Mile 118.4 – “This City is what it is because our citizens are what they are.”  – Plato

July 14 – A report released yesterday which was prepared by Jim Wood director of Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah declared that “in terms of economic performance, 2009 will be the single worst year in Utah’s post-World War II economic history.” Wood is also reported as saying that “Most troublesome is the increased weakness of Utah’s job market” and “from 2008 to 2010 Utah is projected to lose 70,000 jobs. This level of job loss is unprecedented.”

Meanwhile GM filed documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today stating that Rick Wagoner the ousted CEO of General Motors will retire Aug 1 with a pension and benefit package valued at more than 10 million dollars. Wagoner, who is 56 years old, has been the CEO of GM since 2003; during which time GM has lost over 85 billion dollars.

July 2009 Map

.1 miles – Michael – It took a little less than 500 feet to move from an icon of Salt Lake City to a scene that generally gets ignored by many of the city’s residents. It is interesting to me how often people associate panhandling with fraud and deceit. I am certainly willing to concede that there may be a great deal of fraud being perpetrated by the city’s panhandling population, but what is so interesting to me is how upset and insulted many people get about panhandling fraud. We fully expect and tolerate dishonesty and deceit from our politicians, lawyers, bankers, brokers and car salesmen but damn it we are going to draw the line at someone asking us for a buck when he or she doesn’t really need it.

June 1, 2009 – “As GM goes, so goes the nation.”  GM declared chapter 11 bankruptcy today. Apparently Rick Wagoner (the former CEO of General Motors) panhandling the federal government and receiving billions of tax payers’ dollars just wasn’t enough to save the sinking ship.