Salt Lake City: Official Development News Thread - Part 5

[Paniolo Man]

Originally Posted by Orlando

Is this the article?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/30/insider/following-up-on-americas-downtowns.html

Or is it this one?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/26/us/us-cities-downtown-chicago-seattle.html

If you are registered or have a subscription, please post the article on here and the SLC images.

Firefox has a "Reader view" on the right side of the URL bar that gets around the paywall.

Salt Lake City

By Jack Healy

Photographs by Bridget Bennett



Salt Lake City’s downtown roared back from the depths of the pandemic. As newcomers flooded into Utah over the past two years — enticed by a hot economy, a lower cost of living and the outdoors — new residential towers, food halls and whiskey bars have sprouted against the backdrop of the Wasatch mountains. The city’s downtown population is expected to double in the next two years.

But it comes at a cost: Rocsheda Wilson said the downtown resurgence was pushing out working-class people like her.

For 30 years, Salt Lake City was her affordable hometown. She lost her customer-service job after getting Covid-19, then lost her apartment. She said she and four of her children had to career from couches to motels to transitional housing. Apartments in her old neighborhood that once rented for $850 had been renamed, remodeled and re-rented for $1,700. She now lives in a subsidized apartment in a suburb 45 minutes’ drive south of the city.

“It was either take this and deal with the grind, or be out on the street,” she said one afternoon, as she and her son Antwan, 13, walked toward the bus stop on their commute home.

Housing costs have spiraled in Mountain West downtowns during the pandemic, spurred by remote work and worsening housing shortages. Housing costs have soared in cities like Denver and Boise, Idaho, as well as in ritzy mountain towns like Park City, Utah. In Salt Lake City, the price of a typical home rose to more than $600,000 last month, from $425,000 at the outset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Salt Lake City has struggled to provide enough housing for the working poor and people who are chronically homeless. Downtown business owners complained to the police over the summer about security, human waste and drug activity stemming from growing numbers of homeless people who do not have adequate access to help.



Salt Lake City is spending roughly $26 million on affordable housing projects, such as building new housing and retrofitting existing motels into apartments, and also hopes to build an $8 million tiny-home community, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said. Advocates say the projects are welcome, but much more is needed.

And the city keeps growing. While only about 60 percent of downtown office workers have come back, tourism and nightlife have surged past prepandemic levels. A dozen downtown restaurants closed while pandemic restrictions were in force, but since then, 19 have opened. In a state where as recently as 2017, strict alcohol laws required that drinks be mixed out of sight of restaurant patrons, tipplers can now order a Utah Old Fashioned at a clubby new restaurant, Franklin Avenue, or have craft beer and tacos in the industrial Granary District.



Matt Crandall, a downtown restaurateur, said the traffic at his restaurants was running as much as 20 percent above prepandemic levels. “People are dying to get out,” he said. “The city is getting bigger. It’s amazing — on every street corner there are condo buildings going up.”

On the eastern edge of downtown, a seven-story apartment building was rising beside Ms. Wilson and her son as they headed home. It promised to have a rooftop swimming pool and a club room. As they looked around, Ms. Wilson’s son set down the heavy bag of pantry items that they were lugging to their new apartment far from downtown.

“Everything is completely changing,” she said.

Edited to make the photos not enormous.

[Reeder113]

Originally Posted by Paniolo Man

Firefox has a "Reader view" on the right side of the URL bar that gets around the paywall.

Safari has that as well. View > Show Reader

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by bob rulz

People would have to be braindead to make noise complaints at Kilby Court. They know they're moving in next to a music venue. And shows usually wrap up by, what, 11pm or so anyway?

And yet if (and likely when) they do complain, it won't be the first time someone has moved somewhere with an existing noise or other nuisance and complained. I doubt Kilby Court will last 5 years after the apartment building goes in.

[Reeder113]

Some nice drone shots of SLC, and some of the current and recently completed projects downtown. I took a bunch of screen grabs from the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90nKtm1VOpk&t=1s

[mstar]

Pretty cool! Thanks Reeder!

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by Stenar

And yet if (and likely when) they do complain, it won't be the first time someone has moved somewhere with an existing noise or other nuisance and complained. I doubt Kilby Court will last 5 years after the apartment building goes in.

I doubt they would close just because of noise complaints. If you have a compelling reason to think that alone would get them to close then you're welcome to prove me wrong. Kilby Court is not the only music venue that will exist next to apartments. If they're following noise ordinances and making a profit then I don't see what would force them to close.

[Stenar]

Originally Posted by bob rulz

I doubt they would close just because of noise complaints. If you have a compelling reason to think that alone would get them to close then you're welcome to prove me wrong. Kilby Court is not the only music venue that will exist next to apartments. If they're following noise ordinances and making a profit then I don't see what would force them to close.

It has happened before. Several times.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Atlas

For the curious, here's what the new school of medicine building will look like:

[/URL]

The U needs to stop building things on the side of the mountain already. That whole area is a complete cluster f*ck. In all seriousness they should be looking at expanding their medical campus downtown. Hmmm.. perhaps near the new hospital that's going to be built?

[Paniolo Man]

Originally Posted by TMoneySLC

The U needs to stop building things on the side of the mountain already. That whole area is a complete cluster f*ck. In all seriousness they should be looking at expanding their medical campus downtown. Hmmm.. perhaps near the new hospital that's going to be built?

I'm going to be honest.

Fragmenting the school of medicine is a terrible idea. Relocating it completely is impossible.

[Atlas]

Rumor is that the U is going to prioritize expansion to the Point of the Mountain over downtown and the Depot District.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Paniolo Man

I'm going to be honest.

Fragmenting the school of medicine is a terrible idea. Relocating it completely is impossible.

Please explain your line of thinking?

Also, the school of medicine is just one building. There are multiple other buildings up there which focus on specialized areas of medicine; for example genetics, Moran Eye Center, nursing, pharmacology. But the school of medicine itself could easily be relocated downtown. These students can just as easily access the campus via TRAX if they need to go up that way.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Rumor is that the U is going to prioritize expansion to the Point of the Mountain over downtown and the Depot District.

If true, this is just another in a long line of instances of the U being a poor member of the community in SLC. Quite saddened to hear this news.

IMO the U should have been building a burgeoning downtown campus center years ago rather than attempting to cram everything up on the hill. It would have alleviated so much traffic from the neighborhoods/roads near the main campus, given easier access for students coming from the North or South via FrontRunner or TRAX, and provided a continual influx of vibrancy to the downtown neighborhood.

Also, I feel that from a teaching, learning, and research point of view, colleges and universities would benefit from being where the issues are. Downtowns are the heart of the arts and culture scene as well as an important connection point for those who rely on social services.

[Paniolo Man]

Originally Posted by TMoneySLC

Please explain your line of thinking?

Also, the school of medicine is just one building. There are multiple other buildings up there which focus on specialized areas of medicine; for example genetics, Moran Eye Center, nursing, pharmacology. But the school of medicine itself could easily be relocated downtown. These students can just as easily access the campus via TRAX if they need to go up that way.

If you've ever attended college you'll know that you have classes and study in more than one building. And "just catch trax to get between class" would make life hell for so many students. They need to make their current campus more walkable, the location isn't the issue.

Having the School Of Medicine building attached to the University Hospital is great, I think moving it a few hundred feet south is terrible.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Paniolo Man

If you've ever attended college you'll know that you have classes and study in more than one building. And "just catch trax to get between class" would make life hell for so many students. They need to make their current campus more walkable, the location isn't the issue.

Having the School Of Medicine building attached to the University Hospital is great, I think moving it a few hundred feet south is terrible.

I have attended college. ;-)

The school of medicine does not operate like that though. All of the classes are located in the same building and with the same cohort throughout your degree. Once you specialize then you would move to another building just for that specialty. That is to say, first year med students aren't taking classes in the pharmacology blgd. or vice versa. Think of it like the college of law. They operate out of one building. Those students aren't taking classes in OSH or on President's Circle.

You do bring up that having the school near the U hospital has benefits, which is true, but only for the residents. For those students having their weekly/bi-weekly resident advisory sessions in a building downtown is not an absurd burden.

[Paniolo Man]

Originally Posted by TMoneySLC

I have attended college. ;-)

The school of medicine does not operate like that though. All of the classes are located in the same building and with the same cohort throughout your degree. Once you specialize then you would move to another building just for that specialty. That is to say, first year med students aren't taking classes in the pharmacology blgd. or vice versa. Think of it like the college of law. They operate out of one building. Those students aren't taking classes in OSH or on President's Circle.

You do bring up that having the school near the U hospital has benefits, which is true, but only for the residents. For those students having their weekly/bi-weekly resident advisory sessions in a building downtown is not an absurd burden.

I apologize if I came off as rude, not my intention.

There's more to it than just classes though, there's the Health Sciences Library, the specific housing for medical students, and the ability for Students and Faculty to collaborate and mingle outside their specific field of study. It's not the proximity to main campus that's the issue, The University Of Hawaii's school of medicine is miles from the Manoa main campus and that's fine. Plus there's not a lot of ideal space downtown for a school of medicine. There's places it could fit but not a ton of places where it could grow.

[bob rulz]

Originally Posted by Stenar

It has happened before. Several times.

Instead of being condescending and dismissive you could provide examples.

[TMoneySLC]

Originally Posted by Paniolo Man

There's more to it than just classes though, there's the Health Sciences Library, the specific housing for medical students, and the ability for Students and Faculty to collaborate and mingle outside their specific field of study.

Yeah, those are good points. I guess more than anything I just wish they’d stop putting more buildings up there. It’s a logistical nightmare getting around the medical campus. Navigating that poorly planned cluster f—- is an exercise in patience to say the least. Plus, I really just feel as though it’s somewhat of an eyesore having all of that built up on the foothills. And let’s be perfectly honest, that’s a piss poor location for those two hospitals. It’s not near any large portion of the population, and they aren’t easily accessed unless you have a car. Even then, parking is atrocious. There is a TRAX line up there, but it’s not as though the terminus is anywhere near the hospitals themselves.

[delts145]

Nice shot from this angle of the three newest towers and how they helped to fill in the middle. Astra will definitely help some to complete the connection and add some height variation. Granted, three or four more towers between 500 and 600 hundred feet would go a long way.

Photo Submitted By Monica M. - KSL.com

[Ironweed]

Originally Posted by delts145

Nice shot from this angle of the three newest towers and how they helped to fill in the middle. Astra will definitely help some to complete the connection and add some height variation. Granted, three or four more towers between 500 and 600 hundred feet would go a long way.

Also Delts, that vista would improve dramatically with the Rio Grande Plan implemented. Would you agree?

[Paniolo Man]

Originally Posted by Ironweed

Also Delts, that vista would improve dramatically with the Rio Grande Plan implemented. Would you agree?

And dumped the billboards.