Utah Members, can you help me out?

[OneShot]

Hi guys. The wife and me are considering a move to the Salt Lake city area. I am curious as to how the gun laws are there in Utah and also the general economic climate right now. I will probably transfer within my company but she will be looking for a job in childcare.

In general is it a nice place to live? We are really getting sick of the constant hustle and bustle of the California Bay area and are looking to slow down a bit.

Are there other nice areas of Utah where folks can make a decent living? I'm in the underground construction business by the way. Thanks guys--Rob

 

[Panache]

Rob - Any place other than California is better than where you're at. Good luck.

 

[TheOtherOne]

I like it here.

Gun laws are basically what the federal government restricts us with. None of our own restrictions really that I know of. CCW anywhere you want except jails, secure courthouses, and federal places.

I think it's too busy and there's alot of traffic (but I guess it's not compared to most places) and I also think houses are way too expensive (but again, I guess they aren't bad after talking to other people about what starter homes are going for in their state).

 

[Quartus]

Moved here a little over 3 years ago with a job move. Came from Southern California, where I'd lived over 40 years.

We love it. It's big city enough to have all you'd want, and small town enough to be friendly. And they don't know what traffic is, though they talk about it.

It's a very clean city, too, and you'll find crime is much lower than what you're probably used to. Co-workers warned me about the "bad area" of town, but I drove through there one time, and laughed. If this was their idea of a bad area, they sure haven't seen south central L.A.!!

Housing prices will look like heaven to you, and they're dropping right now. I can recommend a good agent. PM me if you like.

In general, the east side of the valley is the better area, but that doesn't at ALL mean that the west side is bad. But the views from the east bench are wonderful. PM me and I'll send you some photos.

There are some down sides. THey don't know how to clear an accident out of traffic, nor how to get on a freeway. But the gun cliimate is pretty good, and after California, it's WONDERFUL. Not good enough yet, but not too bad. When the wind is right I can hear the soiund of gunfire from the Holladay gun club.

We've got a RINO governor, and some other problems, but it's a heap better'n where you are!

Come along and help us get rid of the RINOs like the Guv and Orrin Hatch.


The mods may find this OT and lock the thread, but PM me if you want to chat.

 

[BHPshooter]

Well, I've lived in Utah all of my life, so I don't know very well how to compare it with Cali...

But I can guarantee you that the gun climate here is much better than California. I can't think of any Utah restrictions on firearms above Fed law, except that tracer-ammunition is illegal in Utah. But hey, it's a small price.

The economic climate was pretty bad a year ago (as a college student), but it is much better now, and I have seen more of my friends with good jobs, and more job openings than I have for a loooong time.

As for your wife wanting a job in childcare -- You're kidding, right? This is Utah! We've got more kids than you can throw a cat at! Childcare should be a great choice for a job. We also have the highest bankruptcy, and THEE highest teen pregnancy in the WORLD (and my hometown, Tooele, is #1 in Utah. Gotta be good at something, I guess...), so if your career has something to do with any of those, you may be looking at good work climate. [edit: just reread your post, so I guess underground construction wouldn't have much to do with those. ]

My town, Tooele, which is 30 miles (and 30 mins.) southwest of downtown Salt Lake City, is a nice place to live. We have a lot of businesses, enough so that you won't have to go to SLC much except when you need something special, or maybe for holiday shopping. The property taxes out here are kinda high, and the city and school districts are a big good 'ole boy system (read: corrupt), but it is small enough that you only have to drive 5 minutes to find a nice piece of wilderness to shoot at, but big enough you don't know everybody -- nowhere near, to be exact.

Finding a good job in Tooele is doable, but SLC is within easy commute distance, and there are plenty of them there. Our traffic is nothing compared to yours, but you'll find some of the dumbest, least-considerate, and least-cooperative drivers here. But road rage is almost unheard of.

I don't know anything about prices of houses, but I'd bet they're less than in Cali.

It might be kinda tough to get used to two climates, though -- In the summer, it is frequently over 100 degrees, and in the winter it can frequently be below 0 degrees. (Where I went to college, in northern Utah, it got to -38 degrees for 2 or 3 weeks in the winter.)
I guess you have to remember that when the Mormons settled here, they took the place nobody else wanted, to keep from being bothered. I often wonder if they had any idea what they were doing, but it's probably just the high temps getting to me.

I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have.
Wes

P.S. Mormon Crickets make great reactive targets, and one of the funnest plinking trips you'll have.

 

[OneShot]

Thanks guys you've been a load of help. I will probably plan a trip to the area soon to check things out. Keep the replys coming -Rob

 

[George Hill]

Utah Nice?
Indeed it is. I've lived in most every state in the lower 48 save for New England... out of all the places... Utah is where we chose to raise our sons.

Lehi is a construction boom town. If you look on a map it's just north of Orem/Provo. New housing is being build like mad. If your in Construction - you should be able to land a job there within the hour of starting to look.

The "Gangs" here? Please. You can scare them off with Glower Power and save your fire power prarie dogs. If you like the outdoors... Utah is Nirvana. We have forests, mountains, deserts (lots of that), lakes, and everything in between. Hiking trails, bike trails, snowmobile trails, 4X4 trails... rock climbing, rock collecting, rock skipping... We have some good local bands...

And skiing.
If you don't ski... you will. I love skiing. I can't snow board, but I can skateboard and surf... go figure.
Let's see... what else?

Ah...
Shooting.

10 minutes in any direction and you should be at a likely shooting spot. I'm out in the boonies, so make that 3 minutes for me.

We have a lot of gun industry here too. Browning, NAA, Robinson, Vector...

We have a lot of good things in Utah.

SLC, the big bad city... as liberal as your going to get here.
Logan, up north... it's THE SHIRE.
Bountiful is a nice area to live and commute to SLC.
Orem and Provo are south in another valley area nicknamed "Happy Valley" because, well, it is. I love Orem. Good little city. We just moved from there out to where I am now, close to the Colorado boarder. North of us we have Flaming Gore... awesome place to go hike and camp. South of us we have what UFO freaks are calling "The New Area 51".

If your looking for something, you can find it in Utah.
And one last thing... You wont run out of Shooting Buddies.

 

[DrPsycho]

Only one thing, it's a bit of a drive to the beach/ocean.

Yeah, there's plenty of rivers and lakes, but it just isn't the same...

utah.gov has quite a bit of useful info regarding climate, real estate, gun laws, economy, schooling, jobs, etc etc. Make use of it!

 

[Correia]

I'm guessing Fumegator went to USU. (dang its cold in the winter, USU alumni myself).

Utah is a great state. Do a search for Utah, under the member name KMKeller. He was thinking of settling out here and there was tons of great advice in that thread.

If you are used to California housing prices, Utah is super cheap in comparison. A $500,000 house in San Jose is worth about $150,000 in West Jordan. (my town, south west part of SL valley). I'm moved here from California in 1993, Utah is a much nicer place to live and raise your kids.

 

[Doug444]

Can't add too much to what's already been said. One, what I consider minor, consideration though is that if you're not of the LDS faith (I'm not), be prepared to find that 50-90% of your new neighbors will be (depending on where you live). Not going to get into any religious flame wars here, just pointing out something that anyone who's contemplating a move to Utah should be aware of. May or may not be, or become, an issue for you.

As for me, I love this place. Moved here in 1990, and still have lots more to see. Only reason I won't retire here is that I love Montana more !

Doug444

 

[Quartus]

Only reason I won't retire here is that I love Montana more !

I'll second that! There's not enough snow or trees here!


But don't worry about the LDS issue. Yes, you will be aware of it, and no, I don't think you'll find it a problem. Certainly hasn't been for us. We've made some good friends here, who happen to be LDS, We also like the 'clean' atmosphere, and I'm not talking about smog.

It DOES take a bit of getting used to hearing the evening news announce some major doctrinal decision right long with the rest of the news, though.

And you won't see a lot of sleazy bars, either. That's a GOOD thing in my book.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Here's a link for the thread Correia mentioned. I see its grown since I was there last...

 

[Quartus]

Ah. One other issue that was mentioned on that other thread:

There can be some pretty obnoxious odors coming from the refineries quite often. Often people will look at homes on "good" days, decide to buy, then find out too late that their new neighborhood stinks. . .literally.

Uh... Ah.... Welll......


We do sometimes have this little problem that is delicately referred to as....


LAKE STINK!!!!!!


Sometimes when the wind is just right, we get this.... odor... off of the lake. That would be The Great Salt Lake. (Since we've had drought for a few years, it's more like a puddle, but that's another story.)

The only thing that lives in the lake is a small brine shrimp. And it doesn't smell good. You don't go fishing or swimming in the lake. Some few die-hards do boating, but not many.

Adn that smell does wander across parts of the valley once in a while. But it never lasts long, and I've only smelled it once up here on the east bench.


But don't let that worry you. Just don't buy a house near the lake. It's REALLY not the kind of lake front property you want.


All said and done, we love it here. I'm probably moving out soon due to job reasons, but NOT becasue we want to leave.

 

[OneShot]

Thank goodness for you guys! Thanks for the great link to the other thread. The religious issues don't bother me much at all, so I'm not too worried about that.

How is the economic situation in general around SLC right now? Depressed? Improving?

We have several branches of our company located there. Has anybody heard of United Rentals?--Rob

 

[Quartus]

Well, MY economic situation is depressed and depressing. I work for a consulting firm, and I'm expecting my current assignment to end this week or next. Don't know what's next. Hoping to hear on a real job in Tennesee.


But overall, it seems to be on the upswing.

 

[BHPshooter]

I'm guessing Fumegator went to USU. (dang its cold in the winter, USU alumni myself).

Oh, yeah. You're looking at an Aggie. And it sure does get cold on campus with that @#$!% wind from Logan Canyon!

Logan, up north... it's THE SHIRE.

I have to be honest, I don't know what it means to be THE SHIRE, but I sure loved Logan (where USU is), and I would consider living there again.

Lehi is a construction boom town. If you look on a map it's just north of Orem/Provo.

Yeah, true, but something that should be known: there are A LOT of polygamists in/around the Lehi area.

We do sometimes have this little problem that is delicately referred to as.... LAKE STINK!!!

Well, I live fairly close to the lake -- close enough to see it from my house -- but I only ever experience "LAKE STINK" when driving I-80 to Salt Lake City. Yeah, it's kinda bad... comparable to a skunk... but you can man it out.

We have several branches of our company located there. Has anybody heard of United Rentals?

Oh, yeah. We used to have one in Tooele, but it moved out about a year ago. Now we have one called Diamond Rental in the same building.

As to the issues with neighbors/refineries/lakes/etc., I would advise you of my residential dream: Buy a few acres in the outskirts of a city, preferably wooded, and build a house in the middle of the plot.

You won't have to deal with the neighbors, which, as of late, have been a real problem with us. This hasn't ever been a problem before, but we just got new neighbors a couple of months ago, and we have had numerous problems with them -- we've been egged by them 4 times, they've been scouting our houses and garages out for stuff to steal (and even stole a few bikes, which we got back), they've shot at me with pellet guns, they frequently get piss-drunk and raise hell all night, and -- the most frightening for me -- I pulled in from work one night, parking on the street beside my house, as a couple of the younger ones walk by. It's dusk, I see them in my mirror, and suddenly I see flashes and hear VERY loud noise -- sounded just like a gunshot. It ended up just being some kind of capgun, but the kid had it pointed RIGHT AT ME, and shot until his "piece" was empty. I scared me at first, but later I was somewhat shaken, and pissed.

If you do your homework -- no pun intended -- you should do just fine.

Wes

 

[Kaxter]

I lived in Utah for 12 years, it was a great place to live.