Auger Says SL Co. Council Needs A West-Sider
None by KCPW
Former Taylorsville Mayor Champions West-Side Development Issues
(KCPW News 11/01/06 - by Shawn Mansell, KCPW Contributing Reporter)Janice Auger, the Republican challenger for Jim Bradley's At-Large county council seat, says residents on the county's west-side and in the southern suburbs don't feel as though they have a lot in common with current council members:
"They think that perhaps the people who sit on the council really don't connect with them; that they [councilmembers] live a different lifestyle and that they're different people and they just don't connect with them."
Auger is a west-side resident who served on the Taylorsville City Council from 1995 to 1997, upgrading to the mayor's office from 1997 to 2006. While mayor, Auger says she was privy to discussions with Kennecott Land where ideas about west-side development were vetted. She says there are still some lingering long-term concerns she would address, if elected:
"For example, east-west traffic corridors, which are already a nightmare, would need to be enhanced if there's going to be more traffic flowing out to the west and coming from the west. So those are the kinds of things that I would be looking at, to make sure that the long-term planning for the west-bench blended with the overall county planning. And I believe that's already starting to happen."
You can hear more from Janice Auger in today's Midday Metro podcast.
Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom and Election Coverage. Copyright 2008 KCPW
1. Michael T Packard BSEE said:
Jim Bradley will kill the West Side with the faint kiss of TrAX.
The need for much more traffic capacity is tremendous, by 2030 there will be 3.5 million vehicle trips each day in the west half of the valley. It will be growing at the rate of 5,000 trips added each month.
The gift of TrAX would not even scratch the surface of that with less than 10,000 "New" linked Trips on the three lines by 2030. This definitive view of TrAX ridership will grow at less than 50 added rides each month. In other words, TrAX starts puny and gets farther and farther behind, month after month after month.
(This is the definitive and authoritative Federal Transit Administration-required "New Starts" calculation.)
The West side desparately needs the massive help of freeways, ASAP. It is a fairness issue, too. In this the 50th anniversary year of the Interstate, the western valley deserves freeway equity with downtown Salt Lake.
New Technology-enabled modes, like telecommuting, will provide much much more capacity than TrAX.
Don't throw $2,500 of your household income to UTA with this tax, for nothing.
Mike
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