One of the more intriguing developments in the Tuesday municipal general election will be the future of Proposition 1: Public Safety Facilities.
According to Salt Lake City’s official government website, Proposition 1, if passed, would allocate $125 million from general obligation bonds to build a new public safety building and emergency operations center. Salt Lake City’s average homeowner would contribute $6.25 per month to pay for the project, according to an educational mailer from the city.
So why is there a need for new public safety facilities? The city cites a 2008 Department of Homeland Security memo that counts Salt Lake City as “one of the nation’s 62 cities at highest risk for probability for a natural or man-made disaster.” We sit on one of the most active and hazardous fault lines in the country, and the area is long overdue for the predicted megaquake, so possessing adequate emergency response facilities is vital to the welfare and health of the city.
City leaders began an official public education campaign in August to inform voters on the issue, spending about $75,000, according to KCPW Public Radio. The majority of that money has been spent on educational mailings to all city households. The mailer supplies a flow of consistent information regarding the ineffective and unsafe nature of the existing public safety building. It is convincing when it notes that Salt Lake City sits on one of the five most dangerous earthquake faults in the nation, and the building was originally built only to accommodate 275 people, leaving nary enough room for the 500 employed there now.
However, the glossy mailer fails to convince why the building must be located so close to Library Square. Although the original plan included actually constructing the building on the square, a vocal majority of citizens lambasted Mayor Ralph Becker’s administration in an effort to dispose with the idea. The proposition, as it will appear on the ballot, proposes a location on 300 East between 400 South and 500 South.
It is no secret that Library Square is a refuge for a large portion of Salt Lake City’s homeless. In accordance with the new panhandling law, what will become of the relationship between the city’s large homeless population and the police if they are located in the same downtown area? And don’t forget about the countless festivals held downtown. Will a centrally located public safety building increase police patrols of downtown in conjunction with providing additional safety?
Regardless of its unfortunate location and possibilities for easy crackdowns on Salt Lake City’s large homeless population, new public safety facilities are an absolute necessity in order to make the city’s infrastructure capable of handling adequate emergency response. The city is offering free tours every Wednesday at 4 p.m. at the current public safety building to make its point. Log on to www.slcgov.com/PSB to make an informed vote Tuesday.
