Vote for Utah ski bus

[jimmywilson69]

There are Catholics in SLC? Who knew...

 

[ss20]

There are Catholics in SLC? Who knew...

Yeah I doubt all 15 of them will move the needle on the gondola very much...

 

[raisingarizona]

Yeah I doubt all 15 of them will move the needle on the gondola very much...

You know what hurts the environment? Old school Catholics and their anti-contraceptive beliefs.

I bet there are a lot more Catholics than you might first think. Theres a pretty big population of Mexicans in SLC.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City calls on members to oppose gondola project

The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City is urging its members to oppose a gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon, arguing that the proposed project would harm the environment

www.fox13now.com

This is pretty shocking to me as a lifelong Catholic. You expect the church to weigh in on major issues which affect life & death and/or major issues of mortal sin, etc.., but not state capital expenditures. Sounds like the Diocese of SLC has "gone rogue" here with this stretch in logic.

 

[BenedictGomez]

There are Catholics in SLC? Who knew...

Quite a few actually. There are Catholic churches and several Catholic schools in SLC. Ever major area of Utah that I'm aware of has a Catholic Church. The one in Park City is crowded to the point they probably need another one somewhere in the Wasatch Back (the one in Heber City is small). You have to remember there are a lot of Mexicans in Utah either legally or illegally, as well as plenty of Mexican-heritage Americans.

 

[ss20]

You know what hurts the environment? Old school Catholics and their anti-contraceptive beliefs.

I bet there are a lot more Catholics than you might first think. Theres a pretty big population of Mexicans in SLC.

Oh I know...I live with them in my complex. I'm in a bizarre 1 mile X 1 mile section of "gentrified" area by Utah standards. I have my choice of pawn shops, check cashing, auto works, and tacos . It's funny because you go out of this area it's back to upper-middle class medium-rise brand new apartments with boutique shops galore.

My rent is going up "only" $165 for my next lease term then I'm getting a house around here- that's the goal at least. $450k for a small 2bd home within 30 minutes of Alta.

 

[jimk]

Quite a few actually. There are Catholic churches and several Catholic schools in SLC. Ever major area of Utah that I'm aware of has a Catholic Church. The one in Park City is crowded to the point they probably need another one somewhere in the Wasatch Back (the one in Heber City is small). You have to remember there are a lot of Mexicans in Utah either legally or illegally, as well as plenty of Mexican-heritage Americans.

Yeah, I agree. I'm kind of surprised the Church took such a public stance on something like a gondola build?!? Maybe the environmental concern is due to the Pope Francis effect I've been in half a dozen different Catholic Churches in the SLC/Park City area over the years, but I generally go to one in Cottonwood Heights. It's not in a Hispanic part of town. The Catholic churches are surprisingly common. Not as common as LDS temples, but about every 3-4 miles apart throughout the SLC suburbs. I don't go to the one in Park City very often, but it is extremely beautiful.

 

[thetrailboss]

This is pretty shocking to me as a lifelong Catholic. You expect the church to weigh in on major issues which affect life & death and/or major issues of mortal sin, etc.., but not state capital expenditures. Sounds like the Diocese of SLC has "gone rogue" here with this stretch in logic.

Well, it’s not the environmental issue that seems to be their main concern. It’s spending $500 million plus on a gondola that will run a relatively few days a year when we have people living in the streets in Salt Lake City. That’s a very valid point.

People forget that a core tenant of the Catholic Church is to help those in need. My personal feelings aside, as much as I can do that, John Cumming doesn’t need $500 million of our taxpayer dollars so he could continue to lose money and make stupid decisions. He’s not the kind of person that the Catholic diocese would think consider to be most vulnerable. From what I understand he has enough personal wealth inherited from his dad that if he really wanted this gondola he could bankroll all of it if not most of it himself. That’s something to think about.

The homeless situation here in Salt Lake County is really bad. The rest of the state deals with those who have drug, behavioral, homelessness, or all the above by sticking them on a bus and shipping them to Salt Lake City and dumping them on our streets. Their thought is that us transplants will take care of their problem for them. That doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

As to the environmental concerns, $500+ million really does not do much to help us try to save the Great Salt Lake. If I were Alta and Snowbird I’d be really concerned about that as that is the water that ultimately makes the snowfall greater in the Cottonwood Canyons. The last few years the lake has been really low and partially as a result of that our lake effect snows are not what they used to be. That’s a huge environmental concern. Add to that is the fact that we are really going to run out of water here pretty soon based upon all the rampant growth and lack of conservation.

But yeah, let’s drop almost half $1 billion on a gondola so the two ski areas can maybe breakeven or make a little money. As much as I love skiing, and those canyons are my home and will always be in my heart, I just can’t justify that with all the other problems we have in this state.

And again for the record when this was initially proposed I was interested in the gondola as an alternative and briefly supported it until I heard about the shenanigans going on with self dealing and people trying to make money off of us taxpayers. That really made me very cynical about this project and ultimately led me to be against it. Both of those resorts ultimately have created a lot of this problem and both of them should be expected to fix it.

 

[urungus]

In other news from the Beehive state …

Utah police somehow involved in case of women wearing body paint

Two women wearing body paint at a University of Utah football game has somehow become an enormous controversy.

www.sfgate.com

 

[jimmywilson69]

@thetrailboss for purposes of discussion. Would you support a publicly funded Gondola network that connected all 3 areas such as one Wasatch if it eliminated cars in both Canyons except for residents or those staying in lodging at the respective resorts?

In my opinion that is a much better "public transportation" solution than just one of the canyons.

 

[raisingarizona]

Well, it’s not the environmental issue that seems to be their main concern. It’s spending $500 million plus on a gondola that will run a relatively few days a year when we have people living in the streets in Salt Lake City. That’s a very valid point.

People forget that a core tenant of the Catholic Church is to help those in need. My personal feelings aside, as much as I can do that, John Cumming doesn’t need $500 million of our taxpayer dollars so he could continue to lose money and make stupid decisions. He’s not the kind of person that the Catholic diocese would think consider to be most vulnerable. From what I understand he has enough personal wealth inherited from his dad that if he really wanted this gondola he could bankroll all of it if not most of it himself. That’s something to think about.

The homeless situation here in Salt Lake County is really bad. The rest of the state deals with those who have drug, behavioral, homelessness, or all the above by sticking them on a bus and shipping them to Salt Lake City and dumping them on our streets. Their thought is that us transplants will take care of their problem for them. That doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

As to the environmental concerns, $500+ million really does not do much to help us try to save the Great Salt Lake. If I were Alta and Snowbird I’d be really concerned about that as that is the water that ultimately makes the snowfall greater in the Cottonwood Canyons. The last few years the lake has been really low and partially as a result of that our lake effect snows are not what they used to be. That’s a huge environmental concern. Add to that is the fact that we are really going to run out of water here pretty soon based upon all the rampant growth and lack of conservation.

But yeah, let’s drop almost half $1 billion on a gondola so the two ski areas can maybe breakeven or make a little money. As much as I love skiing, and those canyons are my home and will always be in my heart, I just can’t justify that with all the other problems we have in this state.

And again for the record when this was initially proposed I was interested in the gondola as an alternative and briefly supported it until I heard about the shenanigans going on with self dealing and people trying to make money off of us taxpayers. That really made me very cynical about this project and ultimately led me to be against it. Both of those resorts ultimately have created a lot of this problem and both of them should be expected to fix it.

The homeless problem is everywhere now I think. I've noticed that they look different these days as well. Instead of the typical bearded ex vet with schizophrenia there's more well dressed families out there with young kids etc. They look like "new" homeless people. This seems to have really blown up since covid started.

 

[raisingarizona]

@thetrailboss for purposes of discussion. Would you support a publicly funded Gondola network that connected all 3 areas such as one Wasatch if it eliminated cars in both Canyons except for residents or those staying in lodging at the respective resorts?

In my opinion that is a much better "public transportation" solution than just one of the canyons.

I think that would be awesome.

 

[thetrailboss]

The homeless problem is everywhere now I think. I've noticed that they look different these days as well. Instead of the typical bearded ex vet with schizophrenia there's more well dressed families out there with young kids etc. They look like "new" homeless people. This seems to have really blown up since covid started.

Ours is more the former with a lot of young people with issues. Fortunately I do not see a lot of kids--that kills me.

 

[thetrailboss]

@thetrailboss for purposes of discussion. Would you support a publicly funded Gondola network that connected all 3 areas such as one Wasatch if it eliminated cars in both Canyons except for residents or those staying in lodging at the respective resorts?

In my opinion that is a much better "public transportation" solution than just one of the canyons.

So I was for the One Wasatch concept in the abstract but the devil is in the details. A gondola for BCC is not really feasible because BCC is a much longer than LCC. But I understand there are thoughts to do a leg from Alta up over into in Brighton, and another up over to Park City. I think that is a good idea because both Canyons are dead-ends in the winter and having an alternative means of access/egress is a best practice.

Again, I was a HUGE Snowbird fan, but now not so much (I know, no shit Sherlock). It just shows how much things have changed there. I don't think we should be giving them $500+ million when there are things Snowbird can do for low or no cost and there are other alternatives.

 

[ss20]

Again, I was a HUGE Snowbird fan, but now not so much (I know, no shit Sherlock). It just shows how much things have changed there. I don't think we should be giving them $500+ million when there are things Snowbird can do for low or no cost and there are other alternatives.

If Snowbird got rid of stupid free parking on weekends it'd fix a lot of current issues and bitching/moaning I hear. That's step 1, imo.

 

[BenedictGomez]

The homeless situation here in Salt Lake County is really bad. The rest of the state deals with those who have drug, behavioral, homelessness, or all the above by sticking them on a bus and shipping them to Salt Lake City and dumping them on our streets. Their thought is that us transplants will take care of their problem for them. That doesn’t sound very Christian to me.

I suspect that has far more to do with the fact SLC has way more of the infrastructure, the facilities & shelters, the volunteers, the mental health professionals, and god knows what else, than say (______) <--- insert literally any other place in Utah.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I just can’t justify that with all the other problems we have in this state.

Well what's your solution then? Buses just aint gonna cut it unless the prognostication for growth misses so badly to the downside that the forecasters should find a new career.

Without that gondy, the only "solution" I can see is restricting access & capping skier visits, but that's not really a solution, it's a cop-out, and one which will significantly impair Utah's economy given how critical winter visits are.

 

[raisingarizona]

Well what's your solution then? Buses just aint gonna cut it unless the prognostication for growth misses so badly to the downside that the forecasters should find a new career.

Without that gondy, the only "solution" I can see is restricting access & capping skier visits, but that's not really a solution, it's a cop-out, and one which will significantly impair Utah's economy given how critical winter visits are.

And with a limited supply on the demand the costs to ski there would become ridiculously expensive, pushing a lot of skiers out of the equation and making it a very exclusive place on everyones public lands. I mean, that's basically already happening there and a lot of other popular ski resorts.

I'm sure there are plenty of people on these sorts of ski forums that want just that but......f those guys.

Random thought- if a part of everyones taxes sustain those public lands but these resorts are unattainable for working, middle class families wouldn't that be sort of like socialism for the wealthy? I can't get behind that. Maybe a tax funded gondola really is a better option?

 

[raisingarizona]

I don't think any other communities in Utah are actually paying bus fares for homeless people to send them to SLC. That sounds like some ridiculous Fox News shit. I guess I could be wrong but I haven't seen or heard anything like that. I spend more time in Utah than I do here at my home in Arizona, or I have at least for over two years now.

 

[thetrailboss]

I don't think any other communities in Utah are actually paying bus fares for homeless people to send them to SLC. That sounds like some ridiculous Fox News shit. I guess I could be wrong but I haven't seen or heard anything like that. I spend more time in Utah than I do here at my home in Arizona, or I have at least for over two years now.

Not too far off considering that Florida's Governor just paid $12 mill or something like that to send two jets with immigrants to Martha's Vineyard.....