Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

Don't scoff at New Year's predictions

12/27/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
When it comes to predicting the future, Americans long have been obsessed with transportation. It seems we don’t like to sit still, and we really want to get where we’re going faster and cheaper.

It’s a thought that has long captured imaginations on New Year’s Eve, so it may not be too jarring to read this editorial from the St. Louis Star and Times, published Jan. 2, 1917:

“Discussions at the convention of the American Association for the Advance of Science, in New 

Read More
0 Comments

'Yes, Virginia' keeps warming the Christmas season

12/21/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
You don’t have to study newspaper opinion writing long before realizing that arguably the most enduring editorial ever written was an answer to an 8-year-old girl who wrote a letter to the editor about Santa Claus.

During the years I taught the craft as an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University, I used to joke with students that nothing they could write about wars, corruption in high places or any of society’s other ills would have the impact of the The New York Sun’s defense of Santa Claus in 1897.

At least, I doubted whether anything they wrote would inspire movies or a cantata as that one did.

At first, I said this with an absurd sense of irony. But as time went on, I began to understand the brilliant wisdom Francis Pharcellus Church, the author of that piece, gave the world as his legacy. I also began to appreciate what an appropriate Christmas message it is.

Read More
0 Comments

Another Pioneer Park plan? That's a good thing

12/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
The hopeful look in the eyes of Pioneer Park Coalition members I met with Tuesday afternoon was familiar. I’ve seen it so many times before on the faces of others.

When I asked the coalition’s executive director, David Garbett, whether he believes this time, really and truly, the city’s most centrally located park — once the site of a Mormon pioneer fort built in 1847, but for decades now the city’s largest open-air drug market — can be turned into a family friendly, 

Read More
0 Comments

Believe it or not, Utah's air is getting better

12/13/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
The caller was so angry she never gave the mayor a chance to respond.

“You simply must do something about the terrible smog in Salt Lake City,” she said. “I simply can’t stand it any longer.”

If nothing was done, she said, “I’m going to sell my house and move to Los Angeles.”

Read More
0 Comments

Let people have mother-in-law apartments

12/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Of all the market forces politicians like to try to change, the one labeled “affordable housing” may be the trickiest.
​
In Salt Lake City, the Redevelopment Agency has just allocated $17.6 million for affordable housing initiatives, ranging from a fund to help developers include more low-income housing in their apartment projects to renovating an old motel on North Temple into a project where no more than half the units would qualify as low-income.

Read More
0 Comments

No, soccer stadiums don't make money

12/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
I hate to be the one to say I told you so, but …

The truth is I’d have to get in line.

And I’d have to stand somewhere behind former Salt Lake County mayor Peter Corroon, who would be first.

Eleven years ago, when the then-owners of the professional soccer team Real Salt Lake argued like 

Read More
0 Comments

In America, national monuments are undemocratic

12/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
​“Everybody's talking at me
I don't hear a word they're saying…”
—Song lyrics by Fred Neil, popularized by Harry Nilsson, 1969
 
This is what happens when you don’t require a democratic, public process: People scream at each other and call each other names, politicians demonize their opponents and valid points on various sides are reduced to caricatures. Ultimately, few people are happy with the results.

Read More
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.