Homeowner, park rangers say Jordan River Trail project is working

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Salt Lake City's Jordan River Trail safety project shows success with more arrests.
Homeowner Aaron Sylvern sees improvement but fears temporary police presence won't last.
Park Ranger Nikki Pope remains optimistic, noting less trash and better community relations.

SALT LAKE CITY — Those living and working along the Jordan River Trail said the city's safety improvement project is showing signs of success.

Salt Lake City police report more than 80 arrests and 45 citations in the last three weeks.

The Jordan River Trail has changed almost overnight for homeowner Aaron Sylvern. He and his wife live across the street from a section of it.

"The police presence has dwindled a little bit, but we still see more than we used to," he said. "We're still having vehicles pulling up in front of our house, but it's less often … I would say that we have seen, it's definitely an improvement."

Videos he and his wife took before the temporary trail closure show large groups of people gathering around a bridge in his Rose Park neighborhood. Sylvern said that's where he regularly witnessed drug deals, drug taking and he had to pick up litter that blew into his yard.

"It's softball season and soccer season now, so luckily there's more families there, so I think the families kind of deter the drug activity a little bit," Sylvern said. "The bridge is still primarily used as an access point to get in or out of the park for various criminal activities."

While he's seeing positive changes, he doesn't think they'll last.

"They can't afford to keep three officers posted in my neighborhood 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so what happens when the budget for this project ends and they're no longer on duty," Sylvern said.

Salt Lake City Park Ranger Nikki Pope is more optimistic.

"I really do think that we are going to see some change that is able to last," she said.

People gather at a bridge across the street from Aaron Sylvern’s residence along the Jordan River Trail in an undated photo. (Photo: Aaron Sylvern)

She and other rangers collaborate with police on this trail improvement project.

"A major change that we've noticed is there's definitely less drug paraphernalia, less trash in general along our Jordan River Trail," Pope said.

She said rangers are often the ones cleaning and picking up that litter. They're also building relationships with people who live along the trail.

"We tour multiple resource centers throughout the valley and learn what services they're able to provide for our unhoused community members, and then from there, we go out and build rapport by checking in day to day and seeing if there's anything that we can assist them with," she said. "We are able to have a lot more open communication with them to see what we can do to aid their living situation."

Pope said she's hopeful their work with police keeps the trail usable and safe for everyone.

"We're working on our connection with Salt Lake City Police Department and kind of finding our feet with that, especially as we keep implementing closures," Pope said. "Right now, our main focus is to contact one of the sergeants daily just to report what we see as we come through the parks."

Sylvern said he and his neighbors worry the problems will eventually return.

"If the city wants to make a permanent change, they need to look at the whole picture, not just this temporary thing, but they're trying," he said.

Starting this week, Salt Lake City police said they will be expanding their patrols at Liberty Park while maintaining their bigger presence along the Jordan River Trail.

Officials have not said when the trail closure is expected to end.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.