There is no single template for such profound change, nor should there be. For none could possibly foster the dynamism and openness to new ideas that are nudging Salt Lake City's competing interest groups toward the shared goal of a more livable, and likable, community.
The ferment of change is everywhere, with a new city administration due in January after eight years of tempestuous but critical stage-setting by Mayor Rocky Anderson.
Happily, both the candidates vying to replace the departing mayor possess the public-policy experience and pragmatic instincts that are critical to overseeing a citywide transformation. The office of mayor is officially nonpartisan. And to the degree possible, post-Rocky, it must be that in fact.
Becker, the mild-mannered Utah House minority leader, lawyer and small-business owner, is an environmental planner with an 11-year record in the Legislature. He has advocated open government, ethics reform, hate-crimes legislation, smart growth, open-space and historic preservation, among other worthy causes. His style is collaborative, not partisan, which has earned him a measure of respect from his Republican colleagues.
Buhler, who served a single term in the Senate Republican majority (1995-99), is winding up his second term on the Salt Lake City Council, where he twice was elected its chairman. Professionally he is associate commissioner of public affairs for the Utah System of Higher Education. As a councilman, Buhler has been a force for budgetary restraint and instrumental in passage of a variety of bipartisan initiatives, including open-space preservation, opening a fire station and police precinct on the west side, and keeping Hogle Zoo in the city.
Both Becker and Buhler support west-side residential and business development, partnering with the city's public schools to expand educational opportunities, building a TRAX line to the airport, and passage of Proposition 1, the $192 million public safety bond.
Both oppose private-school vouchers and favor most elements of the Chamber of Commerce's comprehensive Downtown Rising development plan.
Becker would work to revamp the city's restrictive liquor ordinances, which Buhler as councilman has not avidly pursued. Buhler would have natural ties to the Republican-controlled Legislature, which could benefit the city. However, Becker, through his collegial approach, also would try to mend ruptures in the city-state relationship that became ravines during Mayor Anderson's eight-year war with Capitol Hill.
Neither candidate is without flaw. Buhler, a well-connected Republican in an increasingly Democratic city, opposed the TRAX line to the University of Utah and backed construction of a huge mall west of the airport which would have had a devastating impact on small-business development on the west side.
Becker wrongly deplores the Gateway development, which now will conveniently anchor westward expansion of the downtown. And he has yet to prove that he can lead from the front in practical application of his philosophical and professional commitments to environmental sustainability, open space and planning and zoning reform.
But even though each candidate would bring different strengths to the mayor's office, The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board believes Becker is in closer step with today's increasingly diverse and evolving city.
We believe that Utah's capital is a good city that has a rare opportunity to become a great one, a city that more fully embraces wise and sustainable growth, energy efficiency, public transit and all races, creeds and characters. A city that prizes its past and safeguards its future. An enlightened, progressive city that needs a smart, progressive mayor, a mayor of all the people.
We believe Ralph Becker is the mayor for this moment, one who sees the way to the summit.
