I urge everybody to read Leia Larsen’s recent Tribune piece, “Agency rebranding but function, future unclear.” Unclear is generous.
The rebranding is Utah Inland Port Authority’s attempt of adding a tiara to the pig you just put lipstick on. It is still a pig. It makes me wonder how the Inland Port Authority can believe in the idea that inland port distribution centers are good for municipalities with small populations after being told by experts that even the largest city in the state’s service-based economy did not produce enough exports and its market was too small for large-scale imports.
So Salt Lake City is too small of a market and Tooele is better suited? Or Iron County? Or Spanish Fork?
Who actually benefits? And where are we going to get all the low-paying seasonal warehouse workers? What distributor believes it is economically efficient to start in Tooele to sell goods along the Wasatch Front?
Or let’s set up a distribution site hundreds of miles from the nearest large population site? Hum, makes you wonder even more about the inland port leadership and its murky transparency in the use of taxpayers’ money. I have not even touched on the traffic and environment impacts of this pig.
Dan Dugan, Salt Lake City
