Re-Deploying to Hill AFB, Looking to rent in Salt Lake City. (Ogden: apartment complex, rentals)

[EugenetheOregonian]

I'm coming back from a deployment to SW Asia in Late April/Early March. I'll have about 2 weeks of leave to find a place. I got divorced while deployed, and was living with a friend before I left, so obviously I need to find a place fairly fast. However, I'm from Portland Oregon so I don't find the immediate area around Hill very appealing.

Salt Lake City seems the best choice due to having healthier food options and a bit more culture, but everyone else in my squadron lives in the immediate area around the base, and my job involves a 1 hour off duty response time. If I did live in SLC, the Capitol Hill Area or downtown would be about my only choice to stay within that 1 hour. The cheaper rentals around the U of U seem to be populated more with students and less with tweakers like the apartments around HAFB. I'm going to the U of U in the evening for classes, so it makes sense in that regard as well. Being jewish as well, it's honestly a little isolating living in davis county.

Does anyone make a reverse commute from SLC to hill AFB or nearby? If so, do you consider it worth it?

[UtahRoots]

I don't make your reverse commute but my son often drives from SLC to visit relatives in Layton which is nearer to HillAFB than Salt Lake City is. If you live in Salt Lake City, even in the Capitol Hill or downtown area there would be times of day (morning and evening rush hour) that you really couldn't reliably respond to Hill AFB in 1 hr. (unless you own your own helicopter). I suggest that you look at Layton. It's about 40 min. to Salt Lake City and less than 15 min. from Hill. So coming to school at the U wouldn't be a terribly long drive and you'd also be close enough to get to the cultural events in Salt Lake. There are no synagogues in Layton. There's one in Ogden and several in Salt Lake. Layton is more diverse than any town in Davis county - probably due to its proximity to Hill - but it also has nicer housing than the area right around Hill. At least consider it. If you really decide that you want to live in SLC, then downtown would be easier access to the highway than Capitol Hill. The "Avenues" area is just east of Capitol Hill and is also worth looking at. It wouldn't be a substantially longer drive. You might want to try driving north from Salt Lake during the evening rush hour to Hill AFB just to see if you can make it in under an hour. There is major re-development (City Creek Center Project) underway in the downtown area and when it's done you probably will be able to find really nice housing in that area - but it will be well into 2012 before that happens.

[EugenetheOregonian]

Originally Posted by UtahRoots

I don't make your reverse commute but my son often drives from SLC to visit relatives in Layton which is nearer to HillAFB than Salt Lake City is. If you live in Salt Lake City, even in the Capitol Hill or downtown area there would be times of day (morning and evening rush hour) that you really couldn't reliably respond to Hill AFB in 1 hr. (unless you own your own helicopter). I suggest that you look at Layton. It's about 40 min. to Salt Lake City and less than 15 min. from Hill. So coming to school at the U wouldn't be a terribly long drive and you'd also be close enough to get to the cultural events in Salt Lake. There are no synagogues in Layton. There's one in Ogden and several in Salt Lake. Layton is more diverse than any town in Davis county - probably due to its proximity to Hill - but it also has nicer housing than the area right around Hill. At least consider it. If you really decide that you want to live in SLC, then downtown would be easier access to the highway than Capitol Hill. The "Avenues" area is just east of Capitol Hill and is also worth looking at. It wouldn't be a substantially longer drive. You might want to try driving north from Salt Lake during the evening rush hour to Hill AFB just to see if you can make it in under an hour. There is major re-development (City Creek Center Project) underway in the downtown area and when it's done you probably will be able to find really nice housing in that area - but it will be well into 2012 before that happens.

My ex moved into a complex called Layton Meadows, and I wasn't terribly impressed. Her neighbors were all pretty gross and the apartment looked like it was out of the 70's and her high utility bill reflected that. I'd have to rent a house just because I'm not a terribly big fan of the aparments in that area. A ton of Jr. Enlisted move there because they want to pocket as much of their housing allowance as possible, but I'd rather have less money in my pocket and be comfortable with my neighbors.

I dunno, I'm really torn because I hate the idea of a brutal commute every day of the week, or speeding like hell to make it to a base recall, but when I lived on base I was either in the dorms when I was single, or in base housing when I was married, always surrounded by military. Before I joined I was surrounded by a fairly eclectic crowd living in portland and a thriving jewish community. Salt Lake, while not exactly like Portland, feels a bit more like home to me. Having Park City Nearby and Big Cottonwood/Little Cottonwood close doesn't hurt either. I'm currently going to the U of U part time, and when my enlistment is up in 2012 I'll be going full time, so I'll end up in Salt Lake eventually anyway, it's just a question of sooner or later.

I don't think I'd have much in common with people in Layton. When I was married, the family-friendliness of it was really nice, but now that I'm divorced and my ex moved out to the east coast, I imagine it would be somewhat depressing.

In the end though, after half a year in a tent, It'll be nice just to have walls that don't move when the wind blows, or having to stumble to a port-a-john halfway across the tent city, I guess I'll just decide when I get back.

[UtahRoots]

Oh man, I feel for you. I really do. Since you already know that Layton isn't going to work, I guess you really are going to have to figure out a way to make SLC your home. How often to you get base recalls? If it's something that happens with the frequency of tsunamis in Portland, I might take my chances and live in SLC. Better to ask for forgiveness for being late than to live someplace awful so you can avoid that possibility. 'Course, I don't know how well asking for forgiveness works in the military. What's the worst that could happen? They'd kick you out?

[EugenetheOregonian]

My current shop chief seems OK with it, don't know if the one replacing him will be. In the end if they say I have to live right off base, I don't have a ton of choice in the matter.

I'll likely be forced to take the Stereotypical Single/Divorced Airman Lifestyle Computer Based Training Program, and be told that I need to sell my car for a Mustang/Camaro/F-150, marry a local single mom, and move into the cheapest apartment complex I can to pocket my housing allowance to make my car payment.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, just not my thing.

[UtahRoots]

So if you move while your current chief is OK with where you live, can they force you to move closer to base? If you signed a lease somewhere can they force you to break it?

[unwisely]

Originally Posted by EugenetheOregonian

Does anyone make a reverse commute from SLC to hill AFB or nearby? If so, do you consider it worth it?

I am also trying to find out about the reverse commute, and it's proving tough.

[irman]

Originally Posted by EugenetheOregonian

Does anyone make a reverse commute from SLC to hill AFB or nearby? If so, do you consider it worth it?

Did that for umpteen years, from Taylorsville to North Ogden.
At *normal* conditions, you are *against* the traffic flow,
in either direction during the normal times when people are
*populating* the freeway. Usually about an hour to do that.
It gets bad during an accident or road work, or during snow storms.

If your *off duty* response time is always *outside* the regular 7 to 6 slot, it might work, living nearer to SLC.