in Environment, Schools
Why Wasn’t Treasure Mountain Listed as a Site to Remediate in 2007?
We’ve been searching the Park City School District website over the past few days to see if the EPA’s report on Treasure Mountain Junior High’s (TMJH) soil was posted. As you may know, the EPA sampled the soil late last year. The School District has said the results aren’t good; therefore, the soil has to be fixed. That, and bad pipes, appear to be the justification for tearing down TMJH and rebuilding it from scratch. We’d like to see just how bad it is.
Unfortunately we haven’t found the EPA report we were looking for, but we did find something pretty interesting.
We found a Request for Proposal (RFP) document from 2007 asking for bids to fix the soil at Park City School sites. It says “After conducting a soil test on Park City School District grounds, three sites show elevated levels outside the restriction of the Park City Soil Ordinance.” Then it goes on to list the three sites that failed:
- Park City High School (Dozier Field)
- Park City Learning Center
- McPolin Elementary School
Wait. Why isn’t Treasure Mountain Junior High on the list? The mining (presumably) hasn’t happened since the school was built in 1983. Shouldn’t the “deadly” lead have been found in 2007?
That leads us to one of two conclusions. Either the testing of TMJH wasn’t done properly in 2007 (or perhaps at all) or the results are being exaggerated now to support the need for a new school.
If someone is familiar with the testing in 2007, please let us know. Regardless, it should be interesting to read that report from the EPA.
in Environment, Schools
Has Anyone Seen the EPA Soil Report on Treasure Mountain?
We’ve been waiting to get our hands on the EPA’s soil report for Treasure Mountain. We emailed Dr Ember Conley a few days ago and asked whether we needed to GRAMA (government record request) request it. Her reply was:
Hi,
We will have an interview on KPCW on Tuesday, April 7th and a release of information on Wednesday, April 8th.
Best,
Ember
Since it was past April 8th, we emailed Dr Conley and asked about it but haven’t heard anything.
If someone has seen it, please let us know. Otherwise, we may have to GRAMA request it after all.
We’ll post it once we are able to track it down.
Park City Residents Should Video Tape Law Enforcement When Possible
The incident of an unarmed black man being shot by a North Charleston South Carolina police officer highlights the need for citizens to record police encounters when possible. In the case of North Charleston, the police officer who shot an unarmed man in the back 4 times has been charged with murder. The police officer gave a description of the encounter that differed from what had been captured on a citizen’s cell phone. The cell phone video enabled the city’s officials to know what had actually happened and charge the police officer with a crime (murder).
North Charleston is a long way from Park City. It’s makeup is very different. It’s crime rates and types are different. Why do we believe Parkites should pick up their cell phones and record our police and sheriff’s deputies when we see them? Because you never know what you may see.
We believe that most people in law enforcement are good people. They have a hard job and generally do it well. But just like clergy members, teachers, and doctors, there are bad police officers. They are also human, like us all, and make mistakes. Just because they are in law enforcement, though, it doesn’t excuse them from those mistakes.
You may be asking, “when in a place like Park City would it ever matter?” That’s a good question. Our thoughts immediately went to that teenage party broken up a couple of years ago when every law enforcement agency this side of the Wasatch showed up to bust underage drinkers. Allegations were made that law enforcement members were physical with some of the kids and they shouted obscenities. If that was all recorded, it would make it easy to know the truth.
You may then ask, “well aren’t most police forces using body cameras?” That seems to be the standard answer to this type of problem. The issue with that is two-fold. First, the officer is in charge of turning on or off the camera. It doesn’t run all the time. There isn’t the battery or storage available to make that work. So, while an officer may be reprimanded for not having his or her camera on, its not going to provide evidence of what happened, if it’s off. Second, the video taken by police will be in police hands. Again, in most cases that may be OK but we don’t want to have to rely on the organization responsible for the officer to choose what and when to disseminate information.
We firmly believe citizens have an opportunity to ensure that our law enforcement agencies are acting appropriately. One of our most powerful tools is the camera and almost everyone has one included in their phone. We have the power to not only record what is happening but also influence what WILL happen … because funny things (usually for the good) happen when a person thinks they are being watched.
Of course, this isn’t a call to interfere with police business or not follow orders given by law enforcement. That could not only endanger your life, but an officer’s as well. So, be smart and remember most people are good.
While the incident in South Carolina was tragic, it does provide a lesson of what normal citizens can do and how they can make a difference in their community. That morning in North Charleston, when citizen Feidin Santana pulled out his cell phone and started recording the police, he probably had no idea what he had done. In the end, what he had done was help ensure justice could be served for a dead man, shot in the back by police, who could no longer speak for himself.
in Food
Park City Brewing is the Type of Business We Want To See Succeed
Late last week, Park City brewing officially opened their doors to customers. They serve four beers out of their brewery on Rasmussen Rd (across from Burt Brothers in the shopping center). While The Park Record did a good job of providing the backstory on the brewery and the people behind it, we believe it missed the bigger picture of why something like Park City Brewery is so important to Park City.
For years Park City has been ruled by the old stalwarts like the resorts, retailers like Jan’s and Cole Sports, and the restaurants on Main St. However, when we think about what’s new, there isn’t much. Enter Park City Brewery. Unlike Squatter’s and Redrock (which we do like, as well) this brewery is old school. You come into try a few beers and there’s a bar with glass windows that look into the brewing area. In the front there are stools sitting around old whiskey barrels. It’s simple. If you’ve ever been to Fort Collins (Colorado) breweries, it’s reminiscent of that. It’s about the beer. That’s it.
Want to talk beer with guys who made it, they are behind the bar. Want to get a tour? You probably can. Do you want to get a nice meal with the kids, with a 14 page menu, and 12 different salads? You’d better go to Squatter’s or Redrock. This isn’t that kind of place.
So why do we say this is the type of business we want to succeed? It’s a bunch of guys from Backcountry.com who wanted to make beer and also had some friends that wanted to make beer. They started a small business from scratch and set up shop in an old garage (that also happens to be at a trail head). It’s not a chain. It’s not pretentious. It’s people doing what they love. And what they happen to love, many people around here love too.
If someone was smart and could also brew beer they would open up another brewery in the same Burt Brothers complex. Hell, these guys should make another label called Summit Park and open up another tasting room next to Cross Fit. When visitors tire of the snow, and want to get away from Main Street, they could spend a Saturday afternoon tasting some of Park City’s finest.
It has real potential and it’s potentially another take on the tourism market. Would summer visitors in Salt lake take a 20 minute drive into the mountains to taste beer, especially if there were a few different tasting options? No doubt. Is this a start…. for sure.
While we wait on what could be, we’d recommend trying Park City Brewery. They are open to the public from 1-9PM Thursday – Sunday. The consensus from those tasting with us is that the pale ale is nice (and the most popular), the brown is great, and the blonde is surprisingly good. We believe the comment on the blonde was “this is the beer you’d want after a nice long ride.”
We really do hope these guys make it — and if they do — it could be the start of something really interesting in Park City.
Response to Our Story on Vail Forecasting Numbers
Earlier today we wrote a story on how Vail does not forecast visitor numbers. We stated that we as a community should not take Vail’s policy of non-forecasting to mean that there won’t be additional visitors. We said that we needed to use common sense to ensure that adequate parking and traffic mitigation accompanied additions like the Vail/PCMR Gondola.
In response to our story, Park City Planning Commissioner Melissa Band wrote us with a very thoughtful email to provide more detail on the topic and why parking couldn’t be considered as part of the gondola decision.
Actually, the reason that Park City didn’t ask for more parking is because of the way the original MPD (master planned development) was written. Both the affordable housing and parking requirements were tied directly to the base development. The gondola connection and the snow hut expansion were both conditional use permits and thus had no trigger that the city could use to insist upon more parking (or affordable housing).
I heard someone on the radio say today that she couldn’t believe the Planning Commission didn’t think parking was an issue. Anyone who was at either of the meetings with Vail knows that almost all we talked about was parking, affordable housing and historic structures. For hours.
Unfortunately, when the original MPD was written in 1997, the anticipated impacts were not correct, but we are still bound by that agreement, as is Vail.
Once Vail comes in with anything at all for base development, parking and affordable housing will be front and center, I guarantee it, but we can’t re-write the rules.
There are one or two provisions in the MPD that allow for the city to step in due to parking or traffic, but they are quite controversial and would result in economic harm to the resort AND business and I’m not sure that the political will is there for such draconian measures.
Ideally, we want lifestyle and business to mix, so at least initially, it is a better starting point for all parties to work together on our mutual issues.
—
Melissa Band
Is There a Lack of Leadership Around Park City?
We’ve heard something interesting from a few people this week. The topic of leadership keeps popping up — and not in a good way. We’ve heard comments like “there is no leadership in Park City” and “we used to have strong people in elected positions where have they gone?”
The question is interesting but so is the timing. Why are we hearing this more now? What has changed … or have people’s perceptions changed? While we give our leaders a hard time, we understand that the job isn’t easy. Yet, because we are so close to the process, perhaps we have given them a pass on “leadership.” So we pose the question, IS THERE A LACK OF LEADERSHIP IN PARK CITY and SUMMIT COUNTY?
What is leadership?
Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.
Actually, there are a million interpretations of leadership but we like the one above from best selling author Kevin Kruse.
So, let’s think about big issues in the past couple of years in the Park City area. What were those? Traffic. Economic Diversity.Vail. Mountain Accord. Dogs. Parking on Main St. The PC CAPS building. Bonanza Park. Affordable housing.
We’d like to think of a big success in government and say, “yes, we have strong leaders, see what they did” but I’m not sure we can. We’re sure that decreasing idling times from 3 minutes to 1 minute doesn’t qualify. Nothing on the Mountain Accord seems to qualify. The failed holiday parking experiment on Main st. doesn’t qualify. Outcomes on traffic don’t qualify. We could go on.
On the flip side, one leadership success is Live PC Give PC. Maybe another is Recycle Utah? We could see those as leaders in the area of non profits. So, we have two.
Perhaps in the School System there is the beginning of leadership on a large scale? Only 9% of 11th grade Hispanic kids are competent in English and Superintendent Conley is pushing for all day kindergarten (which has been shown to help that issue). Yet, we are only at the beginning of that effort. As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.
Maybe the Bonanza Park redevelopment is leadership from the standpoint of trying to revitalize an area of Park City?Maybe?
Past that, we are frankly at a little bit of a loss. What big things have we left out where those people in city or county government or the education system have used their position to maximize others to achieve a goal? It can’t just be non-profits. We’d think there has to be one or two from the government side.
Maybe we are missing something or perhaps looking at leadership from too big of a perspective.
We wish we could write “Today Ms. ________ stood up and did THIS. She worked hard and got the people behind her. Together the people and government worked together to achieve something no one thought was possible and we are all better off because of Ms. _______’s leadership.”
Yet, we are at a bit of a loss. Is the Park City area at a loss too? Do we have great leadership or do we have people just driving the bus on cruise control.
After a little consideration, we think it’s a good question.
in Economy
University of Michigan to House “M City” a 23 acre Mini-Metropolis to Test Driverless Cars
By now you are probably familiar with our LUST for the driverless car and the impact we feel it could have on both transportation and economic diversity in the Park City area. While it’s something we wish we would do here, it looks like Ann Arbor, Michigan is taking the first step.
This summer a 23 acre facility will be opened near the University of Michigan campus to test driverless cars in a virtual metropolis built with roundabouts, freeway entrances/exits, other cars, pedestrians (robotic of course), tunnels, and other conditions one might find in a metropolitan area. Many of the major auto manufacturers are contributing to the project with the hope to have hundreds of driverless vehicles driving in M City at the same time.
We’ve received comments on the topic ranging from “that’s really exciting” to “maybe in 50 years.” We firmly believe that in 5 years, production ready driverless cars will be sold. Why do we think that? Tesla is offering a self-steering model this summer. Cadillac will have hands-free driving in two years. The CEO of Ford says the first self-driving cars will arrive on motorways in 5 years.
While we could wait on the technology, become a passive bystander, and hope some people around here buy these cars so that we alleviate some traffic congestion … is that the best way to approach this? We still don’t think so.
We still have an opportunity to lead and become part of the process that made this technology happen. We can figure out how to optimize it for our type of environment. We can get people excited about it. We can bring a technology company here.
Or not.
However, it seems like squandering this opportunity would be a big waste.
Bloomberg Business Week had a great article on M City.
in Vail
What We Have to Understand about Vail Forecasting Visitor Numbers
In an interview on KPCW with a Park City Planner about approving Vail’s new Canyons/PCMR Gondola, the planner noted that Vail said it would not increase the number of visitors with the Gondola. This apparently was one of the reasons it was approved with no increased need for parking. When we heard that, we couldn’t believe it. However now we know why.
We’ve gone back and listened to a few Vail Resorts Earnings calls. These are where Vail announces their financial results and answer questions from investment banks like Goldman Sachs. So, why don’t they think combining ski resorts, and making the largest ski resort in North America, will increase visitors? It’s because they don’t forecast the number of visitors (at least to outsiders). Not in Park City. Not in Colorado. No where. Their claim is that there is too much variability year to year to do that. Instead they forecast revenue.
Yet, if our leaders ask them questions like “will the gondola increase the number of visitors to Park City area resorts”? Then if Vail replies with something like “we can’t tell you that it will. It’s not something we look at. There could be more or less visitors.” Our leaders shouldn’t say, “Well Vail says there will be no more visitors, so we don’t need more parking.” That shows a complete lack of understanding of how Vail apparently operates.
Instead our leaders should say, “we understand you don’t forecast visitors so you don’t guarantee there will be more by connecting PCMR and Canyons, but we think there is a better than even chance this gondola will lead to more visitors and more homes being built. Because of that, we need additional traffic mitigation and parking.”
To do anything less is a compelte disservice to our community.
Driverless Car Makes Trip from San Francisco to New York
A Friend of the Park Rag sent us an article from the Salt Lake Tribune about a driverless car making a trip from San Francisco to New York. There is just more and more proof that this technology is getting ready for prime time.
If interested, here is the article.
in Schools
Park City Parents … Stanford is Now Free
Dreaming of your little Suzy going to the Harvard of the West? Or perhaps these days Harvard is the “Stanford of the East.” Well, we have good news for you. Stanford is now free, if your parents make less than $125,000 per year and have less than $300,000 in assets. We’re not sure what percentage of Park City students are left after those two qualifiers, but surely there has to be some.
Of course, Stanford takes only 5% of applicants — making it one of the toughest schools in America to get into (if not the toughest). Our guess is that will be even a smaller percentage next year.
So, if your parents are one of Park City’s “Poor” (we could hardly write that), you better get to work. We’d suggest curing cancer as part of your next PC Caps project. If you can’t manage that, at least there’s always Brown.
Parkrag
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