The Mountain Accord Still Makes Me Shake My Head Sometimes

I’ve heard through the grapevine that the Mountain Accord process appears to be headed in the right direction. I’m still filing that in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” folder. That said, sometimes you have to trust people in the know that say things are getting better with the organization.

Then you get an email from Mountain Accord and it makes you shake your head. Case in point is an email that was delivered yesterday talking about POW Day (Protect our Winters), UTA providing free bus service up Little Cottonwood Canyon, and Mountain Accord donating money to Protect our winters for each bus rider. That was the top of the email. Here is how it ended:

“ Mountain Accord is making critical decisions and implementing solutions to preserve the Central Wasatch Range and ensure its long-term vitality.  The future promises more traffic congestion and the continued exclusive reliance on private automobiles to access the Central Wasatch is a grave threat. Transit that serves all populations, in all seasons is a goal of Mountain Accord.  Building a sustainable transit network that connects to existing transit on both the Wasatch Front and Back is essential  as is reducing the ease of private car use,through carpool incentives, fees, paid parking at resorts and other solutions[/su_highlight].”

First, maybe I’m naive, but I didn’t realize Mountain Accord “is making critical decisions and implementing solutions.” I tend to like the fact that our elected bodies like the city and county council make decisions and work with our local governments to implement those solutions. I don’t really like some Executive Board, made up of hand picked individuals (with a couple representatives from the Park City area), deciding on things and implementing them.

Perhaps the email just suffered from a little too much hubris or perhaps the Mountain Accord Executive Board really views it that way.

I’m guess I’m OK if the decisions they want to implement are of the “giving $1 to a charity for every bus rider” variety. I’ll be much less enthused if they are the ones deciding on how transportation is implemented in Summit County.

Here is the original email.