Overview
- Released Tuesday, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s “Keepers of the Flame” report calls the 2034 Winter Games an Olympic‑sized opportunity and cites roughly 15 billion projected viewer hours as leverage for action.
- The report flags a “Troubling Seven” that could blunt benefits: housing affordability and homelessness, third grade reading, college completion, water and the Great Salt Lake, energy supply, behavioral health, and traffic congestion.
- Proposed remedies include a statewide community land trust to cut housing costs, prioritizing connected autonomous vehicles, placing reading paraprofessionals in K‑3 classrooms, and expanding career‑focused catalyst centers into Salt Lake County.
- To bolster the lake, the authors suggest finding 250,000 to 500,000 acre‑feet through steps such as temporary agricultural water leases and higher residential rates, warning that the lake’s decline poses public‑health and reputational risks.
- Citing delays that have grown four times faster than population since 2016, the report elevates connected autonomous vehicles as a congestion fix, noting Utah’s roadway fiber network, and it underscores that some issues exceed the organizing committee’s scope, as CEO Brad Wilson noted about the Great Salt Lake.