Wal Mart Adventures -->Marie

This is my last blog for this class. And so I would like to talk about my experience picking up photos at wal mart for my group presentation.
So I walked in the door to wal mart and decided to kill some time and NOT do homework by looking around wal mart for a bit. So I wandered around, tried on some shoes, ect. I picked up the photos and then went to the check out when I realized that I didn't have my keys on me.
And I started freaking out.
You see, that key chain had my car and dorm keys along with my school ID on them. So basically I'd have to either have my parents drive three hours in bad weather to give me spare keys to my car, or let my car get towed. The locks on my dorm would have to be replaced. And I'd need a new ID. So I frantically searched all through wal mart trying to find where I had left them. I asked all the department desks if anyone had turned them in. ANd I waited in a freaking long line at customer service twice to see if they had them. By the end of a few hours I was pretty upset and in tears. No one would help me! The wal mart employees all just had this attitude of "eh. good luck. not my problem." It was so frustrating! So I went out to my car for the third time to see if maybe I'd missed spoting them through the window again somehow. No luck. But this time as I went to go back into wal mart I heard someone call, "Hey! Are you alright?"
This nice black man in an expensive car had stopped to see if I was ok. We chatted for a couple minutes. He was very sympathetic. He told me that if it had been a simple matter of me locking my keys in my car he'd have paid for the police to get into it. Since that wasn't the issue and there wasn't really anything he could do, he just gave me his number and told me to call him if I needed any help. He was the only person who was nice. I wish I could thank him somehow.
But, long story short, my good friends Jeffrey Jay Cottle and Spencer Lee Richards came to my rescue. They drove to wal mart to pick me up and of course as soon as they got there someone turned in my keys.
Pretty much the suckiest saturday of my life.

Sugarhouse (Bryn)

I believe this is the last post I will have for this class. I have just finished counting all of mine, and I do indeed have eleven individual posts including this one. It appears my group and I only did three group posts, but I will continue to look.
The last walkabout my group went on was to Sugarhouse. I found that when we went on the walkabout we noticed the hole had a very negative impact overall on the community. It greatly cut down on the walkability of the area, and now the only traffic that remains at the intersection of 21st and 11th is car traffic. We were able to conduct five different interviews, although we were really hoping for a sixth. The first interview was with an employee of Sugarhouse Coffee, one of the stores that used to be located where the hole now is. They have since moved across the street. The employee was very helpful and informative about what the community's outlook is on the project, and also the effect it had on local businesses. He talked about why he felt the old buildings were torn down, and what people feel the developer is trying to do. This was probably my favorite interview, but I very much enjoyed the interview my group conducted with Mecham, the man responsible for the torn down buildings.
Mecham had a completely different view of Sugarhouse than anyone else we talked to. All the local business owners, residents, and employees we spoke to thought very negatively of the situation. They didn't believe the buildings needed to go, and because they were torn down, Sugarhouse has become less of what it once was. Mecham, on the other hand, told us Sugarhouse was very near and dear to his heart, and the community was falling apart. He believes his project will revitalize the community. He plans to build a multi-use seven-story building made of steel, glass, and red brick. All the buildings in Sugarhouse are about one to two story buildings, and the new seven-story complex will be completely out of place. Only high-end retailers will be able to afford to rent space in the designated retail area of the complex, eliminating places for local businesses to thrive.
My group and I are putting the finishing touches on our project this weekend, and we are excited to share with everyone what we have learned.

Glue Fingers - Slover

Sorry about writing about the weather, but this is just crazy. I've lived in Utah my whole life and I've seen some cold days drop down to the single digits. In February, not December. We should be in the thirties and forties, and maybe have one strange weekend reach up into the fifties. I walked down to the business building this morning without gloves. Big mistake. When I got down there I pulled my hands out of my jean pockets. What I saw wasn't right. Nothing but bone and frayed nerve endings all the way down to the metacarpals. Well, I walked into class--Arabic--and of course I couldn't write a damn thing. That cursive script is hard enough with fully functioning hands. Just try holding the pen with your exposed bone fingers, I dare you. Dropped it about a million times. Back at the dorms I fashioned some temporary skin/flesh replacements out Elmer's glue and paper clips. It ain't pretty, but it'll do for now.

Public Transportation- Maddy Oritt

I look forward to Salt Lake's new streetcar system, assuming it comes to fruition, as a needed addition to our public transportation system. I haven't had that much experience with UTA so far- in high school, I got rides everywhere from my parents until I got a car after sophomore year. Then I would normally drive myself wherever I needed to go- public transport didn't factor in much. Now living on campus, sans car, I rely on it much more that before. I take shuttles almost daily, and take the bus or Trax if I need to go somewhere beyond campus. However, in my limited use of UTA, it doesn't seem like the greatest system. If the destination is on a line, that's great, but otherwise it seems tricky to figure out and not terribly extensive. It would be nice if more Salt Lakers depended more on public transport, to alleviate road congestion (not that it's a big problem) and pollution (which is a big problem), but in order for that to happen, I think our transport network and infrastructure needs to improve. It seems we are on the right track, though, with Trax and Frontrunner extensions and the new streetcar line.

Imprisoned - Slover

The sudden drop in degree (I think it's around twenty Celsius) has discouraged me from getting down to the city for a few days now. Cabin fever is setting in. Last time I took Trax down 4th south I wondered how it is the trains are able to stop on the tracks. You'd think that of all the things that get slicked during a storm metal would be especially at risk. But I don't know anything about trains. And the rails themselves are veins of freedom that flow with blood even when the cars are frozen up on their artery streets. The trains are the keys.

Reflections on City as Text- Maddy Oritt

At our floor meeting this past Sunday, Carlie asked us all to think about the past semester and how everything went. We talked a little bit about City as Text, which made me think more about the class and what I got out of it. Overall, I really enjoyed the class. I think the concept is very interesting, and it was a great way to explore the city and learn more about it. I think everyone learned things they didn't know, regardless of whether they were from here or elsewhere. When you are looking for specific things, which are different from the things on which we normally focus, there is so much to be found! The walkabouts were my favorite part for these reasons. Also, I really liked spending time with my group. I don't think our group could have turned out any better. Group dynamics usually mean that one or two people get stuck with all the work, but all five of us have equally shared our group work and been equally involved in everything we have done. Also, the five of us are all very different from one another, so it was fun to spend time with and get to know a variety of people. Our final project has been a good experience as well. It was interesting to focus on the topic we chose. We got out of our comfort zones to conduct interviews, but they turned out to be very informative and kind of exciting. Overall, I would say City as Text has been a good class. I didn't like the timeslot, though. I didn't like having to go to class on a Wednesday evening, but I understand that that could have been the only time that worked. Also, the class has required a fair amount of work (actually, more work than one of my 3-hour credit classes!) The work has been stimulating, interesting, and enjoyable, but I think it merits more than just one credit hour. Altogether, I'm glad we had this class this semester; it was a great way to meet people and explore the city in a different way, as well as do work that was creatively challenging and thought-provoking.

Wendy's - Slover

There some things you just can't do if you live on a farm or in a cave or underwater. One of them is go to Wendy's at two in the morning. That's a privilege, if you can call it a privilege, only accorded to us smallish town to big city dwellers. So there's a dark side to urban life, or at least a double-edged sword. When you're driving around late at night and the hunger pains come over you, you don't have a lot of options. Unless you want to go home and fire up the kitchen, which you don't, it's not like you can just pop into Whole Foods and get a loaf of spelt bread. So you opt for the jr. bacon cheeseburger instead. And, boy, does it taste right around one-thirty or two. You sit in your car munching, not worrying about what strange things you may or may not be shoving down into your stomach, and admire how the smallish town to big city operates at night. You may notice that all the neons are still blazing angrily garishly away, blocking out the stars. It's then you might get jealous of the corn-fed (although we're all pretty eating nothing but corn these days, but you know what I mean) kids in the Midwest, milking cows, plowing, chopping, keeping the American machine moving. You can have thoughts like that at night, where your mind jumps from one thing to another, not worrying about logical connection, eating your cheeseburger. And then you drive home fairly full and satisfied, your arteries clogged just a little more, but not enough to really hurt you yet, right?