Blog Post

By: Natalie Gochnour

Originally published in the Deseret News

We learned this week that Jackie Biskupski will be the next mayor of Salt Lake City. In an election that was hard fought and hard earned, Mayor-elect Biskupski shared an inclusive vision that inspired Salt Lake City residents. She has my admiration, respect and congratulations.

I’m not currently a resident of Salt Lake City, but I am a native Salt Laker, spend a considerable amount of time in the city and occasionally work professionally on city issues. I’d like to offer a perspective.

Salt Lake City holds a privileged place among cities in the Beehive State. As a capital city, it is the seat of government. As the urban center, it is the financial, economic, legal, cultural, entertainment, shopping and transportation center for over 3 million people. This gives Salt Lake City many economic advantages over its suburban and rural counterparts.

Salt Lake City lays claim to major national/regional headquarters for companies like Intermountain Healthcare, Questar, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. Salt Lake City benefits from major cultural and entertainment venues like Capitol Theatre, Temple Square, Vivint Smart Home Arena, the Salt Palace Convention Center and the nearly completed performing arts center. And Salt Lake City receives benefits from the international airport, concentration of rail transport and flagship university.

These urban center privileges, however, also carry a responsibility. The capital city serves and represents every Utahn in some way. Regions and states prosper with a vibrant and strong capital city. And as such, the policies and decisions of the mayor of Salt Lake City can impact the entire state. The entire state needs Mayor Biskupski to be successful.

This creates a conundrum. Not every Utahn gets to vote in Salt Lake City elections, but the city is vitally important to every Utahn. In fact, Utah’s largest city comprises only 6 percent of the state’s population, even though the city carries far greater significance.

I once heard a political strategist say that victors should avoid a “lonely victory.” This is political speak for the need to represent a constituency broader than the one that elected you. Elected officials are chosen by the people who vote for them, but receive a charge to govern for all.

This charge is even more important in Salt Lake City. The new capital city mayor must not only look inward and serve city residents, but outward and serve Utahns.

A good start will be to embrace whatever worked well in the prior administration. Utahns are fortunate that Mayor Becker leaves behind an extraordinary legacy of accomplishments. Salt Lake City’s economy is strong, the city embraces sustainability in a big way, downtown has been revitalized, and major capital investments like the rebuild of the Salt Lake City International Airport are on track. This is a city on the rise. Mayor-elect Biskupski must continue this momentum.

Another important step will be to reach out to political and community leaders statewide. Mayor-elect Biskupski has considerable experience as a collaborator and it’s time to put this skill to work. She will need to apply the talent she showed on Capitol Hill during her legislative service to her new role as chief executive for the state’s largest city. She will need to share her collaborative spirit with her counterparts in the Utah congressional delegation, Salt Lake County, other cities as well as business leaders. The word on the street is this outreach is already happening. That’s encouraging. Avoiding a lonely victory means sharing the victory with others. It will require a lot of listening and relationship building, two strong points of the incoming mayor and something she committed to during the campaign. If Mayor-elect Biskupski builds upon the good things happening in the city right now, looks outward and provides statewide leadership, the best days for Salt Lake City are yet to come.

Natalie Gochnour is the associate dean of the David Eccles School of Business and the director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.