Where is our mayor?

While I was at the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival, Ralph Becker’s name was brought up more than once. None of the comments were favorable. While jazz fans were paying $16 for a festival that used to be free to the public, many people wondered where all of the city’s money was being spent. It certainly isn’t being distributed in a way that many Salt Lakers remember from Rocky’s administration.

Whether you are a Rocky fan or not, you have to recognize that he was always present when the citizens needed him to be. Our new mayor is nowhere to be found, except at the budget meetings, where he has slashed the amount of funding that downtown needs to thrive.

Rocky even went over to the convention next door (which was full of out-of-town guests) and asked them to turn their music down, since it was drowning out the music of the festival. I doubt Becker would have dared to piss off any out-of-staters—he is reserving that for those of us who live in Salt Lake City.

Heather N. Smith
Salt Lake City