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Christie Porter

Christie Porter has worked as a journalist for nearly a decade, writing about everything under the sun, but she really loves writing about nerdy things and the weird stuff. She recently published her first comic book short this year.

Jul 17
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Dime Founder at Panel Event_SLM JA24_Verina Chen

Utah Beauty Company Earns Environmental Stamp of Approval

By Lifestyle

If I see a product out there that says it’s ewg-verified. I don’t even worry what’s in it,” says Baylee Relf, Master Esthetician and founder of DIME, a Utah-based beauty company. Now Relf has the distinction of having her own products verified by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C. non-profit that advocates for transparency, clean ingredients and sustainability in  personal care products. 

“It requires a lot of testing and new transparency changes,” says Jocelyn Lyle, EWG’s Executive Vice President of Mission and Partnerships on verified status. “It can sometimes take a brand twelve months to go through the program. You have to change your packaging for full disclosure.” The EWG also flags ingredients it deems potentially unsafe or irritants so consumers looking for “clean” beauty products have a place to start.

At a panel at The Lounge at La Caille, Relf and Lyle, along with Muffy Clince of Ulta Beauty, addressed some of the misconceptions about the clean beauty trend. Clean does not necessarily mean natural. DIME, for instance, uses both natural and synthetic ingredients. “The marriage of the two is what provides results,” says Relf. “Clean products should be efficacious. There are a lot of really harsh products out there that will show you results quickly, but it’s at an unhealthy pace for your skin. Where clean products are going to show you a little more gradual results, it’s such a much healthier pace for your skin.”

“A lot of advice we hear is ‘just go fragrance-free,’” says Lyle. “But that is not EWG’s point of view. There are clean and safe fragrances, and there are fragrances out there that are fully transparent.” But it’s more rare. “The dirty little secret of the fragrance industry is it’s really hard to find a fragrance house that will even tell the brand what’s in it.” 

In addition to the lack of transparency, Relf started to notice that perfume can cause a lot of issues for people, like skin irritation and headaches. “Our formulators worked really hard to create a low-allergenic profile fragrance.” The result is DIME’s Seven Summers perfume, now EWG-verified. 

“I would say, brands going to this level of certification and making this effort to have a clean fragrance formula, it’s still very unique,” says Clince. 

Unique, perhaps, because the founders of DIME seem to have a particular obsession with ingredients. Co-founder and Bayley’s husband Ryan says, “Our pillow talk is about ingredients.”  

Jul 15
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Woman Overlooking Powell_SLMJA24_AdobeStock_69507832_Sumikophoto

Let’s Wade into Utah’s Water Issues

By City Watch

Perhaps the most damning of the misconceptions about water is that water is “easy.” We go to our sink, turn on the tap and water flows out of the faucet. Easy. We do not perceive, at that moment, the energy, time, effort and infrastructure involved in getting the water to our homes and businesses. 

Lake Powell, America’s second-largest reservoir, is at one-third of its capacity. 
Photo by Tom Till, Courtesy Visit Utah

The director of the Utah Division of Water Resource (DWRe), Candice Hasenyager, uses an analogy to explain the challenge of managing water infrastructure, and—due to the complex, interconnected nature of our water systems—it will not be the last analogy we use. “If you hit a pothole, you know there’s a pothole, right?” she says. “Where, if there’s a leak in a pipe, you don’t see it. It takes time to find that leak.” Anyone who has ever had a leaky pipe knows the damage it can cause when left unmanaged. 

This is why the misconception that “water is easy” can be troubling. If we refuse to acknowledge the systems and infrastructure necessary to deliver water, we will certainly not recognize the leaks in that system, let alone address them. Having reliable water, after all, is pretty important. Everyone who participates in the system, all the way down the line from water policy makers to treatment to supply to consumers, has a stake in using water responsibly. 

The Plan for the Great Salt Lake

“The Great Salt Lake is in a water debt crisis. And the reason for that is because we’ve over-diverted the waters upstream for both agricultural and municipal use,” says Zachary Frankel, Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council, a nonprofit organization that advocates for conservation and sustainability statewide. The threat of the Great Salt Lake’s drying out is arguably the most urgent water matter. Salt Lake magazine and press outlets both local and international have covered the toxic dust and ecological collapse that would result if the lake dries up. Thus, awareness of the threat has risen significantly in recent years. Water elevation, meanwhile, hit an all-time low in November of 2022. Since then, a few exceptionally wet winters, and modifications to the causeway between the north and south arms of the lake, have at least raised the level of the South Arm of the lake. However, relying on the weather is not a sustainable solution.

Frankel is concerned about the lack of attention paid to the water levels of the Great Salt Lake’s North Arm. The North Arm is home to some key ecosystems, like Gunnison Island, which is a crucial rookery for the American white pelican. “Because of these shrinking water levels, Gunnison Island is no longer an island and predators can run to the island,” he says. “If we don’t save Gunnison Island, how are we saving the Great Salt Lake?” 

Before: The Great Salt Lake surface area in 1986.
Photos courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

Utah's water issues
After:
The Great Salt Lake surface area in 2022.
Photos courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

For too long, we have withdrawn more than our available balance, and, Frankel says, we have not set up a way to pay it back. “If you walked into a bank to buy a house and go, ‘Here’s my down payment, it’s this coffee can of coins.’ The banker’s going to roll their eyes. Because that’s not a borrowing plan,” he explains. And that coffee can of loose change? “That’s what the Utah Legislature is doing for the Great Salt Lake. There is no program requiring any minimum volume of water flow, no goal about what lake elevation we should achieve and no water budget to repay the debt that Utahns owe for over-diverting water upstream for two decades.”

The state does, however, have a plan to make a plan that was funded by the Utah Legislature. The Utah Division of Water Resources released the Great Salt Lake Basin Integrated Plan (GSLBIP) in April of this year. The GSLBIP’s purpose is to ensure an ongoing, resilient water supply for the basin. “A project of this scale has not been done within the Great Salt Lake Basin before,” says Hasenyager. “The key step to achieve that goal is to understand how this system is interconnected together.” 

Hasenyager imagines a basket, in which they’re weaving all of the available information, identifying the data gaps and then filling those gaps to provide tools for water projects and an over arching collection of all the data. This “mega model” will encompass the five basins and watersheds in the basin. With this wide-angle view, “we can provide information to legislators and decision-makers and the potential impacts or consequences of those decisions,” she says. 

But will the basket hold water? 

Utah's water issues
The Great Salt Lake reached a record-low surface elevation in November 2022. Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey

The tools, and the mega model, will be developed over the next two years. Among other projects in the basket, they are meant to provide vital information and guidance for reaching and sustaining a healthy Great Salt Lake.

The historical average elevation for the Great Salt Lake is 4,200 feet. “This is the water level that science indicates is the most sustainable level for all the various interests of the lake—everything from the 330 migratory bird species to recreation to industry, air quality and water quality for the lake,” says Frankel. “So 4,200 is the magic level.”

That would take an inflow of 8 million acre-feet of water. A Herculean goal. “If every man, woman and child in the Great Salt Lake Basin stopped using water for a year, it would still take four years to raise the Great Salt Lake,” says Frankel. Utah will need to reduce all water use by 19% to hit 4,200 feet by 2054.

Utah's water issues
Zachary Frankel, Executive Director of the Utah Rivers Council. Photo by Adam Finkle.

The Utah Rivers Council created the 4200 Project to outline a way to meet the magic level, including policy changes, such as mandating lake elevation goals and conservation benchmarks; getting surplus agricultural water to the lake by fixing Utah’s Agricultural Water Optimization Program; protecting tributaries from new water diversions; ending the property tax subsidy for water districts; and, of course, fixing leaky pipes to eliminate water waste.

There is no single solution to reach that goal. It requires a wide, coordinated effort at all levels of the system, and that comes from the top. In two years, when the policy recommendations generated from the GSLBIP’s projects, tools and models come to fruition, there is no guarantee the Utah Legislature will adopt those policies. Just this past legislative session, the Utah Rivers Council gave the Utah Legislature a “D-” grade for its handling of water policy. 

“Good legislation at the Utah legislature is consistently defeated,” Frankel says. “It doesn’t even get out of committee. There were eight or ten good bills at that state house that died this year. Same as last year, same as the year before.” One of those bills would have required the DWRe to monitor how
much of the water conserved through public programs (on which the state has spent billions in recent years) reaches the Great Salt Lake.

“We have to stop thinking this is just about facts and data and understand there is a special interest profiting off of upstream water diversions that does not want to deliver water to our rivers and lakes because those are profits lost. We don’t need to study that,” says Frankel.“It’s just basic American business.”

Agriculture Called to Account: Agriculture Water Optimization Program

While guidelines are in place to conserve municipal and industrial (M&I) water; most of the state’s water goes toward agriculture. Thus, the most substantial water gains stand to be made in the agricultural sector. One option is shoring up the state’s Agriculture Water Optimization Program. “The biggest concern is there’s no requirement to deliver any of that saved water to the Great Salt Lake,” explains Frankel. States like Oregon and Washington have a requirement that “if taxpayers are putting the money in, they get a portion of the water saved relative to their investment,” he says. 

The Utah program has provided an estimated $265 million in grants to farmers to upgrade their irrigation systems and improve water use efficiency. While the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) called the program a success, funding hundreds of farmers’ projects, a 2023 audit reported that the program’s success is impossible to measure because of a lack of measurable data. The state audit called on the UDAF to take an accounting of the program and enforce its reporting requirements on all funded projects. Frankel says, “I would argue that if the Great Salt Lake is the measuring stick with which we’re measuring the success of that program, it’s failing.”

Adapting to Climate Change

When I first wrote about water conservation for Salt Lake magazine, most of the state was experiencing significant drought. Now, the Utah Department of Natural Resources reports that “Utah’s water situation is robust,” following two winters of heavy snowfall and higher-than-average rain this past spring. Drastic swings in precipitation are not a result of praying for rain, but the impact of climate change. And dramatic extremes, from severe droughts to record-breaking snowfalls, make the job of managing Utah’s water supply even more challenging. 

Utah's water issues
Candice Hasenyager, Director of Utah Division of Water Resources.
Photo courtesy of DWRE

“Today, we’re doing great, but if you talked to me two years ago, I would have told you that 99% of the state was in severe and extreme drought and our reservoirs were half full. So, it is dynamic,” says Hasenyager, and our water systems have reservoirs to save water during wet periods for drier times. “But our challenge is, as we are getting these wetter wets and these dryer dries, how do we try to reduce our water use and use our water as wisely as possible to make us more resilient to big extremes?” At the end of the day, the wetter wets will not make up for the dryer dries. Over the long term, increases in precipitation will be overwhelmed by rising temperatures and evaporation.

“We’re simply not adapting to the reality of climate change, all of us, collectively,” says Frankel. He points to Lake Powell, America’s second-largest reservoir, which is at one-third of capacity. 

“We heard from our water conservancy district down in Southern Utah,” Hasenyager says. “They received a call saying, ‘this reservoir is looking low. Can you fill it back up?’ And that’s just not how reservoirs work. Our reservoirs are filled by our snowpack and the runoff and not just for recreation. They’re an important part of our water supply.” But the Colorado River Basin has seen a 20% decline in runoff as a function of climate change.

The Colorado River Basin occupies the eastern and southern parts of Utah, as well as six other states, providing water to 40 million people. It will take far more than the efforts of Utah and other Basin states to reverse the impacts of climate change, but we can do more to be good neighbors and better stewards of the water we share. “We all know we can fight over water,” Frankel says. “The real question is, can we learn to share?”

That fight is playing out right now as the Upper Colorado Basin states face off with the Lower Basin states on how best to save the Colorado River and cut water use by 4 million acre-feet per year. In short, the Upper Basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) want to cut water sent to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, California and Nevada) while not bearing any of the burden of cuts themselves. The Lower Basin states’ proposal has all states, Upper and Lower, making sacrifices to meet the conservation goal. Both plans use reservoir levels as the trigger for implementing the water cuts. 

Utah's water issues

It would be tempting to cut every state’s allotment equally, but equality is not the same thing as equity. Frankel says we should ask, “What do we really need?” Currently, Utah draws about 1 million acre-feet of water out of Colorado annually. The Las Vegas Valley has a similar size population but Nevada only pulls about 300,000 acre-feet of water. “Why do two different populations, the same size, have different water-sharing agreements? Why does Nevada get one-third of the water that Utah gets? Are we better? Is it because Nevada is a ‘place of sin?’ These are questions we need to answer.”

State Water Conservation Goals

Utah set regional goals for M&I (Municiapl & Industrial) water conservation in 2019, aiming for 11%– 20% conservation of M&I water by 2030. Previously, M&I per capita water use saw 18% reductions  from 2000–2015. Recent legislative efforts have totaled roughly $500 million for water conservation, says Hasenyager. “We are running as fast as we can to get that money on the ground and start making those efforts.”

Supplying Growth

The challenges brought on by climate extremes feed into other water issues as well. “The kind of extreme nature that we’re dealing with, from a water supply standpoint, makes it more challenging to deal with a growing population,” says Hasenyager. As communities grow, typically, so does water demand…right? Further water diversions, such as the Bear River Development and the Lake Powell Pipeline, have been proposed to meet the projected increase in water demand as some Utah towns top lists for the fastest growth in the nation. 

However, Frankel makes a point that he says often gets lost in the conversation about growth and projected water demand. If you live in an urban area, very little, if anything, needs to be irrigated. Irrigating agricultural land is the top water use in Utah by far. Much of the new development in Utah is taking over land that was once put to agricultural use, but it takes a lot less water to grow people than it does to grow crops. 

Utah's water issues

“We’re creating a surplus of water when we pave irrigated farmland,” says Frankel. With some changes, we could make do with the water we have without creating more diversions.

A report on Washington County’s water use and the proposed Lake Powell Pipeline observed something similar. The water consultancy Water Demand Management found that the pipeline was unnecessary because Washington County could instead reduce its water use, store excess water from the Virgin River during wetter years for use in dry years, reuse its wastewater and better manage water demand. The report authors suggested that if Washington County used water the same way as in Denver, Albuquerque or Los Angeles, they could continue to grow and still have the local water supply meet their needs. 

Other cities in the West, like Denver, Las Vegas, Albuquerque and Phoenix, have found ways to not just conserve water but actually manage water demand, even as they continue to grow. This is called “decoupling.” “The idea is, yes, these populations are growing, but by instituting sustainable water strategies, they can reduce total water demand,” says Frankel. A survey by Colorado Mesa University looked at 20 growing Western cities and found the secret to successful decoupling is reducing per capita water use.

Utah's water issues
The ideal healthy surface elevation for  Great Salt Lake is  4,200 ft. Photo By Chris/Adobe Stock

Water Conservation

Water conservation is an integral part of any solution to Utah’s most pressing water issues. Water conservation is also an issue we seem to struggle with on its own. Utahns use more water per capita than people in other states. There’s some contention over exactly how much more because of discrepancies in measuring water use, but according to data from the USGS, Utah had the highest total domestic per capita water use of any state in 2010 and the second highest in 2015. 

Why do Utahns use more water? “We have the cheapest water rates in the United States,” says Frankel. “And that’s a really disturbing observation for a lot of reasons…We can’t care about water and simultaneously value it like it doesn’t matter.” When water is cheap, we use more of it. But, with water rate increases, water use drops by as much as about 20%, according to a Utah State University study. Utah Rivers Council advocates for a change in the pricing structure for outdoor water use, which would charge outdoor use at a higher rate while maintaining lower rates for indoor use. They argue that if water suppliers stopped collecting property taxes to subsidize water rates,
and replaced the lost revenue by raising outdoor water rates, consumers would use less water and water suppliers would
not be worse off financially.

It’s possible our struggle to cut back on our water use is tied to the troubling misconception that water is “easy.” Why else would it be so cheap? Because of that, “We’re not holding ourselves accountable for saving water,” says Frankel. “We turn a blind eye to water waste.”  

Jul 08
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Paris Hilton at the Utah Capitol_SLM JA24_Utah State Seate

In The Problematic ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry, All Roads Lead to Utah

By City Watch

Thousands of children make the journey against their will to residential ‘troubled teen’ treatment programs in Utah. Not all will return, and those who do call themselves ‘survivors.’ 

“These programs are like whack-a-mole. When one gets shut down, a new one opens up under a different name,” says Katherine Kubler, the documentarian behind the 2024 Netflix series The Program who set out to uncover the lies and abuse of the residential treatment center (RTC) she survived as a teen—the Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg, New York. Kubler followed the money and chain of abuse to Utah and to the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP). While most WWASP programs have since shuttered, some who worked there went on to start spin-off organizations with nearly identical programs. (The Program traces connections to Soulegria and Three Points Center in Hurricane, Utah.) The “troubled teen” industry (TTI) is a tangled, incestuous network of companies, programs and trade groups, and pulling on any thread in that network will often lead you to Utah. As Kubler puts it, “Utah is the epicenter of the ‘troubled teen’ industry.”

Meg Appelgate, Unsilenced CEO, released her memoir on her childhood experience in the ‘troubled teen’ industry, Becoming Unsilenced.

Meg Appelgate is the co-founder and CEO of Unsilenced. This non-profit organization raises awareness of the abuse in the industry and offers support to TTI program survivors by linking them to trauma-informed mental health professionals and legal services. “We’re dedicated to forcing transparency into this industry because, let’s face it, not only does it not exist, but it’s discouraged,” says Appelgate. Unsilenced keeps an archive of documents and testimonies related to TTI programs, tracing them through rebrandings and reorganizations. “It’s a constant shift from one LLC to another, and it’s extremely hard to track,” says Appelgate, but lives are at stake. 

This year, North Carolina authorities shut down the Trails Carolina wilderness program after a 12-year-old died during his first night there. Trails Carolina is owned by Family Health & Wellness, which also runs at least seven programs in Utah. In 2022, 14-year-old Sofia Soto died at Maple Lake Academy in Spanish Fork as a result of staff negligence, her parents claimed in a lawsuit. That same year, staff at Diamond Ranch Academy, a wilderness program in Hurricane, refused medical treatment for 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge, and she died of sepsis from a treatable infection, according to her parents’ lawsuit. While Maple Lake Academy is still operating, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) did not renew Diamond Ranch Academy’s license. A similar program under a different name is already trying to take its place. The “new” entity, RAFA Academy, is seeking a license to operate with some of the same staff and in the same facility as Diamond Ranch.

Both Utah deaths came after a 2021 law passed with the help of Paris Hilton. Hilton herself is a survivor of Provo Canyon School and advocated for more TTI regulations and oversight. The sponsor of S.B. 127, Utah State Senator Mike McKell who appeared in The Program, spoke on the need for federal regulation and expressed concern that shutdown facilities can start up again and “bad employees bounce around.” When asked if there has been substantial change since S.B. 127 took effect, Appelgate says, “If you’re looking at the quality of treatment of youth in Utah facilities, my opinion would be no,” but she says there is more information available from inspections and more reporting from DHHS to the Office of Licensing.

Katherine Kubler in  The Program. Image courtesy of Netflix.

The Disability Law Center released a scathing report last year based on a year-long investigation. “Time and time again, facilities that mistreat vulnerable residents and fail to provide them with appropriate treatment…continue to operate,” the report reads. “It is imperative that the state of Utah act now.” It’s an old refrain. As far back      as 2007, a Government Office of Accountability investigation found thousands of allegations of abuse, including deaths, at residential treatment programs. 

A 2022 investigation by American Public Media found more children are sent to programs in Utah than to any other state. Utah is home to a high number of TTI facilities partly because minors have fewer rights here. Their willing participation in a treatment plan is not required, as in some other states. “If you look at how most of these youth are coming to these facilities, such as being abducted in the middle of the night,” says Appelgate. “Obviously, there’s a lot of mistrust and a lot of trauma…If there is no trust, then there really can’t be an effective therapeutic relationship.” Many of these programs still employ level-based systems that require strict obedience to earn even basic privileges, such as those WWASP used, as seen in The Program. “They are operating on antiquated belief systems that are largely based on behavior modification and other ‘tough love’ sort of mentalities,” she says. Analysis from Pew Charitable Trusts found similar “scared straight” programs to be unproductive in terms of per-participant cost and preventing participants’ future criminal activity. The same analysis observed the early success of a Utah policy that, in part, intended to “keep youth out of costly residential placements.” But, youth from other states are still forced into Utah programs. 

From Netflix’s The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping. Image courtesy of Netflix.

While TTI programs are often one-size-fits-all, the children sent to programs are not. Some “troubled teens” are privately placed by their parents or families for reasons from mental health and developmental challenges to drug use to gender identity. Some are sent from foster care, juvenile justice systems, school districts, refugee resettlement agencies or even mental health providers—paid for by taxpayer dollars. “The only people I’ve ever seen turned away from a program are those who can’t pay for it,” says Appelgate. 

A 2024 lawsuit filed by 18-year-old Finn Richardson claims Elevations RTC in Syracuse (owned by Family Help & Wellness) cared more about receiving money from his father than it cared about Richardson’s well-being. When Richardson told his Elevations therapist that his father sexually abused him and sent him away as a punishment for being gay, Elevations failed to report the abuse. 

A court-appointed psychiatric evaluation later determined that Richardson did not need treatment and more time at Elevations would be “detrimental to his psychological, emotional, social and academic well-being.” Richardson said at a press conference that he filed the lawsuit as a way to stand up for others in similar situations. “I said, ‘no more.’ I can’t   keep watching this happen to myself  and my friends.”

“It’s important for everyone to know that it’s not just parents of troubled teens who need to focus on this health crisis. It’s every single person,” says Appelgate, and awareness is key to spreading that understanding. “The sad fact is that there are far more poor and traumatic experiences coming out of these facilities.” says Appelgate. “They cause these youth to change how they view themselves.” After the program, she says, they call themselves “survivors.”  

Jun 18
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Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pgutah

Utah towns’ many “days” of celebration across the state

By Community

I cannot speak for other states, but here in Utah, every town with a population more than a few thousand people seems to have their own bespoke “Days” of celebration in summer or fall. I grew up in Northern Utah County, where we celebrated American Fork Steel Days and Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days. Some cities have tried to stand out with the spelling (looking at you, Taylorsville Dayzz), or eschewing the “days” all together, like the rodeo-centric Lehi Round-up or Highland Fling, which hosts Scottish Highland Games-inspired strongman competitions (many of which involve flinging heavy objects).

Often, each town’s respective “days” event is named for some aspect of the town’s heritage or history. According to town lore, Steel Days earned its name in 1945, when the mayor of the time decided that “Poultry Day” no longer reflected the city’s economy. You see, the new Columbia Steel Mill had rolled into town and become the largest employer in the area.

Perhaps a bit removed from the history, each town’s celebration usually involves some kind of carnival, parade, art market, fireworks and/or rodeo with a little bit of local flavor unique to each one. Below is a non-exhaustive list of many of the upcoming days of celebration.

Local town celebrations

Fort Herriman Towne Days
June 15–22 | W&M Butterfield Park, Herriman
Fort Herriman Towne Days spans an entire week and is the largest event in Herriman City, with activities for the whole family…including fireworks!

Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days
June 18–23 | Historic Downtown Pleasant Grove, Pleasant Grove
103 Years of the Longest Running Celebration in Utah! 2024 Theme: Strawberry Days: The Heart of Pleasant Grove. Located at the foot of majestic Mount Timpanogos, with the waters of Utah Lake on the west, Pleasant Grove is well known for its annual Strawberry Days event, the longest continuously running city celebration in Utah. Enjoy fresh strawberries at this annual city celebration featuring an old fashioned rodeo, carnival, craft fair, parade, and much more.

Clarkston Pony Express Day
June 21–22 | Town Square, Clarkston

South Ogden Days 
June 21–22 | Friendship Park, South Ogden

Lehi Round-Up
June 24–29 | Wines Park, Lehi
Always held the last full week in June, Round-Up Week is filled with great family activities including an Outdoor Movie, Family Western BBQ, the Round-Up Market, 3 different Parades, the 5K, Family Fun Day and the PRCA Rodeo. The theme for Lehi Round-Up 2024 is, “Once Upon A Time…”

2024 Taylorsville Dayzz
June 27–29 | Taylorsville Valley Regional Park, Taylorsville
Taylorsville Dayzz 2024 is happening on June 27, 28 and 29! It will include all the traditional festivities, including the Taylorsville Dayzz Parade, concerts, carnival rides, food booths, car show, 5K and, of course, the best fireworks in the state. Thursday’s festivities kick off at 4 p.m. with carnival rides, food and craft booths, followed by evening entertainment at 7 p.m.

Riverton Town Days and Rodeo
June 27–29 (Rodeo) | July 3–4 (Riverton Town Days) | Riverton City Park, Riverton
The Riverton Town Days celebration offers days full of fun! Town Days brings together thousands to honor America’s independence and to celebrate our community. This long-standing tradition is a favorite among both new and old residents and can be counted on for cherished memories year-after-year. Town Days kicks off each year with the Riverton Rodeo and includes favorites like the parade, movie in the park, carnival, chuckwagon breakfast, bingo, children’s contests, fireworks, and much more!

North Ogden Cherry Days 
June 29–July 6 | North Ogden Park, North Ogden
Come join us for a massive carnival at North Ogden Park featuring over 25 attractions! Purchase a wristband for access to all the inflatables inside the baseball field for the entire day. Bring your bathing suit and towel and get ready to get wet! This carnival spans two days, Friday and Saturday, with loads of entertainment for everyone to enjoy. Other activities include: Pickleball tournament, Ping Pong Ball Drop, Cherry Days Jr. Posse Rodeo, Cherry Days Luau, parade and fireworks.

Mt. Pleasant Hub City Days 
July 1–July 4 | Mt. Pleasant Rodeo Grounds, Mt. Pleasant

West Jordan Western Stampede 
July 4–6 | Veterans Memorial Park, West Jordan
A Utah tradition for 68 years! The Western Stampede rides into West Jordan bringing rodeo excitement and great family fun. The celebration includes the rodeo, carnival, grand parade, fireworks, food trucks and much more! Visit westernstampede.com for pricing and information!Experience a thrilling adventure at the annual Western Stampede Carnival in Veterans Memorial Park! Enjoy exhilarating rides, exciting games, and mouthwatering treats in a vibrant atmosphere. Fun for all ages, this event promises unforgettable memories for family and friends. Don’t miss out on the excitement!

Farmington Festival Days 
July 8–13 | Forbush Park, Farmington
Farmington’s Festival Days is an annual event celebrating our country and our amazing community.

Fountain Green Lamb Days 
July 19–20 | Center Street, Fountain Green
Once known as Wool City and “The Richest Little City Per Capita in the U.S.,” Fountain Green boasted 100,000 head of sheep. The first Lamb Day was held on August 23, 1930. Lamb Days still features a Wool Show as well as craft fair, parade and fireworks.

American Fork Steel Days 
July 13–20 | Art Dye Park, American Fork
This year, we celebrate 78 years since the first Steel Day celebration! For over 100 years the city of American Fork has gathered together to celebrate its history, achievements, business community, and residents. This annual celebration is now known as Steel Days, but throughout the years the festivities have also been called Timber Day, Liberty Day, and Poultry Day. Whether Steel Days has been a family tradition for several years or you’ve never attended, you are invited to come check out our new events, enjoy all of the fun that Steel Days has to offer, and make some memories of your own.

Draper Days 
July 11–20 | Draper City Park, Draper
Draper Days is a fantastic community event held every July in Draper, Utah. The event typically features a festival, parade, 5K race, sports tournaments, movie nights, concerts and many other activities. Draper Days is sponsored and managed by Draper City and supported by a team of sponsors and volunteers.

Payson Scottish Festival
July 12–13 | Memorial Park, Payson

Bountiful Handcart Days 
July 19–20 | Bountiful City Park, Bountiful
2024 Theme – Onward and Upward. Join us for food, drinks, games, and other fun activities at Bountiful City Park! Peter Breinholt will be performing this year! Grab a blanket or camp chair for the free concert at the Bountiful City Park Pavilion. Other events include: Bountiful’s Main Street parade, Mountain Man and Native American demonstrations and annual fireworks show at Mueller Park Junior High.

Spanish Fork Fiesta Days 
July 19–24 | Various venues, Spanish Fork
Fiesta Days hosts numerous events celebrating the community: Speedy Spaniard Mile Run, Grand Parade, Outdoor Quilt Show, Food Vendors, Craft Fair, Carnival, Entertainment in the Park, Adopt a Duck Race, Fiesta Days Rodeo, Fireworks Spectacular Concert and Fireworks Spectacular

Altamont Longhorn Days 
July 22–27 | Altamont

Butlerville Days 
July 25–27 | Butler Park, Cottonwood Heights
Activities include: car show, fireworks, parade, pickleball, chalk art and stage entertainment.

Roy Days 
July 27–August 3 | George Wahlen Park, Roy
Annually, Roy City hosts the Roy Days Events. This is a time-honored tradition and we truly enjoy the time spent with not only our residents, but those of surrounding cities as well. The events typically begin in July with the Miss Roy Scholarship Competition. This is an opportunity to come out and support our local talent. We also host a Fishing Derby, open to all ages with kids 12 and older needing a valid fishing license. The Roy City Arts Council also hosts the Roy Days Art Show. Our main Roy Days Events include a Salmon Bake, Movie in the Park, 5K Run/Wheelchair 5K/2-Mile Walk/Kids Fun Run, Parade, Car Show and Vendor Booths, and of course we always end the night with Fireworks!

Santaquin Orchard Days
July 27–August 3 | Centennial Park, Santaquin
Orchard Days is a long-standing tradition in our community which brings our citizens together to celebrate the heritage of our wonderful city. Includes: Little Buck-A-Roo Rodeo, Chamber of Commerce Pancake Breakfast, Family Night with FREE Family Fun for Everyone, Horseshoe Tournament, Family Comedy Show, Magic Show, Pickleball Tournaments, Grand Parade, Boutique and Craft Booths and more! 

Highland Fling 
July 29–August 3 | Heritage Park and Highland Community Center, Highland
Activities include: Car Show, Kids Night, Horseshoe Tournament, Baby Celebration, Fine Art Show, Splash of Paradise, Backyard Garden Tours, Play Day Rodeo, 5K Glow Run, Strongman Competition & Highland Games, Grand Parade, Disc Golf Tournament, Historical Society Displays, Medallion Hunt and Saturday Kids’ Zone.

Midvale Harvest Days 
July 29–August 3 | Midvale City Park, Midvale
Midvale Harvest Days, a vibrant week-long celebration that captures the essence of community spirit and cultural richness. For more than 80 years, Harvest Days brings together residents and visitors alike for a series of unforgettable events: Harvest Days Parade, Festival, Bingo, Concerts and Fireworks.

Bear Lake Raspberry Days 
August 1–3 | Heritage Park, Garden City
The Raspberry Days Festival is an incredible event held to celebrate the harvest of the world famous Bear Lake Raspberries. The Raspberry harvest usually starts around the 3rd week of July. The Raspberry Days Festival is an annual event filled 3 days with all the fun events

Lindon Days
August 3–10 | City Center Park, Lindon
The Lindon City Days are full of excitement!  Visit the festival and enjoy the activities!

Alpine Days 
August 3–10 | Creekside Park, Alpine
In the spring of 1947, Alpine Days began because there was a need: the local church required shingles. Community leaders brainstormed ideas to raise funds and decided on an event with a bazaar, a miniature parade, meals, contests, games and entertainment. The tradition continues today.

Bluffdale Old West Days 
August 6–10 | Bluffdale City Park, Bluffdale
Where kids can be kids, cowboys are cowboys, and everyone gets in on the fun!

Hurricane Peach Days 
August 29–31 | Hurricane City Community Center, Hurricane
We are excited for another year of displays, contests, parade, rodeo, pioneer displays, vendor and food booths, and the best “continpeachuous” entertainment.

Midway Swiss Days 
August 30–31 | Town Square, Midway
For more that 75 years, Swiss Days, sponsored by the Midway Boosters organization features an outdoor craft fair, with local and national vendors, crafting and creating their wares. Volunteers spend countless hours preparing for the two full days to ensure the event is a success, including Swiss and German food booths. There is the traditional parade, which starts at 10 a.m. (on Saturday), and live musical entertainment throughout each day.

Payson Golden Onion Days 
August 30–September 2 | Payson Memorial Park, Payson
This annual celebration was first held in 1929 as an opportunity for residents and former residents to renew old friendships and make new ones. Originally known as the Onion Harvest and Homecoming, the event honored Payson’s status as an agricultural district and outstanding producer of onions. The celebration was later renamed Payson City Golden Onion Days, and that is the name that remains to this day. Golden Onion Days is typically held each year on Labor Day weekend and includes events such as concerts, carnival, baby contest, car show, 5K and 10K races, parade, fireworks, food and merchandise vendors.

Brigham City Peach Days 
September 4–7 | Various venues, Brigham City
Peach Days is a time when the community comes together to celebrate the bountiful harvest of peaches, a fruit that has become synonymous with Brigham City. This festival offers a wide array of activities and attractions for all ages, making it a fantastic family-friendly event. From parades and live entertainment to delicious food and carnival rides, there’s something for everyone to enjoy during Peach Days.

Green River Melon Days
September 20–21 | Main Street, Green River
Green River Utah’s annual Melon Days Festival, now 118 years old, is a celebration of our town’s famous tasty melon varieties and their growers. Our rural town’s population swells as locals, family, friends and visitors come together for a weekend of melon-munching fun.

Santa Clara Swiss Days 
September 26–28 | Canyon View Park, Santa Clara

Sandy Heritage Festival 
September 28 at 10 a.m. | Main Street Park, Sandy
Mosey on down to Historic Sandy District and get transported to another era in time. Last year in 2023, we had over 80 horses (and even a sheep companion) in our stunning horse parade down the streets of Historic Sandy! The parade starts at 10:00 AM, so plan to arrive early. See the map below for the detailed parade route. Then head on over to Main Street Park for food, vendors, music, bounce houses, face painting and more!

For more stories like this and all of our culture and community coverage. And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah. 

Jun 07
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The Sun Trapp exterior 2021 (By Another Believer - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104956996)

Grand Reopening of Historic SLC Gay Bar The Sun Trapp

By City Watch

The historic gay bar, The SunTrapp will reopen Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 7 p.m., after the bar closed in January of this year and owners surrendered its liquor license. This weekend, the bar will reopen with a new liquor license and a slightly different name—as you might have noticed—The SunTrapp (one word, instead of two), according to new owner Mary Peterson. 

Peterson had worked as the accountant for The Sun Trapp, and says, in addition to her role as owner, will continue in that capacity for The SunTrapp as well. 

The history of The SunTapp (formerly known as The Sun Trapp and, including past iterations, The Sun Tavern and just The Trapp) traces back to 1973, when Joe Redburn opened the doors of Salt Lake City’s first and only openly gay bar, The Sun Tavern. 

Stories of The SunTrapp (formerly known as The Sun Trapp)

In the last 50 years, the bar has closed and reopened multiple times overs and changed names, owners and locations, but its repeated phoenix-like returns are a testament to the impact it has had on the queer community in Utah.

The SunTrapp is no longer the only LGBTQ+ bar in town, and that’s partly thanks to its former owners, managers and employees who have gone on to open up LGBTQ+ bars and clubs like Club Verse. But, for many queer folks who came before, the Trapp was the only place where they felt welcome and safe to be themselves. 

“I really enjoyed my time there. I got to know the gay community a lot better. I’ve met a lot of people that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” says Michael Walton, former security at The Sun Trapp, who hosts regular events with his group Utah Bears at the gay bar Club Try-Angles and DJs Thursday Night Psych-Out on KRCL. Even before he worked security around 2018-2019, Walton’s connection to The Sun Trapp goes back to celebrating his 21st birthday there. 

“I frequented there during my twenties, and it was a fun, kind of skeezy country bar back then,” he remembers. “They had a disco ball shaped like a cowboy boot.”

“The year that I worked there was kind of a hedonistic time for the bar,” says Walton. “It was so popular.” He recalls former co-owner Michael Repp (now co-owner of Club Verse) getting on the roof with a giant inflatable unicorn sprinkler and spraying people who were dancing outside. “People loved it and went crazy for it, and would get their phones ruined because they were having so much fun.” 

Walton also sings the praises of once-regular Sun Trapp DJ, DJ Naomi, who now spins over at Club Verse. “She was fantastic and had a good finger on the pulse of what people wanted to dance to. She was a big draw.” 

While a place for celebration, The Sun Trapp often courted tragedy as well.  

During Walton’s brief time there, a mainstay of the Utah gay community and The Sun Trapp, Dennis Rowley Gwyther was murdered in 2019. “Dennis was an absolute sweetheart. He was really nice. He was the DJ for years.” Not long before, The Sun Trapp had lost one of its then-owners, Rob Goulding, to pancreatic cancer. 

50-plus years of The Sun Trapp

In February 1973, Joe Redburn bought the Railroad Exchange Saloon on the corner of 400 West and South Temple. He reopened the doors as an openly gay bar and called it The Sun Tavern, sometimes shortened to just “The Sun.” (As the story goes, it was a nod to the San Francisco bar Midnight Sun.)

Less than a decade later, in the early ‘80s, the bar was torn down to make room for the future Delta Center. The Sun Tavern found a new location, in the former home of the Kozy Bar, at 700 West and 200 South. In 1990, Redburn sold The Sun Tavern and opened up The Trapp a year later. 

In 1999, the Salt Lake City tornado destroyed The Sun Tavern. I’m sure you can imagine the jokes of the time about God exercising His will against the gay menace. Around the same time, Redburn sold The Trapp. Goulding bought the bar and renamed it in honor of The Sun and The Trapp, and it’s been The Sun Trapp (now The SunTrapp) ever since.  

In its long history, The Sun Trapp has often been down but never for the count, at least, so far. While the bar keeps coming back in some form or another, it has not remained unchanged. 

When it comes to maintaining the culture of a gay bar, longevity and popularity take a toll for some. “There was always a long line on the weekends. We would always get to capacity, and it was still fun. It was still a nice bar,” says Walton. “But that dynamic changed as it got more and more popular. And with development in that neighborhood, that is very likely to change the dynamic as well.” As Walton puts it, a gay bar is only a gay bar as long as the clientele is gay. Otherwise, it’s just another bar with rainbow flags hanging in the windows. 

The umbrella of the queer community has expanded in the last 50 years to include more identies and expressions of gender and sexuality, and maintaining queer spaces for queer people might seem at odds with the oft-stated goal of inclusion.

As far as what this latest iteration of the bar will be—a gay bar, an LGTBQ+ bar or a queer-friendly bar, etc.—we will have to see for ourselves this weekend, when The SunTrapp once again rises like the phoenix. 

See our guide to LGBTQ+ Pride Month in Utah and more stories like this and all of our culture and community coverage. And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah. 

May 30
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Utah Author

Local Author’s Debut Bestselling YA Novel ‘Sky’s End’ Receives Movie Buzz

By Arts & Culture

Utah author Marc J. Gregson on his debut novel Sky’s End—Part One of the Above the Black series

After Marc J. Gregson’s young adult novel Sky’s End dropped in January, it shot up the New York Times’ YA bestseller list. A surreal experience for an author whose book had uncertain beginnings that parallel the journey of the story’s protagonist.

“I feel like this book mirrors my artistic journey a little bit more than some of my other books,” says Utah author Gregson. Sky’s End is his sixth book but first-ever published work. After his fifth novel was rejected, Gregson was feeling frustrated. “So I wanted to write a character who was down on his luck and the underdog and trying to rise, so to speak.”

Gregson, an English teacher at Eastmont Middle School, started working on Sky’s End in 2016, determined to throw caution to the wind. “I’m not going to chase any trends in publishing,” he told himself. “I’m just going to write something I want to read and that I want to write. I’m just going to have fun with it and go crazy.”

He started pitching the book to agents that next year to no avail, when, “Finally in 2020, just as I was about to give up on it, an agent emailed me at midnight.” Eventually, publisher Peachtree Teen picked up the book as well as its forthcoming sequels in a trilogy called Above the Black. 

The down-on-his-luck protagonist of the series is 16-year-old Conrad, who has lost almost everything. To protect what’s left, he has to prove himself by hunting “gorgantauns.” Sky’s End is set in a world of floating islands that are terrorized by these gigantic steel-scaled sky serpents.

“They fight back against these beasts with skyships,” explains Gregson, each skyship crew trying to slay the most. “It’s kind of like a deadly competition—sort of in the vibe of Hunger Games or Red Rising.” Beyond the action in the sky, Conrad faces dangerous political machinations and intrigue. 

Critical praise for the book has been glowing, but Gregson finds the response from readers the most humbling. “I have a lot of students who have read the book. We read the first ten minutes of class, and three of my students in the class were reading it.” Other students chose Sky’s End for their book reports. “I had a student who came into my room after school just to talk to me about Sky’s End.”

One fan drove from Logan to a book signing in Orem, and some adult male readers have told Gregson that Sky’s End is the first book that they have read since high school. “That makes me excited and proud, especially as an English teacher,” says Gregson. “It’s a battle that I’m fighting all the time—trying to get kids to read can be challenging. It excites me that several people are connecting with the book for different reasons and reading.”  

The next book in the Above the Black series, Among Serpents, is slated for a January 2025 release.

Sky’s End Movie Deal

Sky’s End is now on track to have a film adaptation. Gregson announced the news on Instagram, saying, “I need to sit down. This really is unbelievably exciting, and I’ve been eager to share these wonderful details with all of you. I hope you’ll all jump up and down and cheer and celebrate with me! Imagine the floating islands, the giant monsters, the thrilling hunts, the bloody duels and Conrad facing down his enemies.”

Deadline reports that director Antoine Fuqua and his production company Hill District Media will develop and produce a feature adaptation of the New York Times bestseller. Kat Samick will produce the feature adaptation for Hill District Media, alongside Justin Bursch and Sam Levine. Bob Higgins will executive produce on behalf of Trustbridge Entertainment, which acquired all dramatic rights to the book from Peachtree Teen, an imprint of Peachtree Publishing Company.

Higgins told Deadline, “Hill District was at the top of our partner wish list. Antoine Fuqua has an unparalleled track record for telling stories with fascinating but flawed heroes, complex relationships, high stakes and, often, big action. It’s a perfect match.” Hill District Media has produced movies as The Magnificent Seven, The Equalizer franchise and Brooklyn’s Finest.

“The teams at Hill District Media and Trustbridge Entertainment are author focused, and I’m heartened that Marc will be involved in developing the book for the screen,” said Peachtree’s Subsidiary Rights Director Farah Géhy. “This collaboration will make for an amazing film.”

“I genuinely cannot wait for readers to see the world of the Skylands—with its horrifying monsters, epic battles, and memorable characters—come to life on the big screen,” said Gregson on the film deal.

Looking for more summer reads? See what local booksellers are reading now.

May 29
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Alternate Routes: How to Get Around Salt Lake City Without a Car

By Community

A few times a year, for the last decade since I bought a car, I would remark to a friend that I wanted to start driving less. This year, I resolved to follow through with it. The question then becomes… how? How do we get out of our cars and commute to work and also continue to play and explore Utah’s cities and recreation areas while traveling by rail, bike, foot, or scooter (or unicycle, if you like)? One of the things that I have rediscovered in weening off my reliance on my car is how little I had to give up in the transition, and the things that I have gained outweigh them.  

The challenges to committing to alternate modes of transportation also merit acknowledging. Predominant among them is the fact that, largely, our communities were designed for cars and not for bikes, scooters or pedestrians. Benjamin Wood is a board member of Sweet Streets, a non-profit that advocates for people-first design. “For decades now, we’ve been building cities for cars and not for people,” he says. But things are changing. Wood believes we have hit the high-water mark for our community’s over reliance on cars—making this the perfect time to start the transition away from driving. 

Safety First

The decades of car-focused community design have had dire consequences for the safety of everyone else trying to get around. Are our streets safe for cyclists and pedestrians? The short answer: “No. Our streets are horrific,” says Wood. “We track every pedestrian death, every street death, and there are about two deaths per month on our surface streets in Salt Lake City.” Road incidents killed 40 pedestrians and nine cyclists in Utah in 2023, according to data from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the Department of Public Safety (DPS), and even that is a dramatic drop from 2022, which had 53 pedestrian deaths and 15 cyclist deaths. 

Benjamin Wood, Sweet Streets (sweetstreetsslc.org), near the GreenBike station in the Central Ninth. Photo by Adam Finkle.

“We’ve designed our streets in a way that encourages drivers to hit the gas,” says Wood. “I don’t necessarily blame drivers for this either, because they are responding to the built environment. We’ve built highways through the hearts of our cities, and we’re losing people as a result.”

  • Roads to avoid: Studies have identified that the most dangerous roads for pedestrians are busy, multilane roadways (four or more) with speed limits at or above 30 mph that are adjacent to commercial retail, have billboards or border low-income neighborhoods. In Salt Lake City, think State Street or 700 East, even if they have sidewalks and bike lanes. “Those big major arterials are controlled by UDOT, and they’re actively hostile to anyone who’s not inside of a car,” says Wood. Instead, there are safer options for people who are not driving. Neighborhood byways discourage cut-through vehicle traffic, providing street crossings and connecting people to popular destinations. The city has identified streets that are naturally slow speed and is turning some of them into neighborhood byways (such as Kensington Avenue, Westpointe and Jordan Meadows, Poplar Grove, Rose Park and Fairpark, 800 East and 600 East). 

  • Urban trails are paved pathways that cut through cities, typically cordoned off from car traffic, for pedestrian and bicycles, that can also provide a safer commute. 

  • Protected bike lanes provide a safer alternative to typical bike lanes, such as the painted bike lane protected by a parking lane from the travel lanes on much of Main Street in Salt Lake City. (There are also protected bike lanes on 300 South, 300 East and 200 East.)

The city is also participating in initiatives like the Vision Zero Network and the Livable Street Program to increase pedestrian safety. “Block by block, the city is identifying trouble areas and making fixes,” says Wood. During the 2024 session, the Utah State Legislature passed H.B. 449, which requires UDOT to consider cyclist and pedestrian safety during the planning process. It also allows road funding to be spent on pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure and safety measures. 

“It took us decades to build what we have right now,” says Wood. “It will take equivalent decades to build a new version of our streets, but we have started that process.”

Salt Lake City Transportation
GreenBike stations are located near popular destinations, like this one near The Gateway Mall in Downtown Salt Lake City. Photo courtesy of Visit Sale Lake/ Austen Diamond

How and when to drive less

To get you started on your journey, these are some basic steps and things to keep in mind:

  • Get a bike. If you have a bike and you’re able to use it, that’s step one. If you don’t own one, consider a GreenBike membership or scooters that can be rented through mobile apps like Spin and Lime. BikeLink has bike storage lockers at most intermodal transportation hubs from Ogden to Provo. For those who have disabilities, the Utah Transit Authority offers Paratransit and other accessibility services. 

  • Combine modalities. The train or bike alone is not a substitute for the car, but when you combine them or add your feet, scooter, etc., that’s what replaces a car. 

  • Look for high-frequency bus routes. High-frequency route buses typically arrive every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends. “That was the beginning of my transformation,” says Wood. “I moved to an area that was serviced by a high-frequency bus route, and that was the game changer for me.” If the bus comes every 15 minutes, people don’t even have to think about scheduling. They include Routes 1 (South Temple–1000 North), 2 (200 South), 9 (900 South), 21 (2100 South), 200 (State Street) and 217 (Redwood Road) 

  • Know your comfort level. If the bus feels intimidating, start with just adding the train—as you can see where it’s going and how often it’s going to arrive. Start with train rides, where feasible, and go from there.  

Salt Lake City Transportation
Pedestrians catch the TRAX train in Downtown Salt Lake City at Gallivan Plaza Station. Photo credit Salt Lake Downtown Alliance.

  • Try it for a day. Not ready to commit to ditching the car every day? Try it out for a special event. Most of our big event venues have a train stop next to them. A concert at Gallivan Center? There’s a train right there. Shopping at City Creek? There’s a train right there. Football game at the University of Utah? There’s a train up there. Instead of leaving the show early to escape the parking lot before the crowds, skip the parking hassle entirely and take the train. Bonus: downtown SLC is a free fare zone

  • Make it an adventure! You can get to some of the Wasatch Front’s popular recreation areas or nearby hiking trails without a car. “I’m a mountain biker,” says Wood. “I use the train to get to the trails, and then I’m freed, right? There’s no need to park or find a place for my car. I hop off the train and I’m on the mountain.” Some of his favorite trails:

1. Take the Red Line up to the University of Utah, there you can catch the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. 
2. Take the Blue Line to Draper and hit trails Corner Canyon. 
3. “There are also several different train stops that hit the Jordan River Trail. So about once a month, I ride the train to Draper and I bike home [to Poplar Grove].” It might sound intense, but “the best thing about where we live here in Salt Lake City is it’s downhill. Everything drains into the Great Salt Lake. So, from just about anywhere, you have a majority downhill ride back to your house.”

Salt Lake City Transportation

No Wheels? No Problem. Greenbike Has You Covered

A non-profit bike share company, GreenBike allows riders to check out bikes from stations conveniently and strategically located around Salt Lake City and now has electric-assisted bikes to help you tackle Salt Lake’s hills. GreenBike, along with other rental services, can help make those last-mile connection.

Why drive less?

That is the “how.” Now, let’s clarify the “why.” Why drive less? “Every time you turn the engine on your car, whether it’s a hybrid, an EV or a gas-powered car, you are polluting the environment and contributing to climate collapse,” says Wood. “I’m not saying it’s easy, but one of the most effective ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to drive less.”

There is also Utah’s air quality to consider. During an inversion, dangerous particulate matter, such as PM 2.5, accumulates in the air. One of the primary contributors to PM 2.5 on an inversion day (up to 48% according to the Department of Environmental Quality) are emissions from vehicles, trains and aircraft. On-road mobile sources also produce about 39% of the total annual man-made pollution (NOx, PM2.5, VOC) along the Wasatch Front. 

Salt Lake City Transportation
Reducing our individual emissions, and thus reducing pollution during inversion, is one reason to drive less. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In addition to doing our part to help our environment, there are a couple of other perks: never sitting in rush hour traffic jams or having to find parking. There are other quality-of-life improvements to ditching our cars.

“It’s hard to even describe how great it’s been. The less I drive, the less I miss driving,” explains Wood. A journey by car tends to be destination-focused—you get where you’re going on the fastest roads possible. When you’re driving, there is not as much of an opportunity to engage with your city on the street level. “Now that I’m biking and using transit and walking, I’m noticing the changes year to year, season to season. I’m finding the coffee shops that are closer to me, the parks that are closer to me, the bakeries that are closer to me,” says Wood. 

“People often think about what they lose if they stop driving. And what you’ll find, when you make the switch, is you gain much more than you lose in just terms of community, connection and a sense of place and home in the city you live in.” 

Salt Lake City Transportation
Scooter rentals can help make those annoying “last-mile” connections, getting us to the places that get us to where we need to go. Photo courtesy of Visit Salt Lake/ Austen Diamond

Ways to Pay UTA Fares

  • Hive Pass: The Hive Pass is a discounted UTA transit pass available to all Salt Lake City residents. You can use the Hive Pass on UTA local bus service, TRAX, the S-Line streetcar, UTA On Demand and FrontRunner. The Hive Pass also includes a one-year GreenBike membership. The pass costs $42 monthly (75% off a regular monthly UTA pass). There’s also an option to pay for the whole year up front for a bigger discount. Purchase at slc.gov/hivepass.

  • Mobile App: Use the Transit mobile app to purchase almost all UTA fare types, including a reduced fare option for qualified riders. Transit also offers the ability to choose third-party options like bikes, scooters and rideshare services. transitapp.com

  • Prepaid Card: A prepaid, reloadable FAREPAY Card saves cardholders 20% off local bus, TRAX, S-Line, and Express Bus fare and up to 20% off FrontRunner fare (after an initial $20 purchase of the card). Purchase and reload a FAREPAY card online. A reduced fare FAREPAY card is also available to all qualifying seniors, youth, people with disabilities and low-income individuals. The 50% discount includes Bus, TRAX, FrontRunner, S-Line streetcar, UTA On Demand and Ski Service. farepay.rideuta.com

In Northern Utah, most major venues and stadiums are conveniently located near light rail stops. The UTA “Ticket As Fare” program allows event ticket holders to ride UTA services to various pre-approved events for free.

  • Abravanel Hall: TRAX Blue Line or TRAX Green Line to Temple Square Station

  • America First Field: TRAX Blue Line to Sandy Expo Station

  • Capitol Theater: TRAX Blue or Green Line to Gallivan Plaza Station

  • Delta Center: TRAX Blue Line or TRAX Green Line to Arena Station

  • The Depot: TRAX Green Line to North Temple Station, walk to Depot

  • Eccles Theater: TRAX Blue or Green Line to City Center

  • LaVell Edwards Stadium: FrontRunner to Provo or Orem Station, transfer to UVX to BYU Stadium Station

  • Davis Conference Center: FrontRunner to Layton Station, transfer to Route 628 to Center stop

  • Lindquist Field: FrontRunner to Ogden Station, transfer to Route 601 to the stadium

  • Maverik Center: TRAX Green Line to Decker Lake Station

  • Mountain America Expo Center: TRAX Blue Line to Draper Station

  • Ogden Amphitheater: FrontRunner to Ogden Station, transfer to Route 601 to Amphitheater stop

  • Smith’s Ballpark: TRAX Blue, Green or Red Line to Ballpark Station

  • Rice-Eccles Stadium: TRAX Red Line to Stadium Station

  • Utah State Fairgrounds: FrontRunner to Salt Lake Central Station, transfer to Green Line to Fairpark Station

  • UFCU Amphitheater: TRAX Red Line to Murray Central Station, transfer to  Route 54 to Copper City Drive

Salt Lake City Street Car

Salt Lake City Transportation
Utah Central Depot trolley car (mule car) in front of the Salt Lake Theatre, June 26, 1929. Photo Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society. Photo courtesy Utah Historical Society

Salt Lake City’s main arteries may be dangerous for pedestrians now, but it wasn’t always that way. Recently, workers were redoing some parts of State Street, when they exposed an old rail. “People were so shocked to see this rail in the middle of State Street,” says Wood. Once upon a time, Salt Lake City was designed with the trolley car in mind. “Virtually every neighborhood in Salt Lake City 100 years ago had an electric high-frequency trolley system running through it. That’s how most of our neighborhoods were built—as streetcar suburbs.” It’s why Salt Lake has these massively wide streets; they used to have a trolley going down the middle of them. “And we tore that out,” says Wood. And if we tore it out, we can put it back in.

May 15
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1 Madking_©DCP_MKP_TamingShrew_Pt2_240_web

Utah’s Independent Theater Companies Offer Fresh (and old) Takes on Shakespeare

By Arts & Culture

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue.”That is the first bit of instruction Hamlet gives to the players in Act Three of the eponymous play as they set the stage for a play-within-a-play that will expose King Claudius’s regicide/fratricide. There are multiple interpretations and metacommentaries of Hamlet’s speech. The scene can be played as lampooning nobles who think to lecture actors on their craft (likely a #relatable experience for the time). Some have also suggested that this is William Shakespeare’s genuine advice to actors, layered within the context of the play. In essence, how Shakespeare would have you perform Shakespeare. Four hundred years later, theater companies still endeavor to perform in the spirit or manner which the bard intended. However, just like Hamlet’s speech, there are multiple interpretations of that intent—made evident by the number of independent theater companies we have in Utah that are invoking that spirit with wildly different results. 

Grassroots Shakespeare Company’s Taming of the Shrew. Photo courtesy of Grassroots Shakespeare

Grassroots Shakespeare

Grassroots Shakespeare’s founders call it an original practice company and try to emulate how Shakespeare’s shows were originally staged. “What that means for us is that we don’t have a director, so it’s collaboratively staged by the cast,” says managing director Berlyn Johns. They have a rehearsal process of just two weeks, and the presentation is minimal and unpretentious, leaving the actors and lines with plenty of space to shine. “We found this low-concept, clear blocking approach gives the audience an easier time of it all because we keep everything as straightforward as possible. The audience can just engage directly with the text that Shakespeare wrote, how Shakespeare wrote it…but keeping it a little more contemporary,” says Johns. Those contemporary changes include gender-blind casting and cutting scripts to a punchy, one-hour runtime. 

  • Behind the scenes: Grassroots Shakespeare is a non-profit that, in addition to pop-up shows, also tours local schools with high-energy, age-appropriate productions. 

  • Upcoming shows: Summer tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V (May–July) at local parks around the state. grassroots-shakespeare.com

Dancing bears appear on stage in New World Shakespeare Company’s production of A Winter’s Tale. Photo courtesy New World Shakespeare;

New World Shakespeare

“We call it New World Shakespeare because we live in the new world, and we wanted to bring a more modern connection to the classic scripts,” says founding artistic director Blayne Wiley. New World modernizes the staging—incuding scenery, costuming and setting—to make the material more accessible and less intimidating to audiences, but the original language remains intact. “​​It’s just all about context,” says Wiley. “If you understand what’s going on and you can present it in a way that is more current, then the audience is going to relate to it more.” As examples of contextual updates, New World staged Romeo and Juliet twice, each adding new, contemporary layers of meaning to the star-crossed lovers narrative. In the first, both Romeo and Juliet were played by women as women. In the second, they cast older actors as the lovers living in a Verona retirement home. “It made it even more profound in a way because it was their last chance at love,” says Wiley. 

  • Behind the scenes: New World plans to get 501 non-profit status. Donations will provide a small stipend to actors and help spotlight various charitable organizations whose missions relate to an aspect of each show. (For example, Henry IV promoted Continue Mission, which supports injured veterans.)

  • Upcoming shows: The Merry Wives of Windsor (May 4–18), All’s Well That Ends Well (Aug. 16–25) at the Alliance Theater and The Lion in Winter (Nov. 1–10) at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. newworldshakespeare.com

Mad King Productions

Two words set Mad King apart from other companies: drunk Shakespeare. “Our whole motto is bringing Shakespeare back to the groundlings,” says artistic director Carleigh Naylor. “Shakespeare had a lot of inappropriate jokes, and it was all for the common man, not the aristocracy.” Mad King takes liberties with the language and sets the plays in the modern age. “That way our audience knows what’s going on if they’re not big Shakespeare fans.” Each night, a handful of cast members can elect to drink. The rest remain sober. The audience can donate cash to vote, and the actor with the most votes has to chug at intermission. During the show’s second half, each donation buys a drink for an actor. A fourth-wall-breaking cast encourages the audience to engage with them. “They drink right along with us. We have toasts, and it’s fun,” says Naylor.

Behind the scenes: Donations are divvied up among the cast at the end of the show. Especially with alcohol involved, Mad King’s founders say they take seriously safety and consent. The Merry Wives of Windsor will have a roller-disco angle, but only sober actors wear skates. The sold-out erotic show, Spicy Shakespeare, employed an intimacy coordinator. Madman Madriaga, communications and marketing director, says, “We want a safe place for all cultures, denominations and identities to do Shakespeare. I’ve been in the theater scene here for over 20 years, and I have seen racism in local theaters. I wanted to make a safe place where that isn’t a problem for people like me.”

  • Upcoming shows: The Merry Wives of Windsor (opens June 14th) at Alliance Theater. madkingproductionslc.com

Misrule Theatre

While not a Shakespeare company, the Lords of Misrule Theatre Co. certainly embodies the spirit of a clever performance at the Globe Theater packed with chaotic groundlings…wrapped in an avant-garde, community-first ethos. Creative director RJ Walker invokes the philosophy of the great director Peter Brook: “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.” Walker says, “You don’t need props. You don’t need costumes. You just need people to tell a story. And coming from a poetry slam background, that really resonated with me.” Misrule Theatre likewise eschews playwrights, directors and conventions. “Everybody comes together and creates the show organically. We’re making the show up together as we go, and then we solidify it in rehearsals.” They start with the characters, general themes and improvise until they have a story. Those improvisation skills come in handy later, as Misrule Theatre has devised a way for the audience to disrupt and change the performance in real-time. Each production has a unique list and the audience can donate to choose an item on the list—everything from having an actor eat an habanero pepper on stage or forcing them to perform as a werewolf. It’s an environment with infinite possibilities. The company has also started the Miss Rule Sketch Show, a sketch comedy show created by writers and actors from Misrule Theatre’s free Open Improv workshops.    

  • Behind the scenes: Misrule Theatre is a non-profit that began as a way to support the houseless community in Salt Lake City and continues this kind of work with all donations benefitting local charities and mutual-aid funds. 

  • Upcoming shows: Shows are free to attend and seasonal; Court of Hearts (summer), The Haunting is You (Halloween), The Lord of Misrule (Christmas),  Feast of Fools (spring) and The Miss Rule Sketch Show (May, July, September, November) at Mark of The Beastro. misruletheatre.com  

May 02
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Utah Pride Parade participants with rainbow flag.

Utah Pride Week Festival and Parade Details Announced

By Community

On Wednesday, the Utah Pride Center, including its new executive director, revealed what some of this year’s Utah Pride Week programming and festivities would entail. The theme for the 2024 Utah Pride Festival is “CommUNITY – Building Unity Within The Community.” Organizers say this will involve bringing all Pride organizations in the state to the festival grounds under “one rainbow.” The Utah Pride Festival and Parade is scheduled for June 1-2, 2024.

“Our goal is to bring everyone to the table to share their ideas, to better understand their needs, and most importantly, to learn how the Utah Pride Center can support their local efforts to spread Pride through all of Utah,” said Chad Call, Executive Director of the Utah Pride Center.

The Utah Pride Center faced scrutiny and an organizational shake-up follow the 2023 Pride celebrations. Local artists and small business owners, many members of the LGBTQ+ community, called attention to the inaccessibility of the pricing of the vendor booths at the 2023 festival, as others criticized the lack of inclusivity of programming. The Utah Pride Center also spent more money on the 2023 Pride than any other previous pride celebration, reportedly running the non-profit into debt. In a statement released September 2023, the center explained that the “Utah Pride Center (UPC) has been mis-aligned with our community-centric mission and lacking in focus and accountability,” which led to the apparent mismanagement of programming and the 2023 Pride Festival “not reflecting what our greater LGBTQIA+ community wanted or expected.” 

Following the debacle, the Utah Pride Center laid off staff, including “the Co-CEO responsible for 2023 Pride.” The shake-ups continued, however, as Call took the job of interim director after Executive Director Ryan Newcomb stepped down in March due to health concerns. Newcomb had taken that position just six months prior. As Utah Pride paused programming and pledged to work to regain trust, other pride organizations formed.  

SLC Pride emerged in late 2023, posting on Instagram that they were “excited to be planning the Pride Festival our community has been asking for.” At the time, the post mentioned the organization was not affiliated with Utah Pride or the Utah Pride Center. According to their website, that SLC Pride Festival event is scheduled for  June 27-30, 2024 at The Gateway. 

In their announcement Wednesday, May 1, 2024, the Utah Pride Center stated, “As an organization with a mission to Unite, Empower and Celebrate our LGBGTQ+ Community, one of the best ways we can do that is by uniting our local pride celebrations.” As far as who that will involve and what that will look like, the statement continues, “Inside the Utah Pride Festival located in Washington Square in downtown Salt Lake City, local Pride organizations from around the state are invited to have a table in Rainbow Alley, a centralized location to make introductions, collaborate, network, recruit and share their stories with the tens of thousands of festival attendees.” said Call, “Our goal is to bring everyone to the table to share their ideas, to better understand their needs, and most importantly, to learn how the Utah Pride Center can support their local efforts to spread Pride through all of Utah.” 

Utah Pride Festival 2024

As far as this year’s festival is concerned, the 2024 Pride Festival kicks off on Saturday, June 1 with a rally at 10:00 a.m. on the steps of the Utah State Capitol, co-hosted with Equality Utah. The rally is followed by a march down State Street toward Washington Square where the Pride Festival will take place. Festival gates open at 11 a.m. on Saturday and include two full days of vendor booths, food and beverage vendors and activities for the whole family.

This year, the festival entertainment is said to be local Utah talent, with two stages on either side of the festival, showcasing singers, dancers and queer artists from all over the state. A third stage will house the return of Utah Pride Karaoke. The Utah Pride Center will release the full list of performers at a later date.

When: Saturday, June 1, 11 a.m – 10 p.m.; Sunday, June 2, 12 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Where: Washington Square Park, 450 S. 300 East, SLC

Utah Pride Parade 2024

The annual Pride Parade is on Sunday, June 2, starting at 100 South and West Temple and ends at 700 South and 200 East. This free event begins at 10AM, and festival gates open afterwards at 12PM Noon. It is the same route as Pride 2023. Organizers expect 16,000 participants and over 100,000 spectators.

When: Sunday, June 2, 10 a.m.
Where: Downtown Salt Lake City

2024 Utah Pride Parade route.
2024 Utah Pride Parade route map.

Utah Pride Interfaith Worship Service

This year’s theme is “Queering Faith.” The Pride Interfaith Worship Service has kicked off the Pride Festival for more than two decades. It is a time of celebration, reflection, prayer, memorial, music and love as the many faith traditions that are expressly welcoming to and fully inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community come together to “queer faith” in the hope that our arms might open wider still. 

When:  Thursday, May 30, 7 p.m.
Where:  Congregation Kol Ami, 2425 Heritage Way, SLC

Utah Pride Festival Admission

Tickets for the Pride Festival are on sale. Get an early bird discount now through May 15 when you purchase tickets online. To buy tickets, visit: utahpride.org/tix

Early Bird Pricing (now through May 15): One Day Child – $5; One Day Adult -$15
Regular Pricing (May 16 – June 2): One Day Child – $5; One Day Adult – $20

ASL interpreters will be at every event with accessible seating and sections where visitors can see the interpreters. ADA ramps will also be installed at all entrances and multiple locations inside festival grounds to ensure accessibility. UPC has also partnered with the Salt Lake City Public Library to provide a calming space for folx who may need it.

Apr 19
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Screen-Shot-2024-04-18-at-3.13.13-PM

The Utah State Capitol “Sends Martha to Washington”

By Utah Lore

Every state has mottos and symbols to represent that state’s whole, general vibe. Consider Florida, for instance. Florida’s state reptile is the American Alligator, and, as the state with the fifth highest median age, Florida’s state song is “Old Folks At Home.” Each state also picks two people to represent them in Washington, D.C., and I’m not talking about electing U.S. Senators. Rather, the National Statuary Hall collection contains more permanent representation (although a few forever-senators have tried to give them a run for their money). 

The selection of the statues is an opportunity for each state to put its best foot forward and highlight its favorite sons and daughters. Not every state gets it right the first time. Several Confederate officers have lost their spots in the National Statuary Hall…as well as Philo Farnsworth, a former resident of Beaver, Utah and the inventor of the television. 

Why give Farnsworth the boot? Well, a few years ago, we were approaching the 150th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Utah, which was the first state (well, territory) where women cast their ballots. To commemorate the occasion, the Utah State Legislature, after encouragement from the non-profit group Better Days 2020, passed a resolution to replace poor, old Farnsworth with Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon. 

Cannon was the first-ever woman elected to a State Senate. She was also a medical doctor, suffragist, mother and Mormon Pioneer. Not only did Cannon check all of the “Utah” boxes, but she also reminded people that Utah used to be first for women. Maybe it could be again. At the time of this publication, Utah has once again ranked the worst state for women (according to WalletHub’s analysis, “Best & Worst States for Women’s Equality”), thanks in part to a significant gender-wage gap and political representation gap. 

To address this reputation, the Utah State Legislature “sent Martha to Washington” to stand next to our other statuary representative: Brigham Young, a man who loved women so much that he married 56 of them and once complained of women who didn’t particularly like polygamy, “I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this Territory.”  

In sending Martha to Washington, D.C., Utah is also addressing the realization that not much of the art in the nation’s capital is of women, and, as many have pointed out before, the few women who are depicted are not real people; they’re fictional like Betsy Ross or embody concepts like Justice, Truth or Victory. Women in the National Statuary Hall include a few more recent additions like famed aviator Amelia Earhart (who replaced a statue of some Kansas senator in 2022) and educator and civil rights leader Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune. She’s the first Black woman depicted in the National Statuary Hall collection. Florida chose her to replace a statue of a Confederate general in 2022. That’s become something of a trend as well. Student civil rights leader Barbara Rose Johns will eventually fill a vacancy for Virginia left by a Confederate whose name rhymes with Bobert B. Pee, and Arkansas plans to remove both of its statues of white supremacists and replace them with civil rights activist Daisy Bates and singer-songwriter Johnny Cash. 

All told, currently 11 out of the 100 statues in the National Statuary Hall collection are of women. Once Martha Hughes Cannon joins them, it will be at least 12. She was supposed to head to Washington in 2020, but the pandemic delayed her trip until further notice. At last check, she’s still standing in the Utah State Capitol building, if you’d like to visit her before she leaves. Until then, Mr. Farnsworth stays on his pedestal a little longer.