Jenny Wilson calls an expensive overhaul of drug-riddled Pioneer Park "premature" and supports the Salt Lake City Council's modest investment. Keith Christensen rejects that "Band-Aid" approach and prefers a sweeping makeover to polish what should be a city jewel.
In a debate Wednesday, the two mayoral hopefuls also had a curt exchange over Christensen's voting record on a nondiscrimination policy toward gay employees.
"Stop!" Christensen blurted, palm extended, after Wilson noted the former city councilman had twice voted against the policy. "You gave Jenny the respect of rambling through her answer," Christensen told the moderator. "Now, I want the respect."
"Is this a debate now," Wilson said.
Wednesday's testy moments highlighted an otherwise congenial hour at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics, where both candidates took strides to burnish their "progressive" credentials. Each pledged to champion equal rights for gay employees, eschew big-box stores and push environmental initiatives should they be elected to lead Utah's left-leaning capital.
Christensen, a Republican, said he regrets those earlier votes and emphasized that he now is a fan of the city's nondiscrimination policy and domestic-partner benefits plan, an initiative Wilson, a Democrat, tried but failed to get her GOP County Council colleagues to adopt.
Both candidates - among the leading fundraisers so far in a crowded mayoral field - said they had no qualms with Mayor Rocky Anderson's environmental push at conferences across the globe. But, if elected, each pledged to work harder with local leaders, including the Legislature, on everything from education to economic development to environmental sensitivity.
Anderson has done "a world of good," Wilson said. "But the mayor's role is to be at your desk, return phone calls and administer and direct the city."
Christensen, Anderson's handpicked successor, agreed. "It isn't what Rocky's doing that upsets people; it's how he's doing it," he said. "I'd take more of a diplomacy role."
Each was asked whether it is appropriate to use hotel taxes for Real Salt Lake's soccer-stadium project in Sandy - and both deftly dodged the question.
Wilson noted she has been on a door-to-door tour of small businesses - she called them the city's "heart and soul" - to poll owners on their challenges. She also pointed to her ties with the county as a benefit when it comes to advocating for arts facilities, the county-run Salt Palace and the tourism budget.
Christensen, a business owner and self-described "recovering attorney" who spent eight years on the City Council, focused on the vitality of commerce.
He vowed to bring down barriers to small business, tightening a permit process, for instance, from six months to two weeks.
But, on Pioneer Park, the differences crystallized.
One day, Wilson said, foot traffic may justify a radical revamp. Christensen prefers the current mayor's desire to add live music, a playground and perhaps a dog park.
Still, when he proposed changing the park's name in the late 1990s to Pioneer Square to loosen liquor restrictions in the area and make it a destination, Christensen ran head-on into the LDS Church.
"I got killed on that," he said, adding after the debate, "It's not something I'm advancing. I learned my lesson."
djensen@sltrib.com
