Editor’s note: This is the last of a series of commentaries by Park City Councilor Bill Ciraco about public transportation in Europe.
After a splendid two days in Zermatt, I made my way back to Zurich for my flight to Paris to attend the Salt Lake 2034 Olympic bid presentation. The Zurich airport had me thinking about what SLC International might be like when the current project is finished, with more international flights and even more frequent transit connections.
In the air heading toward Paris, it was easy to see the effect Switzerland’s transportation policy has on the built environment. Not more than five miles from downtown Zurich, the landscape was a patchwork quilt of farms and forest, each community distinct and separate from the next.
You could easily see when you were leaving one place and a few miles later were entering a new place. Communities have an identity. They don’t bleed one into the next. There was something magical about this collage of settlement dotting the verdant landscape.
Arriving at Charles De Gaulle in Paris, you could tell that the world was descending here. The hotel I chose to stay at was one I stayed at before and coincidentally was next to the Le Palais De Congres, where the IOC meeting was being held.
This location is great because it is served by a subway stop with multiple lines, a commuter rail line, and, new since the last time I stayed there, an at grade light rail (“tram”) that stops literally across the street. You can get most anywhere in Paris in 30 minutes or less.
Inside of the watch party, most of Utah’s media was represented as we watched with pride the presentation made by the folks who have been working tirelessly for years to bring this home.
But leave it to the IOC and by extension the World Anti Doping Agency to add a little last minute drama. Unhappy with U.S. skepticism around recent athlete doping cases, most recently highlighted in a New York Time investigative piece, WADA used the bid stage to scold the Utah delegation and by extension the U.S. government for meddling with their “supreme” authority.
Yes, we were told to submit to WADA’s “supreme” authority a mere blocks from the The Avenue des Champs-Élysées, where nearly 80 years ago to the day, U.S. troops from Gen.Patton’s 3rd Army along with French Resistance marched proudly upon liberating Paris from the Germans. A whole lot of irony was lost in this moment.
For one lecturing the Utah delegation about any kind of doping seems tone deaf, and then questioning the U.S. commitment to the world community in a place that exists today solely because of the U.S. commitment to the world community wrung a bit hollow with me.
Should our sporting officials be criticized for not believing that 21 swimmers tested positive for a performance enhancing substance because of escape from a wet market vs. a lab?
The Olympics will only remain the Olympics if we maintain consistent standards in testing for performance enhancing substances. The only “supreme” authority in that regard is the truth, and we should trust, but we should also verify. The stakes are too high and the sacrifices are too many for the athletes involved.
Looking back, I can say with conviction that I am very happy I made this entire trip. The time spent in Switzerland renewed my passion for championing game-changing transportation solutions for Park City and Salt Lake. What I saw in action in Grindelwald and Zermatt seem even more sensical to me now and hopefully I have stirred some curiosity among the readership, too. We can’t afford to not embrace these bold examples.
We have an opportunity ahead of us to create a way of life that will be coveted by many. We can in some respects have our cake and eat it too. We simply need to think bold and act bravely.
None of what we need to do is for the Olympics, but the Olympics create a timeline and an incentive to invest for the future. We need to implement solutions today that solve our problems for the next 50-100 years.
My travel through Switzerland has shown me that it works and that the rewards are beyond measurement. For us to act boldly on transportation will require everyone to take some medicine, we must be in this together, and we must no longer allow a small minority to hold our entire community back from progress.
In the spirit of the Olympics, we need to dream big, work hard and seek victory. Even if we fall somewhere short. we will still be far beyond our most optimistic endings.