Dirty cars and a dirty river—what Salt Lake City can learn from Paris' Olympic cleanup.
Small Lake City
By Erin Moore @errrands_
What do Salt Lake City and Paris have in common? You may balk, but these two very different places share some common ground of global concern—particularly the Olympics, and what it takes to host them. The Olympics changed their guidelines in 2014, focusing on sustainability—as in, host cities must be committed to tackling climate change and using existing infrastructure where possible. It set up cities that have already hosted the Games to host again.
Salt Lake City wants to host again, so after years of bad air from traffic congestion and industry, the Olympics is a reason SLC may finally invest in better infrastructure that reduces reliance on polluting cars. And if we want to do it right, Paris has the blueprint.
You may or may not have heard that Paris has recently been named one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. This status comes as a result of their own issues with pollution—although they have one of the oldest metro systems in the world, that didn't stop the City of Light from succumbing to a new reputation as the City of Headlights when car mania swept worldwide in the '60s and '70s. Paris in the decades that followed would seem familiar to any Salt Laker: frequent smog, heat waves and noise pollution.
When Mayor Anne Hidalgo was elected in 2014, she set her sights on the roads retaining heat in the city as well as the cars that polluted the air and ambiance. Her Plan Vélo program aimed to make the city 100% bikeable by 2026—and it has unfolded with a rapidity that would give any American political official whiplash.
The plan built on a trend—Slate reported in 2021 that between 2001 and 2018, car use dropped by 60% in Paris. So it makes sense that the Olympics committee gave Paris the go-ahead to host their third Olympic Games.
Earlier this year, I biked Paris. Unlike when I was last there in 2018, biking was the easiest and fastest way to get around, so much so that my partner and I barely took the train, even though it was the middle of winter. We marveled at how the wide boulevards had been transformed—intuitive bike lanes complete with their own traffic lights, resulting in a privileging of bikers-before-cars like I've never experienced anywhere else.
I couldn't help but wonder why Salt Lake doesn't do the same retrofitting of our overly wide streets. What if the bike and bus lanes on 200 South were on every busy street? And also didn't take two years (or more) to complete?
Paris has another thing in common with us—they've got a polluted river they were hellbent on cleaning up to a swimmable quality ahead of the Olympics. May I turn your attention to our own Jordan River, slated for cleanup?
Yes, the Jordan is smaller than the Seine and not a fixture of songs and poems. Still, it's a beautiful, polluted river snaking through our west side. Salt Lake wants to be globally important so bad—maybe it's time we take a page out of a real city and get serious about climate and infrastructure.
About The Author
Erin Moore
Erin Moore is City Weekly's music editor. Email tips to: music@cityweekly.net.
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