notes on SLC, part 1

...hopefully of many.

1. Salt Lake City is only 30% Mormon, a much lower percentage than the rest of Utah. I only live 3 blocks from Temple Square, but I don't have any sense of being a 'religious minority' at all. We'll see, I suppose, if that changes.

2. SLC is, of course, the state capitol of Utah. This in itself is relatively uninteresting, but the civic engagement here is pretty unique. The League of Women Voters is pretty freaking amazing. They take a good chunk of the local news time on the NPR station every morning to report in depth on what legislation is on the floor each day, and how votes turned out the previous day. They have an award-winning legislative website, and lots of people around seem to have a good sense of what's going on day-to-day on Utah's Capitol Hill. The LDS lobby is, of course, immense (we all saw that during the prop 8 battle), but there's a Coalition of Religious Communities (CORC) that advocates for progressive policies, and does a pretty great job of it. I'm looking forward to working with them on a couple of direct actions next week.

3. The mountains here are bigger than I could have imagined. They still surprise me every time I get a peek at them through the buildings or as I step outside. Nothing about living in Appalachia could have prepared me for the large-ness of the West.

4. Most of the energy in Utah comes from coal-fired power plants. But the concerns with the energy provider in town (Energy Solutions) don't have as much to do with that as they do with the desire to house nuclear waste in the nearby mountains. And we're not talking about nuclear waste from neighboring states, or even the US. I mean nuclear waste from Italy. The coal-fired power plants don't threaten the mountains here with mountaintop removal like they do in Appalachia. I'm no geologist, but I'd guess that's because the mountains here aren't old enough to be chock-full of coal like the ones out East. No, what threatens the mountains here are the threat of storing nuclear waste in them, and the open pit copper mine that has overtaken much of the East slope of the Ochres that faces the city. The land is largely privately-owned... it seems odd to me that someone can own a mountain. Though I suppose it's no more odd than "owning" any other piece of land.

5. There are TONS of independent coffee shops in Salt Lake. I'm pretty stoked about that. One of them is two doors down from where I live, and I'm enjoying the free internet access. There's also a pretty large vegetarian community, eco-friendly community, and general progressive community. I'm hoping to get plugged into some of that.

6. There's a pretty large immigrant community here as well. And immigration isn't particularly latino, as you might expect in the west. There are Tongans, Samoans, and Pakistanis who all have significant numbers here. I have asked several people why this is - and have come up with two main guesses: 1) SLC is probably a pretty good relocation site for refugees and asylees, and 2) A lot of immigration here has to do with returning LDS missionaries. Go figure. There are lots of immigrants at the local UMC near me, so I am hoping to learn some of their stories (I've already been offered a lesson in curry-making!!).

7. All the bars here are private clubs to which you have to buy a membership and register before you can drink. You know, it really works as a disincentive to drink... I have no desire to buy a membership to a bunch of different bars. But alcohol is more readily available than I thought - There is a wine shop not too far from my house, and the coffee shop has buck-fifty beer night on Thursdays.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to Park City with Julie (the woman I stayed with when I first got here) and her 11-year old daughter Sammy. Then next week I get to work with Crossroads Urban Center while Brian is in Louisiana.