Downtown Salt Lake City’s Main Street is probably best known as the home of Temple Square, where millions of lights (usually, but not this year) shine around the reflecting pond that rests just outside of the 130-year-old Mormon temple. Downtown is the place where pious Latter-Day Saints worship and do billions of dollars of business, from banking, to insurance, to books, … [Read more...]
Mountains of Money: What Happened to Utah Ski Resorts?
For better or for worse, our beloved ski resorts are full of high-speed quads, trams and gondolas. They race skiers atop mountains in less than half the time of the old rope tows or clunky, slow regular chair lifts. But there is just one downside ... Powder days have become powder mornings or even powder hours. With a huge abundance of skiers on the mountains (thanks to the … [Read more...]
After 18 years City Creek Antiques Store is Closing at the End of the Year
City Creek Antiques has been operated by Carmen von Bothmer for the past eighteen years and will be closing its doors after December 2021. Originally started by Carmen and her late husband David as Litvin Gallery, Carmen says she “grew up with antiques,” and she met and married her husband over their common love of antiquing. Back then there were five people working in … [Read more...]
The Main Street Divide: Remembering Main Street Salt Lake City of Christmas Past
Downtown Salt Lake City’s Main Street has always had two very distinct halves: The North half is almost all LDS-Church-owned and now the billion-dollar City Creek Center has almost every fashionable Wall Street traded chain store one could hope for (Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Coach). With over five million annual visitors to Salt Lake City’s Temple each year, now we can host … [Read more...]
Distillery 36 Celebrate Utah’s Deciding Vote to Repeal Prohibition
In a fitting tribute to a state known to be difficult to drink in, Distillery 36 was named by owners and operators Jensen Dobbs and Creed Law to celebrate Utah’s deciding vote as the 36th state to repeal Prohibition. In 2016, the long-time friends raised a glass and launched Distillery 36’s flagship product — 100% cane Brigham Rum. They followed it with the Spiced Brigham … [Read more...]
MAIN STREET SALT LAKE: Open Drug Use is Hurting Local Businesses
Downtown Salt Lake City: Main Street — Three homeless men sit in the former business entrance to the Off-Broadway Theater and distribute rations of spice or possibly weed. In broad daylight on the busy thoroughfare, they roll joints and watch the passers-by. Around the corner, acrid plumes of blue smoke fill the air. The SLCPD, like most metro Police departments, have … [Read more...]
Homeless Policies in Salt Lake City: Paying off? Or an Endless Money Pit?
The homeless in Salt Lake City has always been on the periphery, but today they are camping right on Main Street impacting local business operations and causing blight, especially the area formerly occupied by Sam Weller’s Zion Bookstore. Utah Stories wrote in a previous article about the hardship of business owner Omar Mullahkhel, who has operated the Market on Main … [Read more...]
How Main Street is Being Traded for Wall Street
Ask anybody how they define their community and they will inevitably mention the local businesses: the local grocery store; the shoe repair shop; the hardware store; the watch repair shop, and of course restaurants, bars, and the local farmers markets. It’s cliche, but it’s true: locally-owned businesses are the backbone of communities and Main Street. In the past two … [Read more...]
Homeless in Sugar House
As apartment buildings rise and the shelters fill, the voices of the homeless on homeless policy. “I’ve given up on the homeless resource center,” said a man who we’ll call John. Now camping around Fairmont Park for the past few months, John added, “They say they want to help, but I showed up two minutes after eight o’clock and they took my room and kept all of my … [Read more...]
The Battle Over Utah’s Environment: Great Salt Lake Great No Longer?
Will the Great Salt Lake Become a Casualty of The Mega Drought? With impending population growth and the increasing scarcity of water, there is a battle brewing over Utah‘s environment and future. “The Mega Drought” is what some are calling this very dry 2021 water year in Utah and the entire Great Basin area. Lake Powell is at its lowest level since inception and the Great … [Read more...]