Skynet .. SkiLink?

By my count, around 125 fellow citizens showed up to the Salt Lake County Building to have their voices and thoughts heard this past Tuesday. Voices heard, what? It must involve politics, religion, or the takeover of humanity by inhuman beings, as in the Terminator movie franchise…

Not quite 'standing room only,' - there were seats on the side I was in - but it was a pretty substantial turnout.

Indeed. The matter on people’s minds was, and continues to be, the proposal currently being expedited through the usually labyrinthine political processes that make it so lengthy and arduous to build anything in the Wasatch. The proposal at hand concerns efforts to build Skynet, whoops, I meant SkiLink, a lift meant to connect Solitude with The Canyons, and vice versa. This lift is in no way designed to transport Terminators around the various canyons, so rest easy.

Unopposed, the entire process might take only a few months from ‘Can we?’ to breaking ground. Impressive. Especially given the numbers of people opposed to fresh development between these two resort areas. Obviously, numbers and polls can be manipulated, but it appears that a heavy majority of locals oppose this build-out. I’ve heard between 64% and 90% of those polled are opposed to SkiLink. Who knows the true numbers, but it’s not just 2 or 3 random, never-seen backcountry skiers that oppose this measure.

Just a bunch of citizens milling about, awaiting a chance to be heard. SkiLink has been blowing through the red tape so quickly that it's safe to say that the general public opinion hasn't yet been fully heard. So much for democratic process.

Of course, out-of-towners could care less. It’s not their forested skyline that is slated for serious impact. In fact, outsiders probably think that linking up the east and west, or Wasatch front and Wasatch back, is a matter of convenience. And to some, SkiLink will provide convenience. Skynet, for anyone who forgets their Hollywood based, Terminator franchise history, was created to guarantee speed and efficiency. Ostensibly, this was meant as a protective device. We all saw how that went. Or, maybe you missed one of the largest blockbuster movie franchises of the last 100 years…

As for the meeting itself:

I’d like to give proper credit where proper credit is due. To do that, I’ll first thank David Wilde, the apparent head of the assembled ‘listening’ committee who will soon vote on this measure, for attempting to silence the public voice. Following the Pledge of Allegiance, it only took moments for him to state something along the lines of, ‘I see a lot of you gathered here, probably opposed to SkiLink. However, we’re not voting on that for a few more weeks, so hopefully you can all come back then and give us your thoughts at that time.’

He could have said, ‘We don’t really want to listen to you.’ Never fear, he said almost that! I think it morphed into something like, ‘There are a lot of you, and with 3 minutes to speak each, we really don’t want to sit here and listen to all of your viewpoints.’

I’m clearly a buffoon, and sometimes struggle to understand what it means when Skynet sends Terminators to destroy living things. I also take a long time to comprehend that this will have an effect on my life.

Be a good sport, Terminators aren’t all that bad.

Further, it’s really hard for me to imagine that a proposal such as this one, so successfully being expedited thus far, might just be arranged in such a way as to railroad the public. Picture this: the vote occurs at 4 p.m. The public is allowed a whole 25 minutes beforehand to present their facts, outrage, displeasure, and opinions, before votes are cast. Immediately afterwards, Talisker buys celebratory steak dinners – for a week, in Paris – for those who’ve voted the Skynet service into place. The public talks about how fighting politicians, especially politicians who have received funding from said organization, is fairly futile. Especially when there is limited time to be heard. This paragraph is all imaginary, at least until it happens. Let’s look at the reality of what has happened:

In David Wilde’s case, he attempted to silence the first public speaker (a member of Save Our Canyons, if I recall) by stating that his 3 minutes were up. The crowd stirred. Anger was in the air. Citizen’s rights out the window? (Really, first tell the crowd you don’t want to hear them, then cut off their ability to speak?) A voice in the crowd aptly summed up the general feeling of outrage: “He can have my 3 minutes.” The guy was allowed to continue speaking…

A speaker from Save Our Canyons faces off against David White and other 'listeners' who wouldn't even look up, except to mention that the speaker had overshot the 3 minute mark. I'd like to think this was because they were taking such copious notes, but 2 court reporters were typing every word said...

Strangely, after listening to many speakers cite water quality impacts, the inability to build on >50° slopes, what has happened when past lift towers have gone in, etc., etc., I felt that none of the citizen commenters touched on some key points. Politics in play, I’m sure.

Before I left, a few minutes before 5, no one had mentioned that selling 30 acres of prime public land to a company based in a foreign land would have a massive impact on backcountry users. This is prime, public, recreational land. No one had mentioned that cutting down more of the forest to build the SkiLink would look unsightly. No one brought up wild animal migration paths, or habitat, and the impact this, and future lift building in this zone, could cause.

And, perhaps most lacking, no one brought up what I believe is the most prominent point. No less a luminary than Warren Buffett wrote an excellent, cautionary tale in Fortune Magazine in November 2003, brushing against this topic. In that Fortune piece, Warren put it this way: “In effect, our country has been behaving like an extraordinarily rich family that possesses an immense farm. In order to consume 4% more than we produce – that’s the trade deficit – we have, day by day, been selling pieces of the farm and increasing the mortgage on what we still own.”

If you can envision the end result of selling off chunks of public land, you’re well on your way to understanding why SkyLink isn’t a great idea from the Utah citizen’s perspective. Or even from the American citizen’s perspective. Perhaps a Taliskernator will pay you a visit, mentioning in the process that, ‘SkiLink is not Skynet!’

Look beyond the proposed $30 million price tag to buy 30 acres of public American land. Look at the reality: selling this prime, public acreage to a foreign based, private company is folly. (Talisker already owns the Canyons resort; this move can be viewed as simple expansion, or as a land grab.)  By selling to a Canadian company, no longer will Americans be entitled to reap the future rewards, financial, emotional, or otherwise, to be gained from this prime real estate.

Additionally, we all know that we’re in the depths of a housing market crash, and land values are correspondingly very low. If for no other question, why consider selling AT THIS POINT IN THE MARKET CYCLE? It’s sheer idiocy.

In 1803, America made the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the country for roughly $15 million. Upon completion of the deal, Napoleon Bonaparte said, “This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States.” Selling off acres of natural resources – for what will eventually look like a pittance – is a step towards unraveling the truth behind Napoleon’s statement.

The only question that remains is why Utah’s elected officials are considering acting like overreaching farmers, and selling off another piece of the farm. Personal enrichment? Perhaps. But it certainly isn’t an action that similarly benefits the Utah populace.

Every once in a while, American citizens have to band together to ensure that something stupid doesn’t happen. We just witnessed this with the (temporary) shooting down of SOPA and PIPA legislation, through the collective action of the masses. In the long run, allowing the SkiLink to go in isn’t all that much different than letting Skynet run rampant in the fictional Terminator movie series.

By allowing Talisker to purchase more of your land, politicians and Talisker will be to blame for your inability to use them as you desire in the future. But you’ll be to blame too if you don’t step up to the plate now and help prevent your public lands from being sold out from beneath you.

Act on the front end to prevent future regret. The vote to approve or disapprove the Talisker purchase will be coming up in a few weeks. Display your displeasure about this potential purchase by showing up to voice your opposition. Check in with Save Our Canyons for more details as they become available.