Just outside of downtown Salt Lake City lies a transitional space between several historically working class neighborhoods to the east and a vast industrial area to the west. In redlining maps from the mid-20th century, this area was described as “inhabited by working people” and situated “between the business and industrial areas,” which earned theContinue reading “POST Industrial – New Opportunities to Exploit”
Category Archives: General
UTRU — Not the Riders Union We Need
Urbanism is back in the mainstream. Cranes litter the skyline, cities are redesigning their flags, and those the previous generation would have derided as “yuppies” have rallied behind urban capitalists. In the midst of heated debates over metropolitan growth along the Wasatch Front, a handful of political staffers and upper-middle-class professionals came together to formContinue reading “UTRU — Not the Riders Union We Need”
The Port and The Point – State Intervention in the Utah Economy
An exploration of the Inland Port and the Point of the Mountain state-led redevelopment efforts.
From Anti-Gentrification to Revolutionary Urbanism
The ills of gentrification are well known, despite its continued denial by some. In Salt Lake City, because of the struggles of the Rose Park Brown Berets, the city has even recognized the severity of the urban crisis it produced, even going so far as to recognize its helplessness to act effectivley against its onslaught.Continue reading “From Anti-Gentrification to Revolutionary Urbanism”
A Sick Valley
The Great Salt Lake and Colorado River are drying up, and the state government wants to pay farmers not to farm. An inland port threatens to bring tons of new freight traffic through the valley, and the city government is worried it won’t get its fair share of the new tax revenue. The Oquirrh mountainsContinue reading “A Sick Valley”
Vacant Luxury – What the Economic Development Engine Wrought along the S-Line
“[The S-Line is] primarily an economic development engine and secondarily, a transportation mode.” University of Utah Professor Reid Ewing for the Salt Lake Tribune Trains are cool and streetcars are no exception. Walking along Parleys trail is absolutely lovely and seeing the S-Line glide by is pure bliss. But the S-Line wasn’t built for meContinue reading “Vacant Luxury – What the Economic Development Engine Wrought along the S-Line”
Planning for Displacement: Gentrification and the North Temple Boulevard Master Plan
On August 10th, 2010, the Salt Lake City Council voted to adopt the North Temple Boulevard Master Plan. A decade later, that plan would be used to displace at least three families from their homes. In 2019 the Kozo displaced two families, three years later the Chicago Street Townhomes displaced another. All three families wereContinue reading “Planning for Displacement: Gentrification and the North Temple Boulevard Master Plan”
Republishing: Situationist Theses on Traffic
These theses were written by the French author Guy Debord in 1959. Despite being over 60 years old, many of these theses remain true today or were true and are now in the process of being overcome as new forms of capitalist urbanism gain ground. In this short writing, Debord succinctly explores key functions ofContinue reading “Republishing: Situationist Theses on Traffic”
Don’t Expect Gentrifiers to Understand | A Response to Building Salt Lake
This article is a response to an article written by Taylor Anderson for Building Salt Lake on the Kozo apartment complex on Feb. 17, 2022: https://www.buildingsaltlake.com/west-side-project-that-stalled-amid-protests-is-back-with-revisions/ Two weeks ago, Taylor Anderson wrote an article for Building Salt Lake looking at the updated plans for the Kozo House Apartments development in the Rose Park neighborhood. ApartContinue reading “Don’t Expect Gentrifiers to Understand | A Response to Building Salt Lake”
Transit Done Wrong
During the George Floyd uprising in the Summer of 2020, the marches through Salt Lake City would often stop on one of the Trax lines downtown with the “organizers” of the march claiming that by disrupting the Trax we were in fact putting a damper on the creation of money (that is value production) inContinue reading “Transit Done Wrong”