Most residents of the capital city don't seem to mind it. At least, they twice have elected him their Democratic mayor.

Most other Utahns, though, do mind. They see Anderson's frequent sermonizing about a whole bunch of things that, to them, have nothing to do with the efficient running of a city, and they sorely wish they had the power to make him shut up, already.

In that vein, Anderson played very close to type Tuesday night in delivering a State of the City speech that was one part global environment rap, one part justifiable pride in making the city a more “livable and sustainable” community, and, regrettably, one part vintage, greener-than-thou Rocky nastiness that undermined his entire message.

Anderson's penchant for heedless invective locked on those profligate polluters up north who drive south to work and play in Rocky's fair city and have the gall to demand that the loathsome Legacy Highway be built to make that commute easier:

“We want our friends from the north to come to Salt Lake City; we just don't want them to increase our city's traffic, further foul our air, undermine the quality of our lives, and make us sick simply because of the choices they make about where they live and how they get around.”

Got that, friend?

Actually, we get neither the tone nor the substance. Given the realities of explosive population growth along the Wasatch Front, Legacy Highway, an expanded I-15, commuter rail and light rail are all needed to break the gridlock that ties up Weber and Davis counties for long periods each day.

It is to Anderson's credit that his early opposition to Legacy helped buy time for everyone along the north-south corridor to see the popularity and efficacy of TRAX in the Salt Lake Valley, and to demand mass transit alternatives of their own. However, his continued opposition to a better-planned highway is anachronistic, ignoring as it does that high real estate prices in Salt Lake have inevitably driven tens of thousands of people ever-greater distances to find affordable housing. The ensuing transportation overload is unsolvable by mass transit alone.

We agree with Salt Lake City Councilman Dave Buhler that Anderson's intemperate remarks needlessly alienated northern Utah lawmakers and that that could hurt the city during the Legislature's general session. Legislators wrongly tried to punish the city after Anderson signed on to the lawsuit that halted Legacy construction in south Davis County.

Anderson's heated response - that Buhler “and others are too cowardly to stand up to those who are going to seek to punish us” - merely underscored Buhler's point, and ours, that Anderson's tone, more than his message, is too often his worst enemy.