• Winner: Could you keep it to 20 mph downtown? Really? We'll soon find out. The City Council voted unanimously this week to lower speed limits throughout the city's core in an effort to make the area more pedestrian friendly. We agree with critics who say the new speed limit is likely to seem intolerable. But so what? Downtown should be a destination, not a place to speed past. Once the new City Creek Center is built, pedestrians will flock downtown as never before. The new limit, combined with the pedestrian flags at crossings, will help to make the area more inviting and enjoyable.
• Winner: While we're on the subject of pedestrians, Salt Lake City also wants to install HAWKs, or high-intensity activated crosswalks, at various midblock crossings. If a pedestrian presses a button at a HAWK crossing, lights start flashing — first a single yellow, then a solid yellow, then two solid reds. Traffic planners say these grab the attention of motorists better than traditional signals, reducing the chances someone might get hit. Sound good to us.
• Loser: It's hard to imagine why anyone would steal commemorative plaques from a freedom shrine, unless they confused the concept of freedom with license. But police say a Taylorsville shrine, located at 4500 S. 650 West, disappeared sometime between Nov. 1 and 3. Gone are the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's farewell address, the Gettysburg Address, Woodrow Wilson's first inaugural, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's Christmas message and Franklin Roosevelt's four freedoms speech.
Given that copies of all of those are readily available on the Internet, perhaps the more interesting question is, what would someone do with those items?