Mayor Becker today announced that he will no longer push for the Public Safety Building to be located on Library Square, his preferred location. As I have discussed in the past, I am an overall supporter of the construction of a PSB in the downtown area, though I am mildly pleased to see that it will not be in Library Square.

Now many people are touting this as Becker’s first PR mistake, and indeed the Mayor does not come out smelling like roses on this issue, but we must not forget what the Mayor has done the right thing on this issue – listened to the will of the people.

I will admit that the Mayor made this announcement in a style that made it seem like things were set in stone, but I feel that this has more to do with the planner in him than his desire to steamroll a project through in order to gain a legacy-remember DeeDee’s land swap of Main Street for the Galavan Center? The planner in him sees the Library Square location as ideal for a slew of reasons and probably assumed that other issues could be fixed along the way.

Let us also not forget that one of Becker’s big campaign issues was transparency; furthermore, let us not forget the old saying that making laws is like making sausage.  The simple fact of the matter is that Becker can push for his preferred location while still taking public input. In this case the public said no and Becker listened – in the political world a month is not a very long time to push for something and then reverse; it shows that Becker legitimately wanted input.

One of the big problems with all of this is that people simply are not used to open government.  As sad of a statement as that is, it does explain why people and the media acted and reacted the way they did.  We are so used to things just happening with out public input (read Rio Tinto Stadium, Vouchers, and Legacy Highway, just to name a few), that we don’t expect our leaders to actually listen to us. Becker did the right thing, and we as a populous did not know how to respond.

I, for one, think it is more impressive that Becker is willing to give up his preferred location in favor of promoting the will of the people.  I trust that Becker, the City Council, and the people of Salt Lake will come to a conclusion relatively soon as I am know no one denies the need for a new PSB. By acting on this in a clear manor, Becker is showing his leadership and desire to make the city a better place.