I would like to move to Utah from Florida (Provo: ski resorts, fit in)

[LAFrench]

I would like to move to Utah but I am having a hard time convencing my wife. She has heard so many stories about how LDS people treat non-LDS people. My brother lives in Layton and has moved his son into a Catholic school because some LDS children gave him a hard time.
My two sons are 3 1/2 and 6 years old and do not want to subject them to this type of situation. We are good-hearted people just trying to find the perfect place in Utah without being looked at differently.
I have noticed that while living here near Tampa, FL that the people are not as friendly as I thought. I just want to live somewhere where there are good people who do not care what religion you belong to.
Also, can anyone suggest a good place for a Catholic family to live in peace free from being looked at as an outsider.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you!!

[kaytidid]

I am Catholic and have no trouble whatsoever living in Utah for the past 14 years. My girls have lots of friends (LDS and Non) and I truly love it here.

Don't look for the perfect place in Utah. There is no such thing. There are some really friendly, lovely places in Utah, but no place is perfect. I am sorry your brother had a hard time with his kids in Layton. Just remember, a couple of rotten kids does not a town make....

[LAFrench]

I have read so many threads from different people and I see mixed situations.
It is hard for me to convence my wife that my boys would not be subjected to the same as my nephew was in Layton.
I work in the IT industry as an on-site tech at a law firm in Tampa. I have also worked for Stewart Enterprises, Inc. (in Jefferson, LA) as an on-site PC/Network/Security tech.
I would like to be able to find a large company that is looking for an in-house PC/Network tech. Any ideas?
I have applied to several job openings and mainly get the response that they hired a local person for the job (which is getting to be a drag).

Where do you live in Utah?

[kaytidid]

I live in Stansbury Park. That is located in Tooele County. Love, love, LOVE it!! It is more of a community than a town. We have a community lake, golf course, pool, and club house. The lake use is for residents only to swim and fish. Non motorized boats are also allowed on the lake.

Sorry, IT industry is not my forte. I do know that there is a strong IT market though, so you really should have no problem finding a job. You can check out Utah's job board here
Department of Workforce Services - Utah's Job Connection

It was really hard for my DH to find a job long distance. He was lucky and was able to secure one before we moved out here, but he put in TONS of resumes and applications. It wasn't the best job, but it was something. No one wanted to hire someone that "said" they would be moving. He fared much better after we were already out here.

My sister currently lives in FL and loves it!

[LAFrench]

Sounds like a really nice place. How close are you to the ski resorts?
I love to ski/snowboard and would like to live not too far away.
Also, I am not sure if I should look to reside closer to SLC since that may be the most logical place to look for my work. Believe it or not, I am registered on the above website for job searches, as well as a few others. I guess I just need to be patient and if it is meant to be something will come along. Another thing holding us back from living there is the current real estate market.
When we moved from Metairie, LA, it took us 14 months to finally sell the house back home. So, I may HAVE to wait for the market to come back around beacuse we cannot afford to live with two mortgages again (at least not for a while).

My brother works for Chevron and he says the commute time is a drag - sometimes a little over an hour to get to and from work. Is it really that bad?
I have been looking on the internet for almost a year now and I have mostly looked at Davis county. I want to be able to attend a Catholic church and have the Catholic schools as backup in case the boys may have bad experiences with other LDS children. I don't mind if I am given the cold shoulder, but I do not want the boys to go through something like that.

[kaytidid]

I would say I live around an hour from most of the ski resorts. I haven't timed them out too much because I really don't care for the snow and REALLY don't like playing in it. An hour sounds about right though.

Davis county is pretty nice. The schools are very good, but some of the towns can be a bit clique-ish. I am thinking that if you were to buy in a newer subdivision area, they tend to be a little more welcoming than an established area. Depending on where your brother lives, yes, the commute time can get pretty old after a while. There is a new highway going in (Legacy Hwy) which should help alleviate some of the traffic pains, although with the new mass transit FrontRunner.

If I were to commute from my home to Salt Lake (depending on WHERE in Salt Lake though) it would take me about 30 minutes and there is usually no traffic problems whatsoever. We have a Catholic church here in town with a K-6 Catholic school run by them. If you were to look at the south end of the valley (Sandy, Draper) there is an awesome Catholic school that goes from K-12. That is St.John the Baptist for elementary and Juan Diego for Jr/Sr High.

Most people seem to assume that the children will be given the cold shoulder...honestly, my daughters have never gone through that. At least not religion wise. They may have because not all children get along with everyone else, but as far as because we are not LDS...nope. Never once happened.

[LAFrench]

That makes me feel a lot better hearing that your girls were not subject to this problem. I just want my boys to be able to fit in with no problems.
So, it seems that most of the traffic problems are to the north of SLC (where I would choose to live). Would this be correct?
I have heard in some threads that most of the crime in Utah is to the south and west of SLC - is that true?
My brother has told me that I need to visit for a week or two to see if I would like it there as well as to check out the IT job market.
Do you have any friends or relatives that live to the north of SLC that could give me some advice on schools (either public or Catholic), IT jobs, Catholic churches, non-cliquish diverse areas to live that are affordable to the common worker?

I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions and put me more at ease about my decision to eventually move to Utah. The world needs more "good-hearted" people who just want to get along with others and take care of their families and not look to stab one another in the back.

[kaytidid]

Yes, most of the traffic problems are in Salt Lake itself. They can be heavy running south in the afternoons and north in the mornings. If you lived in Davis County and were heading south to SL in the morning, you would encounter less hassle. There is some crime in the northern part of SL county. That would be around 900s to about 4000s or so. Some meaning relatively speaking. As a whole, Utah is not as crime ridden as some other cities of the same size. Once you are in NSL (which is actually Davis County) it gets better again.

We did come to visit for a week before deciding to move out here. For me, a week told me all I needed to know. For some, a week isn't nearly long enough to decide. Unfortunately, my family lives down in Tooele County with me, but I know the good people of this forum will be more than happy to address some of your more northern questions.

Best of luck with your decision. It isn't easy to decide to move!

[HikoD]

I am catholic also and I've lived here my whole life. My family moved to Utah from California before I was born.

I grew up in West Jordan and the only thing kids would ask was, "Are you mormon?". I just replied no and that was that. Some kids might not play with you, but hey, their loss. Wasn't any kid of verbal or physical abuse because of it. Being afraid of moving here because of that isn't very valid to me at all.

More of the crime is in South Salt Lake and West Valley, but there are a lot of great communities in the Salt Lake valley that are very nice. For families, South Jordan, Sandy, Draper, West Jordan and etc are great places. West Jordan is for sure one of my favorites because of Jordan Landing (largest shopping area in the intermountain west) and they're building a mass transit rail here (Trax). West Jordan is getting pretty big and is very family orienated. So are all those cities I listed though.

Also, there is a great catholic church here in West Jordan called St. Joseph the Worker. Been going there since I was a wee one. There are still variety of faiths here and have also seen a bit of baptist church's and so on. Although, there is a LDS church around every block =P

I hope your wife can get over the anxiety of your boys being hazed here, because it's very unlikely. The only part I can think of that could be a possibility is in rural areas of Utah or maybe Provo. But Salt Lake County is pretty tolerant of all faith/races.

[ScottDaMan]

I moved to Cedar City, Utah a couple years ago. We were worried about this LDS issue as well from several communications from my Aunts and Uncles about Utah.

In the end, we stayed in Cedar City for a week and loved the atmosphere. Loved the friendliness of people and really felt is was the right place for us.

Like HikoD said, my daughter experienced the "Are you Mormon?" question when she first started attending. She answered no, they replied "Ok, I am not allowed to play with you" and that was that. Their loss. It was only a few kids in her entire grade that were like that.

Now, my daughter has more friends here than she did in California and both my 6 year old son and 10 year old daughter have both said "I can't wait to go back to school to see my friends again."

Since then, we've heard no problems reported from our kids that were religion related and its been 2 years.

We have several LDS neighbors around us and our kids play and get along with their kids without issue. I do think these families have had missionaries come to our door because they see we are nice people, but other than that, no issues.

Other non-LDS families around us report similar issues with the adults (rather than kids) where they will say things like "It's amazing you are such a family oriented family but you aren't LDS" as if to say, if you aren't LDS, you are not family, not friendly, not nice. Pfftt.. Honestly, these extremist LDS people aren't the norm though and I have several friends who are LDS.

Long post, but hope it helps.