SLC a Good Community?

     Freiburg, Germany is one of the many places around the world that has responded with strength, vitality, and ingenuity to catastrophe and destruction. After WWII, Freiburg had to rebuild not only its physical structures but its spirit and image as well. What they have made of themselves as an environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable city is a pretty damn impressive example of good planning. Places like Freiburg thrive because their citizens decide what is going to happen with their open space, their streets, their energy, and much more. I think that one positive side that comes from the sad situation of having to restart a community after a disaster, is that the whole community gets to be involved with each new detail that happens, and with the infrastructure that is put in place. Here in SLC we work from old infrastructure and add on bits and pieces without any real community movement behind any one decision. 

     Community involvement is an aspect that makes Freiburg stand out to me and I believe that it is something that my community in Salt Lake City could learn from. I live directly downtown at about 2nd West 2nd South, looking the Salt Palace (our convention center) dead in the eyes. It always feels to me like the decisions made in this city that largely effect the people who live and work in the area are made by, well, not us… and are made for, well, not us. This is a critical part of what makes Salt Lake City what it is, for while we are really good at hosting people to our city, we often do not consider what it would take to make this area (which will soon be home to many many more people) an engaging enjoyable place to live long term. We do function as hosts to tens of thousands of people with each of the larger conventions that comes to our city, not to mention other social (spiritual etc.) events that come to our city every year. 

     My neighbors and neighborhood business owners are all affected by this and more often than not are putting their efforts into making sure the little part of the city they are responsible for is ready and able to host people from out of state. Why wouldn’t they be? The community makes a lot of money! But this way of thinking does not always promote good decision making for the community. Prices for food, goods, housing, and parking all go up for everyone during these times when we have an influx of visitors. I often feel shunted aside as a local when I visit my favorite shops during convention time because servers and store owners know (or at least think they know) that convention attendees spend lots and tip large. My community is doing pretty great economically, but socially? environmentally? Well, it seems like there is hardly a thought in those directions unless it is for our “guests."