(Newswire.net — September 24, 2021) —
A dozen cranes can be seen looming over the “Silicon Slopes,” just south of Salt Lake City, erecting glassy office structures to increase Utah’s booming tech sector. Companies and the state want this growth to continue. But, the industry’s leaders believe that Utah’s image needs to be improved in order to increase its appeal.
Tech lobbyists like Sunny Washington push for more inclusive legislation at the state Capitol. Washington is also a member of Silicon Slopes, the industry’s advocacy group.
“As much as companies try to conduct all of the active marketing, it is possible to be undone if we have some bizarre law that’s not a good reflection of the state we live in,” Washington says.
She along with other lobbyists, fought against an unsuccessful bill that would have been able to bar transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports teams. They backed legislation that would change the name of Dixie State College that is closely linked to the Confederacy.
“We need to do lots of work to complete to ensure that people feel ‘Hey, Utah is a great location to bring my family, and they’ll feel welcome and valued,’ ” Washington says.
Kimmy Paluch, 39, relocated to Utah from Oakland, Calif., along with her husband and two children in the year the year 2018. They ran a consulting firm aimed at helping tech -as well as other companies launch new products.
“We ourselves had gotten very disillusioned with the Silicon Valley bubble,” Paluch says. “One — the innovation that was getting funded, but only serving 1%. The second is the insufficient capital flowing to founders who are not represented.
With the emergence of a new technology market Paluch believes she recognized an opportunity to transform the way things are done in Utah. It was personal, too. Paluch is a Black woman, and also an immigrant.
When deciding to move, Paluch says she was forced to consider what she knew about the reputation of Utah. “I can remember telling my Bay Area friends we were moving to Utah and they said”Why are you doing that? “
It’s no fact that Utah is very White. The majority of the population is aware of this. It’s also a majority Mormon and Republican. Paluch is not any of these things.
Still, she says she was thrilled to live in a state with a different political climate and a different culture, but the differences did give her and her husband pause.
“Will it help me feel like I belong to this state?” Paluch admitted that she had to think about this issue. “I was not really worried about myself. … For my children I was concerned. I wondered whether they would be welcomed. This has never been a problem, and thankfully.
Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson and other top Republicans in the state claim they take pride in creating Utah a business-friendly place. Wilson admits that at times this can be contradictory with trying to prevent businesses from coming to his home state.
He believes that Utah is unique and distinctive. “We must protect the unique Utah and not be afraid of or embarrassed by the things that distinguish Utah different.”
Paluch believes that the opportunities for economic growth Wilson and lawmakers have worked to develop only matter if they are available to all. This isn’t the case, she says that people who aren’t part of the traditional Utah mold feel unwelcome coming to Utah.