Picto Diary - 13 to 17 October 2025 - Honored Monk

Above: The Eating Establishment. Park City, UT. 21 September 2025 (Out of date sequence)

Chance meeting with Kathy, Guzzi, and Chad Florence. Chad was a frequent motorcycling companion in the first years of the 'naughts. He participated in a few of the Big Cat rides. He now lives in NH with his family. He was visiting Guzzi and Kathy pursuant to attending a high school reunion, Skyline High School, Salt Lake City, UT.

2025 APEX Award Recipients - Canyons School District

Dan C. Jorgensen | APEX Award Winner - Community Partner of the Year | Canyons District 2025

Above: The Monk. Be True to Your School. Canyons Apex Awards. Jordan High School. Sandy, UT. 14 October 2025.

Above: Iron Canyon, Park City, UT. 13 October 2025
Freddie, fall foliage.

Above: Park City Cemetery. Park City, UT. 14 October 2025.
LSDM Walker.

Above: Iron Canyon. Park City, UT. 14 October 2025
Pumpkins and Duc.

Above: Santy Auditorium, Park City, UT. 15 October 2025
Mayor candidate forum hosted by KPCW.
Ryan Dickie and Jack Rubin, candidates for Mayor of Park City, UT.

City Councilman and mayoral candidate Ryan Dickie said in his opening remarks that Park City is better than 99% of other places to live in the US. True. But that doesn't mean that there are not vulnerabilities looking forward. There is a colorable argument that Park City leadership over the last few years has lost focus on preserving Park City's 99% level vitality in a rapidly changing political and economic environment.

To wit:

Park City tourist tax revenues are down by 10%.

Park City has lost the Sundance Film Festival and the Kimball Arts center.

Park City Canyons to the north and Deer Valley East Village to the southeast represent real economic threats to Park City as a destination for tourists and skiers. There is no consensus strategy coming from the city to mitigate, or even piggyback onto, these twin economic threats.

A ski patrol strike at Park City Mountain Resort and associated disruption last ski season significantly tarnished the resort's reputation while Park City leadership stood by helplessly watching from the sidelines.

Tom Jacobsen, Commissioner, Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), recently told a group of LSDM ROMEOs that Park City's reputation with UDOT is at an all-time low. Said Jacobsen, $30 billion has been allocated for Utah transportation projects over the next ten years. Park City is nowhere on the $30 billion list.

Nor is Park City's relationship with other external state, county and municipal entities strong. As one LSDM ROMEO recently put it, "Park City needs to start waltzing and not wrestling with its state and regional partners." I remember a day when former mayor Dana Williams could pick up a phone and call Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, and expect that Hatch would pick up the phone. Those days are long gone.

A five-acre city owned property with significant tax generation possibilities, most recently known as Bonanza Park, has been in the "pending file" for the last nine years as city officials (I'm reminded of the movie Groundhog Day) repeatedly draw up and discard a myriad of minimal tax generating affordable housing, parks, and arts district plans.

Current Park City leadership, opting for a sub-optimal buildout at Clark Ranch, disdains consideration of Richardson Flats as potential to alleviate housing shortages and traffic solutions and to generate tax generating solutions.

Park City is 99% better than other living options in America. But there are warning signs on the horizon. A strong case can be made that Park City, not effectively facing up to future threats, is in need of defibrillation. I believe that the need for new leadership is more pronounced than it ever has been in my twenty-five years of Park City residency... leadership not tied to past mistakes, missteps and growing problems... but leadership with broad based strategic planning and relationship building experience at the highest levels. That's why I'm casting my vote for Jack Rubin, for Mayor of Park City.

Above: Santy Auditorium, Park City, UT. 17 October 2015.

Jack Carr, Author. Park City's own. Talk on his latest novel, "Cry Havoc." "Cry Havoc" is a prequel to the James Reece series. It is set during in and around the Tet Offensive, 1969, in the Vietnam War. Protagonist? Tom Reece, James' father. I never drive up or down the road, US 89, between Alpine, WY and Hoback Junction, WY without Carr's compelling description of James Reece taking, out, by sniper rifle from way up on the mountain, a rogue CIA agent, driving his car up US 89, in Carr's first novel, "The Terminal List (now also Netflix)."

Q and A. My question to Jack Carr:

I've lost a lot of sleep worrying about the Kessler Effect which concept you introduced in "Red Sky Mourning." What is your personal sense of the risk of the Kessler Effect to civilization progress?"

Answer: Jack Carr described how every book had an area of knowledge that he had to research deeply eg AI, Quantum Computing, High Finance. and the Kessler Effect (low satellite layer turning into a debris field that prevents further rocket launches).

Above: Wasatch Bagel, LSDM Friday AM Colloquium, 17 October 2025
Image: Drew, 777, TWO3.

Topics du Jour

Drew: City Manager position difficult position to fill. Our firm, columbialtd.com, has the best track record in sourcing resort town city managers.

Above: Park City Cemetery. Park City, UT. 17 October 2026.
LSDM Walker.
Foreshadowing Halloween.... what better place?

Addendum:

Thanks for the interesting write up. Poem sounds like it deserves to be put to music.

Tony, Park City, UT.

Please do not ride at night.

And, please remember that I also hiked Desert Peak!

Feebee, Park City, UT

Sorry. Forgot you were there too. I remember Jake because he slid down the ice field and could have bought the farm. As a summiteer of Rainier, and a plodder to the Khumbu Ice Field, you must have seemed in your element.

Kool Ride -Be Safe!
Mr. Z3,
Porto, Portugal