Mayoral candidates address poverty issues

Salt Lake City's two mayoral candidates said Saturday what they lack in knowledge about programs for the poor they make up in the sincerity of their plans to make the city — especially downtown — welcome to everyone.

In their first public appearance together since becoming the top vote-getters in last week's primary election, State Rep. Ralph Becker and City Councilman Dave Buhler agreed mostly: that Salt Lake is unique, it has a diverse population and the central city is as much a neighborhood as the Avenues, Sugar House and Holladay.

"The city has failed in that endeavor downtown," Becker said, noting that the planning department — as opposed to the mayor's office of late — "is in a shambles" and as a result has been a missing voice in the course of downtown development. Becker, who was on the Planning Commission seven years, said he plans to "rectify that problem immediately."

Buhler said downtown, which is undergoing a multi-year renovation project at its core, should not only be a gathering place, "it should become the vibrant center of commerce it was in the 1960s."

The candidates forum was part of the fourth annual People's Summit on Poverty on Saturday.

Buhler said he is "very mindful" of the people who live downtown, when asked if housing is pricing out many of the current residents.

"This is the best of times and worst of times in Salt Lake in terms of housing in Salt Lake," he said. "Financial pressure on the lower end of the income scale and on the fixed income — even those not living downtown — is tremendous," he said. Noting that "tempting" though it might be for candidates to promise what they can't deliver during a campaign, "one of the things I can pledge is that we will get focused on a better housing policy."

That amounts to a percentage of development being set aside for low-income housing, Becker said, noting that none of the 11 condominium projects under construction now in downtown are so designated.

Both candidates also agreed that lack of focus in city government has affected more than housing. Buhler said he has been frustrated as a council member when he has proposed initiatives, and fellow council members approve them, only to see them languish — sometimes years — without implementation by the administration.

He said that would not be a mark of his administration.