Extract This!
It must have hit them upside the head when state Treasurer David Damschen scrutinized some pretty nice subsidies to rural counties. And, of course, the subsidies were to help out the state's extractive industries—you know, coal, oil and such. Damschen, a board member of the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, questioned the legality of using Permanent Community Impact Fund money for these rural projects, and criticized the lack of transparency, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Indeed, rural Utah is at a disadvantage economically. It hasn't faced the cruel reality of the failing extractive industry. Apparently, neither has the federal government. The Bureau of Land Management is considering allowing drilling in Recapture Canyon, famed for the chest-pounding ATV protest and rich in Native American artifacts.
Down With History
There they go. Four historic structures in what expert Allen Roberts calls Murray's Temple Square. Since 2011, the city has allowed demolition of historic buildings if the project added value to the tax base, the Trib reported. Can you say development? That is the byword of the day. Preservation has always been a hard sell in Utah, where private property rights reign supreme. While Roberts said this wouldn't happen in Salt Lake City, it actually did. Among them were the Salt Lake Temple Annex, the Gardo House and—perhaps most significantly—Louis Sullivan's Dooly Building, demolished in 1964. Utah is rich with history, much of which lies in its architecture. It's too bad not enough people seem to care.