Via Rio Grande

Don't forget to join us at RoHa Brewing Project in SLC tonight! Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

Join us at RoHa Brewing Project next week to talk passenger rail and have a drink in support of the Utah Rail Passengers Association! Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

Great video on the Rio Grande Plan from Climate and Transit!

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Thanks to all who attended last night's event at the Sorenson Unity Center! We had a great turnout and many lively discussions with residents and business owners on the west side of Salt Lake City. We look forward to the kickoff of the Reconnecting Communities Study in the coming months! If you didn't make it, you can watch a recording of the event on YouTube at: https://lnkd.in/g7AQBFKM Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

Join us this Thursday at 6:00pm at the Sorenson Unity Center on the west side of Salt Lake City for an informational event about the Rio Grande Plan! Speakers include Christian Lenhart, the original creator of the Plan, Joe Taylor of Salt Lake City Corporation, and #SLC Councilmembers Dan Dugan and Alejandro Puy. More details and RSVP: https://lnkd.in/gg5ERsEj Livestream: https://lnkd.in/gx-9FFui Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/ggZ-uVuN

Thanks to Salt Lake City Weekly for their recent coverage of the last week's UTA headquarters proposal and how this new building, while a much-deserved improvement for UTA's employees, will not provide nearly the same public benefits as the Rio Grande Plan. Info on the Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

Join us this Friday at Fisher Brewing to hang out and talk about the Rio Grande Plan and other train and urban happenings! Information on the Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

114 years ago today, Salt Lake City's Rio Grande Depot opened its doors for its first arriving train. The building was built to rival the nearby Union Pacific Depot in both size and splendor, and its facade was built from the same marble that would later clad the Lincoln Memorial. After decades of declining passenger services in the United States, the last Amtrak train left the Depot in 1999 before the rails themselves were removed in the leadup to the 2002 Winter Olympics. As passenger rail makes a steady comeback and SLC looks forward to hosting the Olympics again in 2034, we at Via Rio Grande look forward to the Rio Grande Plan bringing passenger trains back to the iconic Rio Grande Depot! Photo credit: Utah Historical Society Rio Grande Plan: https://lnkd.in/gGNgUqpk

The Rio Grande Plan is not just a new station or office tower. It is not just a linear park or another development opportunity, and it does not conflict with the existing plans of the Utah Transit Authority or the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency (RDA). It takes these disparate ideas and unifies them, bringing together east and west around a beautiful historic landmark. The Depot District has failed to become a viable neighborhood in the 25 years since the Salt Lake City Council moved the central station to its current location. This is substantially due to the challenges in access that the current site suffers from, with rails blocking travel to the west, freeway viaducts dominating to the north and south, and the venerable old train station blocking the central thoroughfare east to downtown. These conditions are clearly not conducive to a thriving district and make a clear case that new ideas should be considered. Handing more SLC tax money directly to developers, as the RDA plans to do with their most recent proposal, would be doubling down on the mistakes of the past. Further, we, as a society, don’t ask people to walk or bike across Interstate 15, and we don’t ask the Utah Department of Transportation what their plan is to recoup the money they spend on further widening it. Now, with the support of the Salt Lake County Council and an increasing number of everyday citizens across the state of Utah, the Rio Grande Plan has more momentum than it ever has before. This is remarkable because, although there has been a professional study of the costs of the Plan, there has yet to be a formal assessment of its benefits. Via Rio Grande, a collective of regular citizens with no financial ties to the outcome, believes strongly in the viability and public benefits of the Rio Grande Plan and will continue to meet with public officials and stakeholders of all levels of society to advocate for the Rio Grande Plan. Join Via Rio Grande and Salt Lake City on September 12th 2024 at 6:00 pm for a meeting at the Sorenson Unity Center to learn about and discuss the Rio Grande Plan. RSVP at https://lnkd.in/gg5ERsEj