Sandy & West Jordan (Kearns, South Jordan: violent crime, house, established neighborhood)

[Moving2UtahfromNJ]

Hey there!

Me and my husband are currently in the process of finding a home in Utah. We are looking in Sandy and West Jordan. Can anyone please tell me about these two areas. i.e schools, jobs, community... anything at all would really be helpful. We were just in SLC last week and we found it really hard to find somewhere to eat dinner on Sunday night. Does anyone know of any really good places to get food on Sunday's and any other night?

[cottonwood2420]

Safe areas

[Calibelle]

Most of the yummy food joints are closed on sundays. I think more mainstream places like Chili's, Applebees, Sizzler, are open on Sundays. There is also a buffet called Chuck-A-Rama that is open on sundays. The other option is fast food. I think if you go towards downtown Salt Lake, you would be more likely to find a higher percentage of restaurants open on sunday. In the more LDS populated areas in Utah, restaurants just lose money by being open on sundays, because many LDS don't go out to eat on sundays. It's hit or miss really.

My best friend lives in West Jordan and she loves it there. I have been to visit her, and I think it is a very nice area. The traffic going in and out can be frusterating during peak times though. Housing is very affordable though. I think the schools are pretty good too, my friend also worked for the school district for a number of years, and she said she really like it there.

For jobs? Well, if you have teenagers, then there are restaurants and things close by. For you or your husband, I don't know what you do, but you will have better luck finding work outside of West Jordan, closer to the heart of Salt Lake. Good luck!

[UtahRaptor]

There are a number of restaurants in the immediate vicinity of the South Towne Mall and the intersection of 106th South and State Street, which is just one block east of I-15 in Sandy. They're open on Sunday. These are nice places, better than Bennigans for instance, but not gourmet.

Sandy and West Jordan are both nice towns. Sandy is more of an older neighborhood kind of town, although there are some new developments here and there. West Jordan has many newer developments. My impression is that Sandy is set up in a way that makes it easier for kids to get around on bikes. West Jordan seems to have smaller developments that are isolated from each other by very busy roads. On the other hand, West Jordan has more homes that are on big lots and horse properties.

Just spending a day driving around looking at homes in your price range would answer your questions pretty well. Both towns are fine places to live and to raise a family.

[soxmax]

I like Sandy better than West Jordan. I grew up in South Jordan (just South of West Jordan) and I decided to buy my home in Sandy even though the price was 20% higher. The whole west side of the valley (West Jordan, South
Jordan, Riverton, Herriman, Kearns, etc) is expanding and the cities are not updating the roads to meet demand so you run into a LOT of traffic. The east side of the valley (Avenues, Cottonwood, Sandy, Draper, Midvale) is already pretty full and the roads have already been updated so traffic is not quite so bad. West Jordan has more of an LDS culture. Sandy has a more open-minded culture. The water tastes better in Sandy. West Jordan has a secondary watering system for yard and lawn - most of Sandy does not. A very, very good place to eat near Sandy is the Steak Pit up at the Snowbird Resort. It is open every day. The best place for Indian is Bombay House - try the peshwari nan.

[Char in West Jordan]

I live in West Jordan and although I have wonderful neighbors and love my home I want to move. It's true that West Jordan is a bustling community and the neighborhoods are clean and well kept and that Jordan Landing just west of Bangater Highway has every big box store and chain restaurant available. It is convenient! But the city is horribly congested with traffic as road expansion has not kept up with the huge housing boom. Schools are severely overcrowded. My child goes to an elementary school where there are 1,200 children. The other elementary has 1,700 students. The last straw is the contamination on the west side of the valley. We were informed 2 years ago of an acid plume of water from a Kennecott Copper settling pond that has leaked out and is now endangering ground water supply in Herriman, So. Jordan, and West Jordan. Just this week I have learned of contamination problems from an old Kennecott Copper Mine ditch that ran 17 miles through 3 cities on the west side. It was burried and forgotten. Runoff from that old ditch tested 30x the normal level for arsnic. They are building out there and the arsnic is being released in to the air when the basements are dug. That's why the EPA will be doing extensive testing this summer. See ksl.com John Hollenhorst's article "Who is Responsible for Cleaning Up Old Canal with Toxic Arsenic? It has made me want to move a.s.a.p.! My husband works in Sandy and I have friends that live there and love it. It is safe and has very nice neighborhoods and schools. It gets my vote. Although I love West Jordan the health concerns are too great to live here. The west side of the valley has been contaminated by Kennecott Copper (the world's largest open-pit mine). It's just heartbreaking.

[jhwest]

What is your housing budget? How old are your children?
i live in WJ about 1.5 miles from the freeway and it is unbelievably convenient. WJ is a really big place so there is every conceivable size and price of house. The pollution is not an issue for us, since we live so far east of Kennecott.
(The whole arsenic story just broke, so I think you'll hear a lot of alarming stories that may or may not end up being true.)
We ended up buying on the west side of the freeway because you get so much more house for your money. This house we live in now would have cost $50,000-$100,000 on the east side of the freeway, because it's perceived as better, for some reason. I read in the paper last year that Sandy had more violent crimes that West Jordan by far. You should find out, though, since I could be wrong.
Where I live definitely does not have much of an LDS culture. Mormons tend to prefer new construction--don't ask me why--so the newer neighborhoods will always have more Mormons that the more established neighborhoods. If you have young kids you should keep that in mind, since that's also where the most kids are.

[lizd]

Originally Posted by soxmax

West Jordan has more of an LDS culture. Sandy has a more open-minded culture. The water tastes better in Sandy. West Jordan has a secondary watering system for yard and lawn - most of Sandy does not. A very, very good place to eat near Sandy is the Steak Pit up at the Snowbird Resort. It is open every day. The best place for Indian is Bombay House - try the peshwari nan.

I disagree with all of the above. Traffic is worse in Sandy. It takes me 15 minutes to get to Sandy (60 blocks away) and another 20 minutes to get to the Alta View Hospital (15 blocks from the freeway) where my daughters doctor is at. It also costs more to live in Sandy. Most of West Jordan does not have secondary water. You can see water stats here: Jordan Valley Water

As for the post about the arsenic and groundwater contamination. You can get groundwater contamination anywhere. The water is clean from an environmental point of view.
As for the aresenic - it is to early to tell. By the wasy I AM the person KSL interviewed.
If it were up to me I'd live in downtown SLC again. Good luck in your move!

[bob rulz]

Both are good places to live. Traffic can be a nightmare, though. As for restaurants open on Sunday nights, the only places that I can think of that would be open are fast food places, big national chains, and Dee's, but I don't know if there's any Dee's out there or not. It's a great family restaurant, one of my favorite places to go.