Jay Evensen - Opinions

Inversions come like swallows to Capistrano

12/13/2018

The editorial had a forceful, decisive tone:

“The people of Salt Lake City have made up their minds to eliminate smoke,” it said. “We’re going to have soon a carefully prepared smoke elimination law with plenty of teeth in it. We’re going to have a smoke elimination department with enough men to really enforce the law. We’re going to have — already have to a considerable extent — much voluntary cooperation in complying with that law.”

I cite this not just to illustrate how the Book of Ecclesiastes’ applies to Utah when it says, “there is no new thing under the sun,” but to show that the annual winter struggle to see the sun is nothing new.

Homeless accounting problems must be solved

12/12/2018

Few things are as enduring as the myth that the Salt Lake metro area solved its chronic homeless problem in 2015 by giving people housing.

I’ve gotten emails that demonstrate how widespread the story was told, including one from a woman in San Diego who told me the leader of a regional task force there was talking about Salt Lake’s success and urging that city to duplicate the “housing first” program.

She had been researching the subject and wondered if the glowing reports from here, claiming a 91 percent reduction in chronic homelessness over 10 years, were true.

Rep. Stewart hits wrong note on death of journalist

12/6/2018

Chris Stewart, Utah’s second district representative to Congress, hit a wrong note this week when he seemed to downplay the seriousness of the murder of a journalist, which the CIA now says was directly ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He wasn’t wrong when he said the United States needs to cultivate allies and do business with countries that don’t live up to our standards for human rights and basic liberties.

Finding an elusive "will of the people" on marijuana

12/4/2018

Now that this week’s unique special legislative session is over (any time lawmakers meet right after an election to change a successful initiative, that is unique), it’s time to explore a couple of persistent myths.

The first, repeated on social media and comment boards this week, is that Utah lawmakers never would have passed a bill on their own allowing medical marijuana without the threat of Proposition 2. In fact, they were moving slowly in this direction in recent years. But they were moving far too slowly for many people’s tastes.

Is voter anger good for democracy?

11/29/2018

Too bad we can’t put marijuana on the ballot every election year.

Or a 10-cent gas tax hike for education; or a razor-thin race for the fourth congressional district; or a man in the White House who in his, shall we say “unique” way, gets people excited about voting; or whatever it was that truly got people out this year.

I’ve been doing this a long time. The first column I wrote about voter turnout, or the lack thereof, was 20 years ago. Back then 45 percent of registered voters had just participated in an off-year election, and it was popular to do a lot of hand wringing about the future of democracy.

The dust won't settle for a while on 2018 elections

11/21/2018

Now that the dust is settling on the 2018 elections, here are a couple of lingering clouds over which to muse:

Competitive, much? The two closest races in the state involved the fourth congressional district and Proposition 4, an initiative designed to end political gerrymandering in the state.

Are we honoring the best American traditions?

11/21/2018

A century ago, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Thanksgiving proclamation that focused on the blessings of peace. If you know your history, World War I had ended only a few days earlier.

He characterized the war as “a righteous cause” and added this hopeful note: “We have cause for such rejoicing as revives and strengthens in us all the best traditions of our national history.”

Utah shouldn't bid for another Olympics

11/14/2018

Salt Lake Mayor Jackie Biskupski has said the city’s bid to host another Winter Olympics is “ours to lose.”
I recommend we lose it.

That may not be a popular opinion on a week when the Utah Legislature called a rare joint meeting to welcome officials from the U.S. Olympic Committee who were in town to scope out the leftover venues from the 2002 Winter Games.

But somebody has to say it.

Why Utah should keep an eye on this election in Maine

11/13/2018

If you think some of the close races in Utah were nail biters this year, you haven’t looked at Maine’s second congressional district. People there are biting down their cuticles.

Some of them are trying to bite the people in charge of the way the vote was conducted.

Maine is the incubator for ranked-choice voting. It is, as of this year, the first state to apply this method to congressional races. But now, one of the candidates for the second district there has sued to pull the plug on the whole idea.

Question 1 may have set Utah schools back years

11/7/2018

So, Utahns really don’t want to fund public schools, right?

I mean, for years we’ve heard people say the public gladly would support higher taxes to help Utah’s overcrowded classrooms and underpaid teachers, if only given the chance. The Legislature, the thinking went, stood in the way of that.

Well, voters had their chance Tuesday. A non-binding resolution asking them if they would add 10 cents per gallon to the gas tax, with most of the money being funneled to education, went down in flames. As I write this, the unofficial tally is 66 percent against, 33 percent in favor.

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