For decades, Salt Lake City’s Rio Grande district carried the reputation of a scary and blighted area, rife with drugs and crime. Once a bustling transit hub during America’s train era, the district slowly disintegrated into a derelict haven for prostitution and criminal activity, as a highly concentrated and dangerous transient population threatened the wel … [Read more...]
Impact Fees in Sugar House
Will Impact Fees Help Mitigate Sugar House Development Problems? Impact fees are one-time charges imposed by a city on new development projects to help fund the cost of providing infrastructure and services to that new development. A project, or portion of a project, must be deemed necessary to ensure the level of service provided in the new development area matches what … [Read more...]
Great West Food Desert: City Seeks to Improve Food Options on Westside
Food deserts are areas occupied by people lacking the income to buy healthy food or do not have access to foods that are considered part of a balanced diet. By U.S. Department of Agriculture standards, the west-side of downtown Salt Lake City is a food desert. Whether the SLC Redevelopment Agency's proposal to build a permanent, year-round public market for Salt Lake City will … [Read more...]
Rockwood Furniture: Rockwood Family is still a Bedrock of Sugar House Business
“Rockwood Furniture, the oldest name in Sugar House, has just become the newest, most up-to-date furniture concern in the Intermountain West.” - Sugar House Bulletin, December 1954. When Marian Rockwood Johnson was born, Sugar House was struggling through the Depression of 1920-21; Bamberger Coal Company was operating from the old sugar mill; Hyland Theatre (known later as th … [Read more...]
Sugar House Fireworks: Independence Day Tradition Coming to an End?
The Sugar House 4th of July fireworks show has been a tradition in our community for decades. Each year it is estimated that the show draws 20,000-30,000 people or more from our community, along with people from nearby cities and counties. Until 2009, the fireworks were paid for by the city, but Salt Lake City pulled funding from the show in 2009, prompting a push from … [Read more...]
Sego Lily Update in Sugar House
Since early October, 2017, the Sego Lily has been growing and spreading across the western slope of Sugar House Park, with its petals rising slightly above the crest of 1300 E. The story of the Lily has many layers—functional, artistic, historical, and educational. The first stages of construction clearly identified the Lily as a flood-control structure with a h … [Read more...]
Sugar House in Jeopardy as History Disappears
Faster and more abruptly than anyone expected, the familiar old buildings and businesses of downtown Sugar House have disappeared. Ten years ago, city planners commissioned a survey of buildings in the area to determine whether it could be designated as a historic district. But within months, the buildings south and west of the main intersection were gone, along with any chance … [Read more...]
Artistic and Functional, Sego Lily Plaza Combines an Aesthetic and Practical Enhancement to Sugar House
This year, the Utah legislature designated Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty as an official State Work of Art. When we think of earth art, names of early pioneers in the field like Robert Smithson or Nancy Holt come to mind, but more and more people will be talking about Patricia Johanson in the coming months. Johanson’s public installation at Sugar House Park, titled Sego Lil … [Read more...]
Sprague Library and the Sugar House Flood
For the past century, flooding has played a significant role in the history of Sugar House. The position of major roads and buildings were largely determined by the course of Parley's Creek and its seasonal antics. Destructive floods on 2100 S. and 1300 E. have been blocking traffic and destroying property at roughly 30-year intervals. In 1922, public officials recognized … [Read more...]
Standing the Test of Time—Sugar House Coffee
Sugar House Coffee and Bob Evans are inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of Sugar House residents. So when Bob died in 2013 at the age of 69, the community was hit hard. Bob had been a fixture in the neighborhood, looking after his customers and other local businesses in the area. As a member of the Vest Pocket Business Coalition, he’d helped artists and musicians find a … [Read more...]