I must admit that it is quite the honor to have the Mayors Office reach out to the blogging community, even though this is nothing new. While working on the campaign, I recall one or two times where Becker invited in bloggers into the office to discuss issues. Now, as we bloggers often do, we stunk up the place and ate all the food.

Today things were a little classier. The seven of us, along with the Mayor and his staff, sat down at an new coffee shop, Bevalo (nice place, great coffee).

The mayor discussed (with some major prodding from Glen Warchol over at Salt Lake Crawler) some of the infinitives the mayor is working on – mostly concerning open government and the ability for people to approach the various bureaucracies within the city. Mayor Becker informed of some of the executive orders he has written to open things up more, and even took suggestions as to how to further improve the system.

Misty Fowler, over at Saintless, asked about a new bike rental program the mayor intends to implement this spring wherein people can rent bikes on an hourly basis downtown. Bob Aggard at The World According to Me wanted to chime in about car rental as well, but the mayor pointed out that they are in negotiations with ZipCar, a program that works fantastically in D.C. and could easily be transferred to downtown – basically encouraging people to ditch their car in favor of renting one only when they need it.

Jeff Bell, over at JM Bell, was his usual snarky self, though he was more subdued due to some family issues. Our hearts go out to you, Jeff.

I, of course, asked about West Side issues. The mayor discussed progress on the new soccer complex on the cities northwest side and issues surrounding North Temple. The soccer complex is still straining for funds as it is $10-15 million short of what it needs despite what ReAL is kicking in. The project is still a go, but alot of work still needs to be done. As far as North Temple is concerned, the Airport Line of TRAX is still moving forward, however the North Temple viaduct, along with various rail lines, are creating less than optimal solutions – most likely the viaduct will need to be rebuilt with the TRAX line incorporated into it.

That’s about it from the meeting, David Miller from the Pursuit of Liberty was also there along with someone from OneUtah (I am sorry, I have utterly forgotten your name!) It was quite nice to sit down and discuss some of the issues of the day. Thanks Mayor Becker for taking the time!