By Dan Schroeder
It’s
the last Thursday of the month, and Ogden newspaper subscribers know
what that means: time for the monthly “Ogden Update” nearly-full-page
advertisement from the mayor’s office!
In this month’s installment
you can read about upcoming events like the Tour of Utah bike race and
Night Out Against Crime. You can also read about the recently opened Hilton Garden Inn and about the new plans for twice-weekly commercial air service between Ogden and Mesa, AZ.
There are two more items, though, which I think are especially noteworthy.
First,
at long last, the city has announced that a year-round prescription
drug disposal bin has been installed in the lobby of the downtown Public
Safety Building at 2186 Lincoln. The bin is available to residents from
8 am until 10 pm daily.
Regular Weber County Forum readers will remember
how more than a year ago the city council proposed an ordinance
requiring the installation of such a drop box. Police Chief Greiner
objected loudly, for reasons that never made any sense. To all
appearances, the Godfrey-Greiner administration was against the idea
merely because the council was for it. Needless to say, the
controversy-averse council backed down.
Although
there’s no sign that the city council is any less timid than last year,
we now have a new mayor and a new police chief. It would appear that
the new administration is less petty, and the drop box has been
installed with a minimum of fuss.
A
second noteworthy item appears under the headline, “Forbes ranks Ogden,
Utah, #6 Best City in US for Business and Careers.” Here’s a scan of
this short blurb (click to enlarge):
What you would never know from reading this is that the Forbes ranking
doesn’t look at individual cities; it looks at metropolitan
statistical areas, for which the government publishes the most
up-to-date economic data. The distinction is critical in our case
because the Ogden-Clearfield MSA
includes all of Weber, Davis, and Morgan counties. Ogden City accounts
for only 15% of the MSA’s population and only 25% of its jobs. So the
chances are that a high (or low) ranking for the Ogden-Clearfield MSA
says more about Davis County and the Weber County suburbs than it does
about Ogden City. Without further information, there’s no basis for the
mayor of Ogden to take credit.
Of
course, the distinction between Ogden City and the Ogden-Clearfield MSA
never stopped Mayor Godfrey from taking credit whenever the MSA did
well in one of these rankings. When it comes to puffy political
rhetoric, Mayor Caldwell is proving to be no different.
