in Election
The perfect drink to get you through election day
Tomorrow is the big day and maybe you are looking for just the drink to wash your worries away. We think we’ve found it.
Terrible… available at both your local Park City liquor store and voting booth starting tomorrow.
How Summit County’s ballot manipulates the vote
Like many people around Park City, you’ve may have already sent in your ballot for next Tuesday’s election. You may have even cast a vote for or against local initiatives called Proposition 9 or Proposition 10 (on transit and buses). If you have voted, thanks! It’s one of the cornerstones of our democracy. What worries me, though, is how that cornerstone of our democracy can be manipulated. I’m not talking about some grand conspiracy theory foisted by national candidates. Instead I’m talking about how each of our votes can be manipulated at the local level.
If you still have your ballot, take a look at it. If not, you’ll notice that the front has the candidates for local elections, each with an oval next to their name. On the back, there are judges, constitutional amendments, and our two local propositions (#9 and #10). In every case for candidates, you select the oval next to their name. In the case of three constitutional amendments, you select that simply you are either FOR or AGAINST. For example with Utah Constitutional Amendment C, you choose either:
FOR
AGAINST
However, in the case of the two propositions advocated by our county, you choose:
FOR TRANSIT EXPANSION
AGAINST TRANSIT EXPANSION
and
FOR ROAD IMPROVEMENTS
AGAINST ROAD IMPROVEMENTS
What? What happened to the simple FOR or AGAINST used elsewhere throughout the ballot? Why the extra language? It’s structured in such a way that it’s asking you, “Are you for good roads or against good roads.” Who is going to say they want bad roads?
It’s much akin to a school bond ballot asking, “Are you FOR kids or are you AGAINST kids?” Who is going to say they are against children?
It is completely manipulative. If there was no thought put into it, wouldn’t it just say FOR or AGAINST? Since there is specific language, it indicates that there was at least some thought put into crafting the answers. Was the bad ballot design just coincidence or was it on purpose? Good question. Either way, it likely will influence the election. That’s not good democracy.
That said, this ballot was published ahead of time, as required by law, and it could have been challenged. Unfortunately, we weren’t paying enough attention at the time. Lesson learned.
The take away is that words do matter. In this case, on our local initiatives, the words betray the truth. You are already paying a sizable amount of money for transit and roads. The question is whether you are FOR or AGAINST paying more for those.
in Taxes, Transportation
Why I’m voting against Park City’s new sales taxes for transportation (Proposition #9 and #10)
Two weeks ago I was interviewed by the Park Record on my opposition to the proposed sales tax increase. What I learned is that it is difficult to summarize a 30 minute interview in a few paragraphs. So, while I think they did a fine job, I wanted to provide more context…
There are three primary reasons I am against the sales tax:
- Money from the sales tax will likely help the county buy the parcel of land between Jeremy Ranch Elementary School and the Burt Brothers (it’s called the Cline Dahle parcel). One of the proposed uses for this parcel is a park and ride. If this area becomes a park and ride, it will increase traffic along Rasmussen Road and decrease children’s safety. There are few obvious ways to improve traffic flow or redirect traffic around this area. My fear is that this sales tax will enable the county to make a grave mistake around Jeremy Ranch Elementary. At best it will make dropping kids off at Jeremy Ranch a nightmare and at worst endanger our kids. I’m not willing to bet my children’s safety on the hope that they’ll get this one right — especially when they haven’t in the past.
- I question whether buses are an actual solution to transportation issues. I don’t believe Summit County residents will adopt buses in large scale. The old adage is that everyone loves buses because they hope someone else will ride them. I believe that is especially true for us because most people stop at multiple places when they drive their car. We drop our kids at school. We exercise. We go to work. We stop at the grocery on the way home. It just doesn’t lend itself to busing. Even with more frequent runs, I don’t see people riding buses.
- A solution to traffic based on busing is very complicated and likely won’t work. The argument for adding additional funding to buses is as follows: people don’t ride buses because it takes too long to get anywhere. So, we need to add more frequent stops. Therefore, we increase taxes to pay for more buses. However, people won’t ride buses if they are stuck in the same traffic as cars. So, we need to add bus lanes to let the buses “speed” on by the cars. So, we increase taxes to pay for additional bus lanes. However, the roads those bus lanes travel over are managed by UDOT, and not ourselves. So, we have to convince UDOT to add bus lanes. However, UDOT’s concern really isn’t 224 or 248 as they have bigger fish to fry like to I-15 and I-80. So, we need to show them that we have skin in the game to show them we care. So, we raise taxes. However, UDOT is the most powerful entity in the state. Their budget is over a billion dollars a year. Our $8 million allotted for this (if taxes are raised) is like a gnat. But, we hope they decide to work with us on projects. So, we increase our taxes. Then, if UDOT decides they will do something, we need to work with them to ensure that what they will actually do is what we want them to do. Then, given all that, we hope it works.
Believe me, I understand Park City and Summit County’s pain. I believe Summit County Council Chairman Roger Armstrong when he says that people corner him and demand an answer to what he is doing to fix transportation. The problem is that:
THERE IS NO SHORT-TERM FIX TO TRANSPORTATION PROBLEMS.
The long-term fix is designing our neighborhoods around transportation. The long term fix is self driving vehicles that have 3 feet between them as they cruise on 224. The long term fix is planning Park City and the Snyderville Basin for the year 2030 (and beyond) based on what our community will look like in 13 years (do we still have snow below 9000 feet?).
The mistake is doing something for something’s sake. The mistake is wasting money when it could be used later … AND BETTER.
If YOU specifically will commit to riding the bus to ski, to work, and to dinner then it probably makes sense for you to vote for Propositions 9 and 10 on the ballot on Tuesday. But if you can’t, do you really think others will commit to it in significant numbers? No.
That’s my fear.
If Proposition 9 and 10 do nothing for me, wouldn’t I be better off donating that money during Live PC Give PC so that the Park City Band could have more instruments? Yes.
If Proposition 9 and 10 do very little for our community, couldn’t we have spent the money in many better ways? Yes.
If there are side-effects like endangering kids and making traffic worse around Jeremy Ranch Elementary school, shouldn’t we think twice before we enable that? Yes.
That’s why I’ll be voting NO on Tuesday.
in Art
Listen to Park City’s local radio station, KPCW, on your Amazon Echo
Do you have an Amazon Echo? If so, there’s an easy way to listen to KPCW.
Just say:
“Alexa, play KPCW radio.”
Boom. Radio on the Internet.
in Schools
Lack of privacy is a huge concern with Park City student drug testing
During this week’s Park City School Board meeting, a draft policy of the district’s proposed drug policy was presented. While drug testing for Park City students has not been approved, now is the time to provide any objections. One of our major concerns is student privacy.
The district policy describes who will have the results of the drug testing. It says:
- Information regarding the results of the drug tests shall be kept confidential among the building principal, designees, any employee with a need to know, the student’s parent or legal guardian, and the student.
Unfortunately, nowhere in the draft policy does is mention the word privacy. The only time it speak to confidentiality of results is the above bullet point.
Let us give you an example of our fear. Let’s say Johnny Smith plays wide receiver for the Miners Football team. On Monday he gets pulled out of class for a random drug test. He fails. He is then suspended for two football games. Sure, officially only the Principal, the Assistant Principal, a school counselor, and his coaches know that he has been suspended for failing a drug test. However, it doesn’t take a genius for his classmates to figure out he failed a test (why isn’t he playing in these two games?). Then various people at school turn to social media and post that Johnny failed his drug test. Then the whole school knows. Then so do colleges that wanted to recruit Johnny for football … or maybe it’s the college admission officer who is reviewing his application for Westminster.
We just don’t see how the school can protect our students’ privacy. They can’t outlaw freedom of speech — especially when it’s true. We don’t have to look much farther than last year’s security scare at the high school, to see how fast and far social media spreads.
Messing with kids’ lives in order to have the appearance of “doing something” is a horrible approach. We hope the school district stops this madness immediately.
in Schools
American Academy of Pediatrics recommends AGAINST drug testing in schools
As the Park City School District moves closer to drug testing our students, there’s one group adamantly opposed to the idea. It turns out that the American Academy of Pediatrics “opposes in school drug testing due to lack of evidence.” In fact they created a policy paper and technical report on it. Their main concerns?
- Limited evidence of efficacy
- Decreased participation in sports
- Breach of confidentiality
- Increases in use of substances not included on testing panels
- Increases in the number of students facing disciplinary action (whether official or not)
We find #4 interesting. During an interview on KPCW, Superintendent Ember Conley noted that drug tests don’t screen for synthetic drugs, which is the type of drug that allegedly took the life of two students in Park City recently. Does drug testing just drive other kids to those same dangerous, synthetic drugs because they won’t be caught?
Perhaps the better question is if your child’s pediatrician recommended something for your kid, wouldn’t you do it? Then why are we going to ignore their recommendation this time?
in Schools
New 5th/6th and 7th/8th schools are a done deal in Park City?
This morning on KPCW, Park City School Board member Julie Eihausen made a comment about new 5/6 and 7/8 grade schools. KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher asked Ms. Eihausen whether we were still going forward with those new schools, especially in light of some potential new board members stating a preference for K-6 schools.
Ms Eihausen commented that the board had voted for the new schools last year and that’s what was going to happen, in some form or fashion (i.e. two schools or one 5-8 campus, etc.) somewhere. She said it would take a vote of the board to rescind that directive. She also said she would be hard-pressed to change her mind.
We thought that directive likely died with the school bond, but it appears not. We wonder if the new school board will at least want to discuss whether plans made by different people, in a different place, that were essentially struck down by the public, are still valid.
in Vail
A reminder that we still have to be vigilant with Vail and the Park City name
KPCW is reporting that Vail is changing some signs in town to use the name “Park City Mountain Resort” instead of Park City. That’s kind of them, I we suppose.
However, today we received a random catalog in the mail from a company called uncommongoods. On page 33, we noticed a nice poster for PARK CITY. It provides a brief history of the town, some info about geography, a drawing of our mountains, and of course the words “Vail Resort Official Licensed Product.”
We’re not sure what exactly needed to be “officially licensed.” Is it the town’s history? The elevation of the mountain? The name Park City?
I guess, maybe there are some lift names on it, but it sure seems like they are treating Park City just like another one of its company towns.
in Real Estate
Are Park City Schools Actively Suppressing Discussion on the Presidential Election?
Over a week ago, we heard from a Park City teacher that teachers were directed not to discuss the Presidential election with students. According to the teacher, they were told not to talk about it because it was too controversial of a topic. Instead, if they wanted to talk about elections, the administration allegedly told them they were instructed to talk about state and local elections. We reached out a week ago to the school district for comment but never received a response.
One of the problems with this stance is that this election almost serves as a cautionary tale. The story of Icarus. Little Red Riding Hood. Every slasher film from the 1980’s.
This national election is a train wreck. In one corner, we have a man who won’t denounce the former leader of the KKK, has repeatedly disparaged women, and makes fun of the disabled. In the other corner we have someone who would likely be in jail if she was you or me.
To that, I say, what better educational opportunity is there for our kids than to learn that money and power doesn’t excuse you from the responsibly to be a kind and fair human.
I’m not advocating for our 15 year olds to learn about grabbing a women by her …well you know how that quote ends … or our elementary kids to learn about how to repeatedly lie and use political power to escape unlawful behavior. However it does provide an opportunity for discussion.
As our tteachers are good and I’m sure they are able to do what teachers have always done. If we take World War 2, in elementary school you learn that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor to start World war 2 (that’s not accurate but it is a broad stroke that enabled us to understand the war). In high school you learn that our enemy was Hitler and he killed 6 million Jews and was a horrible person. In college you learn that our ally was Joseph Stalin, who was just as horrible man, and killed more people than Hitler (maybe was responsible for up to 60 million deaths). Later in college you realize that part of the reason the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor was because of a US Oil embargo.
The point is that there is ALWAYS a way to educate and provide kids with information that teaches them information they are capable of processing. In the case of The Donald and Hillary, is there any better tale in the last 10 years related to treating people fairly, following rules, and not lying than what has been foisted on us during this election cycle? Yes, one of these people will be our President. Yet, that is a good lesson too. Nice people don’t always win and sometimes people in power are not good people and shouldn’t be respected.
I’m sure it’s easier for our schools to avoid the topic. However, if the allegations are true, we are missing a grand opportunity to educate our children about something that s unfolding around them.
Parkrag
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