Imperfect Salt Lake City is the best bet when Utah and the nation crack.
Small Lake City
By Bryan Young @swankmotron
With the current hellscape our country is descending into, we're often told to focus on our local politics and community. Sometimes, it's too overwhelming to look at the nation and think there's anything meaningful we can do. Sometimes, the state level feels impossible, too.
Between the current regimes in the White House and Utah Legislature, sanity, good governance and kindness are on vacation for the foreseeable future. That leaves us with hyperlocal government. We focus on our city.
Salt Lake City has a pretty good track record of trying to do the right thing, but they're often as hamstrung as the rest of us. Imagine trying to pass city measures, knowing you're going to draw the ire of the Legislature? And if you get just a little too bold, they'll call a special session to undo it even faster?
City officials do their best. Yeah, City Weekly and residents hold them accountable. They aren't perfect. They make mistakes. But they are, generally, good people who do their best and are not actively malevolent. If only we could say that about all levels of government right now.
Worse, it's difficult to know what to believe. I scroll social media, or I watch local news, and even newscasters have no idea which tier of government handles what issues. I see the city blamed for county programs. The county gets blamed for state efforts. The state blames the city for everything.
Take homelessness: I see folks drastically misinformed about what the city is doing—or what the city even can do—commenting with their full chest. How do we inform people better and with the right information?
It's fine that people are angry about things like homelessness—they should be. But they need the right information. They need to be angry at a top-down system that allows homelessness in the first place. Anything Salt Lake can do with its limited budget and tightly-controlled legal authority is a band-aid compared to the real issues, which stem from unchecked capitalism and worsening wealth disparity.
Folks are getting news from memes and Facebook posts, from their most unhinged and least-informed friends. And it's only going to get worse, thanks to the hard-right turn of platform owners, who are deactivating fact-checking and moderation. How do we convince folks to get off these platforms and to shut off Fox News?
The algorithm hates it when you're informed. It loves when you're outraged and misinformed. Remember that the next time you're doomscrolling and get upset about something you see and try to correct someone.
Instead, get involved. Keep it local, and trust that your local community has your interests at heart. They might screw up, but they aren't trying to screw you. They're trying to run a city. Let's start there and work our way up.
Maybe from there, one day, we can get the state Legislature straightened out and trying to help Utahns, too.
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