Thread: ATTN SLC RIDERS! Save I-Street!

For the past few years WAFTA has been working with Salt Lake City on a project to preserve I Street. As most of you are aware of, the I Street jumps are an unofficial site with no guarantee of future protection. The land that I Street sits on is owned by the Public Utilities department and is slated as a site for more water tanks and pump houses for the ever growing water demands of the Salt Lake Valley.

Now, of course, none of you want that to happen right?

So here's the deal. WAFTA has been lighting up phone lines and blowing out email inboxes at the city for a good while now and as of last fall we delivered a formal proposal to the SLC parks department. This brings us to the official start of the public process to designate I Street as an official park. This process is ALSO to consider dedicating more public lands and resources in SLC to downhill, freeride, dirtjump, and pump track type features.

If you ride I Street, YOU need to be involved
If you'd like to ride I Street, YOU need to be involved
If you wish the features at I Street were bigger/smaller/better/scarier/friendlier
If you'd like something like I Street in your neighborhood of SLC, YOU need to be involved

Salt Lake City is giving the DH/FR community an opportunity to not only save I Street but create a plan for the future. It is critically important that everyone understand that a couple of WAFTA voices can not make this happen. We need ever rider involved! This is not an everyday opportunity, please get involved and make sure your voice is heard!!!


How do YOU get involved??
May 14-18 Location SLC Main Library: A jump park proposal board on display showing what we have today and what we'd like in the future. The purpose of this board is to gather input and brainstorm with citizens (YOU!!) on what kind of jump park infrastructure SLC needs.

June 21st: Location TBD, SLC will host an open house to gather citizen (YOU!!) input in an open discussion forum.

June 29th - Meeting at I Street to discuss the future. We'll need EVERY rider in the area needs to turn out for this!!!

There are more dates TBD in the July thru October time frame to continue planning. Those dates will be posted as they become available.

This should be a sticky. Anything I can do from VA?

I'll do some research and see about email/phone comments.

Monday bump

Today is the 14th. Proposal board should be up at the Library. I plan on stopping in.

The board is up and will be each day from 10 AM until 5 PM at the Salt Lake City Main Public Library on 400 S.

Also, you can email comments to the Parks Department at parks@slcgov.com.
Please put "I Street Jump Park" in the subject line to make the emails easy to find.

Bump for those who want to help preserve a very very cool place. Keep this on your minds until it pans out. PM me if you would like a PDF of these to hang up somewhere helpful.





Ehh... turns out I'm retarded again. Changes have made it so I don't know how to add the URL fomr Flicker to post full size pics.

The first image (Save I Street) has all the details about saving I-Street with important dates and emails etc... basically what is happening and what you can do to help.

The second image (Clean up I Street) has info about the Cleanup day on June 9th.

Bump for tomorrow's cleanup at I Street.
8am to noon.

Bump for tomorrow's public comment meeting - everyone who uses I Street, or ever has used it, please come!


The city is holding a meeting to give the public a chance to comment on I Street on Thursday, 6/21 from
4-6:00 PM at the Day-Riverside Library.

The library is located at 1575 West 1000 North. Near the intersection of 1000N and Redwood Rd.

Please come out and show your support!!

Just saw this article in The Agenda, which is mailed to every house in the Avenues. They are really painting I Street in a bad light and trying to scare the community into action against the park. What pissed me off is the lack of credit given to the bike community for the cleanup. They make it sound like a bunch of degenerate hooligans building out of control daredevil stunts. "Beer parties"? Really?

I'm fucking livid.

On another note, the time has been announced for this Friday, June 29 meeting AT I Street: 4-6PM. Show up anytime during that time frame. Please come out and show your support!

This is THE meeting to attend if you can only come to one.

Originally Posted by Particle

On another note, the time has been announced for this Friday, June 29 meeting AT I Street: 4-6PM. Show up anytime during that time frame. Please come out and show your support!

This is THE meeting to attend if you can only come to one.

I'll be there. Thanks for the heads up.

Originally Posted by Dickeymotto

Just saw this article in The Agenda, which is mailed to every house in the Avenues. They are really painting I Street in a bad light and trying to scare the community into action against the park. What pissed me off is the lack of credit given to the bike community for the cleanup. They make it sound like a bunch of degenerate hooligans building out of control daredevil stunts. "Beer parties"? Really?

any idea who the fuckstick that wrote this is? that is some of the most biased, shitty journalism i've ever had the displeasure of reading. how about calling out the doucher airsoft homos who refuse to play safe, or acknowledging that the people who were up there cleaning were the people who ride, or the fact that no new lines have been built in at least a few years?

jesus, BMX biking and partying? the MTB:BMX ratio is probably 10:1 (not that most people understand the difference, but it seems like "BMX" has the punk connotation going for it), and i have never seen ANYONE partying up there, only drinking a couple beers and having a blast on their bikes. fuck whoever wrote that.

Originally Posted by bestskieratsnowbird

any idea who the fuckstick that wrote this is? that is some of the most biased, shitty journalism i've ever had the displeasure of reading. how about calling out the doucher airsoft homos who refuse to play safe, or acknowledging that the people who were up there cleaning were the people who ride, or the fact that no new lines have been built in at least a few years?

No idea, but I was pretty pissed when I read it. Its this kind of sensationalism bull shit that ruins politics in this state. All they had to do is mention the LDS church chapel and "beer parties" in same article to rally the sheltered and timid soccer mom community to demonize the place (the only people who really read this shitty newsletter).

Can't speak for the Avenues as a whole, but when I rode up there, we had nothing but interest and support from the surrounding community and hikers that came through. There were always kids up there riding around after school, their parents talking to us, the occasional scantily clad MILF hitting on us sweaty cyclists. I can say that I never had a negative interaction up there*.

*As long as you don't include negative interactions between the dirt and my body.

Originally Posted by bagtagley

Can't speak for the Avenues as a whole, but when I rode up there, we had nothing but interest and support from the surrounding community and hikers that came through. There were always kids up there riding around after school, their parents talking to us, the occasional scantily clad MILF hitting on us sweaty cyclists. I can say that I never had a negative interaction up there*.

*As long as you don't include negative interactions between the dirt and my body.

Exactly. I'm a complete hack who can only handle the small jumps located at the bottom (working on that), where the BST goes by (adjacent, not through as the article says). I see hikers and trail riders all the time down there and will chat with them frequently if I'm in between runs. The reaction I get from them unanimously is "oh wow cool! I had no idea we had something like that here! NEAT!". This includes old folks, families, everybody. Whoever wrote this article has no fucking clue what they are talking about. Why is there even an agenda to get it shut down? Are these people just against fun in general? I really don't understand.

So pissed. Here is the letter I sent to our councilman, Stan Penfold, and the Greater Aves Council:

Dear Councilman Penfold, Chair Johnson, and the GACC newsletter editors:

I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with the recent article published in the Greater Avenues Community Council Newsletter. Frankly I am outraged by the bias with which this article was written. It paints the mountain bikers who use, maintain, and love the I Street Bike Park in an extremely negative light, and belittles them as merely "kids" and people throwing "beer parties." Broken beer bottles have nothing to do with the bikers, for the most part—it's just a convenient place for teenagers to secretly drink after dark. The article mentions the volunteers who recently cleaned up the area, but says nothing about the fact that these volunteers were primarily the very mountain bikers who are trying to preserve and legalize the I Street jump park; making it a safe, controlled place to recreate for everyone.

The public, and our government, needs to realize that many of the people who ride at I Street live in the Avenues, and largely for that reason. I have many friends who live in the Aves and Upper Aves who ride there all the time. And these aren't just kids – most of the time I ride there, the group consists of 30-40 year old, working professionals: attorneys, marketers, sales, bike industry employees, health care professionals, you name it. Further, the bike park, while unsanctioned, has created numerous opportunities to enhance tourism dollars for this city and state. Images have been featured on the cover of national publications like Bike Magazine; countless online articles, videos have been published featuring I Street. It is an iconic, irreplaceable resource for this area.

WAFTA (Wasatch Area Freeride Trails Association) has been working with the city for almost 2 years to come to a compromise about maintaining/legalizing some aspect of the jump park. I volunteer my help with them whenever I can. Yet this article says nothing about the good work that has been put into that effort. It minimizes this area – what is arguably one of the best bike jump parks in the country – by saying simply that it is an "…obstacle course for hikers who pass by."

This is a sensitive issue, and by taking such a biased stance, the Greater Avenues Community Council newsletter has likely galvanized much of our neighborhood against preservation and legalization of a treasured local resource – the bike park. I am extremely disappointed.

Thank you in advance for considering a more balanced approach to this issue than the one presented by the GACC newsletter.

The push to shut it down is because I Street is illegally on land owned by SLC Utilities. They want to expand the water tank facility onto the land where the bike park is. However, we DO have a chance if lots and lots of people show up in support of the bike park to at least preserve/legalize some, if not all, of the existing park.

The person who wrote that article is a complete fuckwad. I am so beyond pissed right now.

Nice letter Particle. Mind passing on the contact info for me and others to write letters of our own?

No problem. All contact info is here, except for Penfold.
http://slc-avenues.org/board.htm

I sent my letter to:

stan.penfold@slcgov.com
newsletter@slc-avenues.org
gaccchair@slc-avenues.org
gaccchairelect@slc-avenues.org
Jill.van@hotmail.com
artandjayniebrown@gmail.com
judith@schiffnutrition.com
detar@physics.utah.edu