If you haven’t noticed, the city is going through a humanitarian crisis.
The Rio Grande-Pioneer Park neighborhood, which should be a jewel of urban living, is beset by severe public-safety and -health problems caused by an exploding homeless population and the jackals who prey upon them.
It’s important to note who the real victims are. It’s not the developers who are drooling over the potential of park-side real estate and it’s certainly not the mayor or the city council who have mired construction of effective new shelters in petty politics.
The victims are the homeless, the addicts, the mentally ill and, by extension, the neighborhood business owners, workers and residents of west downtown SLC who find themselves dealing with the mess. They desperately need relief and they need it soon.
The bad news: Mayor Jackie and the city council with its cast of future mayor candidates have allowed sordid politics to delay placement of the needed shelters and possibly future state funding increases for homeless services.
But there is some good news.
The county, including SLCo Mayor Ben McAdams, gets it.
The city’s Homeless Services Site Evaluation Commission, led by former Mayor Palmer DePaulis and philantrophist Gayle Miller, gets it.
And, most importantly, SLC’s new Police Chief Mike Brown gets it.
Brown told the council at a work session this week that social workers are the answer to the homeless problem. “We can’t arrest our way out of this,” he said. He has shifted cops into the Rio Grande area, but he has teamed them with social workers who are working directly with the police to get addiction, housing and job services to the homeless.
In the long term, the chief explained, things like bus passes to jobs, addiction treatment and affordable housing is more important than busting street-level drug dealers.
The only wrong note in the chief’s presentation to the city council was that David Litvack, Jackie’s Deputy Chief Of Staff, insisted on sitting next to the chief when Brown answered the council’s questions. It was reminiscent of a mob wise guys hip-to-hip with their lawyers as they testify before a congressional organized-crime commission. I half expected Litvack to whisper to Brown to take the Fifth.
Why is Jackie so freaked out about the chief of police answering questions?
The latest local, artisan product to bend to greed and go corporate is High West Distillery in Park City.
Remember how proud we were of the first local distiller since 1870?
Well, pard, HW, has been gobbled up by a faceless corporation, like Utah Brewers Cooperative ( bought by Boston-based private-equity firm Fireman Capital Partners).
[CORRECTION, see comments] Epic Brewing has opened a brewery in Denver but has kept its headquarters in SLC.
High West will continue to operate in Park City as it always has under its new overlords.
Dave Perkins has sold out (the sale will close the end of October) to Constellation Brands, Inc., “a leading beverage alcohol company.” According to the press release, Constellation is expanding its “portfolio into booming craft spirits category with high-end whiskey.”
Of course, “corporate-owned craft spirit” is one of those oxymorons that corporate marketing departments specialize in. Like “Trump” and “gentleman.” Constellation acquired craft beer brewer Ballast Point last year to add to its national non-craft brands that include Corona and SVEDKA Vodka.
Constellation’s release didn’t waste time discussing what High West tastes like or that it has yet to produce its own whiskey—but instead blends out-of-state spirits. The announcement went straight to the important stuff: “With High West, which has experienced double-digit volume growth year over year for the past three years, Constellation Brands enters the dynamic and profitable high-end craft whiskey segment.”
Here’s the “narrative” (every brand needs a compelling backstory) that Constellation will continue: Perkins had a vision to make “delicious whiskey that celebrates the history and heritage of America’s Old West.”
And the Constellation pitch sounds like it’s right out of a Mad Men-created Marlboro ad (we’re not making this up):
“With a taste of the Old West and labels to match, consumers experience stories of cowboys, campfires, prairies and Utah history in every bottle.”
What can we say but, Round ’em up, head ’em out! Rawhide!
The Salt Lake City Council Tuesday got its closest look yet at the depth, breath and intractability of the homeless problem that has become a “health-and-safety emergency” in the Pioneer Park area of downtown.
Salt Lake County Health Department Director Gary Edwards, Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown and administrators from the Road Home shelter, briefed the council at a work session on the problem that has exploded this summer.
What’s painfully obvious is the selection of new shelter locations (the county had recommended two centers, the city, four smaller ones) that officials alleged would be set by November (the deadline has always been an ever-moving target) won’t be because of a lengthy public process and the ever-souring politics between the mayor and city council.
If nothing else, former Mayor Palmer DePaulis, who is a co-chair of the city’s Homeless Services Site Evaluation Commission, sagely tutored the council and, by extension, Mayor Jackie Biscupski’s staff on how to move forward. DePaulis should know—the homeless shelters in the Rio Grande district were established in the late 1980s during his regime and long before the troubled Rio Grande neighborhood became valuable real estate.
In his low-key way, DePaulis explained to the council how to enlist public acceptance of the sites for the new homeless shelters that have already triggered the predictable NIMBYism.
The key, DePaulis says, is to do a “good process” that’s open, transparent and involves as many citizens as possible to ensure they will “own” the eventual decision. He passed on a bit of political advice he had been given by former Gov. Scott Matheson. “The secret to all this is to ‘Stay lucky,’ ” DePaulis said. “When you are open and you are transparent—you are creating your own luck and you are going to stay lucky and stay on top of it.”
The city has launched a sweep to meet the immediate drug-dealing problems in the Rio Grande district. The campaign emphasizes diverting homeless addicts into treatment programs rather than jail.
An indication of the petty politics the council is capable of emerged at the meeting when Council Member Lisa Adams complained that because of the crisis at Pioneer Park, her Sugar House businesses have been complaining that they aren’t see enough bike cops. The chief promised that Adams would see cops on bicycles “tomorrow, if not sooner.”
So much for the big picture.
As for successfully dealing with homelessness in a sustainable, long-term way, DePaulis offered the council a not-exactly-earth-shattering approach:
— Prevention—get people help before they slide into homelessness.
— Provide affordable housing with support.
— Provide effective job placement, mental-health and addiction treatment programs to the homeless, “and allow people to have dignity.”
Considering the understanding, savvy and humanity DePaulis has brought to the homeless crisis—the best solution for Salt Lake might be to proclaim DePaulis mayor again by public acclamation. Or wish Jackie a lot of luck.
After decades of exposure to the Sundance Film Festival, Utah has become a great market for alt and small films. The perfect place, in fact, for Film School Shorts. The newest season—10 half-hour episodes—premieres this Saturday (Oct. 8), at 12:30 a.m. on KUEN-TV.
Life and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger
Produced at schools including AFI, NYU, USC, and Columbia, the films represent comedy, animation and drama. Some have screened at major film festivals Past filmmakers include Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night), and Sarah-Violet Bliss (TBS’ upcoming Search Party).
We’d also like to plug our favorite local cinephile/science-nerd show on KUEN: SciFi Friday.
Classic, sometimes awful science-fiction films are followed by an online podcast in which a Utah “expert” explains the science behind movies like Bride of the Gorilla. I’m not making this up, BoG will be on Oct. 14.
An explanatory podcast is being prepared, as we speak, by the BYU’s Department of Marriage and Family Studies, focusing on the whether “her marriage vows were more than fulfilled!” (OK, I made that part up.)
The downtown business community’s humanity in dealing with the homeless is being sorely tested as the political battle between city, county and state rages on.
Most retail and restaurant people have accepted that panhandling and camping on their sidewalks is a fact of life. City Creek security guards, for instance, chose recently not to roust a man sleeping on the 100 South pavement, just steps from the Cheesecake Factory entrance. We can only assume he was a few centimeters beyond the invisible line that separates squeaky clean City Creek from the real downtown.
But Alamexo restaurant owner Matt Lake, who, as anyone in the dining community knows, is a humane guy, has hit his limit. Recently, the area around Alamexo on State Street and Gallivan Avenue has become an impromtu restroom. Oddly enough, the smell of urine and sight of feces does not enhance a restaurant’s business.
Sunday, Alamexo, judged one of Utah’s top-25 fine restaurants, had an notable incident with a homeless man—breathtaking if only for his chutzpah. The hostess seated an unremarkable-looking customer who enjoyed a splendid meal of Alamexo’s signature guac (made tableside), followed by an entree. According to the manager:
“At the end of the meal he called me over to let me know that everything had been great and that he really enjoyed the food.”
In a world of snarky Yelp reviewers, that kind of feedback is wonderful for a restaurant, right? Sweet even. Then he dropped the bomb:
“He told me that he is kind of famous in a negative way, and that he is a very bad man. He said that the police are looking for him and want to arrest him. He also informed me that he was not going to pay his bill. When I questioned him on this, he told me that he wasn’t going to pay, he wasn’t going to leave and I could call the police if I wanted to do so.”
Call the police she did, then waited 40 minutes nervous minutes for them to arrive.
“In speaking with them, it turns out that we are the second restaurant he was kicked out of [Sunday] for the same reason, and that he has four citations for doing the same thing. [The officers] asked me if I would like to have him be told that he was not welcome in the restaurant from now on, and I wholeheartedly agreed.”
Yes, in the restaurant world, someone who eats, then serially refuses to pay, is “a bad man.” But there’s a kicker to this story. The police told the manager:
“It appears he is trying to get arrested because he is sick of sleeping on the streets and would rather be in jail.”
This level of desperation has to be one yardstick for the city’s homeless mess that has become a political football between the county (two new shelters), the city (NIMBY uber alles!) and the Legislature (xnay on Medicare/Medicaid extensions).
On the other hand, Lake, and his employees have livings to earn, but are finding themselves, with other businesses and downtown residents, absorbing a disproportionate amount of the problem until something is done.
Last month, Lake asked for a meeting with Mayor Jackie about the increasing craziness, but she has yet to show up.
Perhaps, she, the city council and McAdams are trying to run the clock out into winter when the weather will take care of the problem for them. McAdams, better than most, knows that the county jail is not an effective or economical homeless shelter.
An acclaimed Sundance documentary has landed its celebrity maker, Katie Couric, into a $13 million lawsuit with a pro-gun group.
One of the most dramatic moments of Under the Gun, that premiered at Sundance in January showed members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League as gobstopped, (i.e. speechless) for nine seconds after Couric hits them with a pivotal question:“If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?”
Wow, that’s journalism.
Unfortunately, according to the pro-gun interviewees, Daniel Hawes and Patricia Webb, IT NEVER HAPPENED.
They say they gave Couric an answer, but it was edited out of the footage to make them look stupid:
“The manipulated footage falsely informed viewers that the VCDL members had been stumped and had no basis for their position on background checks,” according to the complaint filed in Virginia federal court.
The VCDL asserts the film’s director Stephanie Soechtig had an “agenda” and manipulated the footage. What’s fascinating about the case is that the plaintiffs aren’t suing for misreporting what they said—but for falsely reporting what they didn’t say.
Couric, apparently, has thrown Soechtig under the bus (and made their lawyers tear their hair out).
“I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously,” Couric writes on the film’s website. “I hope we can continue to have an important conversation about reducing gun deaths in America, a goal I believe we can all agree on.”
One of Utah’s thorniest issues is public lands. The Legislature and governor are aggressively moving to take over federal lands. A more immediate threat to their plans, of course, is the possibility that President Obama will designate the Bears Ears area as a federal wilderness.
So Utah outdoor folks of all stripes might want to stop by the Outdoor Recreation Summit in Ogden tomorrow (Thursday). Every citizen is, after all, a “stakeholder” in our wildlands—not just the extraction, cattle and rec-equipment industries.
At the summit, Gov. Gary Herbert and the mayors of Moab and Ogden will speechify about the “potential of the outdoor recreation industry in Utah” and attendees will meet in discussion sessions. You really ought to be there, if only to remind Gary and Tom Adams, director of the state Outdoor Recreation Office, that Utah can’t have an outdoor-recreation industry without pristine outdoors.
For some reason, the summit is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., when most stakeholders—other than bureaucrats and politicians and full-time activists—can’t make it. (BTW, Gary will be available for media questions at 9:15 a.m.—isn’t that about the time you take your coffee break?)
If you can grab time away from work, here’s the schedule:
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 speechifying by mayors and Gary
Noon Julia Stamps Mallon, co-founder, REI Outessa, a women’s adventure program
The rest of the day is break-out discusussion sessions.
It’s at Ogden Eccles Conference Center
2415 Washington Blvd, Ogden
“Try to remember the days of September” takes on new meaning with the Salt Lake magazine Cocktail Contest!
During the month of September, you can be part of the biggest-ever cocktail contest in the galaxy (we’re still waiting confirmation from the Voyager space craft).
Salt Lake’s top mixologists (aka: bartenders) will compete to make the best original cocktail based on seasonal ingredients.
Here’s the challenge to the People of Earth (and hominids attending Comic Con):
Stop by each bar, order the cocktail, drink and vote, then stop, drop and roll (just kidding about the last three. But please, vote!)
Then, on Sunday Oct. 9 come to our classy award party to toast the winner!
6:30-9 p.m. Pierpont Place, 163 Pierpont Ave., SLC.
Get tickets at saltlakemagazine.com
$25 in advance
$35 at the door
$15 for designated drivers or non-drinkers
PARTICIPATING MIXOLOGISTS (a record-breaking number!):
Alamexo, Avenues Bistro, Avenues Proper Bodega & The Rest,
Finca, Grand America, Harbor,
Kimis Chop & Oyster House, Trio, Manoli’s, Martine Cafe, Pallet, Pierpont Place, Provisions, Red Rock Brewing, Ruin, Solitude, Spencers, Squatters, Stoneground, Takashi, Tin Angel Café, Under Current and Zest.
Another former DABC employee has stepped forward to link a recent 3rd District Court verdict that Utah Commerce Director Francine Giani wrongfully fired her assistant and the decline of quality and service at the state’s Alcohol Beverage Department resulting from Giani’s brief reign of terror there.
Gary K. Clark, who resigned in protest in 2015 as the downtown wine store’s assistant manager, wrote a letter to the Trib arguing Giani’s treatment of her assistant “pales in comparison” to her legacy at the DABC where she cut a third of the staff. Clark says:
“Draconian new policies resulted in continual product shortages and stores were denied the ability to control our orders. Store staffing was cut while sales continued to climb and customer service was no longer a priority.”
Giani does have her defenders, including many in the Legislature and the Governor’s Office. And, of course, her feud with disgraced former AG Mark Shurtleff may outweigh any heavy handedness at the DABC.
Clark hopes the court ruling ordering Giani and the state pay $250,000 will bring former DABC employees some sense of vindication. “But it won’t begin to repair the damage done.”
