Godfrey Transit Vision to Be "Unveiled" at Tonight's Work Session

Word has it that Godfrey will have us all singing "Kumbaya"

Got this Adobe PDF attachment in an email from Ogden City Council Communications Specialist Chad Phares on Tuesday:

Let this serve as a reminder of tonight's city council 5:30 p.m. work session, wherein Boss Godfrey will reportedly reveal, inter alia, his El Grande Great But El Cheap0 Street Car Plan.

Anybody who attends tonight's council work session is invited to report in on the "nitty-gritty" in our comments section.

Article length submissions will almost surely be promoted to a new lead WCF article, of course.

And one other thing in closing: Chad Phares is definitely doing a bang-up job in his position as City Council Communications Specialist.

We don't know what we're paying him, but we think whatever salary he's drawing should be immediately doubled.

Whereas we admit that we were earlier concerned about the concept of our city council employing -- OK we'll just say it -- a propaganda specialist -- we'll just now backtrack and say we really like Chad's work. He always delivers council agendas on time, in a form that's truly professional, as illustrated in the PDF link above.

We're also encouraged, that under council chairwoman Amy Wicks's most excellent and forceful leadership, the Ogden City public transit problem is finally being "brought to a head."

Our Ogden City Council seems to be approaching the Ogden City Transit problem the same way they approached the water infrastructure problem earlier this year. Ogden City demanded leadership that time. While Godfrey was dragging his feet on the water project, Amy Wicks and sensible council members got it done. We predict it will be the same now with respect to public transit, now that we have stronger leadership on the council.

Next poster... please!

500 City Employees Pull Sanitation Duty

One city big-wig enjoys a rare opportunity to do some "honest work"

We received this interesting email tip on Monday from a gentle reader who identified himself as an Ogden City employee:

Hey Rudi, Godfrey is going to have all of the city employees out cleaning up the city while on duty Wednesday, Cops, Firefighters, the bunch. What a hoot. Oh, and its tied to employee appreciation.
First he sticks it to us with a paltry 2% merit if eligible, then he puts us all on sanitation duty.

Lo and behold, we find a "chirpy" Ace Reporter Schwebke write-up of Wednesday's "city beautification project" in this morning's Standard-Examiner, providing a decidedly more positive spin.

We especially appreciated this highly candid John Patterson quote:

"John Patterson, the city's chief administrative officer, said he enjoyed using a pole pruner to remove trash from the Ogden River Parkway. "It's a chance to do honest work," he said."

In Patterson's particular case, we think he may have a quite valid point.

Pleasant day out of the office for city employees, or oppressive forced stoop labor?

Let's hear it from our gentle readers.

Transit Corridors and an "Affordable" Street Car Technology

Emerald City's #1 "visionary" moves streetcars to the discussion front burner

Scott Schwebke adds more grist to the Emerald City public transit discussion mill this morning, with a Standard-Examiner Top of Utah section article which loosely describes several transit proposals which Boss Godfrey intends to present to the city council at Thursday's council work session. We incorporate Mr. Schwebke's lead paragraphs below:

OGDEN — The city council will unveil a priority list of top potential transit corridors within Ogden during a work session Thursday night.
Thirteen potential transit scenarios have been considered as part of the prioritization process, the council said in a prepared statement issued Tuesday night.
Specific details regarding the scenarios developed through discussions between the council, the city’s administration and the Ogden Planning Commission were unavailable.

In addition to a list of proposed corridors, this morning's story also again mentions Godfrey's intention to recommend study of a tantalizing alternate transit mode:

"However, he has said he intends to present the council with a proposal to study the feasibility of an affordable streetcar system."

Yesiree, Boss Godfrey is at least giving lip service to streetcars, although he's still keeping the details under wraps.

In the past week we've of course speculated here on Weber County Forum about this mysterious "affordable streetcar system" technology which Godfrey will unveil on Thursday. Gentle reader Dan S. has already opined in an earlier comments section that he believes Godfrey is thinking about something like this:

A streetcar named SWIMO; battery-powered tram in Japan

We heard similar speculation from gentle reader disgusted on May 13.

Whatever Godfrey has in mind, we confess we're sitting on the edges of our seats. How nice it would be however, we'll tentatively observe, if the lumpencitizens and their "visionary" mayor could find themselves marching in the same direction, at least once.

Before turning the floor over to our readers, we'll lodge a couple of our own lingering questions:

1) Why are we still studying alternate "preferred" transit corridors? We thought that issue was resolved by the Baker Study (at no small taxpayer expense) clear back in 2005.

2) If indeed it's to be the battery-powered SWIMO technology, we'll note that the whole thing looks entirely "experimental" to us. Though relatively cheap it may be, we wonder whether an unproven technology like SWIMO is something that could realistically become the backbone of our Ogden City public transit infrastructure.

So many questions; so few answers.

And what say our gentle readers about all this?

Bill O'Reilly Goes Nuts

Fair and balanced?

Hey Faux News fans! We stumbled upon this video whilst googling:

(We urge EXTREME READER CAUTION BEFORE VIEWING THIS VIDEO: "Salty language" is contained within. Make sure impressionable kids are AWAY from your computer when you view this) :

Bill O'Reilly Goes Nuts!

You'd better view it right away, before Fox News lawyers get it pulled from YouTube.

Comments, anyone? (We'd especially like to hear from socially-conservative Fox News fans.)

Why Clinton Lost

The Reason Nobody is Talking About

Everyone but Sen. Clinton knows it is over. Everyone is busy with post-game analysis of why she lost. But the reason is so obvious that it is staring us in the face. Even the best analysis, from Karen Tumulty, does not mention it, perhaps because it is too obvious.

Daily Kos
Why Clinton Lost: The Reason Nobody is Talking About
May 10, 2008

Excellent article and political analysis from Saturday's Daily Kos. Here's the gist from Saturday's article:

Fake mavericks like McCain rolled over and played nice. Sen. Clinton fully expected the Primary for Democratic nomination in 2008 to be a coronation: the real attacks would come from Republicans in the General Elections. So she was looking to the right and not the left as she made her decision. She made a crucial decision risking the lives of thousands of soldiers based on a mere political calculation.

We confess we've been watching with a sort of morbid fascination as Hillary Clinton plods onward during the waning days remaining prior to the Democratic National Nominating Convention, under circumstances in which it seems obvious to everybody but Hillary that she's a political "dead woman walking."

Sooner or later however, we were bound to get around to a political post-mortem examination on the subject of the failure of the Clinton campaign; and Saturday's Daily Kos article takes a step in that direction, proffering what we believe to be a very interesting hypothesis.

Read the full article here; and then don't forget to come back with your comments.

More Emerald City Transit Talk From the Utah Blogosphere

Transit in Utah chimes in again

Here's another great post from one of our Utah Blogosphere favorites, Transit in Utah. We post here the opening 'graphs from today's TIU article:

Opportunity for Ogden?
Well it looks like Mayor Godfrey is now looking at streetcars instead of just gondolas which hopefully a good sign:
Ogden Mayor has moved on from urban gondolas -- to street cars
Last time I talked briefly about how Ogden could create a nice urban area by putting together the streetcar, a revitalized Washington Blvd, and the Centennial Trail that goes along the Ogden River. Today I was planning to go into a little more detail and build upon those previous ideas.

Smart as the TIU blogmaster is on the topic of Urban Transit, we know what everyone in Ogden knows: Boss Godfrey has urban gondolas tattoed on his brain.

Our little Shite Mayor seems able to fool even the public transit experts, at least
some of the time.

Boss Godfrey Announces a Secret Transit Study Plan

Soon Emerald City "naysayers" will all be singing Kumbaya

Seemingly out of the blue, Boss Godfrey's eerily grinning portrait peers out from this morning's Standard-Examiner front page, along with a public transit-oriented story, reporting Godfrey's prediction that everyone in Emerald City will soon be singing Kumbaya. Godfrey reportedly has been visited by a new public transit brainstorm/vision, one that's already being greeted with some skepticism however. We incorporate Ace reporter Schwebke's introductory paragraphs below:

OGDEN — Mayor Matthew Godfrey says the city council should be pleased with a proposal he will unveil this week to study the feasibility of a local streetcar system.
“I think they will be thrilled, and we will be singing ‘Kumbaya’ at the end,” said Godfrey, who intends to present the plan during a council work session Thursday night.
But City Councilwoman Dorrene Jeske is skeptical of Godfrey’s proposal. She believes the plan is a diversionary tactic to prevent a formal, more extensive transit alternatives analysis of the corridor between the intermodal hub at 23rd Street and Wall Avenue and Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital.
“It’s a way to waste time,” Jeske said.

As Ace Reporter Schwebke reports (and as reported on WCF last week), Godfrey remains opposed to initiating an "alternatives analysis," a formal process which, according to our understanding, would be a mandatory stepping stone toward federal funding of a street car system such as is being contemplated for Emerald City. Street cars are too expensive, he insists. Thus Godfrey apparently has schemed up another tactic which, it appears to us, wouldn't put an Emerald City Streetcar project anywhere near the federal funding fast-track.

According to the Federal Transit Administration website, the completion of an alternatives analysis is a mandatory prerequisite for federal funding:

Alternatives Analysis -- To specifically qualify for New Starts funding (49 USC §5309), candidate projects must have resulted from an alternatives analysis study (also known as major investment study or multimodal corridor analysis) which evaluates appropriate modal and alignment options for addressing mobility needs in a given corridor. Alternatives analysis can be viewed as a bridge between systems planning (which identifies regional travel patterns and transportation corridors in need of improvements) and project development (where a project’s design is refined sufficiently to complete the NEPA environmental process). The alternatives analysis study is intended to provide information to local officials on the benefits, costs, and impacts of alternative transportation investments developed to address the purpose and need for an improvement in the corridor. Potential local funding sources for implementing and operating the alternatives should be identified and studied, and New Starts criteria should be developed.

We also invite our readers to view the handy flowchart on the FTA site, which shows where an alternatives analysis fits within the "formal" federal funding scheme. To our dismay, we don't see "Boss Godfrey Brainstorm" anywhere on the chart.

And there's another element to today's story we mustn't forget. Godfrey's continued dawdling also places local funding in jeopardy:

If an alternatives analysis isn’t undertaken soon, Ogden may lose out on its share of proceeds from a Weber County quarter-cent sales tax earmarked for transit projects, City Council Chairwoman Amy Wicks said.

Admittedly we haven't yet had an opportunity to hear Godfrey's new "plan." True to his persistent "mystery-style" of municipal governance, he's keeping his new tactic close to his vest until Thursday night, when "all will be revealed."

We'll therefore try to keep an open mind for now, until we can find out exactly what Godfrey has up his sleeve (although we'll forthrightly confess we're feeling the irresistible compulsion to go along with Councilwoman Jeske's assessment.)

And what say our gentle readers about all this? Has Boss Godfrey come up with a way to cut the red tape... and save taxpayer money... or is he merely still dragging his feet?

Mother's Day 2008

A thought-provocative collection of articles and videos for Mother's Day 2008

When we arrived, it was our mothers who first taught us who we are and what we should do. Then, later, a few of our fathers – or their leaders – taught us war – and we forgot so much. Today, we honour our mothers - and perhaps, recall their teachings.

UN Observer and International Report
Mother's day 2008
May 11, 2008

An interesting collection of thought-provocative articles on the origin of the American Mother's Day Holiday, and some mom-oriented anti-war stuff from unobserver.com

Comments anyone?

State Demo and GOP Conventions

Check out today's Std-Ex story... and a live podcast

The magic day has arrived. Both the Utah Democratic and Republican Parties will whittle down their lists of candidates for the 2008 general election today. Read all about it in this morning's Standard-Examiner story.

As an added bonus for true political wonks, we link this media player, which will broadcast the live action from today's State GOP convention:



It's billed as experimental, so we wish the podcasters the best of luck.

We searched in vain for a similar podcast from the Demo Convention, BTW. If somebody can come up with a Democratic Convention podcast, please be sure to link it in the comments section below.

Don't forget to chime in with your comments.

Golf Course Update: Boss Godfrey Tips His Big-spending Hand

Big Spender Godfrey opts for $8 million mediocrity

We've had a busy calender today, but we didn't want the day to slip by completely, without putting the spotlight on one interesting story appearing in this morning's Standard-Examiner. Specifically, Ace Reporter Schwebke reports in this morning's edition that Boss Godfrey has finally played his hand, in connection with his proposed "four options" set forth in February, concerning his "vision" for the future of the Mt. Ogden Golf Course. From this morning's story:

OGDEN — Mount Ogden Golf Course must be completely redesigned or significantly modified to make it more playable and ultimately profitable, a city official said Thursday night.
“We’ve got to make changes that are drastic enough so that it really is a new, fresh product,” Todd Brenkman, the city’s golf course division manager, told the city council during a work session. [...].
Brenkman said he has consulted several experts who have concurred “hands down” that Mount Ogden Golf Course should undergo a complete redesign estimated to cost $6 million to $8 million to become profitable.

We don't know what Brenkman's true sentiments are with respect to the future of the MOGC, but it certainly comes as no surprise that he's become Godfrey's designated "point man" in the first publicly revealed step toward dropping another $6-8 million into another Godfreyesque scheme. As golf course division manager, Brenkman occupies a postion equivalent to an Ogden City department head. And we've all seen what happens to Ogden City department heads when they demonstrate the temerity to differ in their opinions with their can-do and visionary Boss Godfrey.

And what say our gentle readers about this? Are there any amongst our readership who may have knowledge of Mr. Brenkman's privately-expressed opinions regarding this matter? Bill C.? Jason W.? Anyone else who regularly plays the course? We don't want to get the poor guy in trouble; but it seems to us that Mr. Brenkman, of all people, would have at least some natural appreciation for the concept of "tightening up" operations, and aggressively promoting the unique qualities of Ogden's most challenging course first, before recommending the kind of drastic action which would turn MOGC into a foothill equivalent of El Monte. And wasn't a tidying up of MOGC operations the cornerstone of Godfrey's "new business plan," which was announced only last week?

We'll add that somehow we still have the uneasy feeling that Godfrey's idea of "high adventure" is something more sensible folks would label "mediocrity."

Don't let the cat get your tongues.

Ogden Public Transit Redux: More Info Re Monday's WACOG Meeting

The public transit predicament approaches information overload

On the heels of Tuesday's Weber County Forum discussion, we've received additional information about Monday's WACOG meeting, during which Weber State University students asked the Weber Area Council of Governments to fund a study to determine whether a streetcar or bus rapid transit (BRT) should be the transit system linking downtown Ogden to WSU and McKay Dee Hospital. Boss Godfrey of course told the WACOG panel that he opposes the $200,000 city expenditure for a mass transit alternatives analysis because development of a streetcar system between downtown and Weber State University is "too expensive."

Mainly for the sake of continuity, we link yesterday's Scott Schwbke story on this same topic. Although this story adds little to the fact scenario already provided in Kristen Moulton's Tuesday article, there is one tantalizing nugget of new information, appearing midway through Ace Reporter Schwebke's writeup:

"There are some advanced streetcar-like technologies that could possibly be used between downtown and Weber State and McKay-Dee, Godfrey said."

Whereas Kristen's story had left us with the impression that Godfrey had been intentionally vague in his reference to "other [transit] methods," (leaving us to conclude he was still holding out for gondolas), Schebke's story adds an element we hadn't heard before: "advanced streetcar-like technologies."

Is it possible that he's referring to something like this?

Has Boss Godfrey suddenly beaten his obsession with gondolas, and opened his mind to rational and proven public transit alternatives? Only time will tell. We suppose we'll have to wait until the council work session on May 15, when all will be revealed -- we hope.

We're also pleased to provide two other useful reader resources this morning:

First, Gentle Reader Dan S. has graciously provided us an mp3 audio recording of Monday's WACOG session, in which our readers can hear the dulcet voice of Boss Godfrey, hemming and hawing at his very best.

Second, Dan has also forwarded a copy of a letter he sent to the Weber County Commission, containing an annotated transcript (with commentary) of Godfrey's portion the Monday WACOG proceeding.

Comments, anyone?

More "Gondola Talk" From the Utah Blogosphere

Utah's premier public transit blog joins the discussion re gondolas
City Councilwomam Jeske chimes in with some pithy comments in the lower commmnets section

Fine article yesterday from Transit in Utah, under the headline, "Godrey still wants to play with aerial gondolas in Ogden..." Blogmaster JMD springboards off of yesterday's Kristen Moulton article, provides a couple of additional informational links (including one from WCF), adds some thoughtful analysis, and then offers up conclusions which bear a striking resemblance to much of what we've been saying at Weber County Forum for the last three years:

What it comes down to is a gondola is good for point to point transportation especially for situations that involve huge elevation changes. What it is not designed to do is blend into the urban fabric of a community. How will 25th Street benefit from the Gondola? Instead imagine a streetcar traveling along the street bring people from FrontRunner to shop and dine in Ogden.
What Godfrey should be working on is bringing a new vision to the city, one that focuses on the character of the city, provides the opportunity for independently owned retail stores and restaurants which would give residents of Salt Lake City an alternative to the chain stores and restaurants of Gateway and other developments. Ogden could build something really unique that would cause people to want to travel to the city. Between the river walk, 25th Street, and Washington Blvd Ogden has an outstanding opportunity to develop a unique destination that will bring new life to the city.
Or will Godfrey take the opportunity that Ogden has and squander it on some pipe dream?

"Pipe Dream?" Where, gentle readers, have we heard that terminology before?

We welcome Transit in Utah's entry into the discussion of urban gondolas, and hope this excellent public transit-oriented blog will continue to follow Boss Godfrey's ongoing antics, as the lumpencitizens of Ogden fight the good fight for rational public transportation alternatives.

Transit in Utah is listed in our Utah blogroll (right sidebar), BTW. We read it regularly, and urge our readers to check it out. We consider it, in fact, to be the premier public transit blog in Utah.

First Glance at Boss Godfrey's Proposed 2009 Budget

This morning's Std-Ex story reveals discrepencies and errors galore

By Disgusted

In this mornings Standard-Examiner the mayor talks about increasing the city budget by 13.4%, from 120.5 to 136.7 million dollars.

Hasn't the mayor been paying attention to the big picture? We're in a national economic slowdown. He says well finance the new budget with money from the recently raised sewer and water rate but he wont raise taxes. Tilt! What are the raised rates, if not tax increases under another name?

And the mayor says that we will fund this budget from increased revenues from The Junction. Didn't we just hear from him that the junction was behind projections on revenue generation and that we would have to subsidize the junction for at least a couple more years?

Also the 135 million dollar budget isn't represented in the pie chart that accompanies the story, which when totaled only accounts for 43.3 million dollars. Where is the rest of the money being spent?

Public Transit Returns to the Ogden City Discussion Front-burner

Boss Godfrey digs in his heels for "further alternatives"

As warm weather arrives in Emerald City, the local political climate warms up right along with it. This morning's Salt Lake Tribune reports on yesterday's Weber County Council of Governments meeting:

OGDEN - Weber State University students asked the Weber Area Council of Governments to kick in money - and kick-start - a study to determine whether a streetcar or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) should be the transit system linking downtown Ogden to WSU and the nearby McKay Dee Hospital Center.
The WACOG, composed of Weber County commissioners, mayors and city council members of various communities, made no promises at its Monday meeting.
But the group did get a glimpse of how contentious the proposed transit project, suggested by a 2005 feasibility study, has become in Ogden.
Mayor Matthew Godfrey blasted the proposal to build a streetcar or BRT from the downtown transit center - and FrontRunner commuter rail - east along 26th Street to Harrison Boulevard as "fatally flawed" and no longer an option.
"It's out. There is no way to pay for it," said Godfrey. "Why would you pay for a study if there is no way to pay for it?" [...].
Godfrey assured other members of COG that he's not opposed to transit between downtown and the university. "I believe other corridors and methods need to be studied." [...].
Chris Bentley, legislative vice president of the Weber State University Student Association, said Ogden has missed a chance by failing to move on its 2005 feasibility study, funded jointly by the city, WSU and the Utah Transit Authority.
Bentley said a transit system beyond the existing UTA buses would be a boon to students and faculty who travel to campus, and to the county's economy. "It's actually a regional issue, not just an Ogden City issue."

As the price of gasoline soars, and sensible Ogden citizens cast about for viable transportation alternatives (see this morning's Charlie Trentelman article), Boss Godfrey appears to remain fixated on the same debilitating mayoral obsession which has stymied coherent Ogden public transportation discussion and planning since 2005.

As reported in this morning's story, Godfrey will be taking his bad act back to a city council work session on May 15, to discuss unspecified "transit options." According to Godfrey, "Ogden City needs a plan where the administration and council are on the same page." The lumpencitizens of Ogden of course know exactly what that means:

Gondolas to nowhere, anyone?

This May 15 meeting may well turn out to be one that nobody will want to miss. As everyone knows, Godfrey's always at his most entertaining best when pitching his knuckleheaded Godfrey schemes. Fashion accessories like torches and pitchforks are optional as always at city council work sessions; but steely-eyed stares are mandatory, of course.

Comments, anyone?

Ogden Update: Not Many Signs of Life in Emerald City, Despite the Arrival of FrontRunner

Like Leopold Bloom in Joyce's novel Ulysses, one regular WCF contributor takes a morning walking tour of Ogden; but unlike the the classic Joyce character, on a similar spring morning odyssey in 1904 Dublin, GC finds nothing going in the culturally-sterile MattGodfreyWorld.

By Curmudgeon

Having deposited my faithful '94 Aerostar van for major surgery at a shop on Washington and ridden the 612 downtown, and it being a beautiful spring morning between terms, decided to do a downtown walkabout and see what was happening.

Walking from Washington to Wall, noticed that there are still a lot of storefront shops empty and available for leasing. On every block, north and south sides, of the two blocks of Historic 25th Street. And a block off 25th to the north, a lot more signs up offering office space. [Old Post Office, nearly the entire Berthana block, with the building on the east end offering "office suites starting at $150 a month," high speed internet and all utilities included. Granted, Class A office space it isn't, but still, hardly bespeaks much demand for downtown office space.] And Boyer has signs up for office space in The Junction and the old Well's Fargo building, many floors of it, is available too.

Much has been said over the past years about downtown Ogden taking off "once FrontRunner arrives." FrontRunner has arrived. And the "to let" and "available" signs don't seem to have diminished much.

Looking through the gate at the Union Square Condo development, noticed several "for sale" signs stuck on the lawn of the common area. Not really surprising [people change jobs, lives, move in and out of houses all the time]. But it would be interesting to know if the units are selling reasonably quickly and for a reasonable advance over the original purchase price. I hope they are.

Noticed there is a big advertising billboard up against the east wall of what used to be Star Noodle [available for leasing, renovations promised]. It encourages Ogdenites to enlist in the fight against drunk driving. Unfortunately, the billboard is just behind a large blooming tree, so that all you can see of the sign as you drive down 25th Street are the letters "ving." Maybe it should have admonished Ogdenites to avoid drunk billboard placement.

I walked on to the FrontRunner station, where a school group of about 15 was trying to get ticketed using the one [1] ticketing machine there. I got there about 12 minutes before the train left, and they'd been there for a while already. They didn't make it. Train left with them still trying to buy the last tickets, helped by a kind stranger who missed his train while working the touch screen as the teacher desperately worked the money-slot trying to get the kids on board on time. Two other passengers in line behind the kids also missed the train. The machine seems very slow, had a sign saying it was persnickety about taking credit cards, and to see the UTA service agent in the bus depot if you had trouble. Not good. [One ticketing machine, having trouble with credit cards?]

Park and ride-the-train lot maybe one third full.

Wandered over to the Salomon Center, passed the Great Blank Wall [aka Larry Miller Theater] fronting the main development area. Work is going on at the Earnest Arms building folks were reporting no work at recently. Masons on the scaffolding. Two more buildings going up south and east of Salomon Center.

Strolled over to Great Harvest about ten or so, got coffee and a slice, and staked out one of its two sidewalk tables to watch the street life for a while.... such as it was. Not much. For one five minute stretch about 10:30, I was the only person visible on the street from Great Harvest down to Union Station. For that five minute stretch, Curmudgeon was the street life of downtown Ogden. [Now there's a scary thought.]

The only shop doing much business that I could see was Great Harvest. More or less steady stream of people in and out, getting coffee, bread, etc. Nothing much else happening on the street that I could see.

Note to whoever decides these things: Ogden needs more sidewalk cafes. [Note: sidewalk tables were out at Peddlers/GFC too.] It was pleasant sitting outside Great Harvest of a warm spring morning, sipping coffee, reading a bit. And when you're at a sidewalk table, people seem to say hello and, sometimes, chat for a moment. Perfect strangers. Kind of fun. Be pleasant of a warm spring afternoon to sip a cooling wine or beer at a sidewalk cafe too after a downtown shopping stroll, but I realize in these parts that's a slippery slope on the path to perdition, and [gasp!] the chirrin might see.... Still, hard to sell 25th Street as a happenin' kind of place if not much is happenin' and what might be happenin' is not permitted.

On the whole, so far as I could see, the long-promised arrival of FrontRunner has not yet done much by way of increasing daytime business downtown. It still may, but the promised condos and apartments need to come on line and increase the well-heeled resident population of downtown fairly quickly, seems to me, or the expected boom isn't going to amount to much. There just are not many people on the street downtown--- still weren't at 11 when I caught a bus back up to campus. Hard to do much business when there just isn't much traffic on the street.

PS: on my stroll around downtown Ogden, I kept a sharp eye out for the missing 275 public parking spaces that, we are told, are holding up construction of the Gondola View Five Star Hotel. [I am nothing if not public spirited.] Sadly, I didn't find them.

Policy Vetting: A Fundamental US Media Obligation

An examinination of the role of journalists in connection with the "vetting" and the "selling" of public policy

By Curmudgeon

Weber County Forum has, now and then, discussed the proper role of a home town daily regarding actions and proposals of elected officials. Came across this post by Paul Glastris, guest-blogging on The Washington Monthly's blog "Political Animal":

POLICY IS THE BEST HONESTY... A lot of journalists get lured into the profession by the excitement—the chance to cover wars, natural disasters, political campaigns, or the lives of powerful people. I'm not immune to such inducements and have done a bit of all of the above. But most of my time in the business has been spent engaged in what might be called "policy vetting." Does a particular government policy work as advertised? Would a proposed new idea work if it were actually tried? This is not the most Hunter Thompsonesque form of journalism. But it's one I find endlessly fascinating, in part because it provides a bracing check on one's ideological biases.

Exactly. Policy vetting as he calls it --- nice term by the way --- ain't sexy much of the time, but it matters. A lot. Regardless of whose policy is getting vetted: the President, the governor or the Mayor of Ogden or Plain City.

Helpful Hints From Your WCF Blogmeister

Rudi provides yet another helpful clue for urban survival

You know that it would be untrue,
You know that I would be a liar,
If I was to say to you,
Girl, we couldn't get much higher.

Come on, baby, light my fire,
Come on, baby, light my fire.
Try to set the night on fire.

The time to hesitate is through,
No time to wallow in the mire,
Try now, we can only lose,
And our love become a funeral pyre.

Come on, baby, light my fire,
Come on, baby, light my fire.
Try to set the night on fire. Yeah!

The Doors (Jim Morrison)
"Light my Fire"
1967

As reported in today's Standard-Examiner, an amorous (but jilted) Ogden homeboy (are there any other kinds?) apparently took the legendary Jim Morrison's above lyrics a mite too seriously yesterday.

Attention all Ogdenites: Remember -- No matter how hot your passion is... don't be this guy:

"Man lights himself on fire at former girlfriend’s home"

And here's some additional advice. Don't depend upon your ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend to "quench" your fire, especially when violating a restraining order whilst soaked with gasoline. The guy in today's story just got lucky, wethinks.

Just another helpful hint from your old pal Rudi.

Knuckle Dragger Nominated Again in Senate District 10

West Jordon District Senate 10 GOP rednecks nominate Chris Buttars once more

Breaking news from the Salt Lake Tribune:

"Buttars wins GOP nomination"

Read the shocking opening paragraphs below:

SANDY - Sen. Chris Buttars, who roiled the last legislative session with his "black baby" comment, has captured the Republican nomination against three intraparty challengers.
Buttars barely escaped a primary contest with the strongest of his rivals, Gary Armstrong. The two-term incumbent now goes on to face Democrat John Rendell in the November general election.
Armstrong did not challenge the discarding of a spoiled ballot even though, had it been added to his total, would have been him over the 40 percent mark to force a run-off.
But he expressed bitter disappointment at the race's outcome
"Our district can't survive four more years of Chris Buttars. I will support the Democrat," said Armstrong.
"I'm very surprised the delegates drank the Kool-Aid," he added. "I'm disappointed they have that little concern for the district."

In the event that any there's any doubt whether a dumbed-down facsimile of the recent spokesmen for GEICO Insurance lives and thrives in the caves of Jordan, Utah, all doubt should be resolved, with the 2008 nomination in today's SLC GOP Convention of a living neanderthal as the GOP banner-bearer in Utah's Senate 10 District.

From this point on, ALL Utah GOP candidates will bear the burden of having Chris Buttars as a co-runner on the greater Utah GOP ticket.

Good news for Democrats; extremely bad news for sane Utah Republicans, we believe.

Sad though this is for Utah Republicans, this development creates ample opportunities for our friends who'll be running as Democrats across the state. Perhaps this truly is a golden opportunity for Utah voters -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- to fix the many problems in the Utah legislature.

Many of us in the Utah GOP are now counting on YOU.

As defeated GOP District 10 convention challenger Gary Armstrong said:

"Our district can't survive four more years of Chris Buttars. I will support the Democrat."

And what say our gentle readers about THIS?

Boss Godfrey Update: A Few Words From Keisha

Gentle reader "Keisha" insists that we post essential video information

A couple of days back, the last time we were discussing the purported Mt. Ogden Golf Course (MOGC) "revenue problem" here on Weber County Forum, one of our regular readers, Keisha, submitted a pair of YouTube videos via our email link, suggesting that we post them to the board, with the additional suggestion that the latter of these videos contains a concept which could turn our MOGC into a surefire money magnet.

In the interim period, having succumbed to a series of laborious petitions from Gentle Keisha, (translation - much begging) your blogmeister now posts the two videos earlier submitted by this very persistant LONG-TIME READER.

Video #1:

The second video highlights a brand-new climbing sport apparently "breaking out in America." Detail-oriented readers will observe that there exist many similarities between the two climbing videos that Gentle Reader Keisha has submitted -- including similar climbing technique -- and the exact same (identical) climbing axes used in videos #1 and #2. Video #2: We confess we don't recognise the Pleinis family, who get the credits in these climbing videos. We will observe, however that these guys (brothers and/or cousins or whatever) do contribute a little more than a little coincidental "something" with their YouTube videos. We invite our gentle readers to again listen closely to the voiceover on the hypnotic soundtrack in the first video. Sounds to us like an indictment from an actual ice-climber of Jeff Lowe's dippy climbing park to us. As Bill O'Reilley says- "Listen and You decide."

The Best Laid Plans...

Sour taste in Sugarhouse

By Curmudgeon

Story in Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune, headlined "Sour Taste in Sugarhouse" reveals all is not well with the vast Sugarhouse redevelopment project that drove out many local businesses from a historic building block. The subhead:

"Demolition project appears to stall, leaving a big mess"

From the story by Derek P. Jensen:

Imagine a bombed-out brick building from "Black Hawk Down," but with pink interior walls courtesy of Blue Boutique. [...].
[Sugar House developer Craig Mecham] concedes the foundering economy has him "nervous," hinting his plans to make over the eclectic strip could be on hold.
In January, Mecham tore down most of the so-called Granite Block corner straddling 2100 South and Highland Drive for a planned retail and residential development. The demolition was supposed to be done by now so the construction zone could be layered in fresh landscaping for spring.... But the backhoes shut down when workers realized what's left of the Blue Boutique is just inches from the abutting bakery building. [...].
Meantime, merchants say the standoff has siphoned business and posed safety perils. "People think we're closed or we're being torn down," says Laurie Bray, whose photography business in the adjacent Rockwood Art Studios has plummeted 50 percent since the demolition. "It's going to be a travesty if this sits here for two years". [...].
Mecham... maintains the project is not stalled - "I know people perceive it to be that way, but it's not," he said - adding that financing "is not holding this up." At the same time, the developer concedes the slowdown in the commercial real-estate market is "a scary situation," and he worries about his timing. "Everything is softening," Mecham said. "It makes us nervous, to be quite honest."

Let us hope, fervently, that projects already under way or planned at The Junction are not going "on hold" in light of the softening economy and the advent of The Bush Recession. It would be very bad news for Ogden if they did.