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Erin Mendenhall

Salt Lake City Mayor

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Westside

Mayor Mendenhall is delivering for the Westside

Salt Lake City’s Westside communities have historically been underserved by their city government, but Mayor Mendenhall committed to addressing widespread inequity and investing massively in Westside neighborhoods. Instead of just making sure Westside residents have had a seat at the table, she often builds a bigger table to ensure more Westside voices are shaping key decisions.

EXPANDING WESTSIDE PUBLIC TRANSIT

  • Mayor Mendenhall is investing $6.5 million a year for expanded UTA bus service in Westside neighborhoods, including Route 1 connecting Rose Park to the U.
  • Erin also funded upgrades on Routes 2, 9, 21, and 205, making improvements to more than 200 bus stops.
  • She partnered with Salt Lake City schools to provide free Hive Passes to schoolchildren to encourage the use of public transit.
  • Erin partnered with UTA to provide on-demand corner-to-corner and door-to-door service on the West side to help connect residents with the buses, light rail, streetcar, and commuter rail services available in the city.
  • Mayor Mendenhall created and funded the wildly successful Free Fare February program with UTA to help more drivers take public transit and leave their polluting vehicles at home.

FIGHTING CRIME AND IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY

  • Crime on the Westside — as well as throughout Salt Lake City — is at its lowest level in at least seven years. In District 1, overall crime is down 22.1% compared to the five-year average and 29.2% compared to last year. In District 2, overall crime is down 26.4% compared to the five-year average and down 30.6% compared to last year.
  • Still, Mayor Mendenhall knows public safety is about more than numbers, and that not all residents feel safe in their communities. We can and must do better.
  • Mayor Mendenhall is building a police substation on North Temple to permanently shut down the open-air drug market. She has already expanded the Downtown Ambassadors program to North Temple.
  • She has also partnered with federal law enforcement, including the U.S. Attorney, U.S. Marshal, the FBI and ATF to bring the Project Safe Neighborhoods program to Salt Lake. The operation has taken more 300 violent repeat criminals off our streets and seized more than 350 guns, 63 kilos of meth, 11 kilos of heroin, and 7 kilos of cocaine.
  • Erin worked aggressively to reverse the loss of sworn officers to retirement and lateral transfer by boosting officers’ pay to the top of the local market.
  • At the Mayor’s urging, the police department has also begun hiring and training civilians to respond to non-emergency calls — like traffic incidents and administrative matters — that don’t require a sworn officer, freeing up officers to respond to and prevent criminal activity.

CREATING AND IMPROVING WESTSIDE PARKS AND GREEN SPACES

  • Mayor Mendenhall has led the way for the $30 million Glendale Regional Park.
  • Erin’s administration is leading an effort now to reimagine and reinvigorate Steenblik Park.
  • She is investing $9 million in improvements along the Jordan River.
  • After completing the Folsom Trail project in 2022, Erin is now investing $5 million to further clean up the area and add new amenities to the trail.
  • Mayor Mendenhall has kept her promise to plant 1,000 new trees on the Westside each year to improve our canopy and clean our air.

BOOSTING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON THE WESTSIDE

  • Erin understands that what the Westside needs most is economic development. Westside neighborhoods cannot keep taking on affordable housing without more new businesses, grocery stores, and other retail centers.
  • Erin has transformed the city’s approach to economic development in the city and especially on the Westside. While cities can’t bring supermarkets and national retailers to a neighborhood, they can create the infrastructure and economic support to make those locations more appealing.
  • Mayor Mendenhall is working to bring a Major League Baseball team as the anchor of the RMP “Power District” property on North Temple. She is also supporting efforts to bring an NHL franchise to Salt Lake City.

PROMOTING EQUITY AND WORKING TO UNIFY THE CITY

  • Mayor Mendenhall is deeply committed to addressing the decades of systemic inequity endured by Westside communities.
  • Erin is investing more than $6 million in three railroad crossings to create a quiet zone in residential neighborhoods and reduce the noise created by trains passing through.
  • Mayor Mendenhall also invested $11.5 million to transform the 600 N corridor to improve West-East connectivity and safety.
  • In addition to a sizable increase in city investments on the Westside, Erin’s administration has won federal money to explore transportation and transit options that will make it easier for residents to move across the city.
  • Erin has announced her interest in the Rio Grande Plan to bury the train tracks that divide the city and cause drivers to wait sometimes hours for parked trains to move along.