Deseret Morning News graphic
Posted on 03/11/2005 10:20:13 PM PST by Utah Girl
Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson will hike and bike through Europe this summer en route to deliver Salt Lake City's Olympic "environmental message" to the mayor of Torino, Italy.
Deseret Morning News graphic |
"Our message will center on things the city has done to foster peace, youth and the environment, and encourage Torino to do the same," city events manager Tyler Curtis said.
Anderson should have much to talk about, especially in regards to the environment and youth. His administration has launched numerous environmental initiatives and has been an advocate for Earth-friendly design and policy. He's also pushed his YouthCities program, despite sometimes milquetoast support from the City Council.
Anderson's international trek is akin to those that locals from Lillehammer, Norway and Nagano, Japan, made after their cities hosted Olympic Winter Games. Officials of those former Olympic cities delivered similar charges to the mayor of the city that was next in line as host of the Winter Games.
In Salt Lake City's case, Nagano Mayor Mayer Tsukada rode a bicycle to the the City-County Building, handing his city's environmental message to Anderson back in 2000.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, as Salt Lake City's mayor prepares to deliver his own challenges to Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino.
"He wants to deliver this environmental message (from) the citizens of Salt Lake City to the citizens of Torino," Anderson's spokeswoman Deeda Seed said.
The tradition was started by organizers of the 1994 Lillehammer games, who took special care to make certain their games were environmentally sound.
According to this new tradition, the message must be delivered using environmentally friendly methods. Norwegians, for instance, used dog sleds for the lion's share of their trek to Nagano.
A Japanese contingent, in turn, used bicycles, electric cars and sailboats to bring their message from Nagano to Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Games.
A team of bicyclists will pedal from Salt Lake City on April 4 following a ceremony at the City-County Building downtown. They will include city employees, who will be on hand to make sure the message is always transported by environmentally friendly means, Curtis said.
They will bike cross-country to New York, where the city's message, tucked away in a special container, will be placed on a sailboat participating in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge.
That boat, one of 20 regatta competitors to set sail May 21, will take the message to Belgium, where another Salt Lake City contingent of bicyclists and hikers will begin a trek through small European cities, eventually ending in the northern Italian city of Torino, also known as Turin.
Anderson plans to join Salt Lake City's European crew, hand delivering his message to Chiamparino sometime in July — months before Torino hosts the 2006 Winter Olympics.
"(The mayor) will actually be participating in the last part of the European leg," Curtis said. "At least for the last few days he will join up and he will hand the message to the mayor of Torino."
Interested locals can track the trekkers' progress as they make their way across America, the Atlantic and Europe via a special Web site the city plans to establish. The site will allow Web surfers to communicate via e-mail with the group taking the message to Italy.
I had no idea that SLC was infested with do-good liberal vermin.
Why ride when you can fly?
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