Goodbye to Salt Lake

Some of you know that I’m a regular at the Comparative Government AP Reading. For those in the know, the AP Reading brings together high school and college instructors to score subject matter AP exams, and for the past several years the Comparative reading has been held at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

Some random observations:

• Salt Lake City is as under construction as any modern American city I’ve seen, except perhaps for Nashville. The downtown is under a perpetual state of reconstruction and has transformed dramatically in the few years that I’ve visited.
• Those who have never visited Salt Lake may be surprised by the extent to which the downtown resembles downtown Seattle or Portland; it’s young, it’s tattooed, and it’s hipster coded. Plenty of interesting restaurants and watering holes downtown, this despite the enduring regulations that limit the size of cocktails and the ABV of beer.
• Salt Lake is the center of a transit system that would be regarded as incomparably robust by Midwest standards, with light rail in the city and connecting rail along the Wasatch Front, the Ogden-SLC-Provo line which contains about 2/3rds of the population of Utah. American still can build transit!
• I sometimes read accounts that say “look how Salt Lake solved the homeless problem!” and my first inclination is to say “Wut?” Salt Lake has definitely NOT solved homelessness, and the migratory homeless population that is common in the West is well represented on the streets of SLC.
• Salt Lake is an amazing city for the casual hiker; from downtown you can comfortably walk to some trails that will quickly take you 1000′ or more above the valley floor. Other trails are available through the transit system or in quick Uber trips.
• This year we rented a car and drove out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, and let me tell you the name is 100% accurate.
• Folks have strong feelings about the Church of LDS but if you’re here don’t let those reservations prevent you from visiting the Tabernacle rehearsal or otherwise taking advantage of Temple Square. It’s the center of a significant world religion, there’s tons of money, and the history and architecture are absolutely fascinating.
• Alongside the hipsters and the homeless, SLC is absolutely chock full o’ children. Some people find this annoying, but there’s something to an urban experience that mirrors what an American city must have felt like forty years ago.
• The Utah Mammoth have a cool logo.
• The Salt Lake City Bees made the unfortunate decision to abandon centrally located Smith Field in favor of an exurban monstrosity that is half the size, three times the ugly, four times as expensive, and five times as far on the train as Smith. Once you arrive and see the outfield walls festooned with advertisements for the luxury condo developments that will soon mushroom around the stadium, you begin to understand the nature of the game.
• SLC Pride was this last weekend, and is always absolutely HUGE. For the controversy and the conflict between SLC and the state of Utah see here. In a move that highlighted the Red State Urban-Rural divide that we often discuss on this blog, SLC responded to a Utah state ban on Pride flags over government buildings with the issuance of several new Pride-themed city flags.

Next year in Cincinnati, another major American city unfairly maligned as being stodgy and conservative.