Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Rileybo

If immediate drastic action is not taken, Salt Lake won’t just be less desirable to live in, it will be uninhabitable. Arguably it’s already too late to do anything. I don’t think we’ll be seeing anything taller than Astra here, unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Rileybo

If this wasn’t just an urban development forum and people didn’t get their panties in a bunch anytime Utah’s culture is criticized, I could discuss for hours about the bias against SLC and how both the city and state are in a constant state of one step forward two steps back.

You’re right about there being no pride in the city from residents. No one here seems satisfied ever. And that really does include everyone .

Edit: Over-the-top hair on fire and the sky is falling is not necessary on this forum. Who's really getting their panties in a bunch here? How many nationally celebrated think tank lists every year places the Wasatch Front at the top tier of their best in the U.S. short lists? Not just the Wasatch Front, But what other city proper in the United States with a population of around 200,000 is consistently building under all facets of construction to the tune of tens of billions of dollars? Problems will be worked out and Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front will continue to surpass even many of the most positive prognosticators.

[Rileybo]

Originally Posted by delts145

Edit: Over-the-top and the sky is falling is not necessary on this forum. Who's really getting their panties in a bunch here? How many nationally celebrated think tank lists every year places the Wasatch Front at the top tier of their best in the U.S. short lists? Not just the Wasatch Front, But what other city proper in the United States with a population of around 200,000 is consistently under all facets of construction to the tune of tens of billions of dollars? Problems will be worked out and Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front will continue to pass up the many of the best prognosticators.

Lol this is what I was referring to.

Also to add:

You may say I’m a doomer.. but I’m not the only one

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Rileybo

Lol this is what I was referring to.

Also to add:

You may say I’m a doomer.. but I’m not the only one

Right on, you know me so well and are so perceptive, LOL. I've spent most of my life in the heart of the entertainment industry and Hollywood, yet somehow I'm a part of your perceptions of the Utah culture.

Also to add: Judging from your consistent specific to Utah posts on this forum over the past couple of years, IMO it would be an undersell to call you simply a doomer. You're simply a part of that certain segment of society that exists in England, Italy, New York, L.A., and everywhere I've experienced living for extended periods of time. That's fine, you be you. Just try to be a little more balanced if you're going to bring it to this forum.

[TheGeographer]

Originally Posted by delts145

Edit: Over-the-top hair on fire and the sky is falling is not necessary on this forum. Who's really getting their panties in a bunch here? How many nationally celebrated think tank lists every year places the Wasatch Front at the top tier of their best in the U.S. short lists? Not just the Wasatch Front, But what other city proper in the United States with a population of around 200,000 is consistently building under all facets of construction to the tune of tens of billions of dollars? Problems will be worked out and Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front will continue to surpass even many of the most positive prognosticators.

I’m not doom and gloom yet, and am optimistic we can figure some things out. One thing SLC has going for it compared to other southwestern cities is we are not dependent on the Colorado River. We’re an internally draining basin so we largely control the fate of most our water. So it is in our power to better use and allocate our water. SLC is doing that with treated wastewater, sending more of it back to the Lake. But SLC is one city. We need all cities of northern Utah on board. If the lake does dry up this area will be less desirable. It’s a hard pill to swallow but any rational person knows this to be true. We have the nature accessibility arguably better than any other US metro. That’s to me what makes SLC top tier in people’s eyes from out of state, and what has drawn out of staters here over the years. Not the urban environment, which is getting much better and is becoming a draw. That’s why making sure we take steps to mitigate potential environmental disasters like the Lake drying up are important. And as Riley pointed out we all should listen to the science to inform our decisions, not the spaghetti monster in the sky. Whether we like it or not the desirability of SLC for out of state companies and people moving is keeping our environment intact. Imagine San Diego without the ocean. The Salt Lake while not as sexy as the ocean is our ocean. It’s critical to our future.

[delts145]

Thanks, Geographer I very much agree with your very balanced post. Utah has had a decent history of capturing water. Those trends that you pointed out are critical. Hopefully, not only State Government but the Federal commitment as well will give Utah the ability to greatly enhance its water conservation, capture, and retention.

[Rileybo]

Originally Posted by delts145

Right on, you know me so well and are so perceptive, LOL. I've spent most of my life in the heart of the entertainment industry and Hollywood, yet somehow I'm a part of your perceptions of the Utah culture.

Also to add: Judging from your consistent specific to Utah posts on this forum over the past couple of years, IMO it would be an undersell to call you simply a doomer. You're simply a part of that certain segment of society that exists in England, Italy, New York, L.A., and everywhere I've experienced living for extended periods of time. That's fine, you be you. Just try to be a little more balanced if you're going to bring it to this forum.

Hahahah I don’t claim to know you “so well” at all. I think you’re reading into things too deep, and exhibiting the reactionary behavior I was talking about. When you say I should be “more balanced” I assume you mean it in the same way as Fox News when they say they’re balanced in their reporting?

And I’m not clear on this part.. but if you’re saying I must be from England, Italy, NY, or LA because I don’t exist in a bubble, I guess you’re right in a sense. Ive lived in Utah my whole life, but whatever. If I said that you’re “simply a part of that certain segment of society” that wears blinders, you may be offended. Let’s not assume things about each other yeah?

Anyway this shit is dumb can we be friends instead?

[Comrade]

Originally Posted by wrendog

This seems... a tad too pessimistic

I think there's more to it than not.

Salt Lake already is building a reputation for its awful air quality.

Add what environmental disaster might exist if the Great Salt Lake dries up and we could be looking at a pretty catastrophic situation.

Do I think it'll be as bad as some are hinting? No. But I do think there's going to be an impact and we seem oblivious to it. One of our biggest selling points as a metro is the outdoors here. Gonna be wild if, in 30 years, there are certain days we can't even go outdoors because our arsenic levels are too high and we're sitting at red in air quality.

But the good news is that the legislature is laser-focused on the issues that matter the most: trans kids.

[Jbash]

Unrelated to the current conversation, but is there any sort of local development Discord server around? And if not would anyone be interested in joining one? We already have this forum and the reddit but more forms of community connection wouldn't hurt imo

[mstar]

Let me jump in here regarding the Salt Lake drying up. It seems to me that the most common sense solution is to eliminate "some" of the agriculture that requires the most water. i.e. alfalfa. Even if the state bought those farmers out, it would be cheaper than most of the other solutions I have heard about. Hopefully, some solution can be figured out.

[Comrade]

I thought this was a cool photo of a new storage place on 600 West.



600 West is such a unique vibe. Oddly, it's one of my favorite areas in the city. There used to be a club there, The Block, which stayed open until the wee hours of the morning and had a strict BYOB policy. It was cool. Sadly, it was closed down last year for what I assume will be lifeless developments like the storage unit that went up just south of it.

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Rileybo

And I’m not clear on this part.. but if you’re saying I must be from England, Italy, NY, or LA because I don’t exist in a bubble, I guess you’re right in a sense. Ive lived in Utah my whole life, but whatever. If I said that you’re “simply a part of that certain segment of society” that wears blinders, you may be offended. Let’s not assume things about each other yeah?

Anyway this shit is dumb can we be friends instead?

Good points Rileybo. I do make an attempt to clean up my rhetoric before I post it. Sometimes it seems impossible to be completely diplomatic on the internet. Anyway, I agree and would welcome a more friendly interchange. Just so you know, I do have one or two favorite journalists, but I definitely don't subscribe to the talking heads club of the likes of Joy Reid or Sean Hannity.

Originally Posted by Jbash

Unrelated to the current conversation, but is there any sort of local development Discord server around? And if not would anyone be interested in joining one? We already have this forum and the reddit but more forms of community connection wouldn't hurt imo

The topic of drought and water supply comes up regularly on our local Wasatch threads Jbash. I keep thinking we should start a thread here for Colorado, Utah, and Idaho to discuss what infrastructure/policy development is being proposed and carried out by the State legislatures, and Congress to mitigate the current number of water issue emergencies. It was this local forum and our own Hatman who brought forward critical mass transit issues, proposals, and resolutions that have now seg waded into the mainstream of the Wasatch conversation. We all realize that our water issues are among the most critical that we face over the next decade and into the future. For now, I'm not sure, but I wish we could even bring So. Cal., Arizona, and Nevada into the issue for active discussion. I would rather keep the thread here and not on the general skyscraper forum where many threads can often struggle to keep regional forum members regularly active.

Some of you are probably already well aware of these drought monitors. They are released every Thursday like clockwork. I watch them regularly and keep my fingers crossed. We're doing well so far for this water season. However, the experts say that we're going to need another 13 inches of moisture between now and summer to wipe the reds and browns off the map and see only white. As you can see, we still have a lot of ground to make up.

Our water supply from Colorado's portion of the Colorado River is looking much better, but the upper west, Wyoming and Utah's supply of the Green River into the Colorado still has a lot of catching up to do. We definitely need to get off this yearly Russian roulette game when it comes to our water issues in the West.

Here's a couple of comparisons from where we were on December 29th and where we are on January 31st



December 29th



January 31st

[delts145]

This has to be my second favorite angle of downtown. When you shoot the skyline from either the northwest or southwest angle the tabletop image is not so glaring. Astra will be a beginning in breaking up the tabletop effect. I'm sure the towers will continue to get taller and taller. I just hope we don't have to continue to wait for another ten years before it happens.

Originally Posted by Comrade

I thought this was a cool photo of a new storage place on 600 West.



600 West is such a unique vibe. Oddly, it's one of my favorite areas in the city. There used to be a club there, The Block, which stayed open until the wee hours of the morning and had a strict BYOB policy. It was cool. Sadly, it was closed down last year for what I assume will be lifeless developments like the storage unit that went up just south of it.

[delts145]

The topic of drought and water supply comes up regularly on our local Wasatch threads. I keep thinking we should start a thread here for Colorado, Utah, and Idaho to discuss what infrastructure/policy development is being proposed and carried out by the State legislatures, and Congress to mitigate the current number of water issue emergencies. It was this local forum and our own Hatman who brought forward critical mass transit issues, proposals, and resolutions that have now seg waded into the mainstream of the Wasatch conversation. We all realize that our water issues are among the most critical that we face over the next decade and into the future. For now, I'm not sure, but I wish we could even bring So. Cal., Arizona, and Nevada into the issue for active discussion. I would rather keep the thread here and not on the general skyscraper forum where many threads can often struggle to keep regional forum members regularly active.

Some of you are probably already well aware of these drought monitors. They are released online every Thursday like clockwork. I watch them regularly and keep my fingers crossed. We're doing well so far for this water season. However, the experts say that we're going to need another 13 inches of moisture in Utah between now and summer to wipe the reds and browns off the map and see only white. As you can see, we still have a lot of ground to make up. Idaho is looking a little better than Utah but still is not out of the woods for this season. At least most of Western Colorado is looking good at this point.

Our water supply from Colorado's portion of the Colorado River is looking much better, but the Upper West, Wyoming, and Utah's supply of the Green River into the Colorado River still has a lot of catching up to do. We definitely need to get off this yearly Russian roulette game when it comes to our water issues in the West.

Here are a couple of comparisons from where we were on December 29th and where we are on January 31st



December 29th



January 31st ...February 2nd had no change posted so it was lumped in with January. I hope that isn't an upcoming trend for the rest of the season.


.

[TheGeographer]

Originally Posted by delts145

Thanks, Geographer I very much agree with your very balanced post. Utah has had a decent history of capturing water. Those trends that you pointed out are critical. Hopefully, not only State Government but the Federal commitment as well will give Utah the ability to greatly enhance its water conservation, capture, and retention.

I agree, level heads will prevail hopefully. All around support and buy in will be needed.

[delts145]

Geographer, You seem to be one of the forum members with considerable life focus on this topic of Water Infrastructure. I created a Mountain West Thread on the topic. Please share any pertinent information you have on the latest rounds of the Central Utah Water Project, whatever congressional members are proposing in D.C. etc., etc.,...

[Utah_Dave]

Well, I must say I’m very interested to see if the recent damming of water flow into the north west arm of the GSL has a significant impact at raising the lake level and covering the dry lake bed on the south and east shoreline near the population centers. I figure the lake rise 4-5 ft by mid summer if the snow pack continues on a good trajectory for the rest of the winter. Maybe we can get an extra foot of water elevation from damming the causeway?

[delts145]

I read that the frequent storms over the past couple of months had caused the lake to rise a foot. I'm curious too about how much the damming will help.

This is an interesting read:
NAWAPA would turn the Southwest into an oasis and the Great Basin into productive farmland.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...ave-saved-amer

.

[Jbash]

https://discord.gg/XJ2BKUua
I decided to make a discord for the hell of it, just as an extra tool people can use if they so desire

[twister244]

I used to live in Denver, but my background touches this topic in various ways....

IMO, there are two horizons that the Mountain West states need to grapple with:
1 - The short-term protection of their rights against downstream states that are going to try to get as much as possible (CA/AZ/NV).
2 - How to mitigate long-term impacts.

I'm not sure how the legal fight over the Colorado River will play out, but upstream source states should ensure they have legal protection over the water leaving their states. If there's ever a day where drought gets so bad in Colorado, they may want to build infrastructure to capture more water and keep it in-state. Downstream states have way more pressing issues given the government is mandating cuts now.

In the long term, everyone needs to start adapting to having less water. That's just the reality. What do you prioritize? Agriculture or cities? Are there technologies that can help mitigate the loss of water?

All of this is the tip of the spear when it comes to climate change.... Also, no, you aren't getting any of Lake Michigan's water.

[New_Future_Mayor]

Originally Posted by Rileybo

You’re right about there being no pride in the city from residents. No one here seems satisfied ever. And that really does include everyone .

That's completely false, I'm a city resident and I love SLC. Would I like to see some improvements? Of course, but that doesn't mean I don't love this place.