Gondolists Grow GloomyBy Curmudgeon
This morning's Standard Examiner has a front page story which is a pretty good indication of how desperate the Lift Ogden Wired Ascent Cheerleading Squad is becoming. The story reports that the results of the recent telephone survey [the headline inaccurately says "poll"] commissioned by Lift Ogden supporters will remain secret. Even though, the Gondolist Gang insists, the results were very favorable to the gondola/Malan's Basin project.
Uh huh. Sure. The alleged "poll" shows overwhelming support for the project, but they're going to keep the results secret. Right. You believe that, you probably spent Halloween Eve hoping to catch a glimpse of the Great Pumpkin.
My lord, if they can't get a favorable result out of a push poll like this one [a push poll is one designed to produce a particular result: it might in this case contain "questions" like this: "Do you think Mayor Godfrey's gondola plan is a good plan, a great plan, a wonderful plan, a fantastic plan or all of the above?"], they've got to know the kind of trouble Peterson's real estate speculation scheme is in.
Which explains why the Geigers have been insisting, rather urgently to anyone who will listen of late that "we are winning." Uh huh. Right.
The signs of the Lift Ogden crowd's desperation are increasing: supposedly favorable polls they won't release; continuing to try to convince people the gondola will connect to Snow Basin when it won't; implying that you'll be able to hop off a plane at SLC International Airport and onto the Front Runner commuter rail to Ogden from there [you won't]; and repeatedly insisting to anyone who will listen [and apparently fewer and fewer are] that they are "winning." Look for them to begin telling the press that more loudly and more often as their scheme continues to unravel.
Also in the SE this morning, a long piece by WSU President Ann Millner and Richard Kendall on the importance of establishing a "deliberative process" to determine whether WSU will sell the land [one third of the present campus] that Mr. Peterson says he must have for his project to go forward. They stress the importance of taking the time to do fact finding, and to collect as much information as possible before making the decision.
We can only hope that the Ogden City Planning Commission and the Ogden City Council will follow their example and take the time necessary to examine these proposals, and to collect solid information about their impact, their feasibility, and their probability of succeeding [or the lack of it] before committing any city funds, lands or other resources to the scheme. A real-estate speculator's assurances, pulled out of thin air and unsupported by evidence, should not be enough. Not nearly enough.
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And local golfers also call a penalty on the Parkland Land-grab
There's plenty to discuss in this morning's Standard-Examiner, not much of which is likely to put a smile on the face of our guileful gondola groupies. And what better place to do that than here, we ask?
Please don't let the cat get your tongues.
