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Tom Merrill

@saltlaketom.bsky.social
69 followers 17 following 78 posts

Utah health policy | Healthy built environment | former Downtown Community Council | Principal at Redstone

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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
THIS MORNING: EPA regional administrator Cyrus Western and SLC's CRA director, Cara Lindsey announce a new EPA site clean up grant to the University of Utah on one of their Rio Grande area properties. An important step in revitalizing the RG District.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Join me today so we can pack this room and show that we take care of our own. @protectmedicaidut.bsky.social
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Me giving the rundown of all the 2025 health tech legislation or me singing Valjean Arrested/Valjean Forgiven?
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
Miss: saying Lehi is North of Salt Lake. Hit: pronouncing 'Ensign' the way our grandma's would. Bonus: seeing my old boss Gov Leavitt talk Olympics and tech.
cnbc.com
How Salt Lake City transformed into one of the hottest housing and job markets in the U.S.
Salt Lake City has become a hub for tech, banking and sports after the 2002 Olympics helped boost development in key industries and retain major talent.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
If I'm a Utah tech executive trying to convince top talent to relocate to or stay in the state, seeing my industry association get distracted by building a film festival is not comforting.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Walker Center weather tower "Solid blue: skies are too, flashing blue: clouds are due, solid red: rain ahead, flashing red: snow instead." Tonight: solid red
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
My 10 and 13yo kiddos walk the streets that some of these guys are too scared to experience first hand because they only see the “big city” from behind a computer screen. That has to change. #utleg #utpol
cityweekly.net
Utah lawmakers fail to represent downtown Salt Lake living because they don't understand it.
Small Lake City
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
We get on Trax and some teenagers are playing some hip hop from their phone. Not super loud. Old guy gets on, yells at them to turn it down. Next stop, another guy gets on, hears the music and says, “you gotta turn that up” and then does this:
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
My mom was an authoritarian parent (single mother of five) and so I have been very careful to not follow in those footsteps but I’m not exaggerating when I say that I have literally never allowed my children to play with my phone. And because I have never said, yes, they don’t ask for it. 14 years.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
An unexpected benefit of raising a family in a condo with just one full bathroom is the impromptu family check-in that happens at the start and end of each day while we brush our teeth together.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
Should be a Snelgrove’s
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
An accurate first hand accounting of last night’s Maloy-Kennedy town hall. Wherein, @dcharrison.bsky.social admits he did some booing.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
A group of unaccompanied grade schoolers just got on the Trax. Nature is healing. #saynotohelicopterparenting
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Congressional control over the purse (Art. I, Sec.8) wasn’t open to interpretation until Republicans got a president that doesn’t care to work with Congress because his sophomoric bully tactics don’t work outside of NYC real estate. So unbelievably shortsighted.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Just got off the phone with Malloy's DC office and apparently the town hall maxed registration within 2 hours of being announced this morning. So yeah, you can imagine how this is going to go for them.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
More of this backbone, please.
apple.news
Chief Justice Roberts Criticizes Trump’s Call to Impeach Judges — The Wall Street Journal
Rare public statement comes hours after president called for removal of judge who sought to temporarily block some deportations
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
First time taking the whole fam skiing via the ski bus. Wish us luck 🤞🏽
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
The best thing Sundance could do to demonstrate their commitment to LGBTQ rights is to make SLC the host city and make it bigger than ever.
deadline.com
Utah’s Hopes Of Keeping Sundance Threatened By Anti-Pride Flag Bill On Governor’s Desk
Where the Sundance Film Festival will end up as its new home is TBD, but a Utah bill banning Pride flags & more in schools isn't making it any easter to keep things in the Beehive State
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
When a certain local bank was threatening to leave SLC, I told them that someone would simply take their place. Welp.
ksl.com
Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs looking to relocate more operations to Salt Lake City
One of the world's largest investment banks is looking to bolster its Utah operations while stepping back from some of the historically big financial hubs in the world, according to a recent Bloomberg...
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Hear me out: I think HOAs are needed more than ever in our polarized political environment. In some areas, they represent the smallest and most local form of government. And if done right, they can serve as learning grounds for participatory democracy.
axios.com
Nearly half of Salt Lake home listings are in HOAs
The fees here also exceed the national median.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
I’m interested in the 24/7 campus element - this is great news!
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
My trump-loving suburbanite little brother took his family on the Trax for the first time yesterday. From Draper to the Delta Center for Disney on Ice and they loved it! Some shenanigans took place.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 10/03/2025
I’ve learned so much from Christian over the years. Truly a gift to the SLC urban policy community.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
I hope nobody that attended last night’s party is going to tonight’s party because I am 100% wearing the same clothes.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Another observation: there are a lot of grown ass men in the legislature that are scared of the “big city.”
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Morning walk around the Capitol on the last day of the legislative session. I spent more time up here than in any previous year. I’m not a lobbyist. Nobody pays me to be up here so my observations are my own. (1/3)
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Alternate headline: Legislative branch appalled that the judicial branch didn’t get the memo on ignoring their constitutional duties as a check on the executive.
wsj.com
Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Pause on Foreign-Aid Payouts
A divided Supreme Court declined to suspend a lower court’s order that directed the Trump administration to resume nearly $2 billion in foreign-aid funding.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
MAHA is going to rebrand 15 minute cities aren’t they? And I’m just gonna have to keep my mouth shut about it.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Two thoughts on the latest TEKS episode: 1. It’s absolutely bonkers that at this point in the AI timeline, we have someone this incompetent in control of the federal apparatus. 2. Dems should be leading on AI policy vis-á-vis the working class. No excuses.
podcasts.apple.com
The Government Knows AGI is Coming
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 03/04/2025 · 1h 6m
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Residential conversion potential?
buildingsaltlake.com
Feds to close and surplus Wallace F. Bennett building Downtown
The list of buildings to be surplused includes the IRS offices at 1160 W 1200 Street in Ogden and the St. George Federal Building.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
My state’s senior senator is calling for the U.S. to leave NATO. He’s been fully radicalized by his hundreds of thousands of Russian bot followers.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Realized today that I’ve been living in my new place for 6 years now and no one from the ward has reached out. I’m a little offended tbh. Probably gonna go on Sunday just to make sure everything is okay and let them know I’m upset.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
One advantage rental buildings have over HOA buildings is that they don't sit 70% vacant like the LDS church-owned 99 West. The Abravanel Hall area is a ghost town most of the time because no one lives in that area and that's not good.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
As a lifelong Ute, this pains me just a bit to admit but BYU progressives are often my favorite people and I think I’ve finally figured out why: it takes a lot of moral clarity and fortitude to have political beliefs that aren’t accepted by such a dominant culture.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
I wish our legislative leadership would articulate their principle of "local governance." We are hands off on local housing policy in the midst of a housing crisis but hands on when it comes to road design? Clearly that's not right. #utleg buildingsaltlake.com/utah-legisla...
buildingsaltlake.com
Utah Legislature Moves Steal Salt Lake City's Street Planning Power
SB195 hamstrings the city's efforts to engage in both placemaking around Downtown and making its streets safer for people who use its streets.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
The hubris from these people who think they can “manage” someone like Trump with this lukewarm response. He is their god now and he will spit them out eventually.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
I love to see the Temple! I go there (almost) everyday - on my morning or evening walk. But this 7-year renovation has demonstrated something I did not expect: truly, no one institution is essential to the life of this city. Now don't get me wrong... www.deseret.com/faith/2025/0...
deseret.com
A six-month public open house for the Salt Lake Temple is set for 2027
The open house will happen after a seven-year renovation project. It will be the first opportunity for the general public to see inside the historic, landmark temple in 134 years.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
In mindless deference to the Trump administration, Utah’s congressional leaders are abdicating their responsibility on two different levels: their role as an independent branch of the federal government AND their duty to represent the interests of OUR state. #utpol
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
One thing we don’t talk enough about is how serving on an HOA is not a normal enterprise because it’s not just about living together but is just as much about co-managing what is for most people their largest financial investment. Housing (in)affordability ruins everything.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
Given that this state probably has the highest % of people claiming to be constitutional conservatives, you’d think we’d have more local con law and con history chops. We aren’t even on the radar. Maybe it’s the monolithic political culture? No dialogue or debate because everyone already agrees?
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Embarrassed to say that I’m finally streaming Kendrick Lamar and…I get it now 🎵 🔥
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Potential to be a moment of political realignment. Who will step up to be the party of the working class? #utleg #utpol #unions
sltrib.com
Utah bill to end collective bargaining for public workers heads to Cox
A bill banning collective bargaining for Utah’s public employees is now headed to Gov. Spencer Cox for his signature.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Active day up on the hill.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Got invited to a fancy steak group dinner tomorrow but no Zoom option. I thought this was America.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
Ezra Klein’s commentary today was 🔥 Especially this part: “Trump is acting like a king because he is too weak to govern like a president.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com
Don't Believe Him
Podcast Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 02/02/2025 · 14m
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Took the High Valley Transit up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and man, I cannot believe this service is free.99. Just a great resource and I don’t have to mess with parking.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Tagging @dcharrison.bsky.social to do his own highlight reel. He also completed his term recently and may actually have to write a book. He's been a giant in the downtown residential community for close to 2 decades.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Happy to announce that as of December, I've officially completed my time on the Downtown Community Council. I'm also proud to report that the state of the DCC is strong and is on a clear upward trajectory. (1/4) A few highlights from the past 6 years:
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
I took a short break from that other platform & that's all I needed. Felt amazing to not have to have my mental space crowded by illogical, specious, & bad faith content. I'll only be cross-posting there from now on but will reserve engagement for this place and good faith folks.
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Tom Merrill @saltlaketom.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Our high-rise holiday gathering is a 4-course progressive community dinner where we mix and mingle at different units for 3-4 hours. And yeah, there's like 6 units for sale currently so won't you be my neighbor?
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