My map of Salt Lake area neigborhoods

[mlb]

If you can rent when you first come here - all the better. No map is going to make you "comfortable". Everyone has different comfort levels.

We rented an apartment in Holladay when we first got here. I worked up at the U. When the rent started to skyrocket - with nothing to show for it - I got angry and phoned SL County Housing Authority to report the landlord.... and they guy asked me pointblank - "Do you have the downpayment for a house?" and we did. We just didn't feel at ease with my husband's underemployment to jump to owning. But we made the jump anyway to Sandy. We are SO glad we did.

My coworkers - who all lived close in - in SugarHouse and SLC - thought I was nuts. One indicated she would "never come visit me in Sandy because that was like moving to Southern Utah".

I kid you not.

I LIVE by thinking and living outside the box. I've never regretted it.

[CCSLC]

In most cases, however, "the box" is squarely around the south end of the valley. Freedom is north of there!

[dcisive]

LOL someone mentioned earlier "there is no real gang activity here". Hmm better talk to Salt Lake and West Valley City PD about that one. Don't think they'd agree. Plenty of it up in Ogden/Layton lately as well. Sure it's not your "South Central LA" level by any means, but it's sure there. I haven't met anyone YET that is proud to live in the Glendale neighborhood (could be cause if they could they'd move way out of it). West Valley City has a pretty high percentage of property crime and more than the average crime activity connected with the several well organized gangs in that area. It's no big secret, but as usual people love to sweep it under the carpet. There are worse and slightly better areas of WVC so it's not ALL real bad so to speak. They've been trying hard to clean it up but it's a bit like trying to clean up an infection of the entire body one piece at a time. South Salt Lake in the last few years has been a real issue, mostly in commercial property crimes and home burglaries as well as increased gang activity. While property crime happens pretty much everywhere, by far the worst of the worst is in Central Salt Lake, WVC, SSL and an isolated part of Sandy. I work in the security industry so I find out about this via both the PD's as well as my service calls. It is what it is.

[NoodleKaboodle]

I hate how the west side get the short stick on this map. SLC's west side has pockets of bad neighborhoods for sure, but it's no where near the gangland some portray it as. The area around the fairpark is bad, same with anything west of I-15 between Indiana Ave(8th South) and California(13th South)Aka Glendale. But Poplar Grove isn't bad at all, there isn't a ton of crime, just smaller houses, Same with Rose Park. 50% of the neighborhoods down there really aren't bad at all. Just working class. I've lived in Poplar Grove for 3 years and have had no problems. Contrast that to 3 years in Downtown and the lower Aves where my car was broken into twice, I found homeless people sleeping in my carport multiple time and was mugged once.

[Ghungroo]

I ran across a neat website today and immediately thought of this thread and wanted to share it: Wikimapia! It's a publicly editable map collaboration using layers, and I noticed that the greater Salt Lake City area (as well as many parts around the world) appears to have most of the major cities and neighborhoods mapped out! You simply mouse over areas to see the name and boundaries, and if you zoom in people have added more layers like schools and such. I think it is very helpful. Enjoy!

[eggalegga]

None of the streets are labeled. I shouldn't have to login to just see street names.