It’s a very hot and smoky day, very bad for your health, and we know that our climate is changing. But in regard to the Inland Port, what are the leaders of our community -- the Legislature, the governor, the mayor of Salt Lake City, the mayor of Salt Lake County -- doing about the very real dangers of the port?
Their silence is deafening as they push ahead with the growth of the immense, air-polluting and dirty Inland Port, no matter what. They seem to care more about economic development than the health of their people. What’s a little smoke, anyway?
Then the governor tells us that there is less and less water for a rapidly growing population, but our leaders are, of course, pushing ahead with the water-guzzling Inland Port. Again, their silence is deafening.
And there will be even more traffic congestion on our highways and streets, but once more our leaders say nothing and do nothing to oppose the growth of the Inland Port.
The Great Salt Lake and its birdlife are disappearing, but our leaders are still silent in their opposition, if any, to pushing ahead with the Inland Port.
The Inland Port is taking our tax dollars (subsidies of more than $75 million), but as usual we hear nothing in opposition to that from our leaders.
The backers of the Inland Port in the Utah Legislature don’t even live near the development. They and their friends, who perhaps stand to make a profit, live far away from the pollution, noise and filth of the Inland Port. But, hey, it’s OK for the people and their children on the west side of Salt Lake, who are just trying to breathe a little fresh air.
Some people in Utah want us to be the “Crossroads of the World.” There are, I would surmise, an awful lot of us in the Salt Lake valley who very definitely do not wish to share the dream of the economic “Crossroads of the World.”
Now we come to the Supreme Court of Utah. The court has had a year and a half to reach a decision concerning the legality of the Utah Legislature’s act to create the Inland Port in 2018, which seized about a quarter of the land area of Salt Lake City, and which is in possible violation of certain statutes in the Utah Constitution. The case, brought by Salt Lake City, came from the 3rd District Court. Things are happening on the ground and buildings are going up (with water-intensive landscaping). Again, we hapless peasant-citizens of Salt Lake City hear nothing, not even an injunction, from the erstwhile leaders of the Supreme Court.
Just what does it take to stop this insane project?
James King, Salt Lake City