District 3: Jake Seastrand
What do you think is the top transportation issue in our city? How would you address it if elected?
The top transportation issue in Salt Lake City is the lack of a comprehensive, protected network for active and shared transportation. While we have good individual projects, we still lack the connective tissue—protected bike lanes, continuous sidewalks, and safe transit access—needed for most residents to comfortably choose alternatives to driving. This leads to a car-centric default, congestion, and poor air quality.
If elected, I would address this by:
Prioritizing Infill Connectivity: Aggressively seek opportunities to close gaps in the active transportation network, especially between residential areas and key destinations like transit stops, schools, and business districts. This means leveraging maintenance projects to add protected infrastructure rather than just repaving.
Dedicated Funding and Staffing: Advocate for a dedicated, stable funding stream for active transportation improvements and ensure the city has the necessary staff to plan, design, and execute projects efficiently and on schedule.
Enhancing Transit Access: Focus on First/Last Mile connections to UTA TRAX and bus stops, including better lighting, safe crosswalks, and high-quality bike racks.
In a typical week, how often do you travel by transit, bicycle, or foot, without the use of a car? Would you commit to going car-free for one week per year?
In a typical week, I travel by trax, bicycle, or foot, without the use of a car 5-7 times a week. This most often involves walking for errands in my neighborhood or taking the Trax or biking to my workplace. 3 days a week I work from home. On most days, I usually prefer to bicycle for fun and good exercise several times a week additionally outside of my work and errand routines.
Yes, I would commit to going car-free for one week per year. I believe experiencing the city as a non-driver is vital for a council member to understand the daily challenges and successes of our non-car infrastructure.
How do you feel about parking minimums? Should the city continue to set parking minimums, or should it be the choice of the business owners?
I strongly believe we must continue the trend of eliminating or significantly reducing parking minimums, especially in high-density and transit-accessible areas.
Parking minimums are a relic of mid-20th-century planning that have several negative consequences:
They increase the cost of housing and commercial space, as developers must dedicate valuable land to car storage. (Recently the state legislature passed the parking bill SB 181 could effectively reduce housing costs by 12.5%, so that is a win). We must continue with this legislation and apply it effectively in Salt Lake City to see more reduction in building costs.
They lead to excessive impervious surface, contributing to the heat island effect and stormwater runoff.
They mandate car dependency, as the city's built environment is saturated with parking spots.
I believe the decision for providing parking should be primarily the choice of the business or property owner, allowing them to respond to market demand, rather than a government mandate that subsidizes car storage. The city's role should be to manage on-street public parking efficiently and to provide strong alternatives (transit, bike infrastructure) that reduce the need for private parking.
In terms of funding city priorities, what is your philosophy: "we should provide services that inspire residents to use it" or "we should provide services with a demonstrated need?" Why?
My philosophy is that we must strategically blend both approaches, with a lean toward "providing services that inspire residents to use it" in the context of transportation and public spaces.
Demonstrated Need - The Baseline: We must fund basic necessities like road maintenance, police/fire, and basic utility services where there is clear and unavoidable existing demand.
The Catalyst for Change: To achieve our long-term goals—better air quality, reduced congestion, greater community cohesion—we must build the future we want to see. Investing in bold, high-quality projects (like protected bike lanes, frequent transit corridors, and activated public plazas) inspires a behavioral shift and creates a new, healthier demand. If we only fund the "demonstrated need" based on today's car-centric metrics, we'll never escape car dependency. We need services that are so high-quality and safe (and frequent) that they become the most appealing choice. *I will add that I read that SLC has a top ranked transit system - 4th in the nation. We are on the right track here!
SLC has a Complete Streets ordinance that aims to make reconstructed streets safe and accessible for all users. How would you rate the ordinance's performance—what's working well and what isn't? What changes would you make to improve its performance?
I would rate the ordinance's performance as Mixed but trending positively.
Working Well: When fully implemented (as seen on projects like the reconstruction of 300 West), the results are transformative: reduced vehicle speeds, improved safety, and a more pleasant pedestrian/cycling environment. The ordinance provides a strong policy foundation for staff to advocate for multimodal design.
Not Working Well: Implementation is often inconsistent and slow, particularly on collector and arterial roads where vehicle speed is prioritized over safety, and often where the need is greatest. Projects often face significant political resistance, and exceptions for "excessive cost" or "impracticability" can undermine the ordinance's intent.
Changes to Improve Performance:
Mandate Clear Metrics and Public Reporting: Require annual reporting on how many eligible projects implemented full Complete Streets elements, and publish the specific reason and dollar amount for any approved exception.
Prioritize High-Injury Network: Focus the ordinance's strongest application on the city's High-Injury Network to address the most urgent safety crises first.
Pre-Approve Standard Designs: Create and pre-approve a menu of standard, cost-effective Complete Streets designs for different road typologies to expedite the process and limit ad-hoc decision-making.
Do you support or oppose a permanent pedestrian promenade on Main Street in downtown?
I support a permanent pedestrian promenade on Main Street in downtown, ideally for a significant stretch that creates a destination district.
The temporary closures have successfully demonstrated Main Street's potential as a vibrant, people-first public space, a cultural gathering place, and an economic engine for businesses facing onto the street. A permanent promenade must be done with robust planning that ensures universal accessibility, smooth transit integration (perhaps a one-lane streetcar/bus access corridor), and adequate year-round activation to prevent it from feeling empty during off-peak seasons.
Community councils continuously field complaints of drivers speeding in neighborhoods. How would you address this in your district?
Addressing speeding is a top priority for safety and quality of life in any district. I would implement a three-pronged, district-focused strategy:
Proactive Engineering: Work with the Transportation Division to identify the most problematic streets and deploy proven, low-cost traffic calming measures like speed humps, raised crosswalks, and neighborhood traffic circles.
Enforcement and Education: Advocate for targeted police enforcement on the worst streets, and support neighborhood-level educational campaigns that use speed-monitoring trailers and neighborhood signage to change driver behavior.
Data-Driven Design: Ensure that all future and reconstructed neighborhood streets are designed to discourage speeding in the first place, using street trees, curb extensions, and narrower lanes to create a driving environment where high speeds feel unnatural.
How does Salt Lake City get more people to walk, bike, take transit and leave their car at home?
Salt Lake City gets more people out of cars by making alternatives safer, more convenient, and more reliable than driving.
Safer: Build a fully connected and protected active transportation network. People won't bike or walk if they feel unsafe next to high-speed vehicle traffic.
More Convenient: Demand a higher frequency of transit service from UTA, especially on key corridors. We must lobby for 15-minute peak frequency as a minimum standard on all high-use routes.
More Reliable: Implement Transit Signal Priority (TSP) on bus routes and dedicate bus-only lanes on major thoroughfares to ensure buses aren't delayed by single-occupancy vehicles.
Incentivize: Continue and expand programs like the free UTA pass and explore congestion-pricing models for downtown to make driving the more expensive and less appealing option.
With the arts and entertainment district coming, how does City Council ensure that this redevelopment is not just a stop for suburban Utahns but also serves the city and its citizens?
The City Council must ensure the new Arts and Entertainment District is truly an asset for all Salt Lake City residents by focusing on inclusionary and community benefits:
Affordable Housing Commitment: Prioritize and mandate affordable and family-sized housing units in the surrounding redevelopment to ensure the district is not just a place to visit, but a place to live for people of all incomes. The city must use the revenue from the district's special funding to invest directly into affordable housing initiatives citywide.
Public, Non-Ticketed Spaces: Ensure the core of the district includes ample free and inclusive public gathering spaces, plazas, and parks, with accessible amenities that serve families and neighbors, not just event-goers.
Japantown Revitalization: Strictly hold developers to their commitment to revitalize and appropriately memorialize Historic Japantown, ensuring the project honors the community's history and creates a permanent, culturally rich space.
Local Access and Activation: Prioritize zoning and leasing that supports local, independent small businesses, artists, and restaurateurs over large national chains, making the district feel uniquely Salt Lake City.
In light of SB 195, which took away much of the autonomy the city had with its streets, how does the city government work with the state going forward? How does the city continue to make progress on its goals?
SB 195 is a significant challenge to local control over street design and progress on Vision Zero goals. Going forward, the city must adopt a strategy of Proactive Partnership and Strategic Innovation:
Collaborative Mobility Plan: The city must treat the mandated mobility plan (required by SB 195) not as a roadblock, but as a vehicle for progress. We must engage transparently with the state and UDOT, but firmly advocate for our goals on safety, active transportation, and equity within the plan's framework. The plan must incorporate strong metrics for mode shift and reduced crash rates.
Focus on Local/Neighborhood Streets: Since SB 195 focuses primarily on arterial and collector roads, the city must redouble its efforts on local and residential streets (Class C roads). We have more autonomy here to implement traffic calming, neighborhood byways, and pedestrian-priority zones, building a safe, low-stress network for most residents.
Lobbying and Advocacy: Continuously and collaboratively lobby the State Legislature for the restoration of local control, demonstrating through data that the city's approach to Complete Streets and traffic calming is effective at reducing injuries and fatalities.
If you have anything else you'd like to add Sweet Streets related but not directly relating to the above questions feel free to include it!
I commit to ensuring our investments in Complete Streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes are driven by an Equity Lens—prioritizing improvements in the areas with the highest rates of pedestrian and cyclist injuries, the lowest quality infrastructure, and the highest percentage of residents relying on non-car transportation. Ultimately, a "Sweet Street" is one where we successfully manage both ambitious city-wide infrastructure and consistent, high-quality neighborhood maintenance, making it safe and accessible for every single resident of Salt Lake City, regardless of their neighborhood or income.
