Holey downturn!
The Deseret News reports on the stalled construction projects in Salt Lake County that have left gaping holes in the ground. The voids include the now-infamous Sugar House Crater and also the Cottonwood Mall devastation zone.In both cases, retail-entertainment-residential-commercial projects — following in the pattern of the souless The Gateway mega-stripmall — were supposed to have risen in the holes. (An artist's fantasy of the new Cottonwood is shown.)
But now, the investment money, if there ever was any, is gone. In the case of Sugar House in particular, the mud pit is all that remains of a once-thriving quirky local retail neighborhood.
A building restorator once told me that a tepid, but steady, economy is the best thing for a city's architectural heritage. Such cities can afford to preserve structures, but not replace them. On the other hand, cities that go through giddy boom-and-bust cycles delight in tearing down the old, but interesting structures and replacing them with ugly new ones. The same, apparently, goes for walkable communities.
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Tribune's Bob Barr Blackout Watch: The Libertarian Party nominated Bob Barr as its presidential candidate on May 25, 2008, and 139 days later -- with less than one month before Election Day -- The Salt Lake Tribune finally informed its print edition readers of his candidacy.
See "McCain or Obama: Utahns want next leader to heal economy," October 11, 2008.
By comparison, the Tribune notified its readers of the candidacies of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama on an almost daily basis in 2008.
The Tribune first reported on:
*Ralph Nader's 2008 presidential candidacy as early as March 1, 2008.
*The presidential candidacy of the Constitution Party's Chuck Baldwin on July 3, 2008.
*The presidential candidacy of the Green Party's Cynthia McKinney on September 4, 2008.
In the interim, the Tribune's web site administrators disabled the accounts of individuals who noted the omission of Barr's candidacy from the Tribune's national political coverage in the TribTalk forums or comments sections of SLTRIB.COM.
Barr will be on at least 45 state ballots across the United States.
Nationwide polls show Barr receiving support from between 1 to 2 percent of voters (or about 1 in 50 American voters), and up to 11 percent support in some battleground states.
Only a handful of other presidential candidates can claim the same thing.
The CEO of MediaNews (which owns the Tribune), William Dean Singleton, was a significant financial supporter of Republican U.S. President George W. Bush.
www.BobBarr2008.com
Maybe subsidizing some of these retail centers wasn't such a good idea.
Re: Bob Barr Blackout Watch:
Fella or lady, your do Barr a disservice. Because of your blog nagging, I for one don't want to have anything to do with him.
He's a nice guy, but broke and can't get his plans across.
Further, he lacks everything Obama has, everything.
Get real. Obama and his Democratic team are the future of this country.
When banks promise to loan a developer money at 75% LTV, and then after months change to 65% LTV, you should have the bank fund fixing the hole. Perhaps have the banker do the work himself.
Idiots.
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