in Environment
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
A Friend of the Park Rag sent a quote that I absolutely love. I believe it describes our situation to a tee.
If you like that quote, you may want to read the whole story. It seems Jackson Hole has similar, if not worse problems, than ours. The author pulls no punches and basically says that the people who use the mountains, and the recreation industry that exploits our resources, need to look in the mirror.
Average Traffic in Cottonwood Canyons is at a 1999 Level?
I was doing some research on the number of visitors that drive the Cottonwood Canyons. I’ll be writing more, later today, about a report on transportation from 2012 that I’ve been reading. However, I wanted to share an interesting chart in that report from the Utah Department of Transportation.
Below is the average daily traffic in the Cottonwood Canyons during February from 1999-2011. See anything interesting?
Yep, basically there has been no growth in daily traffic. In fact Big Cottonwood Canyon was down about 10% while Little Cottonwood Canyon was up only about 2% (in 12 years). I realize this data is a couple of years old and perhaps some of this is attributable increased busing, but I would never have guessed I’d see that outcome, especially since the period includes Utah’s Great Awakening…AKA the period after the Olympics.
It makes me wonder if perhaps instead of trying to manage growth with the Mountain Accord, the powers that be are actually trying to increase growth in the Cottonwood Canyons.
Reduce Your Chances of a Robbery
As some of you know, my house was robbed in November. Today I read about another house that was almost robbed but the thief was scared away. Unfortunately, it seems like I am hearing more and more of this around Park City. What I have learned is that robberies happen here and the perpetrator will likely not be caught. So, your best option is to not get robbed. Here are some of the things I do (and know) now:
- Our family does not leave the garage door open when we are not in front of our house.
- Doors are locked, even when we are home.
- I have wooden dowels in each window and door that slides to prevent them from opening. Our thief used a crow bar on a sliding window to break the lock. Making dowels is easier than it sounds and can be accomplished in 20 minutes at Home Depot. Measure the opening in each door window, take the measurements to Home Depot, and ask them to cut handrail into pieces of lengths you need. The dowels can easily be painted to match your window.
- I have motion detectors around the outside of our home that signal when someone comes close to our home.
- I now have an alarm system, although we don’t advertise this with a sign of the actual alarm company because that allows the thief to know about how your system works.
- I call the Sheriff any time we see someone suspicious in our neighborhood.
- I check to see if there are any cars on the street with people sitting in them as we pull away from our house.
- I have moved anything I really don’t want stolen to a safe deposit box at the bank.
- I would actually rather have my dogs with me than left alone trying to “protect” my house. If someone was willing to break my window and steal from me, what might they be willing to do to my dog?
Here is my goal:
- I want to be observant and notice any potential thief if possible.
- I want to make my house look hard to break into. That way they may go somewhere else.
- If a thief gets into my home and I’m not home, I want to slow them down as much as possible. They are trying to get in and out in less than 5 minutes. I want it to take them longer than that, so there is a chance that they will be caught.
- If they get in and I’m home, I want to know via the motion detector and alarms that an intruder is there and I need to take action.
I realize it sounds a little overboard; however, in practice it’s not much harder than it was before. It just took realizing that even though we live in a beautiful place like Park City, robberies do happen here. Perhaps because of that, they happen that much more often.
in Film Studio
No Mention of Park City Film Studios?
Saturday’s Park Record includes an article about Governor Herbert vetoing a Film Subsidy bill. Effectively Utah won’t be increasing the amount of subsidies that can be paid to film makers shooting in Utah. Yet, that’s not really the interesting part.
What I find interesting is that there wasn’t one mention of Park City Film Studios in the article — you know that 375,000 square foot project, at the edge of town, 20 years in the making, that will diversify the local economy.
No mention. No quotes. No references. No indication of how or if Governor Herbert’s veto impacts the studio. No details regarding whether the studio lobbied for the bill or why they couldn’t persuade the Governor. Nothing.
Sometimes what’s most interesting is what isn’t said.
in Film Studio
Press Release Highlight the Problems with Park City Film Studios
Park City Film Studios (PCFS) is nearing completion and it’s time to take another look at what they are planning. While I have been critical of the project, now that its opening, I hope it achieves enough success to be viable. Yet, reading a press release from March makes me question whether their strategy will work. Here is the press release, with my comments in yellow:
Film Studios to Bring Hollywood-Level Production
PARK CITY, Utah – The Utah Film Commission has always welcomed Hollywood to our beautiful state and its diversified terrain, and soon Tinseltown will have even more reasons to head east.
There have been nearly 1,000 Hollywood feature films shot in the state, like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “Thelma & Louise”, and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. But there has been one thing that film makers didn’t have in this area: real Hollywood-style sound stages and production studios. But they will soon.
The films mentioned were made at least 20 years ago. They of course left out Utah’s two most recent big-budget
The developers of Park City Film Studios hope their location will become “Hollywood East”, and they broke ground on the project in October of 2013. Chairman Greg Ericksen said their studios will provide a boon to the local film industry.
“We can film anything in Park City now that you can film anywhere in the world, either film or television,” he said. “So, we finally got the missing element: the infrastructure.”
This seems to be a bit of hyperbole. For example, where’s the huge back lot at the Film Studio? What if the majority of the movie required an urban setting? I’ll let those issues go, though, and focus on something more important. They say they “finally got the missing element.: infrastructure.” I’d say that they are still missing another key component: people. Not that Salt Lake doesn’t have great people (they do); however, they are not the exact people they use in Hollywood. If you need to film some special effects are you going to fly your top, trusted people to Park City or are you just going to do it in Hollywood? I could be wrong but there would have to be something very compelling here to make that happen.
Ericksen is the mastermind behind the studios and wholeheartedly believes the $120 million project will be a boon to the local economy.
“I think you’ll see what Park City has wanted for a long time, and that’s the second economy during the shoulder months,” Ericksen said. “I think you’ll see the hotels and eateries pretty much filled up all year round now.”
Actually, I think the average Parkite loves the shoulder season here. Someone like Bill White Restaurant Group, maybe not. This gets to the root of some of the arrogance surrounding this project. Mr Erikson tells residents the 70 foot monstrosity that blocks the mountain from Highway is going to be beautiful. That it will fill up our town in the shoulder season. That his project will diversify our community and fill our restaurants. It’s almost like he doesn’t live here in Park City. Wait, does he?
While those associated with Park City Film Studios feel confident about Ericksen’s vision, there are some doubters, however, who feel the 374,000 square-foot facility will bring a rash of congestion to the city. Ericksen said his team has done their homework.
“We looked at congestion, we’ve done traffic studies,” he said. “We’ve remediated that, most of that. We don’t feel like it’s going to be as significant as most people feel.”
Exactly how has traffic congestion be remediated? As far as I know, this sits on 248. If the studio is successful at all, there will be more people on 248 at 8AM. If the hotel is built next door, there will be more people on 248. There is a huge parking lot out front? How are people going to park there if they don’t drive down 248? Perhaps Mr Erikson has a plan to only open the studio at night and not allow hotel guests to park there?
One great thing about Park City Film Studios is they have everything Hollywood has to offer, but Hollywood doesn’t have what Park City has to offer—some of the most beautiful views in the world.
Ericksen said he feels that upon completion of the studios, Park City will be able to match Hollywood’s production values while offering a whole different feel. A recent visit from a frazzled Hollywood studio executive echoed that sentiment.
Ericksen explained: “She said, ‘Gradually my muscles started to relax,’ she said, ‘I started to breathe’ and she said, ‘I just said to myself, Ah, what a great place to be creative.’”
I don’t exactly envision the making of a movie relaxing. Perhaps I’ve watched too many movies about the making of movies. Maybe the film production staff will work 6 hour days and get down to Main Street to dine and have drinks at Silver by 5PM. They’ll enjoy long hikes and ride their bikes along the rail trail. I guess I don’t know anything about how movies are actually made. I pictured it as hard, but this sounds absolutely cushy.
The film industry is a huge business. Producing a feature film costs millions of dollars. For example, the blockbuster film “Gravity” relied heavily on special effects and cost around $100 million to make. Just the kind of work that will soon be available at the new studios, and that excites Ericksen.
I’ll be positive for a moment. If PCFS could be the go to studio for something like Gravity, that would awesome. If it became known that you just had to do projects like that here, what a coup for Park City… OK, back to being not-so-positive. Gravity took 4 1/2 years to make and they had to invent technologies to actually make it work. Just because you build a building and buy some equipment doesn’t mean that you can make one of the most technically challenging films every produced. Wow.
“I think not only to the greatest snow on Earth, but I think it’s going to be home to the greatest stories on Earth, which is fantastic and really my passion,” he said.
Although Park City Film Studios still looks like it’s a long way from completion, it’s really not. Ericksen said the hard part is done, and a lot of the mechanics, technical and special effects equipment is already here and will soon be installed. The studios hope to open in early summer of this year.
Again, I wish PCFS luck, but I worry about them. I worry about the strategy. I worry about the location. I worry about the impact on traffic. I worry about the hotel being built there. I worry that’s Quinn’s will become a strip mall. And more than anything I worry about the conversations I hear around town where people are already bickering about what the land should be used for once the studio fails. That means I’m not alone with my concerns.
in Dogs
Summit County Council’s Comments on Dogs are Becoming White Noise
In Wednesday’s Park Record, the Summit County Council wrote an editorial on dogs. The title, “Self Regulation By Dog Owners is Best Solution” got us excited. The contents of the editorial, not so much.
The editorial basically says:
- Keep your dog on leash
- If you have a dog you know is safe off-leash, then use one of the county’s fenced in off-leash parks.
Wow, that is exceptionally helpful.
What we were expecting from the title was something that would work in the real world. You know, handle the most common situations where a person without a dog (or a leashed dog) encounters bikers, skiers, hikers, or people walking around town with their dogs off leash.
It seems to us that they need to just make a choice from the few available options and go with it. They could make the fine for an off leash dog so outrageous and universally enforced that citizens know that if the Sheriff, Park City Police, or Animal Control see a dog off leash, it will be an automatic $1000 fine.
The second option is to start a campaign like Mountain Trails 10 seconds of kindness, where Mountain Trails advocates being respectful of others. In this case we know dogs will be off-leash, so the County reinforces that if you come upon a dog that is leashed or a person without a dog, and your dog is unleashed, you and your animal step off the side of the trail. Simple. For bikers and skiers that is more effort, but it seems like a good compromise.
The third option is perhaps the most libertarian view. Leave the leash laws as they are and with current enforcement (basically unenforced) but if your dog bites a human, attacks a dog, or chases wildlife, you will be fined $5000 and pay restitution to the victim.
The final option is to continue on the path we are on. With this path, there are laws against off-leash dogs but they are rarely enforced. Likewise, the percentage of off-leash dogs that actually cause trouble is also very low. There will be occurrences where people are upset about the dogs, just like they are upset at other drivers. Yet, it is an acceptable loss versus the enjoyment and marketing Park City receives from its dog culture.
It seems the county has been beating this drum for years. At some point it just becomes white noise — and it probably already has for many people. We understand that they feel pressure to do something in light of the most recent dog biting incident, but at this point simply writing a letter to the paper means little.
We believe they either need to decide to take unilateral action, and face the certain backlash from citizens, or just say the law “is what it is” and in effect be quiet. Either way would be a welcome change from what we are seeing now.
in Community
Recordings of KPCW’s Local News Hour Are Now Available
If you are like us, you enjoy KPCW’s Local News Hour with Leslie Thatcher, Lynn Ware Peak, and Rick Brough. We think it’s the best source of news in town. Over the years we heard many complaints that the show wasn’t available on KCPW’s website. We had the same complaint, so we started recording it so we could listen later.
Well, KPCW has taken care of that issue. The Local News Hour is now recorded and available each day at kpcw.org. We think its a fabulous addition and one that many people are going to like.
If you want to know what’s really happening around Park City, KPCW is your best option. Now you can listen at 8AM, if you are in your car, or later in the day on your computer or phone.
in Economy
Summit County Unemployment Rate Back Down to 3%
Summit County’s unemployment rate has been dropping since December 2009. During the height of the recession, our unemployment rate crested at 8.9% but has fallen to just 3%. This is the third lowest rate of any county in the state (Morgan and Cache are at 2.9%) and 2.5% lower than the national average of 5.5%.
We still have a ways to go to beat the recent record. In June 2007 we recorded a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of only 2.4%.
in Food
Park City Food and Wine Classic is Finalist for USA Today’s “Top 10 Travel Award”
We like the Park City Food and Wine Classic. There are always some interesting classes and events during the 5 day festival. Our only complaints have been that the classes don’t last long enough.
If you’ve enjoyed it as well, you may want to vote in USA Today’s “10 Best Readers Choice travel awards competition.” Park City’s festival is a finalist this year. Each time we win an award like this, it makes the next that much better.
If you care to vote, you can do it here
in Schools
Want Your Child to Opt Out of State Standardized Tests? Here’s how.
Last year we wrote about why some parents want their children to opt out of standardized tests. If you are interested, the high School has a web page on the subject.
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