seeds that will be given away at the May 14 event.

How did this all start?

The FCC Board decided to take advantage of the Salt Lake City annual Signature Event Fund application in fall of 2015. The FCC Board decided that a fun event would be a plant sale and education event. The scope of events that happened after that was amazing!

A donation of a structure that looks very much like a bus shelter was timely. Volunteers dismantled the structure over a weekend in late February and the following weekend rebuilt it at All Chay restaurant (1264 W 500 N), the proprietors of which graciously donated space for the project. The next 6 weeks were busy with fine tuning the structure with materials to make it a functioning greenhouse, planting seeds, separating seedlings, watering the plants and generating interest in our community for the project. Tom King, project lead, appeared on KRCL Radio’s Punk Rock Farmer show on April 15 to discuss and promote the project.

The next few weeks will be spent continuing the care of the plants, advertising and promoting the event, taking pre-orders with the culminating plant sale event at Northwest Community Center, Saturday, May 14 at 10am.

As a special incentive to get people to attend the May 14 event, we will be offering free seeds for lettuce, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and more! There will fun be activities for kids of all ages.

View the full color listing of the vegetable seeds that will be given away here.

Left over plants from the May 14 event will be taken to the Get Into the River Festival from 5-7pm, at the Fairpark Amphitheater, 155 North 1000 West.

We are very excited about this community building/enhancing project. We hope residents will become more interested in growing their own food, sharing their stories about gardening, sharing samples of their edibles, and develop sustainable habits that will improve health and lifestyles for years to come.

Garden on dude!

Zoning Terms Primer

There is a lot of discussion about zoning, but what does it all mean?

Housing terms are often referred to in our discussions and presentations about housing: Affordable housing, Subsidized housing and Market rate housing. Here you can learn about things such as what “cost burdened” means, the percentage of Salt Lake residents who are cost burdened, how vouchers work, and what market value is.

Affordable housing: Families who pay more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing are considered cost burdened and may have difficulty affording necessities such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care. An estimated 12 million renter and homeowner households now pay more than 50 percent of their annual incomes for housing. A family with one full-time worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford local fair-market rent for a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the US. In Salt Lake City, 50% of our renters are cost burdened and 25% of our renters are severely cost burdened (meaning they pay more than 50% of their income on rent).

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West Side Spotlight: State Representative Sandra Hollins

Representative Sandra Hollins, D-District 23

Fairpark Gazette: Thank you so much for sitting down to visit with The Gazette! What would you like to tell the residents of Fairpark?

Rep. Sandra Hollins: First, thank you for having me! Well, let’s start by talking about voting. I just want west side residents to know that this is a very important election and I want them to come out and vote because their vote equates to their voice. I saw it in the mayor’s election and I want to make sure they show up for this election as well. I was so proud during our caucus night. I was very proud to see the lines and the amount of people who came out for caucus night, and so I want make sure those same people come out to vote. I want to make sure that those who aren’t registered to vote get registered and that their voices are heard. We could really turn this state people! There are so many democrats and if you count all the democrats who think their voices don’t matter, and they get together, you find it DOES matter. When I’m out campaigning, I hear of so many people who say, “I don’t vote because I don’t think it will make a difference, and it does make a difference. It makes a HUGE difference!” One of my concerns is the number of young people who have no interest in voting, but I noticed in the last caucus night the number of young people who are excited about this presidential race and who are out and interested in politics, which gets me very excited about politics. I met a number of young people who have never voted before who said this was their first time participating in the political process. I met a young man who was a refugee and he got his citizenship last year. That this was his first time to vote. And not only did he register to vote, but he became a delegate! He came and sat by me and we talked and talked. He had a lot questions about the process and what needs to be done, and who’s running… He was just so curious. He just jumped in with both feet! I loved that.

FG: We just made it through the legislative session. We didn’t have a lot of wins, but one of the things we were happy about was the Fairpark Bill coming out.

Visit Representative Hollins Legislative website here.

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Start Your Garden Catalog!

The long awaited Dirt2Table Start Your Garden Plant Sale Catalog is finally here! View the catalog and follow instructions for accessing the pre-order form.

Plants are $1 each, or $5 for a six pack or $25 for 6-six packs. Mix and match is ok!
(all proceeds will be used to enhance the next Annual Fairpark Community Plant Sale).
Fill out your pre-order form and submit it via any of these methods:

at the All Chay Restaurant, 1264 West 500 North
Scan and email to
dirt2tableslc@gmail.com
Text photo of order form to
8015021991

Order pick ups will be arranged using the contact info you provide on the order form. We anticipate starting to have orders picked up on May 6 th or 7th
in advance of the May 14 th event in the park.

For status on your order you can call Tom at 801-502-1991.

*** Attention! Quantities are limited! All orders will be filled on a first come first serve basis. Please get your order form to one of our partners as soon as possible to try to ensure your order can be complete. Payment will be at time of pickup, in case substitutions or subtractions apply***

To view the full catalog, click garden catalog.

To print an order form, click plant order form.

To print a flyer, click flyer.

New! (April 19, 2016): Seed Giveaway Listing for anyone who attends the event on May 14 – even if you have pre-ordered and picked up your order! Click here for the listing.

Click the thumbnail images below to view one catalog page at a time.

Pages 1 and 2

Pages 3 and 4

Seed Giveaway Listing image

Vote for your favorite Fairpark Community Logo!

April 5, 2016: Voting is now closed.

(Click “read post” and then scroll down to view the images)

Dirt2Table: A Great time of year!

Don’t you love it this time of year? I certainly do. Everything from the buds swelling on the fruit trees, dandelions blooming, willows and others flowering, to the birds getting more active, it sure feels like spring.

I just hope that a late frost doesn’t get some of our fruit trees this year. As you may know if you read these columns, the Fairpark Community Council is hosting it’s First Annual Get your garden STARTED Plant Sale. We are starting dozens of varieties of peppers and tomatoes. Lots of heirlooms as well as several varieties of Basil. In fact, as of March 7th some of the Lettuce Leaf basil is already up from seeds planted 8 days ago.

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