Fairly tepid editorial in this morning's Standard-Examiner, noting that 9 Utah cities managed to add their pet projects to the U.S. Conference of Mayors' recently completed "Ready to Go wish-list." From the editorial:
Most Top of Utah cities missed a chance to get on the federal stimulus wish list. Last week nine Utah cities unveiled their hoped-for, “Ready-to-Go” projects in a report issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.Notably, one Utah City, Sugarhouse, somehow managed to place its streetcar project on the list.
The report lists 15,000 specific infrastructure projects that total almost $100 billion. The incoming Obama administration plans to seek a stimulus bill of close to $1 trillion after the president-elect’s inauguration. Nine Utah cities are on the wish list. Salt Lake City is requesting $780 million in wish-list projects.
But the only Top of Utah city that made the request list was Brigham City.
Lower in the editorial, the Std-Ex cuts to the chase, more or less:
However, this clearly seems to have been a missed opportunity for some cities to prioritize its needs. [...]The Standard-Examiner thus joins the readers of Weber County Forum in questioning, at least obliquely, the wisdom of our gondola-obsessed mayor, who dawdled for three years on our own streetcar project.
Ogden also needs to make a firm decision on its public transportation needs so it can access assistance.
Yes, the Std-Ex editorial board could have made a stronger and more pointed statement. Unfortunately, today's editorial is just about as critical of Boss Godfrey as the Gondola-Examiner ever gets. Ironically, we find a missed opportunity embedded within an editorial dealing with missed opportunites on the Std-Ex editorial page this morning. Godfrey screwed up; and we believe that the Std-Ex should have just come out and said that. Instead, our home town newspaper again treats the little feller with kid gloves, relatively speaking.
And what say our gentle readers about all this?
