8 posts tagged “salt lake city”

My birthday was last week (YAY!) and due to the rocking awesomeness of my life, I wound up having dinner and fun on the night before my actual birthday. This is because I have class till 2030 on Wednesday, which is just when my real day of birth is. Anyways, we went to Tsunami in Sugarhouse. Mmm mm tasty! Here I had my first pleasant experience with Sake, which I announced to everyone. For some reason everyone took this as a signal to buy me more sake, so I had quite the time with it.
I posted all my pictures in a set on Flickr, but here are some choice ones:

Domo and I

Lawn Gnome

The Lawn Gnome from Mom

Gutterball

What happens when I get a gutterball

Riding the Ball Return

Anam, doing something obscene.

Watermelon Ball

Anam striking a pose with his watermelon ball.

Some dramatic bowling shots

Anam/Bowling Ball

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PRESENTS!!

All in all it was a perfect birthday!

So yesterday morning was our moderately unimportant city marathon. Most people within the city didn't realize it was even scheduled for yesterday morning until they decided to drive someplace. Salt Lake City is almost entirely a suburban city. There is a small compact downtown (from which I'm writing this) but the rest of the city sprawls out across the mountain valley. There is a laughable attempt at a public transit system, a system that works only for those who live within walking distance of the light rail stations. Those who do not must ride a bus. To take a bus in our city means one of two things - that you are either woefully poor (or cheap, as many Utahans are) or an environmentalist with dedication that calls into question your sanity. I would ride the public transit if it didn't mean that I had to spend 40 minutes waiting for a transfer every time. My daily commute on our buses would take 4 hours of my day. Going from home to work, from work to class, from class to work, from work back to class, and from class to home. That is my daily route. A 5 minute car drive would evolve into an experience similar to what the Donner Party must have gone through. But I digress.
Due to Salt Lake City's suburban nature, driving places is a requirement. And yet, once a year during the marathon the city decides to revive the nostalgia that is the Berlin wall. If you live inside of the Berlin wall, or in East Berlin Salt Lake City, you are trapped. Any errand you must do must take place within the perimeter, and crossing the perimeter is a long and arduous process. If you live outside the wall, that's a little better than being inside of the wall, but good luck getting inside of East Berlin Salt Lake City for any reason.
I understand city marathons. The idea is to use the 26.2 miles in such a way as to take runners on a tour of the city. But consider the residents who must live their lives within the city. A friend of mine had to commute downtown for work yesterday. A 20 minute drive from the south of the valley became an hour ordeal, which required him driving farther north to get into the city. Last year I had a similar ordeal doing an install at a hotel downtown. The hotel and my office were on opposite sides of the marathon wall. Sadly enough for me I had to commute back and forth across the line several times. It's never fun. I'm more than happy to accommodate the requirements of having some cool stuff like marathons and other festivals within the city. But please do it in a way that informs people who cannot put their lives on pause with ways to adjust and accommodate.
My other complaint about the Salt Lake City marathon is this - trash. We had a hydration point a few blocks away from our house. This meant, for the city and runners, lots of tables filled with little plastic cups of water. Apparently this is where the city's interest in hydration ended. Instead of cleaning up the cups, many of the runners and the marathon staff just threw them all over the ground. We had pretty strong winds yesterday, and this meant that our yard and the river that runs through our neighborhood was filled with dozens of little plastic cups. The least the marathon staff could have done is collected the garbage and used biodegradable or paper cups instead of littering the neighborhoods that the marathon passes through. Nothing like trashing the neighborhoods you already piss off by having running crowds coming through them at 7:30am.
And then there was this little story. The afternoon after the marathon was over, we were driving over to the home improvement store that was on the other side of the marathon line. Driving down our street, we got behind a car with a mom and a grandma riding in the front seat. They were driving with their hazard lights on and going maybe 5 miles per hour. The grandma was videotaping something from the front seat. Confused, I looked really hard for what they were following, and it appears that in front of the car was a little boy learning to ride his bicycle. It looked like he just got the training wheels off of his bike because he was really shaky and swerving around the road. This, I realized, is evidence of our declining society. A mom is far too lazy to walk with her son and teach him how to properly ride a bike. Instead she drives behind him yelling at him from the window on what to do. What happens then, mommy dearest, when little Timmy loses control and careens into the traffic on the main road we live next to? You can't run and save him because you're too damn lazy to walk with him. Great job. You win the parenting award for the year. I guess it's better than having him tied to the back of the car...

Last night we went to Market Street Grill here in Salt Lake for Anam's birthday. They have an amazing selection of super fresh seafood that is prepared in the most extravagant way. We ordered crab pot stickers for the appetizer that was a great way to start the meal. I ordered an Alaskan salmon platter that was delicious and Anam got the crab ravioli's, which were equally tasty. I meant to grab my good camera but of course I left it on the counter in the hurry of heading up there, so all I managed to get were cell phone pictures. Not too bad, but I wish I had my other one.
My dinner came with what can only be called *drum-roll* Super Broccoli. The thing was bigger than everything else on my plate. Here is my crappy cell phone picture of it. The thing behind it is my salmon, there's a lemon and 2 potatoes sharing the plate too.

Superbroc

Anam

Photo From Downtown Rising

Looks pretty doesn't it? I have to agree. Except for the small fact that the majority of the developed property you see in this vision is owned and controlled by the LDS Church. Since before the 2002 Olympics, our downtown property, centered on Main Street has been languishing. Suburban expansion, coupled with the absolute lack of residential property anywhere downtown has left this business district looking like an Iraqi market, boarded up and empty save for the few remaining bars and local bookshops.

Photo by: Theorris

Many locals remember Main Street from it's legal problems, because back in 2004/2005, the LDS Church decided to 'buy' a public street section that ran in between the Temple Square and the Church Office Plaza. Essentially what happened is that the LDS Church decided that it wanted the local street, and seized the property without public consideration or compensation. (See the news about it here). Sure, people argue that we got fair market value, but an acre downtown is far more valuable than an empty dirt lot somewhere nobody even knows about. The largest controversy about this is that the public street soon became private property, where the LDS Church as the owner could remove people for not acting to their standards. Protesters and people wearing TShirts were removed from the land, resulting in legal battles. Little did the public know that this was only the beginning of the LDS Church's ambitions for downtown.

Photo: Oakland Construction
In this photo, Main Street was everything that ran between the white building on the top and the green roofed building in the bottom.

In a series of real estate deals, the LDS Church gobbled up property measuring a 10 Block area, or about 20 acres of prime real estate. Now, the LDS Church is enacting its $1.5 Billion vision for downtown, resulting mainly in the City Creek development. This development, in addition to other things, promises to redevelop the 2 downtown malls into profitable ones, residential housing, educational and sports facilities. Sounds all fine and nice. But the only problem is that all of this comes with a helping of the LDS doctrine. The malls? No beer allowed, and stores close on Sundays. Residential housing? I fear to see what sort of housing regulations they impose. If they are at all similar to BYU housing regulations, then I won't be accepted. Education? Try an LDS Business college. And sports facilities, well theres not much religious doctrine enacted except in the locker rooms.

While downtown needs this redevelopment, it doesn't need to languish under the iron fist of the LDS Church. I've often advocated turning downtown SLC into East Berlin. Put a wall around it, and occasionally fly supplies of Wonder Bread and Rush Limbaugh tapes. Then us heathens can go build our own downtown in Sugarhouse (which too is dying because of outside corporate redevelopment). Downtown SLC has just become a Mormon outpost in the big bad city of Salt Lake. I know several (5+) people who refuse to live in Salt Lake City because they find it too morally degrading. Instead, they choose to commute the 40+ miles from Provo to be, and I quote, "closer to Zion".

Photo: Dan Gorder
The Future of Downtown?

A recent debate that has developed with our outgoing mayor Rocky Anderson was the inclusion of a "sky bridge." Many argue, that if the purpose of Downtown Rising was to replenish the dying local businesses still living on our Main Street, that a sky bridge would kill the pedestrian traffic that they were desperately in need of. Of course, the Church, and their loyal subjects on the Salt Lake City Council wouldn't hear of something. Now, with a sky bridge in tow, these businesses are certainly destined to die, with the City Creek development a sealed community to service only the suburbanites to drive in and out of it. Any hope of encouraging development and growth outside of this development because of shared benefits is lost, because all shoppers are sealed into a closed environment. Much like the ballyhooed development of the Gateway district, many dreamed of a regrowth and cleaning up of the 400 West area. What we got is a traffic congested area with a nice development inside of a frightening area of the city, with no pedestrian traffic filtering into the shopping area unless it's to panhandle.

I think that the biggest thing that really gets me about this entire debacle is that we, as citizens of Salt Lake City, are supposed to be grateful to the LDS Church for spending money on us. This is the sentiment repeated again and again by the dominant local media (which is entirely owned by subsidiaries of the LDS Church). But I don't see it that way. I see this as the LDS Church spending money on themselves, us be damned. From the Downtown Rising FAQ:

"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is committed to the development of downtown Salt Lake City as the home of its international headquarters. The Church is in a unique position to act as a major contributor, along with many others, to a vibrant, high quality downtown area that will continue to be a regional destination."

I just hope this doesn't ruin our city. Salt Lake is great. We have services that rival cities with a gigantic population, and yet there are only around 250,000 people in the main valley. We have a world class library system, strong humanities, and people in control who genuinely care about making life great. We have abundant open and green space, free for all to enjoy. But when the LDS Church takes its focus off of building it's newest temple in some god forsaken place, or babying Provo, they can really ruin things. The Church has control of the state outside of the city, and it makes them so mad that they can really pressure the city into doing it's bidding. I foresee only long term problems for downtown, especially since it takes into account absolutely no long term considerations of emissions (not an LEED certified project) and relies greatly on cars to bring people to shop.

PS - A good editorial from the independent paper, the City Weekly, about Main Street, May 10, 2007 - Link

So I know I've been moderately absent as of the last few weeks, with the exception being my random photos that I send in from my mobile. So here's what I've been up to:

• Since discovering my near 10,000$ shortage in tuition funds for the upcoming year, I've been attempting to navigate the stunning array of loan options for students. Federal loans, private loans, parent loans, Stafford loans, subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans, and it goes on and on. Why, oh why, must this pain me so? Even worse is my shitty credit and the fact that I am a traditional student. There are loan options that cater to every minority and niche major, except being a white male business major disqualifies me. Not that I'm saying those loans are a bad thing. Its just more for me to wade through. I'm probably going to end up using Prosper.com because it a) simplifies my life and b) supports a micro-finance community that I really enjoy.
  
• Saturday's Voyeur is tonight, and like all the SLAC plays I'm really looking forward to it. We had to change from our normal season ticket night because of some poorly timed oral surgeries on the part of both my mother and my boyfriend (that was a busy time for the local soup restaurant). So having been postponed for 14 days merely enhanced my anticipation. This play is a wonderful mockery of everything that has happened in Salt Lake for the past year. If you aren't aware (at which point I must ask what rock you've been under) Salt Lake's warped political situation created by the intertwining of the Mormon Church, the GOP, and the local politicians leaves the many of us who live outside of the church and inside the city with an often jaded view of the local goings on. SLAC, like any proper local venue, uses these often absurd happenings for material. This year focuses on our outgoing city mayor, Ross "Rocky" Anderson (of Hannity pseudo-debate fame) and all his doings. We'll miss Rocky for his continued antics of trying to enforce the law instead of the LDS Church's wishes. Look forward to an update tomorrow sometime.
• On a whim (how else?) I decided to redecorate my room. The new Ikea that opened hasn't helped with my uncontrollable urge to refurnish my rooms. So I broke down and bought a bunch of lamps and boxed up a bunch of crap that accumulated over the year. So now I'm back to having my magazine bedroom. I don't know why people think it's bad to have a living space that could be featured in an architectural/interior design magazine. It's nether cold nor is it impersonal in any way. In fact, I feel much better in it without feeling like the walls are going to fall in on me with stuff. I have some modern paintings up that I picked up around town, and that's all.
• Otherwise since the art's festival, all I've done is work. I paid off one more of my revolving credit cards on Monday, so I'm now down to two of the original four. I've taken a 13,000$ debt and turned it into a 6,500$ debt in just under 18 months, and that's even with taking 4 months off of work to do my internship in London. I'm fairly fulfilled with myself, and moderately upset that I have to incur more debt for uni. Alas, that's a permanent condition regardless of what I do it seems.

So that's about it. Nothing too amazing. Just life. I'll let you know how the play is tomorrow.

Fotos & Video

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Some states have 'leafers.' Others have annual chili cookoffs.. We have the Sundance Film Festival. Yes it's that wonderful time of year when our poor little city is overrun by tourists flocking to come see the films. Don't get me wrong - I love the attention that it shines on our city and the benefits that having such events brings. It's more of the fact that for 2 weeks around the festival all of my prices go up at restaurants, the roads get congested, and Paris Hilton is in Utah that irritates me. Oh well.

I'll still be smashed in a small 'artsy' theater to watch what is most likely going to be a feminist coming of age movie where they smash pickle jars. I'm not making that up - that was one of the films I got to see last year. After that, an overpriced latte and another feature film about two gay politicians running against each other or a nice film about suicidal angst. As most people in the film industry know, there are only so many plots that can be explored.

If you're coming to Salt Lake, I welcome you with open hands. And if you think the Sundance Film Festival happens in Park City (or god forbid at Sundance Ski Resort where it started 25 years ago) you're only kind of right. While the festival offices are in Park City, there are all of 2 theaters in Park City that hold more than 25 people. Instead it spills over into Salt Lake where we have the venue capacity that such an event demands. So come one come all.

Sundance Film Festival, 2007
January 18th - 28th
http://festival.sundance.org/2007/

Helloes everyone! I'm officially home (well I have been for a few days). Finally getting a post up. Hence the change in page design from London to Ice....it's freezing here!

Anyways, Anám was kind enough to decorate my room for my home coming and it looks amazing! It was so nice to get home (however delayed it was) and see that. So thanks Anám!
Here's some pictures of the coordinated mess he left me with: