From San Francisco to South Jordan! (Salt Lake City, Provo: 2014, apartment, renting)

[ImSittinginStarbucks]

I'm a life-long Bay Area, CA resident and have lived in Berkeley and San Francisco nearly all my life. I have an opportunity for professional advancement in South Jordan and will likely be moving to the area in Spring 2014.

I briefly visited South Jordan in late October, so I have some idea of what the area is like (at least environmentally/physically). However, I'm curious as to what it's actually like to live here. What should I expect as a liberal, non-religiously affiliated single 20-something female in the SLC area? Am I in for culture shock?

Is the mormon influence really is pervasive as I think? Are there Starbucks and coffee shops here? Can I still buy alcohol? (Also, I've heard that there's an alcohol percentage limit here??)

What is the housing situation like? How much can I expect to pay for a one bedroom one bathroom apartment? How about two bedroom? What are some safe and affordable areas of town I should consider?


Thank you everyone!

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by ImSittinginStarbucks

I'm a life-long Bay Area, CA resident and have lived in Berkeley and San Francisco nearly all my life. I have an opportunity for professional advancement in South Jordan and will likely be moving to the area in Spring 2014.

I briefly visited South Jordan in late October, so I have some idea of what the area is like (at least environmentally/physically). However, I'm curious as to what it's actually like to live here. What should I expect as a liberal, non-religiously affiliated single 20-something female in the SLC area? Am I in for culture shock?

Is the mormon influence really is pervasive as I think? Are there Starbucks and coffee shops here? Can I still buy alcohol? (Also, I've heard that there's an alcohol percentage limit here??)

What is the housing situation like? How much can I expect to pay for a one bedroom one bathroom apartment? How about two bedroom? What are some safe and affordable areas of town I should consider?


Thank you everyone!

Seriously, even if you're working in South Jordan, I would strongly suggest that you look for an apartment in the downtown area. Yeah, you'll have a bit of a commute, but it shouldn't be all that bad since you'll be going in the opposite direction than most of the travel both to and from work. If you live downtown, you may actually find that Salt Lake City is a fun place to be, but as a 20-something single woman, you would probably be very unhappy living in South Jordan. I realize I'm the first person to post, but I have a strong hunch you're going to be getting this same advice from pretty much everybody. As for the cost of living, unless you're taking a huge cut in pay, you'll be very pleasantly surprised at what you'll be able to afford in the Salt Lake City area (as compared to the Bay Area).

[ImSittinginStarbucks]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Seriously, even if you're working in South Jordan, I would strongly suggest that you look for an apartment in the downtown area. Yeah, you'll have a bit of a commute, but it shouldn't be all that bad since you'll be going in the opposite direction than most of the travel both to and from work. If you live downtown, you may actually find that Salt Lake City is a fun place to be, but as a 20-something single woman, you would probably be very unhappy living in South Jordan. I realize I'm the first person to post, but I have a strong hunch you're going to be getting this same advice from pretty much everybody. As for the cost of living, unless you're taking a huge cut in pay, you'll be very pleasantly surprised at what you'll be able to afford in the Salt Lake City area (as compared to the Bay Area).

For various reasons, I must live within a 10-15 minute commute of South Jordan. Also, when I say I'm single I don't mean "single and looking". Only single for tax purposes

[mezman]

Originally Posted by ImSittinginStarbucks

I'm a life-long Bay Area, CA resident and have lived in Berkeley and San Francisco nearly all my life. I have an opportunity for professional advancement in South Jordan and will likely be moving to the area in Spring 2014.

I briefly visited South Jordan in late October, so I have some idea of what the area is like (at least environmentally/physically). However, I'm curious as to what it's actually like to live here. What should I expect as a liberal, non-religiously affiliated single 20-something female in the SLC area? Am I in for culture shock?

Is the mormon influence really is pervasive as I think? Are there Starbucks and coffee shops here? Can I still buy alcohol? (Also, I've heard that there's an alcohol percentage limit here??)

What is the housing situation like? How much can I expect to pay for a one bedroom one bathroom apartment? How about two bedroom? What are some safe and affordable areas of town I should consider?


Thank you everyone!

Hmmmm... I hate commuting so it's hard for me to recommend to anyone to live in downtown SLC and commute to South Jordan but I might have to do that here. I must admit that I've only been to South Jordan a couple of times but it seems like suburbia to me and I'm not sure what a single twenty-something would do there.

The main thing I would think about is that coming from Cali I'm not sure how much you'd want to be driving in snow. It doesn't bother me much but I grew up around Chicago.

I guess another option would be to live half-way (say Murray) to cut down on the commute and live close enough to the TRAX so you can take it downtown on the weekends. Murray doesn't really seem like a happening place but I've only really been there once.

My wife and I live close to downtown SLC (I guess technically it is downtown but I hesitate to call it that though other people do) and I don't feel out of place as a fairly liberal person. Most of our neighbors seem to be the hippie vegan types and are a pretty liberal crowd.

There are plenty of Starbucks and thankfully there are also a lot of non-chain/small chain coffee shops as well. Yes, you can buy alcohol but there are some funky laws around here... though not deal breakers for us. You can only buy alcohol/wine/beer at state run stores. You can buy 3.2% beer at grocery stores.

On tap beer at bars/restaurants are limited to the 3.2% but bottled beer is whatever the normal strength beer is... I drink Belgian beers so I'd be pretty unhappy if bottled beer wasn't the real stuff. There is also a weird liquor licensing thing with restaurants where those with a certain type of license can't serve you booze without knowing you plan to eat as well and others with a different license who can serve booze without food. You pick up on which are which fairly quickly though. Lastly, the drinks are limited to a certain amount of the main booze (say vodka for a martini) but the additional liquors don't seem to have the pour limiters on them. So the mixed drinks are not as strong as in places where the bartenders can free pour. Whether this is good or bad depends on you. My wife kind of likes it as it helps with the consistency of drink taste if it's made by different bartenders.

Can't help with housing since we're renting a house and it was the only place we looked at before renting.

At any rate, SLC will be pretty different than San Francisco but you've been in the area so I'm sure you know that. The wife and I really like it here. It doesn't have the high-end restaurants and whatnot that we're used to from living outside of Chicago but the food scene is pretty decent overall. We don't do the clubbing thing anymore but there are a few of those in the downtown area (not sure if they're any good or not) but the bars work for our purposes.

Good luck with your decision.

[mezman]

Originally Posted by ImSittinginStarbucks

For various reasons, I must live within a 10-15 minute commute of South Jordan. Also, when I say I'm single I don't mean "single and looking". Only single for tax purposes

You replied while I was typing. Maybe Murray would work then, like I said then you could ride the TRAX downtown on the weekends.

[dcisive]

If there aren't any kids involved you should have NO issues integrating into the South Jordan environment at all. Personally I only think it's WITH kids it can be an issue. Adults can find their own kind easily with no issues. With kids it can be much more difficult

[ImSittinginStarbucks]

Originally Posted by dcisive

If there aren't any kids involved you should have NO issues integrating into the South Jordan environment at all. Personally I only think it's WITH kids it can be an issue. Adults can find their own kind easily with no issues. With kids it can be much more difficult

Why would it be harder with kids?

Also, does Costco sell beer, wine and spirits in Utah? Sorry if stupid question, but I've heard of severely restrictive alcohol distribution laws here.

[CCSLC]

If you're used to the Bay Area, I'm with Katz... you'll be miserable in SJ. It's endless cookie-cutter McMansions, strip malls, big box stores, and chain restaurants. No bars, no arts/culture, and very few local restaurants or shops. And it's also very, very conservative and family-oriented; social activities will be child-focused or church-focused for the most part. Honestly---my idea of hell (as an urban, gay man) is being trapped in South Jordan for an entire week.

I'd seriously reconsider your 15-minute commute limit so you can live in downtown SLC, where you have the opportunity to still enjoy a relatively urban, walkable, liberal environment with actual culture. Since you'll be opposite traffic, the commute to SJ from SLC is probably only 25-30 minutes on most days.

The suggestion of Murray is decent, as it at least has a community identity and recognizable city center...as well as some small, quaint historic areas. But I'd still go crazy there.

And no, Costco does not sell liquor in Utah. Grocery and convenience stores can sell 3.2 beer, but all other alcohol (including wine) must be purchased from a state liquor store.

[UTES]

In my opinion, South Jordan is being painted as far more dominated by the LDS church than it really is. True, it's no Park City (Utah's most Liberal city) but it's also no Provo (Utah's most Conservative city).

The population of South Jordan is about 50% LDS - like most areas in the valley. And, families there have higher disposable incomes than the average in the county - about $30G a year more.

During the past five years South Jordan has opened several good restaurants and there are Starbucks there. The crew here makes it sound otherwise. True it does not have much of a nightlife, but few cities in Utah do (which is why I hang out in Las Vegas once a month).

I live on the West side of the Salt Lake valley. It's common for many here to think of the East side as the one with culture. That's no longer true - if you know where to look.

Bill

[dcisive]

I made the statement about kids due to the fact that South Jordan AND Herriman in general are indeed very LDS and child focused. If you are an independent type (such as my wife and I) and can ignore it you'd be fine. Pretty much all of our neighbors other than one friend of my wife's and our immediate neighbor on the one side of us have no communication with us. They are all LDS, church focused and have 3+ kids per family. We have NOTHING in common with them and I am not around to socialize with them and don't miss it frankly. I have friends I see on the weekends anyway outside of the immediate area. I'm only 15 minutes from my work in West Jordan so I consider it a reasonable trade off. We built a NEW home which wasn't really an option in our price range in E. Millcreek where we were living and enjoyed over 10 years ago. We spent 1983-1993 in the SF Bay area, but unlike so many, we had lived here for several years prior to that Bay Area move so knew a bit what to expect. However what WAS a shock was the gang infestations, crime and general population had exploded since we were here in 1980, so THAT came as a bit of a shock. Oh well as they say nothing stays the same (in particular when you would want it to).