- Monty Python's Flying Circus
Now that the very public display of machismo by the two big-horned sheep named Mayor Anderson and Mayor Briggs is over, the dispute about what to do with some precious open space that is owned by one of them and governed by the other should go back where it belongs.
To the lawyers.
It won't be as exciting when Salt Lake City's Rocky Anderson and North Salt Lake's Kay Briggs aren't trading colorful insults in front of cheering and jeering crowds, as they were at Anderson's Library Square kick-off rally Wednesday.
But the dull proceedings that are to come stand to reach a more equitable, less grudge-inducing, solution than could ever be achieved by such public breast-beating.
Anderson, we would argue, is on solid ethical and environmental ground in seeking to condemn 13 acres within his city that was acquired by North Salt Lake 56 years ago for its water rights.
The development plan North Salt Lake has for the total 80 acres it owns - 20 acres of homes, a cemetery and a park - is hardly a slum. But it would still serve the greater good, future generations and Salt Lake City's zoning laws to preserve one of the few remaining open spots along the shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville.
But Anderson's decision to launch his plan with a needlessly hostile campaign rally was almost as needlessly in-your-face as Briggs' decision to crash the party and suggest that his esteemed colleague was a liar.
To bring this reasonable plan to the public's attention with a surreal media event, which became even stranger with the hostile presence of the other city's mayor, will only make it harder to settle the matter cordially.
Some good feelings are going to be needed by both cities because, no matter how this fuss turns out, they will still be neighbors and must work together on development, transportation, water and other issues. And a little more goodwill wouldn't hurt Anderson's cause, either, seeing as how the $51,000 he expects to compensate North Salt Lake for its property sounds awfully low to us.
The two cities should try to work this out or, if they can't, let a judge decide. That's why it's called civilization.
