SALT LAKE CITY — As Governor Spencer Cox laid out his priorities for the year ahead during his State of the State address, we asked Utahns what their speech would sound like if they had the podium.
Plenty of people were not interested in sharing their thoughts, and those we spoke with didn’t quite have their own speeches prepared.
“Greetings, Utahns… I got nothing,” said Phillip Hare of Salt Lake City.
While no one wanted to actually stand up and give a speech, many had ideas on issues that needed to be tackled.
“Air quality is always at the top of my list just because so many people are always impacted by that,” shared Salt Lake City resident Hayley McLaughin.
Some of the concerns shared on the streets ran parallel to what Cox discussed on Capitol Hill.
“I think it’s really expensive to live here," said Isabella Akers, who grew up in Park City, "the prices are not going down, they just keep going up.”
Locals also touched on topics like housing affordability and alternative energy sources.
“We’re not likely to transition away from fossil fuels any time soon, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also maximize our solar capacity, our wind capacity, nuclear — pushing forward in that realm is super,” shared Hare.
Those who talked with us noted that many of the problems and concerns are intertwined, like air quality, traffic and transportation, and may need to be addressed hand-in-hand.
“I can take a bus because I live in this neighborhood," McLaughlin said. "But if I lived in another part of the county, then I’d have a really hard time getting anywhere without a car.”
Other gripes are, shall we say, well out of any politician’s hands.
“Food’s a little bland, they could season the food a little better here,” said Centerville's Luke Stone.
At the end of the day, Utahns agreed that their personal State of the People addresses would focus on pragmatic solutions that could move us all forward.
“I would suggest that not only politicians, but all of us, continue to look at the human in front of us when we think about a new law or how it might impact someone.”
