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Community Corner

🌱 Gold Medal For SLC's Erin Jackson + Little Cottonwood Concerns

The quickest way to get caught up on the most important things happening today in Salt Lake City.

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Hello, people of Salt Lake! Joseph Peterson here with a fresh copy of the Salt Lake City Daily.

First, today's weather:

Showers of rain and snow. High: 41 Low: 28. Here's your Patch forecast for the rest of this week.

Here are the top five stories in Salt Lake City today:

  1. In a historic victory, Salt Lake City's Erin Jackson won an Olympic gold medal in speedskating, becoming the first Black woman to ever do so. Jackson's time of 37.04 seconds for the 500-meter event marked the first medal for the American Speedskating team in these Olympic games and its first individual medal in 12 years. She hopes her victory will bring more attention to the sport and that her example will inspire more minorities to pursue winter sports. (fox13now.com)
  2. Utah lags behind the national average in the number of adults choosing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. An estimated 267,100 adult Utahns, or 11.7%, say they will likely refuse getting vaccinated, but not all for the same reasons. Of all adults in the state, 5.5% will refuse because they do not trust the COVID-19 vaccine specifically, 5.7% because they do not think COVID-19 is a big threat, and 6.0% because they distrust the government. (24/7 Wall St. - Salt Lake City)
  3. A new Utah student group, Students for the Wasatch, is speaking out against proposals for Little Cottonwood Canyon that are aimed at helping alleviate the growing problem of congestion that has seen unprecedented increases in traffic on ski days. The group says the proposals of bus transit (that require a widening of the road), and an 8-mile gondola are short-sighted and spark concerns that tax dollars that would almost exclusively benefit private ski resorts, that watershed construction would lead to poor water quality, and that focusing only on Little Cottonwood fails to consider Big Cottonwood, which is also experiencing unsustainable congestion. (KSL.com)

Today in Salt Lake City:

  • Workshop SLC presents Heart Shaped Leaves in Watercolor with Lucia Feltovich, tonight. Beginner artists are welcome. (6:00 PM)
  • Utah Film Center's Black History Month film screenings are virtual this year, and tonight features the next episode in the Black, Bold & Brilliant series, diving into the legendary interview between James Baldwin and Nikki Giovanni for a bold and breathtaking dialogue about race, love, and artistic inspiration. (7:00 PM)
  • The UVU Museum of Art presents in a virtual exhibit, a collection of recent works by Alexandra Giannell, concerned with the topographical landscapes and architectural structures of historical and contemporary socially institutionalized implementations of displacement, incarceration, and genocide, as well as the dualistic relationships between the internal and external, restriction and liberation. (All Day)

From my notebook:

  • Over 3,000 people weighed in last summer on the types of amenities that should be included at the new Pioneer Park - Your Downtown Park. The vision plan incorporates that input along with that from a variety of local stakeholders to ensure it meets the wide range of needs a downtown park should meet. Did we get it right? Visit our site to watch a video and take a survey to weigh in before Feb 18, 2022. (Salt Lake City Public Lands)
  • Here's an update on potential precipitation midweek. Two systems will impact the state today into Wednesday and then another later Wednesday into Thursday. Right now, the best chance for heavier precipitation looks to be southern Utah. (US National Weather Service Salt Lake City Utah)
  • "Have you seen the current Finch Lane Gallery exhibitions? The Salt Lake City Arts Council Finch Lane Gallery's current exhibitions speak to sustainability. Elpitha's work speaks to alternative mapmaking practices, as opposed to colonialist mapmaking practices based on extraction. Casey's work looks at the agency of plant life. The exhibition will be up until February 25th. Stop by during business hours, take part in a gallery stroll, or take a virtual gallery tour! For health and safety considerations, gallery capacity is limited to 20 people at a time. Masks are required." (Salt Lake City Green)
  • "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin™? All are welcome when Harry Potter in Concert comes to Abravanel Hall!" (Utah Symphony)

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Thanks for following along and staying informed! See you tomorrow morning for another update.

— Joseph Peterson

About me: Joseph is a writer and marketing communications strategist with a degree in Mass Communication and Public Relations from the University of Utah. He's keen on city life, public libraries, national parks, and promoting events that build community.

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

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