Monday, July 16, 2007

A Plea to the Council to Put Our Transportation Future "On Track"

Too much time and treasure has been wasted already

Mayor Matthew Godfrey expects UTA to spend $247,500 set aside for the [gondola study] plan because he believes the gondola would provide cost-effective public transportation along a busy corridor from downtown to Weber State University. Godfrey believes Peterson will come up with a new proposal. "I think he will do something."

Standard-Examiner
UTA may still pay for study
July 16, 2007


"My significant other right now is myself, which is what happens when you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession."

Joaquin Phoenix
The Reluctant Hero
May, 2000


Ace reporter Schwebke is right back on the "secret gondola study" article series, with this morning's Standard-Examiner front page story. Boss Godfrey reportedly remains obsessed with his gondola to nowhere vision, despite his recent and sudden purported abandonment of the politically-disastrous golf course sale funding element. At least one voice on the council however, the ever-sensible Dorrene Jeske, reportedly believes it's time to consider realistic transportation alternatives:

OGDEN — The Utah Transit Authority may spend almost $250,000 for a gondola study, even though the future of the Ogden project is in doubt.

Chad Saley, a spokesman for UTA, said the funds are still available but wouldn’t necessarily have to be used for a gondola study.

"The funds could be used to do another study if Ogden wanted to study streetcars and other transit modes."

Mayor Matthew Godfrey expects UTA to spend $247,500 set aside for the plan because he believes the gondola would provide cost-effective public transportation along a busy corridor from downtown to Weber State University.

"This has the opportunity to provide transportation along the corridor with no operational costs to (UTA),” he said. “Their interest is to have this investment made by the private sector."

However, City Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske said the UTA funds should not be earmarked specifically for the gondola, but for an overall mass transit plan for the city.

"We have got to address our transportation problems — the sooner the better," she said.

What ought to be clear from this story is that our Emerald City Mayor still remains absolutely fixated on his "gondola vision," even in the absence of so much as a shred of evidence to demonstrate that it makes any sense at all. Boss Godfrey refers to the "private investment" which would ease the public sector burden of operating a transportation system within the WSU-downtown corridor. Yet in two years, no private money seems to have been committed to this project. And in the same two-year period, the single "investor" who appears to have shown even some slight interest in this "investment" has produced nothing tangible at all -- not so much as a plan or drawing -- not even hasty scribblings on a cocktail napkin.

Once again our delusionary visionary Boss of Us All falls back to the pattern which has become so familiar to the lumpencitizens of Emerald City over the past 7-1/2 years, i.e., clinging stubbornly to one evidence-unsupported crack-pot scheme after another, "digging-in his heels" and asking sensible people to take it all on "faith."

We're encouraged by the quoted comments of Councilwoman Jeske; and it's our sincere hope that other council members will get aboard her bandwagon. It's well within the power of the city council to order that the one-quarter million in transportation study dollars, which are presently languishing in a UTA account, be applied to a realistic overall mass transit plan for the city; and we believe the council should do just that. Our city has already wasted far too much time and treasure pursuing Boss Godfrey's compulsive pipe-dreams. It's time, we think, to put our public transportation future "on track."

54 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rudi:

Exactly right. Kudoes to Mr. Schwebke and the SE for staying on the story, for asking the questions that needed to be asked, of the UTA, and of the Mayor, about the quarter of a million dollar gondola study money... which apparently the Mayor still wants wasted on a gondola study, and which, apparently, the UTA is still willing to waste on the study of a gondola that has no funding, no plan in place, and virtually no possibility of ever being built.

Though it does seem from Mr. Saley's comments that UTA is asking, all but begging to be given a way out of this nonsense. Kudoes to Councilwoman Jeske for taking up the gauntlet. UTA is willing to spend it on something sane, it says, if "the city" wants it too. Well, UTA has in the past assumed the city = the mayor. Time for a quick little lesson in civic education, I think; time for the Council to point out to UTA that it represents "the city" too and to make it clear that the Council does not want the money spent on the gondola chimera.

The funniest part of the Mayor's comments was his saying he's sure Peterson will come up with "something." We've waited over two years for Peterson to actually propose something... and that was when he still had hopes of buying the WSU property he said he had to have, and of buying the golf course and adjacent city parklands cheaply so he could make a killing in real estate so he would have enough money to build his [not the city's] gondola and resort. Two years, and nothing came from Peterson. Now, without the park and golf land, without the WSU land, and responsible for building the city gondola [cost estimate in the $40 million range] and his own gondola and the resort, the mayor wants to squander a quarter of a million studying the city gondola he's sure Peterson will find a way to build and pay for himself. If there was ever any question that the Mayor's judgment is seriously impaired and that it is not in Ogden's best interests to return him to office for another term, that doubt should now be gone.

UTA is a state agency. Is our city legislative delegation weighing in on its apparent willingness to squander a quarter of a million of the public's money on the gondola fantasy? Has Rep. Hansen let the UTA higher ups know what he thinks? Has Rep. Shurtlif? Has Sen. Greiner?

Where is the Weber Co. Democratic party on this plan to squander a quarter of a million by the cash-strapped UTA? Where is the Weber County Republican Party? [My god, we've reached a sorry state when we have to depend on Republicans to act rationally, intelligently and in the public interest, but it seems that's where Ogden and Weber County are at the moment.]

Isn't it time for the parties of Weber County to stand up for the city and county, for fiscal responsibility, time to tell the UTA not to squander yet more public money on the Mayor's $40,000,000 tourist ride obsession and its vanishingly small chance of ever being built?

The SE has given us all a heads up. Councilwoman Jeske has pointed the way. Time for the rest of us to tell UTA, the Council, our state legislatures and both Weber County parties that squandering public money on pipe dream gondola rides is not in the public interest and that we want it stopped. Now.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I think we should just trust our mayor in every decision that he makes and we should just support that.

Anonymous said...

It was so crowded at he fireworks last night I wish I had a gondola in front of my house to ride home after it was all over.

Anonymous said...

Curm-
You say that UTA is a "state agency." Well, not exactly (they are a separate quasi-government entity), and that may be part of their problem, as many see it. That is why there is a strong push from the state legislature to reign them in by lumping them in w/ UDOT. Which, I don't entirely agree with, but in some instances it doesn't sound like such a terrible idea.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand...

UTA is an agency charged with being the experts on transit yet they are willing to allow their own money to be spent on whatever Godfrey wants.

If they are experts in transit, why are they so bleatingly sheepish with inconfidence when it comes to telling this fool that gondolas are simply NOT an urban transit conveyance. If they were somehow appropriate for the downtown to WSU connection why would they not be deployed over so many similar routes within the SLC metro area. Say the busy downtown to Sugarhouse corridor or the hub to UU coridor. Crap, can anyone tell Godfrey to get off of his dark cloud.

Anonymous said...

So does Godfrey want to sell the golf course or not? Does he want a gondola or not?

Last week he said we will spend no public money on the gondola. This week he says he will spend a quarter million in public money on the gondola. What will he say next week? Where does he stand on anything?

The boys in bowl haircuts at the Descente headquarters, who only put Curt and Bobby here because of the gondola (so they say), must be getting whiplash.

Speaking of Curt, did you read this letter to the editor on Friday? It’s brilliant and I love the new moniker.

“Curt Geiger: Anachronism”

Anonymous said...

Please refer back to Don Wilson's articulate and professional evaluation of the possibilities for a resort in Malans Basin. This is very meaningful once again.
Not only are private investors unwilling to invest in something this feable, cost to build could never be recouped, but now lying little matty would have you believe that they would also invest in a stupid PAIR of gondolas to service this miniscule resort.
Don Wilson's piece, WSU saying no and no sale of the golf course, brings us back to lying little matty's willingness to say anything, just to get elected. It also would point to where his mind will go if he pulls that off. Back to the land grab.
Vote early, vote often.

Anonymous said...

I hope now that those who think "WE'VW won"!, and Godfrey has chnged his spots will see the fallacy in beleiving anything this little liar ever says.

Have we not said that the reason there hasn't been a waiing from the LO Chorus is becasue this whole shoddy affair was hatched and orchestrated by these charlatans?

The gondola vision hasn't gone away. Shoot, the little emporer didn't even wait til AFTER the election to spring his trap, again.

Has it even been a week yet?

Thanx, Dorrene, for being on the ball, as usual. Now, see if you can't thump some sense into your fellow Council members to put this dissembler in his place.

How about a letter from the Council to UTA telling them that any monies spent will be for streetcar studies only???

Dorrene, you and Jesse write it...leave Cook and Williams out of it.

Anonymous said...

Jill:

OK, maybe what I should have said was UTA is state funded. [My understanding is that UTA tries for 50% of its funds to come from fares, and the rest from government subsidies, state and federal.] And if it's state-funded to any significant extent, then state legislators should have, ought to have, some interest in how it spends its grants monies.

As for putting UTA under UDOT... that strikes me as a formula for killing public transit in Utah. UDOT's interest is in roads. Period. If you can't pave it, UDOT is not much interested in it. Putting the transit "agency" [UTA] under UDOT strikes me as a very bad idea.

UTA may need some stronger fiscal oversight, but putting it under UDOT seems to me throwing out the baby with the bathwater. So to speak.

Anonymous said...

Mmmm hmmm....
Dorrene Jeske has the quote in the paper today.

Yet, Van Hooser is thinking of running for mayor and missed this chance to speak up for the people?

Give us a break!

Anonymous said...

Observer 1:

We have won a great deal. The park is off the table. The adjacent parklands are off the table. The gondola, the mayor now concedes, will not be city-built, city-funded. I don't see how in the world these don't count as significant victories.

He said at the time he took the parks and city-built gondola off the table that he still hoped private funding would build it all. So he's not changed his position on that. His statements this morning back off in no way what he said when he took the park sale and city funded gondola off the table.

Anonymous said...

Carl:
Give me a break. Are we now egging the Council members on in a race to who can say what first? Mrs. Jeske has been outspoken on this issue for some time. Kudoes to her. Let's see what the other candidates... for the Council's office and for the mayor's office... have to say about the UTA grant. It'll be a good question to ask them all. But I'm hard put to see why "Jeske said it first" should necessarily be a mark against any candidate, any office, who supports her suggestion.

Anonymous said...

How can UTA think of giving money for this so called study where they're planning on a tax increase?

UTA asking 6 counties for tax hike

Anonymous said...

Britney Spears:

So if he orders you and your family to go to jail no matter why, you would support him because he's your mayor?

Anonymous said...

Alright folks, it's official, Van Hooser is running and she is announcing her candidacy this evening at 6pm down by the municpal ampitheater (I think across the street from it). So if you would all take a break and stop by to hear her explain herself, that would be great.

But let's discuss what the strategy is here. OK, the overall strategy is to replace Godfrey with ANYONE, including a two pound hunk of cheese, which would be just fine. The best result would be for Van Hooser and Hansen to win the primary and fight it out in the general. But a more likely scenario is that either Van Hooser or Hansen makes it into the general with Godfrey.

Who is more likely to beat Godfrey? This is the fundamental question. I would love to hear your opinions on this one.

Anonymous said...

Everyone listen to Curm.

Now that the mayor, an inveterate liar, has changed what he is saying, only weeks from an election, it constitutes a change in policy. Now that he's changed his lies it's a BIG WIN FOR US!!

The park is now off the table for good because the mayor says so! (But be sure to tune in tomorrow to see what the mayor is saying.)

As far as Susie vs. Niel, they both have good points. I look forward to hearing their vision for the city. And I do think Godfrey could be out in the primary.

Anonymous said...

Boy is godfrey chomping on the bit.
this is the way this will play out if susie gets in the race.
40% godfrey and 38% for hansen and 32% for Susie. well, as I see it godfrey wins. even thou it is far below the 50% mark because susie has now divided up the vote. boy what damage is she bringing to the table.
this is what we mean by a political novice. Why can't she see this?

Anonymous said...

I heard that susie is in this for the money, is that true? Her husband told her if she is spending so much time at the city council stuff you should run for mayor becauswe it pays something. That is what she told me a few weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

Danny, I hope Godfrey is out in the primary. But VH is not a Mormon and Hansen is a member of the "Democrat Party". Does this change your calculus?

BTW, I wonder if the Mormons of Utah are all that eager to continue signing on with the GOP, now that thier boy Romney is being dragged through the Evangelical mud. Karl Rove's lynch squad is just getting started with the holy garments, proxy baptisms, temple cermonies, and celestial marriage. Just you wait, my LDS brethren, you'll be absolutely disgusted with your friends in the the "Republican Base" by the time this baby's over.

Anonymous said...

Real Motive, you prevaricate. Is that the best you can do? Lame.

Anonymous said...

o boy o boy, you are a moron. Do you understand what a PRIMARY is? All that typing for nothing. You even had to go and find the % key a couple of times.

Anonymous said...

Real motive:

Susie’s in it the mayor's race for the money? What money? Seventy five grand a year?

Right now, she's spending 20 hours a week, with little power (one person in seven) and getting $550 a month.

If she runs for mayor and wins, she gets the seventy five grand a year, plus some real control. If she loses, and she has her life back. It’s a win-win for her.

What's so bad about that? It's called being a citizen candidate.

And as long as there is a non-Godfrey in the general election, the citizenry will have someone to vote for.

Let’s just hope there will be many good folks to take Susie’s place on the council, where she served well. Step up, good neighbors, and be a councilmember. It only costs $25 to file - do it at the recorder's office by 5:00 pm today! Many will cherish you for doing so!

Anonymous said...

O Boy O Boy:

I think your analysis of Ms. Van Hooser's entering the race is wrong. I expect it will cut the Mayor's percentage of the vote significantly. There are voters, opposed to the mayor, who will not, for whatever reason, vote for Neil Hansen. They will vote for Ms. Hooser. Just as there are voters, opposed to the mayor, who will not vote for Hooser, but who will vote for Hansen. Her entering the race will, I think, shrink the Mayor's percentage of the total vote in the primary, and that is good news for whoever survives the primary if Godfrey does.

Provided Van Hooser and Hansen and their supporters remember that their target is the Mayor and not each other, that they are offering themselves as good alternatives to a Godfrey third term. However, if Van Hooser supporters start attacking Hansen and Hansen supporters start attacking Van Hooser, it may make it very difficult if not impossible to unite their supporters in favor of the one that gets into the final election against Godfrey [presuming Godfrey gets through the primary]. If Hansen and Van Hooser get through the primary [from my keyboard to God's ear!], then they can have a field day attacking each other if they so choose. But not before.

Van H. has not even officially announced yet, and already, apparently, Hansen supporters [see posts above] think the course of wisdom is to attack her. Bad bad bad idea. The target, ladies and gentlemen, for all challengers to the incumbent is the incumbent. Not each other.

Anonymous said...

o boy o boy & real motive,
Trolling a perfectly nice blog forum and spreading lies and smearing her name by making remarks like Susie is "in it for the money" and "damage she is bringing to the table" early on is one way (lame as it may be) to try to discredit her. Although in the end, I don't think it does any good for anybody.

Anonymous said...

oh give it up...not wanting a candidate doesn't mean she's being smeared.

you are all so naive. i haard her husband say exactly that about being mayor and getting paid for the hours!

she's fine on the council...should stay there and serve the people in a legislaative body. hansen is already working hard for the people.

i think some of you supporters of VH are willing to "smear" hansen.

get behind neil...susie stay on the council and finish your job.

Anonymous said...

Here are a few reasons, off the top of my pointed little head, for Hansen to become Mayor:

He has a long time history of holding elected office.

He actually worked for Ogden City for many years and knows how the damn thing works, and/or is supposed to work anyway.

He has proven over time to be an elected official with class and integrity. (And he has never felt the need to publicly proclaim it!)

He has shown on many occasions his love of the people of Ogden.

He is on record many many times as standing up for the people of Ogden in the state legislature.

He is highly respected by the Honcho Republicans that run the State Legislature, thus showing his ability to work across party lines.

He will bring back respect and honor to the Mayor's office.

He will re-introduce some desperately needed common sense to Ogden City Government.

Hell, I mean Heck, He is even a former Mormon Bishop!

What's not to like?

Anonymous said...

I don't know much about Van Hooser. Can anyone here fill me in with specifics?

Anonymous said...

She is a retired School Teacher.

She is honest.

She is willing to serve.

On that basis alone she would be a vast improvement over Godfrey.

What's not to like?

Anonymous said...

Folks, Curm is right, even if he is unnecesarily long-winded (any chance of cutting down the length of your posts, Curm?).

It is counter to our interest for VH and Hansen supporters to go after eachother. They would both make fine Mayors, especially with respect to the one we have now.

So I plead with the supporters of VH and Hansen: let's keep our eyes on the target, which is Godfrey.

Anonymous said...

I would offer a third option for the two candidates - Susie and Neil.

Express your vision. Keep it positive. Keep it uplifting. If you wish to differentiate yourself from the status quo, then do so in terms of why you feel your vision is better for Ogden.

Examples:

Rather than sell and bulldoze our bench lands, let's find ways to preserve them in thier natural state, in perpetuity. They will only become more valuable to us as time goes by.

Rather than accumulate debt for Ogden City, and have the city own so much private property, let's reduce debt, regulation and taxes, and let the free market do for Ogden what it does so well.

Rather than have the government involved in planning how commercial property owners should use thier land, let's lift the burden of regulation, and see what innovative things people can do with their own lands, while the goverment tends to its own business.

Let's have an open, honest government, that is interested in, and seeks, public input.

Talk about the future - where we go from here - and keep it positive.

Anonymous said...

Ozboy,
Couldn't agree more with your assessment of Neil!

And, of Susie.

I prefer Neil for the obviously stated reasons.

But, I know either would be a vast improvement for Ogden.

Neil has the vital experience, and that is so necessary in this race.

I also agree with others who are urging Susie to stay on the council. She's needed there.

Anonymous said...

If Van Hooser is elected Mayor, fantastic! If she stays on the Council, fantastic! She's a great asset to Ogden, and either way, we will prosper under her leadership.

I also want to acknowledge Hansen's excellent resume and his valuable experience with the City. He would make a great Mayor. I've met him and he is friendly and personable, while remaining focused on, and confident in Ogden's future.

See how easy it to be sincerely congratulatory toward both of these fine candidates? Either one of them will save us from the grim, divisive hell we face under Godfrey. Like our own little George W. Bush.

Anonymous said...

I wonder when Mayor Godfrey is going to give up this stupid "gondola/gondola" (thanks, Curm) idea once and for all.

I thought he was on the road to recovery, but this is a serious relapse.

Anonymous said...

News release:

It looks as if there is a bull dozer on 23rd and harrison, is this where on of the gondola stations is going.
The old gas station is torn down.

Anonymous said...

here we go again-

I think it's OK. I just looked up the ownership info and it's owned by Flying J Corp. Which is a good sign. They may just be putting in a new gas station. In any case, they probably have no deals in place with Ogden City, other than for approval. Can someone call planning and find out?

At least it isn't owned by Ogden City. That's when I would start tripping out. If Ogden City owns anything, be very wary. God only knows what the story is, who will end up with it, or what it will become. Backroom deals, shady partnerships, influence peddling. All hallmarks of the Godfrey Administration.

Anonymous said...

I, for one, plan to vote for the two pound hunk of cheese.

Anonymous said...

Godfrey is like a two pound glob of cheese (limburger). Careful which chunk of cheese you vote for, ugly beaver.

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight.

A couple months ago, the mayor told the city council that it would be a waste of money to do any further study of the streetcar, since there was no plan in place to pay for it. (This was a slight exaggeration, but he was right in the sense that any plan would be rather fuzzy and somewhat speculative at this point.)

Now he wants to spend a very similar amount of money on a further study of the gondola, despite the fact that there's no plan in place to pay for it. Not only is there no plan, but virtually all possible sources of government funding have apparently been ruled out. The whole concept is now entirely dependent on a single individual (Chris Peterson) who has been talking about the concept for two years but hasn't done anything during that time to show us that he's actually serious. For the last several months he's rarely even been available for comment. When he finally did make a comment recently, it was to say that the whole project is in a precarious state.

Yet given all this, the mayor still wants to spend the $250,000 on another gondola study.

Unbelievable. Or at least it would be, if anyone else were mayor.

Anonymous said...

I would only hope that VH would stick to her original words right after she was appointed to the council when she said she'd plan to seek a second term on the council. Her on the council and Hansen as mayor would make a fabulous team but to run against each other just might be a struggle.

Ugly Beaver, does that cheese come with some wine?

I wish the best of luck to the best of you two and that you leave Godfrey in the dust!

Anonymous said...

Yep, Dan S., you got that straight. But your rhetoric is amusing anyway.

Look, just call it for what it is: a land-grab fraud perpetrated on the people of Ogden.

UTA isn't spending that money on a gondola study. How laughable. But I still love your rhetoric. You must be a fast typer, er, typist.

Anonymous said...

So, did VH announce and what did she promise?

Anonymous said...

Crum:


You asked.” Where is the Weber Co. Democratic party on this plan to squander a quarter of a million by the cash-strapped UTA? Where is the Weber County Republican Party? [My god, we've reached a sorry state when we have to depend on Republicans to act rationally, intelligently and in the public interest, but it seems that's where Ogden and Weber County are at the moment.]”

We democrats have been saying it since Godfrey had this pie in the sky idea. Every time I write on this blog to expose the corruption. You always say democrats do it too. We’ll that’s not good enough for us democrats. We say corruption is corruption. No matter whom it is. Stop defending republicans. Democrats in overwhelming numbers are willing to put their money and careers where their mouths are. I’ve personally spent thousands of dollars, and some of my personal friends have spend thousands of their own money running for public office. I’ve had these so called Christians that belong to the same religion as I. Start the (whisper campaign). Which are flat out lies, against my family and friends.
Crum, Ive never seen you at any of the Democratic conventions.
I thank God that Rep. Neil Hansen is running for Mayor. I pray he’ll win, so he can put and end, to this corruption which is led by the Republicans.

Crum I love you and respect you. But were nothing like the Godfreys, Jim Hansen's, Or the Orrin Hatche's, or George Bushes. Democrats do it once and its done right, with most cost effective way.

Anonymous said...

I believe this thread started out as transportation issues, forgive me for returning to the topic.
If lying little matty has assured all potential voters that this is now to be a fuuly private funded venture(silly gondola to no where),how could he possibly transfer the $247,000 to the party that needs to do the study?(his patagonia vest wearing buddy) Is that what lying little matty is proposing to do? Peterson's market research, engineering study, potential ridership study, maybe exploratory excursions to Columbia, Kellog, New Mexico and any other place they can think of?(Chris and lying little matty,world traveling companions) Would they then come home and just make up numbers like they did in the prior bogus study, discredeted by the very SLC law firm they still owe for putting thier name on it? Is little lying matty proposing this money be a gift to Peterson? Council, put your foot down hard.(hopefully on the lying little bounders head) Enough all ready, stop this insanity. PRETTY PLEASE.

Anonymous said...

Democrat:

You wrote: Crum, Ive never seen you at any of the Democratic conventions.

Then you haven't looked very hard....

You wrote: We democrats have been saying it since Godfrey had this pie in the sky idea.

We have as individuals. You. Me. Some others. But the Weber County Democratic party has said, on the ill-advised gondola/gondola sell the parks to the mayor's buddy real estate scheme exactly... nothing.

Sure we are, collectively, better on the issues than they are. But assertions, even by implication that corruption, unwise spending, cronyism are only Republican characteristics is not a defensible claim. And making indefensible claims about our own party does nothing to improve its appeal to voters. Besides, if we're asking voters to entrust public policy to us, to entrust us with cleaning up the Republicans' mess, yet again, we --- you and I --- have an obligation to clean up our own Party as well. That's a way to increase public trust in us, not the reverse.

We're mostly on the same page, Democrat. Mostly. What I want to know, still, is why our party in the County, the Weber Democratic Party, and its leadership have so far said precisely nothing about our Republican mayor's scheme to sell Ogden's parklands to his real estate speculator buddy and to put north of 40 million dollars into a city built and owned tourist sky ride on Harrison. Nary a word.

Long overdue, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

I heard a rumor last night that UTA will reluctantly reimburse the city for the $16,000 Lewis-Young-Robertson-Burningham study, but won't spend any more of the $250,000 until the mayor and the city council can agree on how it should be spent.

Of course, it's easy to imagine post-election scenarios in which the mayor and the council (majority) have no difficulty reaching consensus.

Meanwhile, let's see if the mayor doesn't jump up and take credit by pledging not to spend the rest of the money until after the election.

Anonymous said...

It occurs to me that UTA would have to stretch its own rules quite a bit to reimburse the city for the $16,000 LYRB study. That study had almost nothing to do with public transportation--it was almost entirely concerned with estimating the tax revenue generated by the residential and commercial development portions of the Godfrey/Peterson scheme.

Anonymous said...

Dan:

Interesting news in re: UTA.

And a gain in at least one way. UTA seems, if what you heard is accurate, to now recognize that "the city" involves more than simply the Mayor, that the Council represents "the city" as well. That's something new, seems to me, and good.

I think UTA would be making a mistake to pay off the LYRB study. People are already, at the state level, starting to raise questions about what they claim is UTA's... oh, let's say cavalier approach to spending decisions. [I am not saying the questions are justified, merely that state legislators are raising them.] Paying for a study nearly wholly unrelated to transit matters seems likely to create more problems for UTA, not less.

Why should UTA be so willing to spend public money merely to make Matt Godfrey's word good? [Godfrey commissioned the study, not UTA.]

Anonymous said...

Curm and Dan, thats quite a stretch, calling that a study.

Anonymous said...

tree hugger:

Yes, it comes with wine. A jug of Boone's Farm. Warm.

In fact, I believe that Godfrey, threatened by the superior intellect of the cheese, will counter its candidacy with his own enticing new platform:

Vote for Godfrey. A block of gubment cheese and a fifth of potato(nose) vodka in every pot.

Anonymous said...

Ugly Beaver, do you think Godfrey got that combination from the world renoun, Future camp cookie of the Malan's Basin hike in yuppie paradise, and fast on your feet lying emporium, Wolfgang Puck? Gubment cheeze, and potato (nose) vodka, only a cheeze eatin lying little impersonator of his cousin chucky, would plagerize such an exquisit culinary combination. He publicly gives no credit to a fellow visionary. SICK.

Anonymous said...

bill:

While Godfrey's culinary strategy to gain votes clearly came from personal friend, Puck, we must give him credit for restraint. He flatly refused the suggestion of offering one more ingredient sure to push him to victory:

Onion rolls.

Anonymous said...

Crum:

Have you called the Weber County Democrat leaders on pie in the sky issue, to voice your concerns?

Lets work together!

Anonymous said...

democrat:

If emails count as calls, the answer to your question is "yes." And if you have some practical suggestions about how to move the WCD party off the dime on local issues, count me in. In my view, it's pretty hard bordering on damn near impossible to revive a local political party that won't stand up on local issues.

Part of the problem is, I guess, structural. Party organization in Utah is county-based, which means there is no Ogden City Democratic Party. Which I find fairly strange. [I've never lived in a city that didn't have a city-based party organization.] But here, it's all county based. The effect seems to be that unless your city is the county [SL for example], party organizations tend not to get involved in city-based issues. And so take no stands.

Anonymous said...

HEY! I KNOW WHO GODFREY’S “PLANTS” ARE!!! The one running for At Large Seat C against Wicks is DENNIS HOWLAND, the retired VFW commander. KENT PETERSEN, is running for Rick’s seat. He and Godfrey are from the same pea pod. My guess is, that he was Godfrey’s mentor.
Monotreme, you said:
I wonder when Mayor Godfrey is going to give up this stupid "gondola/gondola" (thanks, Curm) idea once and for all.

I thought he was on the road to recovery, but this is a serious relapse.
We are glad that Godfrey slipped off the road, and let you and everyone else who believed his lies. A leopard can’t change his spots, and neither can Godfrey. His statements a couple of weeks ago were nothing more than political propaganda to try and win those votes who are against it.
Jest wonderin, you said:

So, did VH announce and what did she promise?
YES!! Van Hooser did announce Monday night. She was well-organized and prepared. She had a big banner that had a silhouette of the Municipal Bldg., and stated “Mayor Susie Van Hooser.” She had a very good crowd there. She handed out a 4” X 6” card with her picture that said: “Imagine the Possibility…A Mayor that works for Everyone . . . Imagine… A Mayor who listens to your ideas. That’s Susie. Imagine… A Mayor who finds the common ground. That’s Susie. Imagine… A mayor who cares about all of Ogden’s citizens.

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