Newly elected Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker

Newly elected Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker announced in January that he wants to improve the city’s planning operation within six months, create a bikeway system, and revise building codes to conform to LEED standards. Becker, a planning consultant who led the Democratic minority in the state House of Representatives, also voiced support for expanding the University of Utah’s presence in the downtown and for implementing plans for a year-round public market, a public transportation circulator system, a cultural district, and a Broadway-style performing arts center. During the campaign, Becker pointed out that the construction, in recent years, of a large shopping and entertainment complex several blocks west of the center of downtown had resulted in the closing of many stores in the traditional Main Street shopping area. The multi-level new complex — an open-air center called the “Gateway District” — adjoins the historic Union Pacific Depot, is connected to surrounding streets, and is accompanied by offices and housing, but it has the feel of a mall.