This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I read with interest Thomas Friedman's article on China's need to balance all kinds of growth with quality of life in "China gets too big to breathe" piece in Thursday's Salt Lake Tribune.
I can only hope our state and local politicians will see that we in the Salt Lake Valley are suffering the same fate as the Chinese.
Like the Chinese, we in Utah have a one-party system. We, too, have state economic and population growth that is unprecedented, politicians who value growth over quality of life. As a result we have the same environmental-quality issues that plague the Chinese.
Like the Chinese, we need a sustainable future "… that must be different from the American dream of a house, a car, a yard and a throwaway economy for all."
Gordon LaFleur
Murray