Blog Posts
Insight: COVID-19 and Air Quality
By: Thomas Holst Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly everybody’s daily habits have changed. Some changes such as mask wearing require strict discipline, while other changes have created pleasant surprises. […]
Insight: Digging into COVID-19 Household Data with GPI’s New Data Tool
By: Mallory Bateman and Emily Harris Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. In June, we provided a brief overview of the Household and Small Business Pulse surveys administered by the Census Bureau. These surveys aim to provide insights into the impact of COVID-19 on the population and small businesses across the country. The resulting data from both surveys provides a nearly contemporaneous and recurring[...]
Insight: Sunshine Before the Storm: How Utah Tourism Gleamed Before COVID-19
By: Jennifer Leaver Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. […]
Guest Insight: Utah Job Quality Report 2020
By Matthew Weinstein, Voices for Utah Children Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. In honor of Labor Day earlier this month, Voices for Utah Children released the Utah Job Quality Report 2020. The report examines the quality of jobs in Utah in terms of wages, work hours, non-standard employment, safety, and other job quality criteria. The report compares Utah to the nation and to[...]
Insight: Just Going With the Flow: County-to-County Migration Data Update
By: Emily Harris Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. The Census Bureau just released the county to county migration flows identified in the 2014-2018 American Community Survey.[i] This data details every migration flow (in and out) between every county in the United States. Pretty cool, right? These gross flows are really helpful. Normally, the most widely available migration measure is net migration (in-migrants minus[...]
Insight: Utah County-level Race/Ethnicity Age and Sex Population Estimates, 2010-2019
By: Mike Hollingshaus Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. […]
Insight: Who’s At Risk for COVID-19?
By: Laura Summers Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Our world has been struggling with COVID-19 for about six months now. And while it feels like forever, there is still a lot we don’t know about the disease. For example, how much of the virus do you need to come into contact with to get infected? Will there be long-term health effects for those[...]
Insight: Berkshire Hathaway Ends a Deal Drought During the Pandemic
By: Thomas Holst Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired Dominion Energy’s interstate natural gas transmission and storage assets in a $10 billion deal featuring two active players in Utah’s energy market. First, Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s PacifiCorp utility provides electricity to 915,000 customers in Utah. Second, Dominion Energy provides natural gas to 1 million customers in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho.[...]
Insight: The Role of Industrial Banks in the Utah Economy – But First, What Is an Industrial Bank?
By: Andrea Thomas Brandley Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. In 2019, Utah’s 14 industrial banks held $140.6 billion in assets, such as loans, 93.5% of the total for all industrial banks in the United States. That large majority caught my eye as I’ve lived in Utah my whole life, and up until last month I had no idea what an industrial bank even[...]
Insight: Salt Lake City’s Commercial Real Estate Continues to Expand
By: Dejan Eskic Note: The opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect an institutional position of the Gardner Institute. We hope the opinions shared contribute to the marketplace of ideas and help people as they formulate their own INFORMED DECISIONS™. Utah’s capital city has seen tremendous growth over the last several decades. Along with record increases in apartments, office, industrial, and retail space has also experienced major growth. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute recently published a report highlighting the historic supply and recent demand drivers for commercial real estate in Salt Lake City. […]