It has always been one of my favorite cities. Malcolm Gladwell said the city is destroying itself, and once that process is complete or nearing completion, younger people will move in and lead the City’s recovery. I hope the destruction ends and the recovery begins soon. It may already be under way.
I don’t intend this subject as a political one, but feel free to discuss it in that context if that’s how you use it. If the thread goes that direction we’ll just move it to Politics and War.
Economist had a podcast about 3 weeks ago about the mega cities in the US - NYC, LA, San Francisco - suffering an exodus, with secondary cities like Nashville, Phoenix and Salt Lake City reaping the benefit. (The researcher mentioned Salt Lake about 10 times. Denver got a couple of mentions.)
It seems many in the areas surrounding SLC might say that Salt Lake is on the same path as SFO, but the amount of construction downtown suggests our town is still very much on the upswing.
Certainly sad about SF, especially safety issues. OTOH, Utah/SLC has a different set of problems; when 1 in 5 state legislators is somehow involved in real estate development, other resources suffer.
Once San Francisco becomes relatively affordable again, and the next iteration of intellectual property jobs and other sectors open up there again, things will rebound rapidly.
Of course they don’t talk about the socioeconomic depression that has infected the other cities in the Bay Area for decades. Cities like Oakland, Hayward, Richmond - places that used to thrive as Blue Collar Cities, have suffered a whole lot longer than San Francisco. It is the primary reason why the Raiders left and the A’s are leaving.
For San Francisco to succeed, the whole Bay Area needs to succeed. I just don’t know if the political will to transform the area is there, or will import itself. Then again, Brooklyn has seen a bit of a Renaissance, so maybe.
Yes! I’m counting on Delta having the most gates and the closest gates to the main entrance. Right now getting to a Delta gate can be an ordeal, complete with bus ride to the gate and back.
The busses will be gone in a year.
By 2027 the airport will have double the gates it has now.
Rumor has it Delta will be opening a second sky club in the B gates.
All of A will be exclusive to Delta as well (17 more a gates open by October)
Concourse C plans are well underway as well.
Given the issues going on in San Francisco, and Delta’s desire to better compete with United on international flights to Asia, getting their own hub in SLC to add to their footholds at Narita, Haneda, and Seoul makes sense. As was proven in the past, direct flights to Europe from SLC (and vice versa) had no problem filling planes.
Thanks for posting that. I knew things were going to get better, but not that much better. I can’t wait. On Tuesday, I had a trip to Los Angeles. I had lucked out and was upgraded to a first class seat. Looking forward to that, I hiked to the farthest gate in the airport on the east end of the B concourse. I was there five minutes before boarding time, but the Delta agents have been sending anyone who arrived, whenever, to the bus, which took us a long ways across the airport, where we were able to disembark and wait in line again there. I think I was the 50th person to get on the plane. It was 7:30 in the morning, but I was tired already, with an aching back from carrying luggage that far. It was really a rotten beginning to a trip.
Then yesterday I came home late in the evening, after a long trip, eager to get home. I was dumped at gate B4, probably the second farthest part of the airport from the main entrance. Again I had to make the long hike from there across the airport, underground, all the way to the pick up area. My flight was great, but the airport experience was horrible.
The final version of the new airport cannot come too soon. In the meantime, I am going to avoid flying into Burbank, which I like to do because that airport is simpler by far than LAX, and fly into LAX. I can deal with LAX, and it’s much easier than dealing with SkyWest in Salt Lake.
I’m a Long Beach airport guy. It used to be like a “bus stop”, but has grown.
I remember using Ontario a few times. Still took an hour to get to San Bernardino from there. At the time they had no Jetways. You walked out on the tarmac to the jet stairs.
Love that airport. It’s just not close to where I need to be. Also, it’s not the airports on the southern California side that are my problem right now. It’s the one in Salt Lake.
I can see that. I was flying every week, between SLC-NYC and also from SLC-BOI-SLC-RNO-SLC – a lot of walking. haha
Although I partially grew up in Utah (I went to Bonneville High School and then the U, of course), I could not live in a state that hates LGBQT, denies a woman’s right to the healthcare of her choice, allows guns everywhere, and is a MAGA center. I am a diehard progressive and there’s nothing attractive about SLC, Nashville, or any other red state.
But if all these Californians are moving to Utah, it will become more like Colorado and Nevada with Democrats everywhere. LOL. Maybe then, I’ll move back, but it will have to be to a blue area of the state like Park City.
Amen . I did go from Utah to Texas to Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh) and then back to Utah. Can’t seem to get away from Faux Captain Moroni’s cult. Pittsburgh was a bit of reprieve. Haha
Nashville is a Progressive city in a red state (Think how ATL is to Georgia). That said, it’s got awful roads and the state is hampered by backward politics. I live 40 minutes out of Nashville. I’m more likely to move to LA than Nashville after my daughter graduates.
Isn’t SLC pretty inclusive? I’ve always heard that. Like Atlanta in Georgia or Nashville in Tennessee. That said, get outside the county it gets grim.
It depends on where you are in the Valley. Some communities are very diverse and inclusive. Others…not so much. The truth is it’s not great, but not bad.
But I’d feel outnumbered in the state. Plus I don’t like the weather, hot, muggy summers. Right now, I’m sitting Mammoth Lakes, CA with cool fresh air, and way too much snow. It snowed last night. WTF???
Yeah, it’s 75 in June in the mid South. This is shaping up to be a cool summer.
Inside the city limits very much so. Outside it varies depending on where you are.