About 10 years ago, massive public opposition kept the Olympic speedskating oval from being located on Guardsman Way and in downtown Salt Lake City. In turn the Oquirrh Recreation District in Kearns stepped up and said "put it here," and the rest is history.
The oval in Kearns is a smashing success, as anyone who attended the recent world speedskating championships there can attest. And too, Guardsman has the terrific new ice sheet addition to the Steiner complex and other nice facilities up and down the way. And there is a fairly decent mixture of extended-stay hotel rooms and apartments downtown where an out-of-scale dome would have been.
Credit the public process for this much success. The verdict is still out on much of the rest of the Olympic legacy, and there is less and less time to make things work out. Stay tuned.
Tim Funk
Salt Lake City