Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by delts145

I started the Sugar House Thread years ago and also the Utah Valley Thread. I would be more than happy to request their merger. The Provo Thread was started by Wasatch One some time after the Utah Valley wide Thread. Wasatch One has not checked in to the forum for over one year now. I propose that the two be merged into the...Provo MSA Thread.

Also the Univ. of Utah Threads starter has not checked into the forum for about 5 years. I agree, it should definitely along with the Sugar House Thread, which I started be merged with Salt Lake City. A group of us have wanted to merge a few of the threads, but there was some resistance and perhaps a little apathy in the past. To be fair, Denver has had just as many Denver/Front Range/Colorado related Threads as Utah in the past. Also, Boise has had a number of threads such as the Boise State Thread. In the past there was actually quite a bit of activity on most of the differing Utah Threads. However as pointed out, their starters and many of those members that kept them active with photos and posts have kind of moved on, and haven't posted for years in some cases.

I also agree that the Airport Thread should be combined with the Transportation Thread.

eh... would a statewide thread even be worth it without the Provo MSA. I don't think so.

Salt Lake County
Transportation
Statewide

I think that's plenty. Nothing gets buried, nothing gets ignored.

[jubguy3]

Originally Posted by Liberty Wellsian

eh... would a statewide thread even be worth it without the Provo MSA. I don't think so.

Salt Lake County
Transportation
Statewide

I think that's plenty. Nothing gets buried, nothing gets ignored.

How does combining 9 threads of information into 3 threads not "bury" information? The volume of posts being made in this thread, for example, mean that information about projects that should be organized along with other snippets is organized by time rather than project. If I'm looking for information about an apartment complex like the Exchange, I'm not going to be able to say, go to page 100, 85, 77, 76, 72, etc. That's the problem with this existing thread. This thread is more like a group chat than a forum.

Maybe we could organize it like Midwest: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/foru...php?forumid=39. Its obviously a little different because they also have cities with their own subsections so the section is a little less focused.

They have a talk thread and then project threads so people don't bitch when anybody gets off topic in the only thread of significant volume for SLC (see: here, every 6 days). That way, needless bickering can be pushed into a SLC Talk thread and dedicated projects can have their own clean, easily viewable threads that don't spread information across a few posts within a thread of 10,000 posts. Projects information wouldn't have to be curated but would be naturally maintained as information is added to additional projects threads, and old / irrelevant posts are archived. We could keep a table of contents for all projects threads so that they can be accessed in the archives more easily.

I do a lot of sifting through old threads looking for information (the airport thread most notably, please do NOT modify the airport thread as there are links to old TRP presentations that can only be viewed in wayback machine now, and old renderings are only present in the thread and no longer available on the SLCDA website even when viewing with wayback machine) and the more combining that happens, the harder it is to find information after it has been immediately shared with the forum. If you want to view information about many projects, you have to go back to the archives and sift through 500 page threads hoping that you come across something.

[delts145]

So Jubguy, Your saying that like Washington D.C., we've created a department beast that everyone wants to eliminate, but elimination or merging is no longer a possibility. The beast must live on! We don't have to get overly militant and bite off everything all at once at this time. I think it would be quite sufficient for now to combine:

1...Provo/Ut. Valley

2...Salt Lake City/University of Utah/Sugar House

3...Salt Lake Transit News/ Salt Lake Airport Thread

Do you guys want me to contact the moderators and go with just these three sets for now??? Perhaps just 1 and 2 is enough for a while, and leave the airport alone. Or is this just another tempest in a teapot, which will die down as quickly as it started up?

[ajiuO]

Perhaps the list of projects would get updated more often if this were a wiki post... oh yeah, this forum is outdated as fu** and you can’t do that here. Still no mobile version, even though most web traffic now comes from Mobil devices.

I kind of wish Utah had its own sub forum on here. Then important threads could be pinned and we could have other various threads for other nonsense.

[bflatflat9]

Originally Posted by delts145

So Jubguy, Your saying that like Washington D.C., we've created a department beast that everyone wants to eliminate, but elimination or merging is no longer a possibility. The beast must live on! We don't have to get overly militant and bite off everything all at once at this time. I think it would be quite sufficient for now to combine:

1...Provo/Ut. Valley

2...Salt Lake City/University of Utah/Sugar House

3...Salt Lake Transit News/ Salt Lake Airport Thread

Do you guys want me to contact the moderators and go with just these three sets for now??? Perhaps just 1 and 2 is enough for a while, and leave the airport alone. Or is this just another tempest in a teapot, which will die down as quickly as it started up?

I say yea.

[Utah_Dave]

Looks like the next few years could see large companies expanding and building 2nd head quarters across the county and general expansion. How do we get city leaders to actively recruit and get in front of these companies such as Amazon and now Apple before they put out and RFP? I have no knowledge of how our processes currently work but I would be canvassing the tech centers around the country with proposals to expand in Salt Lake for all the same reasons Amazon and Apple would consider our city. Do we just sit around and wait for businesses to show interest in us before we act or are we out there putting out the word? I would like to understand the process in more detail if someone has some info.

Thanks

[jubguy3]

Contact them and ask for a separate subforum for SLC.

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by asies1981

Update on the Northwest Quadrant.

so... 10% to affordable housing and 10 % to RDA administration? Those sound like lazy numbers to me. Do we really need to dedicate as much of the money to RDA administration as to affordable housing? Can anyone expand on how that "RDA administration" money would be spent?

[asies1981]

Originally Posted by Liberty Wellsian

so... 10% to affordable housing and 10 % to RDA administration? Those sound like lazy numbers to me. Do we really need to dedicate as much of the money to RDA administration as to affordable housing? Can anyone expand on how that "RDA administration" money would be spent?

A lot of how TIFs have to be distributed is dictated by state law. RDA administration is basically RDA operations (staff).

[bob rulz]

I personally still would prefer to see the airport thread merged, but since jubguy is the most active user of that thread and keeps it maintained and updated, I could live with keeping it separate.

I'm definitely in favor of the other proposed changes.

I don't think this would eliminate the possibility of having separate threads for MAJOR projects, but I don't want there to be a separate thread for each project. So we could count the airport reconstruction as a major project worthy of its own thread (because it IS a major project). Once Block 67 gets going, that could get its own thread (like 151 and City Creek did), for example. The fact that this is kind of like a group chat is part of the appeal, or at least it would be if people wouldn't keep bickering. I don't really want every project to get its own thread honestly. It just siloes meaningful discussion. I actually would prefer we not be like a lot of the other forums and put each project in a separate thread. We just don't have enough big projects happening for that to be practical. All it would do is lead to a bunch of projects with hardly any posts.

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by delts145

So Jubguy, Your saying that like Washington D.C., we've created a department beast that everyone wants to eliminate, but elimination or merging is no longer a possibility. The beast must live on! We don't have to get overly militant and bite off everything all at once at this time. I think it would be quite sufficient for now to combine:

1...Provo/Ut. Valley

2...Salt Lake City/University of Utah/Sugar House

3...Salt Lake Transit News/ Salt Lake Airport Thread

Do you guys want me to contact the moderators and go with just these three sets for now??? Perhaps just 1 and 2 is enough for a while, and leave the airport alone. Or is this just another tempest in a teapot, which will die down as quickly as it started up?

I vote no. I prefer separate threads, especially for the airport. We’ve always created a separate thread for large developments.

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

Contact them and ask for a separate subforum for SLC.

Yes!

[delts145]

Originally Posted by Stenar

I vote no. I prefer separate threads, especially for the airport. We’ve always created a separate thread for large developments.

I agree with you Stenar on most of the threads staying separate. I do believe that there are two or three that would better serve us at this time if they were combined. For now, unless there are some strong objections I'm going to pursue combining Provo and Utah Valley into one. It would just be a matter of renaming the Provo thread, and working with the more active posters on bringing the Ut. Valley projects(particularly northern Ut. Valley) onto the Provo Thread.

I still think that Salt Lake, Sugar House and the U. of U. should be combined, but let's all discuss it further, pros and cons.

[jubguy3]

Salt Lake City is not one of the 20 finalist cities for the Amazon RPF. Amazon Chooses 20 Locations as Finalists for New Headquarters https://nyti.ms/2DfzFGD

Great work by our state cronies. Did they not read that Amazon wanted a build ready site? The prison site will be ready in 2021. Complete idiots.

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by jubguy3

Salt Lake City is not one of the 20 finalist cities for the Amazon RPF. Amazon Chooses 20 Locations as Finalists for New Headquarters https://nyti.ms/2DfzFGD

Great work by our state cronies. Did they not read that Amazon wanted a build ready site? The prison site will be ready in 2021. Complete idiots.

I agree about our idiot cronies.

I don’t see how Austin makes the list as it doesn’t fit the RFP all that well, but is a hip place and gains inclusion on it’s cool factor alone.

[Comrade]

Really speaks volumes that Salt Lake didn't make the cut but Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Raleigh did.

[jubguy3]

I am noticing that location seems to have had an impact. But it's still hilarious that Montgomery county, Md made it and SLC didn't.

I would love to see Atlanta or Boston win the RPF.

[Liberty Wellsian]

Originally Posted by Comrade

Really speaks volumes that Salt Lake didn't make the cut but Nashville, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Raleigh did.

There was no proposal for SLC. I'd choose all those cities over Draper too.

[airhero]

Apart from Los Angeles, Denver, and Texas cities, no city west of Chicago was chosen. I think that says a lot about Amazon's regional preference. I'm not totally surprised by Montgomery County. It's basically a part of Washington DC urban area. 3 of the 20 finalists are part of the DC urban area.

I'm not sure Salt Lake ever had much of a chance. It's relatively low population, closer geographically to Seattle than any of the 20 finalists, and a lot of people seem to brag about the Wasatch Front's universities but it's really not a big draw. Practically every one of the final 20 cities are home to (or very close to) much more prestigious universities. There really wasn't a lot of draw in the first place. Something about the proposal would have had to wow Amazon. That's why I thought 400 S Main was a great site. So many advantages relative to the other sites could have been listed. 3 TRAX lines on site. 20 or so bus routes within a block, <10 minute drive to the airport, basically in downtown. The location is great. The confining factor was space, which they've dealt with in Seattle.

But the selection of sites exclusively in the southwest portion of the Salt Lake Valley certainly didn't help the bid. I'm not sure what the line of thinking was but none of them are very attractive locations. I expected the prison site, but the other sites are so similar to and basically in the same area as the prison site. I think some more diversity would have been wise.

[Marvland]

Originally Posted by delts145

I agree with you Stenar on most of the threads staying separate. I do believe that there are two or three that would better serve us at this time if they were combined. For now, unless there are some strong objections I'm going to pursue combining Provo and Utah Valley into one. It would just be a matter of renaming the Provo thread, and working with the more active posters on bringing the Ut. Valley projects(particularly northern Ut. Valley) onto the Provo Thread.

I still think that Salt Lake, Sugar House and the U. of U. should be combined, but let's all discuss it further, pros and cons.

I say merge. It would make me much more likely to comment on anything other than the main SLC thread personally. Thanks for all your hard work, Delts, Jubguy3, and Isaac (for the great content).