I haven't been going out much the past week and a half because I've been sporting a black eye, which frankly, invites a lot of staring and some sympathetic looks -- and one can only explain so many times to dubious listeners that it was a self-inflicted injury.
Plus, there is now a major water project blocking the lower half of the street that accesses my house, requiring me to take a detour going and coming. I find less and less incentive to just hop in the car and run out for some little thing.
So when I did take such a trip earlier this week, I was surprised to see the corner of Hwy 89 and and Center Street, across from city hall, festooned in racks of colorful blankets, shelves of athletic shoes, and a variety of other items. It literally reminded me of a booth in Tijuana, Mexico. These weren't pretty ethnic blankets, they were gaudy garish pictures of cartoon characters, monsters, and that lady silhouette you see on trucker mudflaps. Cheesy and cheap. Upon seeing this, I hoped it might be just a one-day thing like when they sell sports clothing and items just before a big game. But maybe not. Yesterday when I went out, it was still there.
North Salt Lake is already a town without an identity. The name alone makes people think we must be in Salt Lake County rather than Davis, or it just makes it sound like we are the northern part of Salt Lake City. We don't have a charming, small-town center because Hwy 89 runs through the middle of town and we look like nothing but a long entrance into Bountiful which does have a beautiful, walkable city center. If we are known for anything here, it's our blight of oil refineries firmly ensconced just west of the freeway.
North Salt Lake recently approved building a new city hall that will surely update the look and warmth of the city. But if the city is going to approve and/or encourage transient businesses such as the one currently across the street from the city offices, we are destined to sink further and further into obscurity as a city.
What this city needs is a master plan for making the city feel like a real cohesive city instead of the piecemeal approach of development. Heaven help us if this blanket business is any sign of the future for our little town.
Here’s a fun story
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Angel Fire (nearest "village" to where I live) began life as a resort and businesses outside the resort built up helter skelter along state 434 with only thought being the price of available land. The city center once it became incorporated as one of the youngest in New Mexico was a strip center which needed remodeling with a bulldozer.
For 12 years we had a Texas Mayor named Bubba that put down any efforts for a park (we abut National Forest which he said was enough park).
Work was begun on a village hall before the economy tanked and the trekker's club worked with the resort to put walking paths along the wetlands in the geographic "center". Now we have a "shovel Ready" project under the new economic incentives that will give us a center park and more walking trails and $25 million in labor and materials.
So we have hopes of looking less like a strip mall and more like a community. I wish the same for you.
PS we have a corner outside of town where US 64 meets state 434 that becomes Tijuana on nice weekends in the summer. Used car lot in the winter.
It sounds like things will become rather nice there after all. Here, however, we have a bit of "Bubba" thinking. And although the mayor and city council can see far enough to build an aesthetically-pleasing and functional city hall, the lack of planning and sprawl happening everywhere else in town does not bode well.
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