Civic Dialogue; Rocky II

Rocky 2 is now showing in Salt Lake City and all of the final reviews will be on for some few years. We hope to get a sneak preview of the outcome tonight on civic dialogue. Good evening I'm Ted Kapler thank you for joining us. Now that he has been re-elected to a second four year term as mayor of Utah's largest city will Ross be rocking Anders and have a soft lower and softer gentler style. Or should he should he. What about it Mayor will you be softer and gentler. I thought I was I suppose maybe it's just. Getting used to some of these battles but there been a lot of challenges but a lot of great things

happen it's been a very rewarding four years and I think that I going to be a better mayor frankly. Yeah yeah I do. How so. You know I bend over backwards. It was interesting I had this discussion with Carl Christiansen today really have bent over backwards to make sure that people who have felt disenfranchised people who felt they didn't have a political voice in the city or in the state in many ways that they felt they had a place at the table in every way and in doing that I think that that was read by many who previously always had a place at the table feel like I was excluding them. And I want to make it clear that when we talk about the religious divide that really saddens me and that I have always advocated for people of any religion or no religion of all people of every race every ethnic origin every economic status to have an equal place in not only in government but also in our community.

And I'm going to work very very hard on that. Ted I think that there has been. There have been a lot of misperceptions about that and some of them came up during the main street Plaza issue. I think during the Olympics some of the emphasis I gave our night life trying to make sure that the the world saw this as an open welcoming fun place. And I think that the some people have taken offense at that. You mentioned one of the city councilman Carlton Christiansen. Now are you going to be able to enhance your relationship with all members of the council which has not been perfect in the last few years. Well I suppose should it be. Well it should be friendly you know and we've got a lot of time doing this we all work hard we've all got the best interests of the city at heart and I think fundamentally we all want the same things and we just may have a different way of getting there. And I have a lot of regard for.

Most of our sex. I notice you search for that word. Well there's one that I've had some real problems with that actually even there I hoped. I hope to repair those relationships because as we spend all this time together you know I saw the practice of law. I could go head to head toe to toe with with lawyers in the city and we would battle it out. But in almost every instance we could be friends and have a lot of respect for each other afterwards. And that's what I think this should be I don't think that it needs to be a fight all the time. And I am in the process now of trying to determine where our common goals are what our common ground is and figure out you know in what areas can we agree on how to reach those common goals. I had a lot of experience that in very complex cases when I was practicing law and I've handled a lot of that the last four years and I think this is going to be a lot better and far more amicable but you know we all have to remember Palmer to polish

one of the nicest guys in the world when he was mayor and had his gang of four. They used to call them so this is not unusual as I talk to mayors around the country. Sometimes their councils give them fits but one thing I know I can do better and that I really hope the city council responds to is spending more personal time with each other because I think building those personal relationships can get you through a lot of those rougher time. You're raised a lot of issues for one is. Is the idea that you haven't spent much time with the council because you are so anxious to succeed in other ways. Now you will allocate more time in this new term. I will for one thing look at the issues we've been facing. We we spent the better part of a year and a half almost solid planning for the Olympics. And I think the Salt Lake City did such an amazing job hosting what was probably the best Olympic games ever in the history of the modern

Olympics movement certainly the best Winter Games to be healthy. But I had my obsessions a lot of science a lot of time spent and it primarily was focused on security issues. And here you've got this guy that was considered the sort of bleeding heart liberal pounding Governor Leavitt and on Mitt Romney trying to get more police more reservists more guards people out there that so that we could respond to anything that came up immediately. I did not want a Seattle type riot going on when Salt Lake City was hosting the Olympics and it's not after 9/11 of course our concerns became much greater. But fortunately had a lot of help from the federal government our far congressional delegation did a great job for us. Are you an obsessive compulsive person. Some people have called me that. I think that I do. I grab on to things and I want to see the results. And

I do I think I'd characterize myself more as being passionate that I really feel intensely about my responsibilities. And I did before I was mayor. You know things where I felt like we could make some good progress and help improve lives and make for a better world or a better community. I've I've always sort of carried that sense of personal responsibility with me. And so with that comes sometimes some sleepless nights and real attention to detail and always pushing But fortunately we've got a team of people in city government that are very much the same way and they've been trafficked to work with. So you have a team in place now that you're satisfied with the administrative team that will be with you for the next four years. I think the vast majority absolutely there may be a couple of changes but we I think given what's happened these last four years the tremendous accomplishments and the way we've built this team and there was some turnover

about it but it's like building a great basketball team. Jerry Sloan doesn't get criticized when he makes some cuts so that he can build a great team. And. We've got some fantastic people I'm very very proud of. OK you have had a high stress first term because of the all the things that have happened things you've mentioned and many other things. I mean Street Plaza Yeah. Yeah well we've got we can talk about that Nordstrom's a whole bunch of things but now I guess hopefully although you may not agree with the word hopeful that the next four years won't be quite so stressful. How do you personally handle stress seriously. I mean you still jog. You know I have been since the campaign started unfortunately but I do I love to run. Love to workout in. It's painful enough for me when I do it that my mind goes off my work I don't think about my work when I'm working out or rest painful different is it. It's painful enough for me because I'm always just enough out of shape.

You know if it's good for the body and the soul you know no question about it and I've missed said during the campaign what else you do to handle stress. I read a lot. I read for a short sleeve What are you reading now. Sounds like Barbara Walters What are you reading. There are a couple of books I'm reading now. One of the books that you know I have it's called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Catholicism. Really it's a fascinating book about Catholicism I've always been interested in religions I just read a history of Islam. That is so fascinating everybody that wants an understanding of Islam should read more about it. Are you considering converting to Catholicism. It's just an interesting background Sure yeah. And I'm also finishing up fast food nation. I got most of the way through and I set it down and I really want to finish it. Fast Food Nation is the traffic book.

We're going to talk about specific issues but while we're delving into your personal life there are those couple of the ladies in the control room who wondered if you would have less of a stressful life if in fact you got married. Well I've been I've been married twice and once was for a very short time. Yeah we should have just remained friends because she's a great woman. And actually I think being married can help ease the stress if you have somebody who's supportive and I've got a great woman in my life now that it actually helps out a lot too. Although you can have your personal issues and that adds on at times. If you've got somebody that can be supportive and nurturing and and going to answer my question. So I think I think it could be less stressful but I'm I have no immediate plans twice and you don't want to try to get as I would like to try again and it's something I don't like everybody and like David Letterman.

I'd love to have lifetime partner somebody to share a lot of this with. Another personal question Ross. See Rocky Anderson what is the C's stand for. C stands for Carl and actually Carl after whom I was named had his own nickname it was stubby stubby Peterson who he and his wife heard a stubby inverted Peterson. We're from price. Everybody in price knows of stubby inverted Peters and they're both of the high school they're wonderful people he was a senator at Utah State many generations back on their football close friend your parents a good friend of my parents and my grandmothers and I think there was some blood relationship somewhere along the line but when I was a young boy we used to go on trips with them. I remember going to Mesa Verde with stubby invertebrate the sea is after after Carl Peterson and actually the Ross was after my great Uncle Ross Anderson up in Logan Utah. Well how did Rocky come about. I have no idea. Been an old rocker since before I can remember.

OK you mentioned Palmer to Paula says I think you alluded to the fact that he was maybe not as hard hitting in ways as some other mayors were you know. As you look back over the history of Salt Lake City. Who in your mind sticks out as being putting yourself aside the most effective mayor. I think Ted Wilson was a great mayor. Ted did a lot with our airport. He really paid attention to a lot of the details there. I think Ted was a fantastic mayor he was there for 10 years. He had a lot of opportunity to do that and fabulously popular mayor. I think when when my name first was being bandied about as maybe running and they put many of us up in a poll against TV quarantining And you know I was way down there. I think Ted was at 82 percent or something. And that area he was he was by far the

most popular at that time. And I even urged Ted to run instead of me running I said let's let's get you back in there and he said he'd had enough. Well you're assured now of eight years. Are you going to try and top Ted Wells and I mean this is your question Mr. Madison. Right yeah but what are your plans what are your plans for when you get to be an old old man a long time down the line. You know I really want to work in the area of human rights. And if I can leverage what I do as mayor in helping raise consciousness about some of these issues and bring about some changes. I'd love to do that from the mayor's office because I love our local issues. I really think that what we do locally can set a great example for other communities and we we can spread a lot of the progress like we've done with our environmental programs. What we're doing environmentally especially in the area of reducing greenhouse gas emissions

and doing our part in reversing global warming is something that has been brought to the attention of municipal leaders around the world. That's why the EPA sent me to speak at the United Nations conference in New Delhi last year. So there is so much that we can do locally that not only makes us a better community that but that can serve as a model elsewhere so you'd like to be in office more than eight years. Well I don't know. There are there are other ways to serve and we all find our own ways to survive. I felt like I served in many ways when I was practicing law but. I doubt that I'll go back to doing what I did before I was mayor I think that I would find other ways to serve. Now you mentioned the EPA and the environment. Are you satisfied the Governor Leavitt will be a good administrator director of the EPA. Well I hope he will. I wish he'd gone into the Department of Education because I think he was a great governor when it came to education and he was willing to stand up even to the

powerful forces in his own party on things like tuition vouchers. And I think that his emphasis on performance on competency was such an important message and I hope that we continue that under Governor Walker right. She mentioned that her not a great speech the other day in the area of the environment. We see things very very differently. I don't think that we made a lot of progress with the environment like we could have. Under Governor Governor Leavitt's of ministration but at the EPA you know sometimes people rise to the occasion he's got a great opportunity now to make a huge difference in the quality of our air and water and the protection of our environment nationally and also working with the international community better than what the Bush administration has done up until now we've we've really had a vacuum of leadership in terms of some of these important problems like global warming. But the rest the international community I think is doing a very admirable job it's

time that we take our leadership position in the international community. OK looking ahead now to these next four years however many days that is if you want to chunk off the days as the governor used to do right. What do you see as your major challenges. I think in terms of the intangibles has it has a huge impact in this community. The one thing that I would love to see be it the real trademark of this administration is that we have built a community that we have. Brought people together. We've gotten rid of some of these areas of divisiveness and there'll always be some divisiveness you know we're going to get rid of this I think is is fooling themselves. But there can be so much greater understanding among all people. And I think the only real way of doing that Ted is to get people to know each other on a personal basis. Break down some

of the barriers in terms of the way we isolate ourselves. I hope that we can find ways that people will not just hang out with others of like kind whether it's race or ethnic origin that Konami status sexual orientation religion. And we've seen some great leadership in this community. The comments from President Hinckley an elder Ballard in the last couple of years have been very heartwarming Ballard's speech at conference gave me goosebumps I mean I was so thrilled to hear that coming from leadership and that is the need to. We all have to reach out and embrace people of other faiths and get to understand them better and build compassion for one another. And I really. Want to work with everybody in the community to help build that sense and there is something the mayor can do although I think we've got great opportunities for that yet. OK.

All right now let's switch to downtown Salt Lake City. I don't know whether or not you saw our Salt Lake City in the 50s program. If you didn't you should have. We'll get your copy. I've got a copy of How I got on it when I watch it now with your wife almost every time I had a heart and the City of course was much different then and it's hard to compare now with then. But we had marquees on Main Street with the theaters and many theaters and people came downtown there weren't all the malls of course and you know and it's much different. It's hard to compare but what what can be done that you aren't doing now that you can do in these next four years to really. And live and live in Maine straight state straight second South Third south and even gateway. Great question. Yeah yeah. Gateway has pose tremendous challenges. You know the question about it's part of downtown Salt Lake isn't it is it is indeed part of downtown. OK. But we can only have so many square feet of retail.

And there's been this trend toward suburbanization and in Salt Lake cities and so many other cities around the country. We're trying to reverse that and I think people are recognizing the value of having a central historic downtown area. And so people are returning to live in the downtown area. We now have thousands of people more people living downtown. Forty five hundred people living downtown in thirty three hundred housing units. That's more than in Denver Colorado. That's more than ever than in the history of Salt Lake City. But we need to do more. And I'm very very happy that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is planning to major planning to major housing components on both my and the Crossroads block. I'd like to have us provide some student housing with some common space maybe dorm type rooms with common space. On State Street near the light rail line I think that would be very convenient with

what is being planned on the cross roads block which would be a scaling back of retail square footage but I think an increase in the quality of retail and all the housing and entertainment and the pedestrian passageways now through that block and the underground parking rather than a parking lot is run that store put it in a consult for the church instead of having a moon. The Convention Center having it underground. Yeah it's going to be a very appealing place and I think that investment is going to be a great boon for the entire downtown area but when you talk about marquees one of the things that I'm absolutely most excited about and I've been working on this for three years now with the owner of the property. Is to is to convert the old ute gator into a major performing arts center. There are some drawings that have been done absolutely stunning and that's going to be I think one of the greatest additions to our downtown and without of course you see the restaurants more retail more people wanting to live downtown

and the connections now that we'll see between the gateway area and downtown with an expanded light rail system. The intermodal hub where the commuter rail will come in just west of the Rio Grande there will also be a stop at the Gateway both of those connecting up to an expanded light rail system. And I want to see us extend that to the airport. West Valley City West Jordan Draper Sugarhouse can that happen in the next four years. It won't all happen next four years but we can put down conditions for that. And one of those conditions is to have a full one cent sales tax for transit. It's been done in other communities. We are at it such a great transitional period and it's something that I think the voters would support. Now the voters did support Speaking of sales taxes taxes the propositions all of which you favor. There were five and four of the five passed.

What impact will those combined have to Salt Lake City in your opinion. I think that it just furthers the renaissance that we are in the midst of Renaissance and Salt Lake City. Nothing portrays that more I think than our amazing new library and the library Square downtown. There were six proper There were so I had already passed out I thought all of them passed except the one I realized my readers if you will but the Leonardo at the old library building for instance we are the largest city in the country without a space without a Science and Technology Center. We're going to have that it will be stunning and it will also involve the history of this place with the Center for Documentary arts culture the global art ways the Salt Lake City Arts Academy a charter school. Think of the synergy the will see down there with the library with light rail with the open space the expansion of the zoo a

commitment to keeping the zoo where it is is going to be a great thing. The sports complex. We're going to have now finally a major soccer complex and it's not just soccer rugby lacrosse other sports will have four or two baseball fourplex down. But all of that will not only be a great economic driver for our community as we bring all of these tournaments and people staying at our hotels and tell them such but providing these great recreational opportunities for so many of the people of our community. But will these increased taxes plus the one you said was possible the bonding put an undue burden on the citizens and not all the average homeowner A hundred seventy five thousand dollars will pay somewhere in the area of $50 more per year. And this could be spread out too because these bonds are not going to hit at the same time some of them could be years out. But what a great

investment for all of us who pay property taxes to build these kinds of amenities in our city. All of that. It raises the quality of life. It increases the value of all of our properties and provides such incredible opportunities for all who love work and visit and Solid city. Can the business is in place now and downtown especially on the north end of Main. Survive this massive building programme that the church is going to undertake. Well I know that representatives of the churches Christ of Latter day Saints of it have assured all of us that they will do everything they can to provide for those businesses that will be impacted. It is going to be a major construction project which is really exciting. It's going be great jobs it's it'll mean it'll mean such an improvement in our downtown area. Just a real boost for everybody. But along

the way we want to make sure that. Businesses certain businesses don't share an unfair burden that they have. And yeah you know they don't carry too much of the load and the church has assured us that they'll do everything they can to help those because we had a 15 seconds left and I should have asked you this earlier. Are you satisfied now with what is happening on the west side is a hard question to answer in 10 or 15 seconds. Well violent crime has been reduced 23 percent on the west side retail business licenses are up 10 percent over the last four years. We put pioneer precinct police precinct open up a new fire station in terms of public safety in terms of the capital improvements. It's all happened at unprecedented rates on the west side. But there are those who want more shopping opportunities and we're working on that very very hard. We will focus on that like a laser and I think people will be very very pleased at what they're going to see on our city's west

side. Mayor thank you. Thank you very much Ted. Thank you. Thank you for joining us this evening if you want to comment. Send us an e-mail to civic at KQED dot org. Call five a day and find out more about show topics w w w diet KQED dot org. Now chronic pain affects an estimated 86 million adults to some degree. Can such pain be controlled without becoming addicted to or totally dependent on drugs. The topic on our next civic dialogue next Sunday at 5:30 until then. I'm Ted Kapler. Good night.