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Show Wednesday, May IS, caiunoN 1974 FageU WE GET LETTERS John Price EDITORIAL THE OLD WEST This issue of the Coalition contains a letter from Mr. Charles Akerlow, Executive Director of the Park City Chamber of Commerce. In his letter, Mr. Akerlow ex-some very valid concerns over incidents which Eresses on Sunday, May 5th. The particular event we wish to consider here is the visit paid our fair city by a social organization known as The Sundowners. A civic clamor has been raised in reaction to the free and easy manner in which this motorcycle gang was allowed to amble about town unmolested. The most frequently heard protest is, Why didnt the police do their job? Let us stop and consider what the duty and obligation of our police force is. Paramount in their list of priorities is the protection of life and property. Now let us recreate the situation of Sunday the 5th. A gathering of mobile misfits who, in the words of Mr. Akerlow, pack pistols and long hladed knives have commandeered a local bar and the adjacent sidewalk. The police are advised of the situation and what action do they take. None. Why? Given the unfortunate circumstances, the best possible resolution of the situation was one in which NO one was injured (possibly fatally) and in which NO damage was done to property. The outcome of our low-reHells Angels invasion was NO injuries and NO ' property damage. In this one isolated incident, it seems that the proper course of action was to take no action at all, which is precisely what our police force did. This paradox is perhaps hard to accept as a truism but there is an adage that states, If it works, its right. This is not a crusade for somnambulism as the remedy for all predicaments, but it is to say that unnt derreaction can be preferable to overreaction. There is strength in numbers and in this case, the police were definitely outnumbered. Aside from some humiliation and uneasiness, no destructive process was taking place. If a confrontation had occurred between the forces of good and evil, two things could have happened, the culprits could have" agreed to get out of Dodge which would have been just peachy, or violence could have erupted, which would have been very unpeachy. Granted, the presence of these pseudo Marlon Brandos hastened the departure of many tourists and their dollars but how anxious would Salt Lake residents be to visit our historic town after reading about an authentic gun fight in which police and citizens were killed or maimed. Thprp mav be uiose who ask, and very legitimately, Was the inaction on the part of the police a result of intelligence or negligence? We say give them the benefit of the doubt. The Coalition is not proposing that the city stand idly by while hordes of malcontents ride roughshod over our streets. We feel that preventative andor punative measures should be adopted to deal with similar oc- currences. Our point is, we are fortunate that no one was harmed during a potentially explosive situation which could have been ignited by an overzealous or irrational act. City Hall Park City, Utah 84060 Dear John A number of the merchants who belong to the Chamber of Commerce contacted me this week and complained about a situation which occurred last Sunday that both they and the Chamber of Commerce would like not to see happen again. I am referring to the unusual amount of people loitering, drinking beer, and otherwise being a public nuisance on the main street in Park City. As you may also be aware, a motorcycle gang, the Sun- downers, rode freely throughout the Park City community Sunday carrying pistols and knives. Until the point of the arrival of the Sundowners and the concurrent public nuisance of the beer drinkers and loiterers (Hi the street, the Park City Merchants Community was enjoying a very prosperous day. At the point this took place all of the customers departed from Park City for Salt Lake taking their families and exclaiming that Park City was no place for children or families on a Sunday afternoon. One of the merchants told me that when he asked the police why nothing had been done on this situation, he was told that, no one had filed a complaint. It is my view that since there are laws on the books against public drunkenness and loitering, these laws should be enforced without regard to whether or not a complaint was filed. It is also my view that Park City needs some method of controlling motorcycle gangs who pack pistols and long bladed knives. Accordingly, in behalf of the merchants of the Chamber of I respectfully Commerce, request that city government crack down on public drunkenness, loitering, and the appearance of motorcycle gangs. If you fail to do this you are inviting disaster to the Park City Business community. One more weekend such as last weekend can tinish off your market of people who live on the Wasatch Front. I hope your administration will crack down on these problems. Sincerely, Charles W. Akerlow Executive Director Chamber of Commerce. Editor City Coalition Park City, Utah THE MRK CITY Don Pres colt cuimn John Clayton The other day my attention Jan Peterson Kerry Bolton Editor Advertising and Graphics Photography Poo tores and Reporting Copywriter and Reporter Copywriter and Reporter The Dear Sir Elly Katz Stan Avery Steve Dering Debbie Reade Sally Bolton Park City Coalition was founded February 14, 1974. was drawn to a letter from Mrs. Mary Lehmer which appeared in the April 25th issue of the Park Record. I had read some of Mrs. Lehmer s outbursts before, but remained content 'to allow her to vent her anger with the Company because she seemed in- nocuous and unlikely to do any damage. That was before I discovered that a goodly number of residents of Park City have Champion - the defender of the little people pitted against the huge, headless monster she calls the Company. However, her last outburst can- not' remain that none of Mansarts contemporaries give any mention of Mansart in connection with a roof design. Indeed, tne tietinitive study of early Architecture, appropriately titled Hie Dictionary unchallenged. of April 25th of Architecture,, edited by her letter Reading Thomas Richards, makes note of was a lesson, a lesson in misinthe fact that the Quatremere De formation disguised as fact, he confaulty observation, and the use of Quincy Dictionary-tArchitectural stucty propaganda tactics designed to temporary in done the seventeenth century-mak- es influence people by emotive no mention of Mansart in language rather than by rational connection with any roof style. argument. For example, she reported Neither is any mention made of in her Record. letter that designing a roof in De Quincys the Compafiy is too stupid account of the life of Francois to know what a Victorian building Mansart. It is assumed by is or it is playing a cruel joke on scholars that Mansart saw the possibility of utilizing more efg is a dangerous ficiently the space within the weapon. It can backfire. It is steep siopea portions of the complain that she does not know a mon curb roof, and framed the Victorian building from an Edsel, space differently. Furthermore, Briggs mainand if she is called a rube, the tains that the mansard roof title seems to be appropriate.. In the first place, her terms, was used even before Mansarts vs. time on such structures as the Victorian buildings Typically French buildings, are Great Hall in Hampton Court and numerous as incompatible as the resort (1530-153in and Italy. It France buildings are to the existing buildings is structures of old Park City. fairly clear that the original The term Victorian designates an designer of the roof style is age; the term typically Fren- unknown. The style developed ch designates a nationality. An much like the structures in Park age and a nationality are in- City, for strictly practical She has no reasons. In those days attic space comparable. argument. Indeed, as far as the was not taxable, and because the buildings of old Park City go, steep slope of the roof style there is some question about allowed space for living, it could many of them being Vic- not be legally taxed, for it was by definition an attic torian. Most of them are examSince I have, I feel, clearly of arin known the type ples chitectural circles as Frontier established that the mansard roof structures. However, I cannot was named after its popularize:, the question of the correct Francois Mansart, however unt argue designation of Park Citys justifiably, it is clear also that the existing structures, for I am not first homes with mansard roofs an architect. But neither is Mrs. could not have been built at the Lehmer, and I can take issue with Place de Voyages in Paris in the the statements she does make, 1780s. Maqsart utilized the roof especially when they are simple style in his masterpiece, the beautiful Chateau de Maisons, falsehoods. to her of letter April near Paris in 1642. He also used it Referring 25th once more, she suggests in the Brecy chateau in Northat she took the trouble to go to mandy in 1636. Mrs. Lenmer is a Paris in order that she could hundred years late and hundreds prove the Companys ter- of miles away. And I wonder if minology inaccurate. It was she realized that while she was magnanimous of her to spend so gazing at a portrait in the Louvre, much time and effort for her she was standing in a building, cause. And it is truly unfortunate designed by Lescot in 1550, which that she retumed-wi-th erroneous has what is essentially a mansard roof. information. Now I dont know whose porShe says, for instance, that she went to the Place de Voyages in trait it was that Mrs. Lehmer was Paris where the first mansard gazing at, but I have a hunch it roof (sic) homes were built in the was Mansart, She also went, she Francoiss grand nephew, who 1780s. continues, to the Louvre assumed the name when his where she saw the portrait great uncle died. If it was Jules I 'of the roofs designer, Henri might point out that he did not Mansard. Incredible. In design the mansard place we know as the palace at Versailles-- in two sentences she makes 1676. no less than three errors. I realize that I have taken a Mrs. Lehmer could not have considerable amount of space in seen a portrait of a Henri Mancriticism of Mrs. Lehmer, but sard hanging in the Louvre. my I think that I have made myself Why? There was no such person as clear. Mrs. Lehmer should be Henri Mansard. There was a sure of her facts before she atFrancois Mansart, and there was tempts to influence the opinions a Mansart, but of others in a public medium. It there never was a French armakes one very suspicious ot chitect named Henri. In her anything she says. inimitable fashion, Mrs. Lehmer All I can say is that I sincerely may be referring to Francois hope her knowledge of law exMansart who, according to Marof arceeds her tin S. Briggs Encyclopedia of chitecture. Ifknowledge she doesnt know is Architecture, Quite unic arVictorian from justifiably associated with the chitecture, I hope she knows Tormansard roof. The reason that ts fromTaxes. unMansarts name is Sincerely, to the roof is justifiably given Alan Crooks us rubes. Now, invective and name-callin- 5) out-and-o- ut Jules-Hardou- in Jules-Hardou- in Neo-Class- |
