Salt Lake City, Utah

chemistcarpenter
6mo ago
🦉🦉🦉🦉

I’m an ex-Pat, so I’ll give you my point of view as such. It’s a wonderful city and very unique. The typical American downtown does not apply here. It’s a walkable, clean, safe city. “Downtown” is large, spread out and as close to a European city as I’ve seen. Food options are great and abundant. Not to say all options are great, but there are limitless options. Making friends outside of work will be a challenge, however that not a big concern as you’re interning. Cheers.

Feralest_Baby
6mo ago
🦉🦉🦉

It depends a lot on where you live and what your standards are. In the city proper, bike infrastructure is really good and getting better all the time. Transit is decent as well with main thoroughfares having buses every 15 minutes and a light rail system that is much comparable to many cities twice its size.

Walkability is harder. The layout is very suburban with long blocks and wide streets. There are emerging clusters (especially around rail corridors) that lend to better walkability around them, but a lot of the neighborhoods will leave you a half mile or more from a grocery store.

I will say that yes, the outdoor access is incredible and crime is low for a city its size. Diversity looks ok on paper, but the city is severely geographically segregated. That vast majority of people of color (mostly Hispanic) live poorer areas that are considered less desirable. That being said, those areas are generally still very safe, just "rough around the edges" and are gentrifying as housing costs rise around the entire metro area.

I've lived here almost my entire life and am a bike commuter and advocate with a keen interest in urbanism. Feel free to ask me specific questions.

Awebrie
6mo ago
🦉🦉🦉🦉

I moved to slc from philly. I really enjoy it. If you're not an outdoorsy person, you might want to become one. If youre a foodie, Food is okay but seriously lacking in Italian. Thai food is amazing here and sushi is too. But it is no LA. NYC, or even Philly when it comes to food.

I didn't think there would be good coffee shops but I was so wrong and I'm so thankful for that.

I feel like its pretty walkable downtown and surrounding areas by the university but from neighborhood to neighborhood it isn't, like from downtown to sandy, or downtown to Millcreek. There's sidewalks just about everywhere but blocks are hella long and everything is spread out.

The air quality gets a little rough from time to time but that's why I suggest being an outdoor person because hiking up mountains or going up the canyons to hangout gets you some good air.

EDIT: forgot to mention I feel pretty damn safe here which is really nice. Depending on where you end up living, and you will pretty much immediately know what's sketchy and what isn't. Where I live I can walk alone at night and not be scared for my life..cautious always but not scared, which is really nice

ZekeAV
6mo ago
🦉🦉🦉

My favorite thing about Salt Lake is how much I can pretend it's a bigger city, without as many of the negatives of living in NY or LA.

I hate how early things close during the week, or how many businesses take Sunday off. But otherwise, we have a lot more entertainment than people give us credit for.

It's significantly different feeling living in downtown SLC VS the edges of the valley. But that's actually better for a lot of people.

Best of luck, I hope SLC treats you well.

What Nobody Will Tell You About Living In Salt Lake City, Utah