Having taken a verbal beating from city councils along the Wasatch Front, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson decided it was time to explain himself.
The Legacy Highway will hurt everyone, the mayor told the Bonneville Kiwanis Club in a lunchtime speech Wednesday. Two weeks ago he joined Utahns for Better Transportation in its lawsuit to stop construction of the road, which would connect commuters between Davis and Salt Lake counties.
"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."
The mayor sought to paint a picture of how the Salt Lake Valley would look with a commuter rail line instead of a Legacy Highway.
For the latter scenario, look at Phoenix, Anderson said. That metropolis has built numerous highways to relieve congestion "and within a year, the new freeways are already jammed" and drivers are calling for more.
Our own I-15 will be filled to capacity, the mayor added, in three to five years.
Now look at the alternative: "The phenomenal success of TRAX . . . more than 20,000 trips per weekday. It proves people will use mass transit" if it's available.
Whichever you build, it will be filled, said Anderson. Build highways, and you'll have a sea of slow-moving cars. Lay commuter-train track, and people will leave their vehicles at home.
Nearly all of the Kiwanians seemed receptive to Anderson's speech. But Ed Rogers called it a "lecture" littered with "half-truths."
"I'm totally dismayed that you're so biased. The Legacy is way out in the boonies, sir." Rogers accused Anderson of acting as a wedge between communities.
"You as mayor should be binding us together," he said. "Let's live together. We saw this back in the 19th century: Mormon or gentile," environmentalist or developer.
"We're not ever going to get rid of the love of the car," Rogers added. As for rail transit, that was another harmful force that split downtown Salt Lake City. "Rocky, Main Street is destroyed because you can't find a parking space."
To the mayor, that's another on the stack of reasons to free ourselves from the car-centric system we've been living in. More cars mean more highways leading to more suburban development and longer commutes — "a nightmare of sprawl," in Anderson's words.
The mayor has to persuade suburbanites to move into the city, said Kiwanian and Salt Lake real estate broker David Nelson. "If he can make the urban lifestyle a high-status lifestyle," then roads like the Legacy Highway won't be needed. Nelson pointed to London as an example: "It's a very nice city to live in. And it has the Underground" transit system to relieve its roads of congestion.
But another Kiwanian told Anderson that downtown Salt Lake City isn't exactly a pleasant place to be.
"Nobody wants to come downtown," he said. Pedestrians and motorists are too nervous about traffic citations "because of you and Deeda Seed," who received a jaywalking ticket several weeks back. "There's a perception that it's not friendly," along with trepidation about driving for 30 minutes before finding a parking spot.
The mayor jumped at this chance to talk about his plans. "We're opening it up," he said, with more outdoor-dining permits, more prominent signs for parking areas and, he hopes, street vendors, kiosks and artists. "Every single month in this next year, you'll see more happening," the mayor promised. "We're working on a uniform parking validation system, so you're going to see more parking."
Anderson himself feels the pain of the city's parking shortage. Though he said he takes TRAX as much as possible, he's still auto-dependent for trips not on the light-rail route. Until the University line is finished, with a station built half a block from his house, he'll keep driving — and seeking parking for — his sport-utility vehicle.
E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com