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Old 09-02-2009, 07:09 PM
 
17 posts, read 249,966 times
Reputation: 42

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Salt Lake City practically IS Utah. If one ventures outside city borders there is not much to find other than small towns that are largely if not almost completely populated by LDS persons, and desert.

PROS of SLC:
-Beautiful nature, beats many other states due to mountains.
-Skiing/snowboarding, resorts, park city; if you have the money for this lifestyle, it is awesome.
-National parks. wonderful but also need money. and places like Moab with the beautiful arches are not for everyone; yes beautiful, but you are simply looking at rocks- it is not magnificent like grand canyon.
-Crime non-issue (compared to gang-ridden national metros, of course one must always be careful and isolated incidents happen, but in relative terms not an issue) I can walk just about anywhere in SLC and not feel threatened. Try that in Compton.
-People are nice and friendly.
-It is relatively easier to find jobs (even in this recession) and relatively easier to buy a home. You can get a smaller brick cottage in a desireable area for about 280k (excluding park city and federal heights, priciest neighborhoods), that is, now that prices have dropped a little. Some will still consider that high, and I agree to a point because SLC does not offer much in lieu of these prices (see CONS below), but these are some nice tree-lined residential peaceful streets on the benches with views and that have a beautiful sun bathed kind of magic light to them. Very desireable. Not to mention the snow covered winter magic look of them with lit lanterns. Also, very close to downtown and all amenities.
-Many, many sunny days in a year. Even in the winter. In fact, I cannot remember much rain or gray skies at all.

CONS of SLC:
-Predominance of one religion (LDS), felt in all pores of life (note: I am not LDS, but my experience has been that LDS persons are good, honorable people with good values and are uncommonly accepting and friendly, but can be exclusive). There are no "lower" lds presence neighborhoods like you may be lead to believe. This is simply a mormon state and one must accept this.
-Having non-LDS children. Your kids will experience (for sure down the line) some exclusion from lds kids. Let's just state that lds persons are not to marry outside their religion; what does that do to high school prom prospects?
-Other than what is mentioned under pros, not much to do in slc; boring. the first cheesecake factory just opened here recently. not much choice in shopping (i think currently no malls in slc due to construction of new one due to open in 2011). one good mall in Murray and the Gateway.
-Feeling of being in a desert. Land-locked. Lakes are ok if you own a boat, otherwise no good. If you like water like i do, none.
-Night life non existant or poor. Mormons who are in good standing do not drink or smoke (not even coffee), let alone anything illegal; this contributes.
-Restaurant and culture scene forget about it. No walkable areas of city.
-The horrible smell of the great salt lake that makes city smell like sewer a few days in a year. Did not know what it was until I was here for a year.
(oh, and one poster here said "beach" at the great salt lake?! you drive up, it stinks. it is you and maybe 5 other retired folks on the whole huge island. secluded. nothing to do. a bison crosses the road and that is a highlight. "the beach" is a patch of deserted sand with noone there, you walk in the water and cannot sink even if you try due to salt while being assaulted by flies. water is full of little microscopic crabs a million per quart, very visible. oh, and you pay to go here.)
-Summertime heat. weeks and weeks of 95 plus with no break. low humidity helps, but feels never ending.
-Not much of an in-between period of summer and winter. There have been snow storms in May. So, it is either very cold or very hot for most part. But, it is sunny (see PROS above).
-Bad air quality. Smog, haze. SLC is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains all around. This creates a "bowl" affect, and haze stays in until by fortune wind blows it out. That could take weeks.
This could compare to the city og Beijing we heard about during last year's olympics. It is nowhere close to that bad, but it is the same bowl affect.

Some will disagree with me but these are my honest 2 cents. good luck.

 
Old 09-02-2009, 07:51 PM
 
691 posts, read 2,321,616 times
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CONS: LOW PAY! There are so many college graduates in Utah, they can pick and choose. And pay very low.

There is an "unspoken" favoritism towards Mormons, and men in employment.
 
Old 09-02-2009, 09:09 PM
 
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
515 posts, read 2,317,430 times
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Jonah Hex, if you find it boring here you are not trying hard enough. There is so much to do - live music at many different venues, TONS of outdoors stuff all year round, and even if you are not into hiking, you can take beautiful drives through the canyons. And Antelope Island is very pretty with lots of wildlife, whether or not you want to swim in the lake. You can go up to Park City and there is plenty to do up there - the Oympic park, outdoor activities at the ski resorts throughout the year, and of course Sundance in Jan. There are gardens, the zoo, lots of festivals, free concerts at the Gallivan center... and the list goes on. Plus you can drive a few hours and get to a bunch of amazing National Parks. Your take on Moab is pretty interesting. Personally, I find the scenery there more spectacular than the Grand Canyon. I would rank most of Utah's NPs above that. When you say it's "boring" here, what are you comparing it to, and what more would you want?

If you want a super exciting nightlife, obviously you won't find that, but you can go bar hopping in SLC or Park City.
 
Old 09-02-2009, 10:46 PM
 
Location: Salt Lake City
27,880 posts, read 29,679,246 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kek1993 View Post
CONS: LOW PAY! There are so many college graduates in Utah, they can pick and choose. And pay very low.

There is an "unspoken" favoritism towards Mormons, and men in employment.
How long did you live in Utah, kek?
 
Old 09-03-2009, 12:07 AM
 
691 posts, read 2,321,616 times
Reputation: 778
35 years.
 
Old 09-03-2009, 01:02 AM
 
Location: Utah
1,458 posts, read 4,116,899 times
Reputation: 1548
PROs
great scenery
world's greatest neighbors
lots of parents involved at school
peer pressure- my teen D assumes people don't date until 16 or older, and smoking is for loosers
lots of activities going on
sushi

CONS
where is the ocean?
people tend to think that everywhere is like here, don't recognize how buffered we are
no Dunkin Donuts or Carvel
 
Old 09-03-2009, 09:31 AM
 
Location: A Place With REAL People
3,260 posts, read 6,717,621 times
Reputation: 5105
I hate like heck to admit it, but what keeps me here is that when you "compare" it to other places, you eventually end up with a Pro vs. Con list where the pros outweigh the cons by a considerable margin. This will of course depend largely if you come here with a job already paying you decently, you either don't have kids or they are old enough not to be part of that influenced age group, and you have a good car willing to drive out of the area to some of the most amazing places on the planet within a day drive. If none of those applied you might have a slightly more "Con" weighted list. I have no kids, have a good paying job and good cars and am willing to take my jaunts and vacations to places like Glacier Natl. Park, Yellowstone Natl. Park and the Tetons, Zion and Canyonlands Natl. Parks and more. So for me it works. If you are a typical family situation with a couple or more of young kids or have allergies and bad lung function issues you may want to rethink coming here, that's for sure. Especially if you don't have an established well paying job as well. Yes the air quality does suck much of the time in the Valley. If you're in Park City you're fine. So keep these things in mind.
 
Old 09-03-2009, 09:56 AM
 
17 posts, read 249,966 times
Reputation: 42
Quote:
Originally Posted by kek1993 View Post
CONS: LOW PAY! There are so many college graduates in Utah, they can pick and choose. And pay very low.

There is an "unspoken" favoritism towards Mormons, and men in employment.
Thanks for your input Kek. Very valid point. There is some discrimination in employment favoring mormons and men, yet for low entry level administrative positions (from my experience) men do not even get an interview.
I guess if you consider the fact that according to the lds religion women cannot move on to higher afterlife planes of existance without being married to a man it makes sense.
Also, lds members must pay their church 10% of their annual income, so it also makes sense that a high paying job would preferably be given to an lds member.
These statements are of course just general conversation; we all know it is illegal to employ based on religion.

You do remind me of another
CON: Families in Utah tend to have numerous children, which does take up a lot of resources in the long run and can be viewed as selfish.
 
Old 09-03-2009, 10:18 AM
 
17 posts, read 249,966 times
Reputation: 42
Quote:
Originally Posted by cinnabon View Post
Jonah Hex, if you find it boring here you are not trying hard enough. There is so much to do - live music at many different venues, TONS of outdoors stuff all year round, and even if you are not into hiking, you can take beautiful drives through the canyons. And Antelope Island is very pretty with lots of wildlife, whether or not you want to swim in the lake. You can go up to Park City and there is plenty to do up there - the Oympic park, outdoor activities at the ski resorts throughout the year, and of course Sundance in Jan. There are gardens, the zoo, lots of festivals, free concerts at the Gallivan center... and the list goes on. Plus you can drive a few hours and get to a bunch of amazing National Parks. Your take on Moab is pretty interesting. Personally, I find the scenery there more spectacular than the Grand Canyon. I would rank most of Utah's NPs above that. When you say it's "boring" here, what are you comparing it to, and what more would you want?

If you want a super exciting nightlife, obviously you won't find that, but you can go bar hopping in SLC or Park City.
Dear Cinnabon,

Thanks for your input. Your points are valid, but it seems like you did not read my PROS carefully. Regardless, let me respond to you;
Sure, there is some live music. But I guess if you compare to other state capitols and not by population, this is weak in slc.
Outdoors stuff you speak of eaither takes money or is -let's face it- boring. Hikes are ok, sometimes. But compare that to a walk and exploration on the beach!
You can only take so many drives through the canyons with expensive gas and your face stuck on the window going uuuuh, aaaah. Still standing nature. Its ok once or twice. Stuck in metal car coffin.
You read my view on antelope island. If it is so grand why is there practically noone ever there? Nice nature, sure, but it seems like dead brush and rock to me. State should offer some activities there.
The olympic park is a statue. what do you do there? Bretahe in and reminisce about days of the olympics? I dont get it.
The ski resorts and sundance festival; sure, those are great. But, like I said before, that takes a lot of funds. I am not well off. Drive to the resort with my suv (gas), get a room, rent ski equipment or snow mobile, eat, etc. Try that every weekend. If you can, there are more luxurious places for you to live at.
What gardens are you referring to? International peace gardens? Isolated and deserted. Wheeler Farm? walk around and look at old stuff, deserted. This is the place park? celebration of lds history.
Every self respecting bigger city has a zoo. How many times can you do that?
Festivals are few, gallivan center is soooo small.
National parks I mentioned in my original pros, takes money.

What I am comparing to is other numerous places I have lived and visited; Boston, Los angeles, san diego, philadelphia, europe, etc.
An example: san diego's gaslamp quarter, many walkable city blocks with coffee shops, restaurants, unique shops and this is key: lots of people always! Seaport village; similar story. Notice I am mentioning free things, not sea world, disneyland or legoland.
I understand fully comparison is not just (if nothing else but population sizes), but the point of my post is to give it to newcomers straight so they do not make a mistake. Someone may think slc is a state capitol like many others.
 
Old 09-03-2009, 10:21 AM
 
17 posts, read 249,966 times
Reputation: 42
Quote:
Originally Posted by lolagranola View Post
PROs
great scenery
world's greatest neighbors
lots of parents involved at school
peer pressure- my teen D assumes people don't date until 16 or older, and smoking is for loosers
lots of activities going on
sushi

CONS
where is the ocean?
people tend to think that everywhere is like here, don't recognize how buffered we are
no Dunkin Donuts or Carvel
love your input lola!
especially the peer pressure part and the "buffered" comment. That was right on, words I looked for. I think cinnabon's response to my list depicts the buffered statement.
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