Growing Pains
Here come all those people streaming into Utah because of our amenities. But will we have those perks in the future? Tree-lined neighborhoods with single-family homes are being pressed by the ever-present need for elusive affordable housing. With a rate of 18.4% over the last decade, Utah is the fastest-growing state in the nation. But neither goods nor the shipping containers they come in can get here fast enough. Salt Lake is building a bare-necessities shipping container project. Then, according to Building Salt Lake, there is a 330,000 square-foot office space that's already halfway built, and two new housing structures to come in the Granary District. Some planning commissioners questioned the wisdom of a 976-stall parking garage in the area, but the vision of a city without cars gave way to the reality of a hot population boom.
See No Evil
Turns out the divide over Critical Race Theory is both partisan and fantastical. This is really a battle over American Exceptionalism more than truth, because it's about how people want American children to view their nation's history. China does the same thing that Republicans aspire to—indoctrinate kids so they don't stray from the assigned path. The Deseret News ran results from the American Family Survey, now in its seventh year: "Survey results suggest Republicans want to tell a positive story of racial progress, while Democrats see a need to deal directly with the nation's fraught racial history." But the whole opposing-view theory has endemic problems, writes Heather Cox Richardson. Teach the Holocaust, but don't forget the opposing side? It comes down to teaching unicorns and rainbows, or Hitler and Rasputin.
Yours Is Mine
We feel their pain. Coal country is shrinking and no amount of heart-felt sorrow will bring it back. "It hasn't been taken very well by people who have worked in the mines," former coal miner Janice Hunt told The Salt Lake Tribune. "They think the mines will last forever." Coal is dwindling around the country as climate change takes its toll on health and well-being. Carbon County is adjusting with solar energy projects and a focus on arts and tourism. And while coal country goes through its contraction, lawmakers may pit it against the state's urban areas when voting districts are redrawn this year. The economy is changing everything, including the rural-urban divide. Legislators should recognize the commonalities.
