Salt Lake City Councilmember J.T. Martin clearly does not care about Salt Lake’s West Side; well, at the very least, he does not care enough about his fellow Salt Lakers to actually understand the complaints of his fellow citizens.

You see, Martin seems to be under the impression that the area west of I-15 has streets made out of gold and that his east bench community is suffering because these petulant children refuse to pay an incie-wincy $2.3 million to improve North Temple for the upcoming TRAX line – “improvements” that are standard on almost 90 percent of the current system in Salt Lake City proper – “improvements” that the whole city, county, state, and even every American, paid for.

But this time around specific residents are being approached by the city to pony up. This, despite the fact that this line, more than any other, will benefit the city. The Airport line literally connects UTA and the Wasatch Front to the rest of the world and would be the first thing many visitors will see when entering the city, but now we decide to be stingy.

I really do understand that the city is in a cash crunch, but we are seeing several examples of how rails equate to growth and growth, obviously, equates to higher revenues. Now, more than ever, the city needs to invest in the future of the western half of its population, yet the council seems hesitant to do on the west side what it has been so eager to do on the east side for years.

The anger that Councilmember Martin showed just proves that the east side fundamentally does not understand the west side and its issues. Year after year the west side gets overlooked because of more ”sexy” projects on the east. The one time west siders dare to raise their head and complain, Councilmembers cry foul and complain that they are being ignored. Indeed, Councilwoman Remington-Love added to this feeling by pointing out that multiple east-side projects were put on hold for the North Temple project. Almost as if the council begrudgingly gave up their pet projects and they are appalled that the citizens on the west side citizens would be upset at having to pay a special fee that no other community had to pay.

 I support mass transit, and I support the TRAX line to the Airport, and I even support paying a tax to pay for these projects, but it is fundamentally unfair for the businesses along to pay an additional $110 per foot of property on North Temple every year for the privilege of having a service that no other property owner has to incur.

The council has done a great job of adding insult to injury by acting as though their districts are the ones that are being ignored. Year after year the west side has improvements that go by the wayside as east siders flex their political muscle, and year after year animosity grows. It is one thing to have this feeling come from the citizens, but it is quite another for civic leaders to enforce this idea. Mayor Becker, I feel, has worked to reverse this trend, but much more work clearly needs to be done.