40 Years of City Weekly—Volume 27: 2010 to 2011 

"It's hardly news that hounding the dailies is a staple ingredient of the alternative-newspaper stew," John Saltas observed in his May 20 column for 2010. "It's a tough balance to know when to add one ingredient at the expense of another; when to know if you have seasoned just right or have nearly poisoned your readers."

The assortment of flavors afforded the public in City Weekly's latest stew—its 27th—was perhaps an acquired taste to the flavor-averse. But one would be hard-pressed to find anything else like it from the other brothmongers in town.

Much of that was due to skilled cooks in the kitchen. Savor what Eric Peterson could do in a story on overburdened medical regulators; appreciate Stephen Dark's profile on retired police officer Lane Heaps. Carolyn Campbell's finesse with a story on a tragic custody battle and Dan Nailen's handling of local cowboy poets both leave one nourished and satisfied. And if you found yourself overdoing it, you had Wina Sturgeon's numerous active living columns to help you out.

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This was also the period during which City Weekly hosted its first tours to Greece, its second Miss City Weekly Pride Pageant and its first annual Utah Beer Festival. The latter event was held at the City & County Building to long lines and an attendance of 5,000 people. As of this writing, the above events continue to be beloved traditions, with—we hope—most of the earliest kinks worked out.

Would that life in the Beehive State were on as promising a trajectory. Recession was hitting Utahns hard, liquor licenses were scarce and gun permits were handed out like candy. The Deseret News had its newsroom halved by CEO/hatchetman Clark Gilbert, PETA uncovered the suffering of animal test subjects at the University of Utah, Riverdale's Cinedome 70 was torn down and a Chevron oil spill at Red Butte Creek killed fish, stained birds and temporarily closed Liberty, Miller and Sunnyside parks.

And then, of course, you had the Utah Legislature. Following the rise of the Tea Party, Utah's lawmakers turned even further to the right, resulting in some memorably concerning bills like Stephen Sandstrom's Arizona-style immigration legislation, Carl Wimmer's push to designate a "state gun" and Curt Oda's unsuccessful effort to back citizens in the shooting of supposedly feral cats. John Dougall's sweeping rewrite of public records laws—rendering records requests more expensive and blocking access to public officials' text messages—provoked such an outcry that it was recalled in a special session.

Quite a lot to digest already in this year's stew, but why don't we build the flavors even more with additional ingredients?

Remembering Vol. 27: In the videos
First appearing in City Weekly's 2008 Best of Utah awards for "Best 15 Minutes" with her hit YouTube short "The Joke," Deena Marie Manzanares subsequently contributed her unique brand of humor to our website for several years.

"I was an actor turned YouTuber dabbling in local TV," Manzanares recently recalled. "Bill Frost reached out to meet with me and brainstorm how to bring an element of my comedic YouTube videos to City Weekly."

Then part of the Voodoo Darlings performance group (now Voodoo Productions), Manzanares produced weekly videos that could go in any direction she desired. She covered a theatrical opening by Plan-B Theatre, provided humorous rants on bad drivers and poor movie audience behavior, made sense of what "hot chicks" were and promoted events like the Utah Animal Advocacy Foundation's Ruff House fundraiser. Her mother even made an appearance to explain 1950s slang. Since then, Manzanares has moved away from video production but continues to act professionally in stage productions, as well as reporting for ABC4's Good Things Utah.

"Popping in and out of our local City Weekly through the years always felt like I was part of the cool kids, and a big accomplishment to catch their attention," she says. "My CW ties have lasted much longer than 15 minutes, thank goodness!"

In retrospect
Having missed its 25th anniversary the previous year, the City Weekly team decided to make a special "25 plus 1" issue for June 24, 2010. The edition contained a treasure trove of memories and foibles, of looking back as well as peering forward.

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Twenty-five local citizens—from Heavy Metal Shop owner Kevin Kirk and nightclub owner Joe Redburn to actor Nancy Borgenicht and the Rev. Jerry Hirano—opined on the important developments they had seen in 25 years and what they suspected might come in the next 25. Jerre Wroble prepared an insightful history of the paper alongside an annual accounting of our staff roster. Special recollections from Tom Walsh, Christopher Smart, John Harrington, John Paul Brophy, Scott Renshaw and Bill Frost were included, as was an evaluation by Dan Nailen on the cultural growth of Salt Lake.

Anniversaries, even delayed ones, can lead one to wonder whether they are still operating within one's values. "There remains that nagging 'mission' thing," Wroble mused. "Are the alt-industry, and City Weekly in particular, still on one?"

Former Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson and lobbyist/columnist Frank Pignanelli both answered Wroble in the affirmative, although each noted our flaws. "Although the Weekly can be hard—and sometimes unfairly—on those with whom the editors disagree," Pignanelli wrote, "our community needs an alternative voice."

Wroble noted that such a voice, while enjoying a wide audience, nevertheless faced (we might add, still faces) important challenges in the ever-changing media landscape, wherein ad hoc groups of the like-minded rely less on a "digital maypole" around which to center themselves. Reporter Lynn Packer, however, expressed his optimism to Wroble about the Weekly's future.

"City Weekly is uniquely positioned for investigative reporting," Packer said. "It doesn't have deep pockets. You have this little City Weekly that isn't litigation proof—you can sue 'em and put 'em out of business, but you're not gonna get rich doing it."

Packer saw the trio of technology, recession and deregulation as sources for further media fracture and hampering the pursuit of investigative reporting. "Eventually," he told Wroble, "a new way of reporting, a new way of professionally gathering information, needs to emerge. But I don't think anybody knows how that's going to happen and, really, if it's going to happen. Just as other institutions are in decline in the United States, our journalistic institutions are in decline and may continue in sort of a free fall, and the United States may never regain its position as a world leader."

For his part, John Saltas relished the paper's health at that time. "We're moving more papers from our racks than ever, so folks can stop the 'newspapers are dead' routine. They're not," he said. "Between the Internet and mobile and social media, we have channels everywhere and people can find us in more places than ever."

In the letters
"When I see the children who I teach, I note the glint in their eyes and the possibilities of their futures. It makes me hopeful to see them in their psychosis of curiosity.

It reminds me of how I used to be as a child, as well.

Then, a pain resembling the tingle after you realize your legs have fallen asleep sets in: I'm not there to teach them how to be people or to help them realize their dreams. I'm there to teach them how to count so they can buy and sell, how to read so they can sign contracts and how to write so they can 'communicate effectively' with their future associates. I have no answers for them when they ask why they're learning these things except to give them a shot of the truth with a 'maybe' chaser.

I know I'm only a serf among others outside of the corporate and financial elite, but I will still state that there are things much greater than the almighty dollar, even in the most desperate impoverishment. Love, charity and wonder will always transcend the logic of monetary survival." (Kent Redford, Sept. 30, 2010)