“So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here–not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.”

Hunter S Thompson

On Wednesday, the Park Record published a story citing tweets from Park City City Council Candidate Chadwick Fairbanks. Some would describe it as a hit piece on a historically-Republican candidate. Others would thank the Park Record for pointing out statements made by Fairbanks on Twitter over the past few years.

The problem is that the piece feels like it is written by someone who personally has an issue with Mr Fairbanks and found an avenue to pursue it. Does Jay Hamburger (the author) have a hatred for Mr Fairbanks? I have no idea. However, I believe it reads like it. That’s a problem.

Jay Hamburg and The Park Record was clumsy here. They are trying to point out

Yesterday the Park Record announced that Event Organizer Daniel Lewis jumped candidate Chadwick Fairbanks to win the right to appear on this Fall’s City Council ballot. As of August 13th, Mr. Fairbanks held a two-vote lead, but due to uncounted ballots, as of 8/27, it turns out Mr. Lewis won by two votes. So, Mr. Lewis will be on the Fall ballot.

If you’ve attended the Park City Farmer’s Market, you’ve likely seen Mr. Lewis greeting patrons as they pick out their berries and greens. If you’ve attended a Utah Republican state convention, you’ve probably seen Mr. Fairbanks compete for a position. Both were vying for the last spot on the ballot to choose who would represent Park City on the City Council.

The truth is both of these guys had an uphill battle to win the election. Mr. Lewis lacks name recognition, and Mr. Fairbanks is associated with the Republican Party.

Yet, given all that, the more important story is that the Park Record has lost most of the credibility it has left.

In the July 27/28 edition of the Park Record, Jay Hamburger wrote a front-page, masthead article entitled “Candidate’s online trail veered right” on Mr. Fairbanks. The subtitle was “City Council hopeful pushed conspiracies on Twitter.” As a friend wrote to me, “This is the Park Record’s way of saying, don’t vote for Chadwick Fairbanks.”

Yep.

That would be OK if it were an editorial. Yet, Mr Hamburger singled out Mr. Fairbanks in a news article, at the top of the page, that went years-back in twitter comments, and DESTROYED him.

I get what the Park Record was trying to do. They searched Twitter and found some quotes by Mr. Fairbanks that they disagreed with and thought the audience would disagree with. They posted those thoughts and it made a difference.

Congratulations.

The Park Record was able to influence an election.

Don’t get me wrong. I personally disagree with Mr. Fairbanks on many (perhaps most) things, including those about people of Jewish ancestry (my nieces are Jewish). His views expressed on Twitter are shit.

Yet, the way the Park Record has handled this election so far is crappy, too. They shouldn’t single out a candidate and run a hit-piece on someone they don’t like.

To contrast this, let’s then look at the Park Record’s article, written again by Jay Hamburger, entitled “Becca Gerber, fighting for working moms, wants second term. The title tells you all you need to know about who Mr. Hamburger, and the Park Record, support.

They could have equally titled the article, “Becca Gerber has been unable to solve traffic issues during her tenure as City Councilperson.”

All said, I don’t live in Park City and don’t get a vote. I assume both Ms. Gerber and Mr. Fairbanks are OK people in their own ways. I’m sure each has their flaws, as all of us do. What I object to is the blatant favoritism shown by the Park Record.

Maybe the Park Record will prove me wrong in the general election and delve deeply into Facebook profiles, Twitter posts, Next Door comments, voting records and tangible successes from every candidate. I won’t hold my breath, though.debat

Last week, Park City’s City Manager, Diane Foster, was let-go by the town. She has been on the job since 2013 and her employment contract provided a severance package equal to a year’s pay, according to the Park Record. That equates to about $140,000.

Good for Ms Foster in receiving a severance package. I only had the opportunity to speak with her a few times, but she always seemed competent, friendly, and willing to educate me on how the city worked.Yet, the circumstances of her termination highlight something interesting with social equity in Park City.

Park City Municipal made social equity a top priority in 2018. They spent up to $100,000 on hiring Park City Municipal Corporation

It may seem like I’m are beating a dead horse on safety issues on the Jeremy and Pinebrook roundabouts. However, the Park Rag continues to point out issues because they may be heard and maybe improvements will be made.

With that in mind, a friend of ours was driving last night in the roundabout and encountered a driver going the wrong way. Her comment was informative. “If you know it’s a roundabout and you are somewhat competent, you will likely do the right thing. However, what if you don’t know it’s a roundabout?”

Her comment was enlightening. This morning, I drove from the Jeremy side and underneath I-80. At that point, the road goes left and right. I imagined it as if it was dark, or snowing as it sometimes does in the winter, and what if you didn’t see the Keep Right sign? If you didn’t know it was a roundabout, you’d likely go left toward the I-80 on-ramp. That, of course, is the wrong direction.

I could see myself making that mistake if I was unfamiliar with the intersection. If say, I was visiting for Christmas or New Years or Sundance or President’s Day.

We have a long winter ahead of us and lots of opportunities for a mistake. That mistake will cost someone thousands of dollars and could cost them their life if they meet up with a construction vehicle.

I have been in meetings with Public Works personnel and I think between Kilby Road Curves and these roundabouts they are tired of hearing about it. They give off the impression that the public is just over-sensitive and everything is OK.

It’s not.

If something goes really bad, some lawyer is going to find negligence in the actions of leadership. They are going to dig up the 30+ reports of issues with the roundabouts (so far). That liability claim may go past Summit County and to the individuals directly responsible for the negligence. The “corporate veil” will be pierced.

If that doesn’t incent individuals in the county to try harder on this, then I’m not sure what will.

The new Coronavirus is coming to Park City — or better put — the new Coronavirus is already in Park City.

A few days ago I wrote that the Park City School District needed to tell parents and teachers that school will be remote until the end of the school year. My reasoning is that it allows us all to make better decisions.

I had some push back via email and social media that “I’m an idiot and school will be back soon,” that the decision to close school is not that simple, and a defense of our Superintendent that says Dr. Gildea is awesome.

I agree with all of them. At times I am an idiot. The decision to remote-teach through the end of the year is not simple. The Superintendent seems to be decent at her job.

Yet, when will our schools be back in session? Given the party-line, I guess I am planning on schools being back in session on May 1. I am inviting all my relatives to fly into graduation in June. My wife and I have told our employers that we’ll both be back at work full-time on May 1. Things are going to be back to normal in three weeks! Yeah.

Except, none of that is true. I’m a realist.

You may love or hate Donald Trump, but either way, you probably respect Dr. Anthony Fauci. Today he was asked “A lot of parents are resigned to the fact that their kids aren’t going back to school this year but are looking ahead. What do you think summer camp holds and the start of next school year holds?”

The gist of his response is that his daughter is a teacher and she asks him that too. He says, “It’s unpredictable but you can get a feel [for how the curve is coming down] and it will have a more immediate effect on things like summer camps than it will in the fall… I fully expect that by the time we get to the Fall we will have this under control. It will certainly not be like it is now where peopl are shutting schools.q

We all know that Deer Valley isn’t the same place it used to be. A short three years ago the resort was awarded the best ski resort in North America. Fast forward to 2020 and Ski Magazine now splits things into East and West Coast. This year DV was ranked 5th in Western Resorts. So, I guess we were still somewhere in the top 10 in North America? That’s great, I guess,

Yet, I wonder about the future of Deer Valley, let alone the DVE (the Deer Valley Experience). In 2019, Deer Valley announced they were investing millions into the resort, but that was mainly to incorporate new electronic gates so more people couple be pumped through with fewer employees (at least in my experience).

This Summer DV was supposed to renovate Snow Park Lodge, They just announced they are postponing the effort. According to KPCW, “the resort’s plans to spend the summer renovating Snow Park Lodge are off. In an email to Deer Valley staff from President and COO Todd Shallan, he wrote, due to the closure of the resort and all operating business March 15th, the resort, as well as all of the Alterra Mountain Company resorts, have generated zero revenunes. As a result, he says they have decided to postpone the Snow Park Lodge renovation and all large capital projects until a future, and still to-be-determined, date.”

Happy 4th of July. I hope everyone is doing as well as they can given the odd circumstances we find ourselves in. This is the time I start thinking about schools and the fall. This year, that is a particularly interesting exercise.

No one knows how Park City schools will function come late-August. The Governor has said classes will be in-person; however, that could be one day a week or five days a week. Things could get worse and in-person learning may no longer be possible. Certain types of education, like specialists or art, might be remote, while other classes are in person.

What I was taught from my high school Civics teacher, tennis coach, and later a good friend was simple. Hope for the best. Expect the worst.

One thing is certain. As we head into the fall, schools can’t function as they did in the spring. My kids had generally good experiences, interspersed with technical glitches. My kids, who were in kindergarten and second grade had good experiences. This was due to my wife being able to teach them and our teachers trying hard (and in some cases exceeding every expectation). Yet, as we gather with friends, talk turns to school. About half have had less than optimal experiences.

In some cases, the teachers disappeared. There was little communication from a teacher.

In many cases, the day-to-day work was pushed onto parents. The parents were doing the teaching with a little help from educators.

Many comments noted that a family could complete a day’s school work in far less than two hours. It made them wonder why their kids were in school for five to six hours a day under normal circumstances.

“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” Mary Antoinette uttered as french citizens starved in the streets in 1789. Let the starving eat cake.

Yet, recent events in Park City make for an interesting discussion, given the recent Black Lives Matter murals panted on Main Street in the last week.

Across the country, recent protests around police brutality make sense to me. You and I could have a good three-hour discussion over beers on the topic but my world-view is that in many places police have gotten out of control. This is especially demonstrated within minority communities.

However, I struggled with the Black Lives Matters graffiti (and the others) being painted on Main Street. Why this cause? Should other causes be allowed to paint a mural? I think back to an old Simpsons Episode where Maggy (the baby) is swiped through a cash register and the screen says NRA-4-Ever. Would Park City allow me to paint NRA-4-Ever on the street? What about “Workers of the world unite?” Why not a painting denoting native Americans’ struggles?

Then I found out Park City Municipal actually paid $15,000 to the Park City Summit County Arts Council to create the graffiti. What?

We are in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. We hope schools will open in the fall. We don’t know if anyone will actually travel to our resorts this winter. Sundance has already dropped the bomb and said the festival won’t be normal. Local businesses are closing.

And Parkites paid $15K for spray paint on a street. That’s very Park City.

Three things…

First, if Park City and Summit County wanted to actually contribute to the issues impacting minority populations, they would find ways to decriminalize drug offenses in Utah – not paint pictures. Second, they would audit the county and city law enforcement agencies to ensure that justice isn’t biased. Third, they would spend this money on mental health services.

Instead, $15,000 was invested in painting a mural that will be gone come January. Well, it won’t be completely gone because only part of it will wash off in the snow. Then next May, Park City will pay someone $1500 to power wash the rest of it off.

It’s a misallocation of money. Those funds could have been used in so many better ways .If money was infinite then sure, pay artists to fill Main Street with all sorts of political statements that match the City Council’s values.

However, in a pandemic where city leaders should be worrying about the future of is citizens, perhaps paying for graffiti isn’t the best use of funds. Perhaps there are a million better uses for that money.