3/20/13 WCF Back Burner Cleanup: Ogden City Puff Pieces, Hit Pieces and More

Refreshing to observe an Ogden City Mayor going out of his way to demonstrate actual and seemingly genuine support for underprivileged Ogden City schoolchildren, don'tcha think?

Over the course of the past week or so, various northern Utah (and national) news organizations have published a particularly notable variety of Ogden City-related news stories, some positive, and some not so flattering. Just to keep our ever news hungry readers abreast of what the media are saying about Ogden City (good and bad,) and in honor of yet another Ogden City S-l-o-o-o-w news day, we'll clear out our back-burner backlog and dutifully reel off  the below story links, arrayed under the rough general categories below:

Ogden City-related Puff Pieces

• Ogden hailed among top 10 emerging ski towns
• Becoming Outdoor Town USA
• National Geographic: Ogden Ranked Top In Emerging Ski Towns
• Utah company receives national honors for Ogden High auditorium restoration 

The top three above stories fit clearly and neatly into the "college town" meme which has recently been the hot topic in and round Ogden, wethinks, and we'll additionally volunteer that it's great to observe the recently completed $9 million Ogden High School renovation project drawing some well-deserved electronic ink, of course. So what say our gentle Weber County Forum readers about all this?

Ogden City-related Hit Pieces

• The Worst-Paying Cities for Women
• Provo-Orem, Ogden-Clearfield areas top worst-paying list for women

 "Women making 40 percent of what men are paid in Ogden-Clearfield"?  Ouch! Perhaps now's the time for beleaguered Ogden-Clearfield women to stage a righteous protest walkout, an ever-useful and proven tactic in male-dominated societies going back to the times of the ancient Greeks. Sadly however, we won't lay money on betting that'll happen in Utah any time soon, if you know what we mean, and we think you do. Utah, we do LOVE thee! Really.

Ogden City Schoolchildren schmoozing with"Mayor Mike"

Early this month the Standard carried an uplifting Nancy Van Valkenburg story, reporting that on or about March 1, "more than three dozen other sixth-graders from Ogden’s Dee Elementary School... not one with any previous ski experience, were invited to Wolf Mountain ski resort Thursday for hours of fun, first in ski school, then trying their skills on snowboards and skis down a beginners’ slope":

• Wolf Mountain hosts first-time skiers from Dee Elementary School

One encouraging wrinkle in this story was the reported personal appearance of Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell, who "showed up to congratulate students and cheer on their efforts." “Dee has made some huge strides in the last few years, due to hard work by the teachers and the students,”  Caldwell said. “This is a great gesture from Wolf Mountain, to give the kids this opportunity.”

In this connection, we've obtained, straight from the Ogden City website, this heart-warming video, visually corroborating Ms. Van Valkenburg's touching March 1 writeup:

  It's refreshing to observe an Ogden City mayor going out of his way to demonstrate actual and seemingly genuine support for underprivileged (and voter non-registered) Ogden City schoolchildren, don'tcha think, unlike some Utah politicians who won't even consider making a public appearance without the prospect of immediate receipt of a hefty campaign contribution check or some other slimy political favor. Yes?

With that, we'll throw the floor over to you, O Gentle Ones.

Let's hear some noise from our comments section. It's been a mite quiet around these parts of late.