Pignanelli flays mayor's Main

Main Street downtown is broke, and mayoral candidate Frank Pignanelli says he is the man to fix it.

Standing before a vacant Main Street store front, Pignanelli, flanked by City Councilman Eric Jergensen, former House Minority Leader Dave Jones and Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake City, among others, challenged Mayor Rocky Anderson's record on Main Street. He also presented part of his own plan for downtown revitalization and challenged the mayor to proffer the city's current plan for Main Street and downtown.

Pignanelli said he doesn't think Anderson has a plan for downtown and if the mayor does, the plan isn't working.

"The present administration has not been a good steward of Main Street," Pignanelli said at the Tuesday press conference.

Pignanelli said economic development on the west side and on Main Street downtown, along with downtown housing, should be the major issues of the upcoming mayor's race, which also includes Republican Molonai Hola.

Of the three candidates, Hola may have the most revolutionary and specific vision for Main Street. Hola, a businessman by trade, wants to reduce the width of Main Street's massive sidewalks to make room for free angled parking. He has proposed using city funds to pay for valets to park cars for people eating and shopping on Main Street.

Tuesday, Pignanelli accused Anderson of flip-flopping on issues like the Main Street Plaza and Nordstrom relocation, causing residents, business leaders and housing advocates to distrust City Hall. That distrust has stymied economic development as developers are unsure of city leadership, Pignanelli said.

"We will end flip-flops in the next administration," he said.

Anderson's "divisive" tactics, like joining the Legacy Highway lawsuit, have alienated state leaders and officials from several counties, Pignanelli said. That alienation means Anderson is unable to bring together the parties needed to effect economic change in Salt Lake City, he said.

Pignanelli distributed a Downtown Alliance survey of 210 property and business owners downtown. The survey showed 50 percent of respondents thought downtown was worse than it was when Anderson took office, while only 27 percent thought it was better. Moreover, those who ranked the overall economic health of downtown as excellent or good fell from 35 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2003. --> In an interview after Pignanelli's press conference, Anderson maintained downtown and Main Street are better off than when he took office.