Park City: Realy Out There?

[prk166]

Is Park City really that different from the rest of Utah?

http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3449334

Outsiders still make up a large portion of the town's population, and some describe it as Utah's own Sin City, with a nightlife offered by as many bars as there are ski runs in the three resorts nearby.
A new billboard located in Salt Lake advertising for the area's restaurants boasts it as the "Independent Republic of Park City," and last year the same ad agency that created the billboard ran an open letter of secession to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
It's all a little tongue-in-cheek marketing based on a belief many residents hold true: Maps be damned.

[rslfutbolfan]

YES! That is exactly why I live up here! LOL I like the lower %age of LDS people and the people here are more like the ones I grew up with. Also the schools are so much better than most of the rest of the state and my kids dont get teased for not being Mormon like my friends kids in Heber, parts of Salt Lake and in St George. The party scene is definately happening but I cant say I go out that much anymore. But when I do it is always fun and its true you usually dont need a membership. As for sin city...hmmm we do have a sorta titty bar, booze is easy to get and there are lots of available men! In fact they have a joke here...you dont loose your girlfriend, you just loose your turn. LMAO. And on top of all this...we have at least 4 resident RSL players and Ellinger loves it up here! Heck...they should have built the stadium here! :signrocko Park City!

[prk166]

Gracias. It's always nice ask. Not that I don't beleive what I read in the newspapers. It's just that they sometimes take the drama queen approach to news. Or just don't have enough space to really flush out all the details.

What's the commute like into SLC? Is it getting congested fast? Or just just congested for what the area's used to?

[Hiddnfox]

back in the day wasnt it legal to kill a mormon un Park City. I swear i've heard it before, but dont know if its an urban myth or not.

[Stucki]

It has also been said that everyone in Park City either has three jobs or three houses. There are places along the Wasatch Front that you would find enjoyable and tolerant.

There are also plenty of places in which you will find a great deal of intolerance on both sides of the "Great Divide".

You may want to look at SLC itself. You will also find that the demographics of Utah are changing fairly rapidly, especially in the Salt Lake Valley. These changes are starting to eliminate the small town mentality that have caused problems for too many in the past. I would avoid most of the southern end of the valley, if I were you.

[StarsOnSunday]

Originally Posted by rslfutbolfan

I like the lower %age of LDS people

And neo-nazis like Cour d'Alene, Idaho for the lower %age of black people and Jews. Don't you think your statement may be viewed as bigoted by more open minded people? I couldn't imagine you saying "one of the benefits of my neighborhood is that there are fewer Mexicans than in other parts." Why do you feel it is tolerable to single out the Mormons for prejudice?

My interest in the subject is purely academic. Please don't get all emotional and subjective about this. Have a nice day.

[Jose Luis Luviano]

Some people go to church on Sundays, some people watch Aguilas de Amierdica underachieve. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

But one thing that everybody can agree on is that Park City has too many California Expatriates.

Send them all back where they came from!

[Section 37]

Salt Lake City has better nightlife than P.C.

[prk166]

Originally Posted by StarsOnSunday

And neo-nazis like Cour d'Alene, Idaho for the lower %age of black people and Jews. Don't you think your statement may be viewed as bigoted by more open minded people? I couldn't imagine you saying "one of the benefits of my neighborhood is that there are fewer Mexicans than in other parts." Why do you feel it is tolerable to single out the Mormons for prejudice?

My interest in the subject is purely academic. Please don't get all emotional and subjective about this. Have a nice day.

I'll bite. :D

I don't think it's racist. Not just because technically LDS is not a race. But because it's about age. I think people tend to believe that youth = accepting. So if you have a bunch of young Catholics, the belief would be they're less likely to attend church regularly, less likely to follow church doctorine on pre-marital sex or abortion, etc.

And that's all I took it as, younger people from <insert religion> are more accepting.

But of coruse since you brought it up, I reread and and see that's it's probably a lower % of LDS people. I can see where that can feel like an insult. And it is a generalization. I'm not sure I feel about that type of generaliation. I don't think I'd put it in with racism. I don't think it's the horrible. I think it's worse than a generalization a lot of people make --> college degree = intelligence. But do we never make generalizations because they don't hold true in all situations? I think we all know a generalization by it's nature is meant to paint with a broad brush and it's implied it doesn't hold true for everyone.

Your right though, the Mexican thing isn't good. The real problem is that maybe you just can't relate to those people and you want to move. Or maybe it's a lot of lower middle class Mexicans moving in. So what is really buggin' a person isn't that they're Mexican, but they can see the neighborhood slippin. Not because of skin color but because of the usual issues that come with income levels. See the difference? It can be the same thing that's really the root problem but not seeing the root problem and instead pointing to the skin color makes it bad.

And I can see where there's a tad of that in making the comment about Park CIty have a lower % of LDSers. But right after it came the comment about how she's finding more people that are like where she grew up. So I'm not sure it's so much as "I'm moving out cuz of the Mexicans" as "All my new neighbors are Mexican and I can't relate to them". Does that make sense?

I did just mean my original question out of curiosity. Not so much as a place to move but just curious about all the little things that make up the area. I didn't know much about Park City. To me it seems just like another growing ski town in the West. Not that I've looked at it much. That's why I asked.

I'm glad StarsOnSunday did "challenge" the way things were phrased. We do need to be careful. We all carry our own lil' bagged of seeing thigns differently from what htey are.

It's interesting in talking to some friends about Utah. There is still this perception that it's 95% LDS and if you go there, you will be shunned. I grew up in Minnesota and that's about all I ever thought of Utah. Well that and it's got some parks, it's dry, and there are some mountains.

As I grew older my perceptions grew. There were the first cousins of my dad's up here in Minnesota who were LDS. Go to one of their kids graduations and you were bound to meet someone start chatting with them and as soon as they found out you weren't LDS, they suddenly something to attend to. And then later I learned of things like the magic underwear and the nutty Jesus coming to North America thing. I'm just throwing those out there like that not to be rude but just how people say those things. "Oh, did you know they really believe XYZ?"

As I aged I realized we're all different and nutty. SO I figured the LDSers get a bad rap cuz, well, there aren't a ton of them. I mean, when a friend who's Catholic says to me "do you believe they won't let non-mormons into their church [meaning the temple but they don't know the "sublte" differences]" in a tone like that's weird, right away I think "ya, and that's any more odd than not allowing priests to marry". To me it's just a different approach to things; different but not wrong nor weird.

So in mentioning Utah to friends as a place to move, well, they seemed to find that even more weird than moving to Idaho. I'm going to be shunned. I won't find any women to date. My kids will be outcasts a la SLC Punk or something. And this comes from some people who are would be called "open minded".

In talking to them it seems to help. They don't understand that 3.2% alcohol by weight (or is it volume) trasnaltes into @4% by volume (or vice versa) which isnt' that different from how a beer like Bass Ale normally is. Or that there are some places with tavern licenses. Or geeze, maybe Minneapolis have a bunch of bars that have 3.2 licenses (just low grade beer) isn't that different. Or that not having liquor stores open on sunday or having them close by 8pm during the week isn't exactly what would be "normal" by what they're getting at.

And that gets their juices flowing. So then I can point out the 15 point drop in the LDS's "market share" in the state. That is, how many people are LDS and how that's been dropping as immigrants move in. And then how that changes how a community looks and feels. I think that is a bit what's behind rslfutbolfan's comment, the idea that if there are less LDS, it's more "regular" or something. And that sorta true. But I don't think it's as simple as percentages. Like with the drop in the "market share" of LDS in the state. My friends will meantion "but that's still 60%". ANd that's where my uneducated assupmption comes in. That even though it's still the majority, I think there is a large difference in how that segment behaves with that change. More so with the momentum making things look like LDS will be half the state by 2030. Maybe a bit like how the senate behaves when the party in power has 51 of 100 votes versus if the party in power had 70 of 100. It's crude and oversimplified but I'm not trying to write a disieratation.

Anyway, they get the idea that while it's still a unique place, it's not quite as creepy as they may have vageuly thought. And I wouldn't be suprised if a place like Delta would end up being just the way they pictured the wholee state. But as mentioned, how much of that would be just cuz it's a small town? It's funny, if any of you are on big soccer and know who Dead FIngers is we were chatting about this around xmas time over a couple pints while 1/2 watching the liverpool - newcastle match. We both thought it was kinda sad that Utah is "loosening up" or however one would phrase it. That it's sorta the equivalent of cultural sprawl (think urban sprawl for cultural). THat it's these bland suburbanization of the country as more and mroe places loose less of what makes them unique in terms of culture.

Alright, I should get some work done instead of typing away. I didn't mean to offend anyone. Just felt like throwing some stuff out there for perspective.

And my friends see how being 2/3 instead of 3/4th changes things. And then when I'm yappin' at them (see, I'm good at it; this post is proof) about this I go on to say that it's not so much about the 3/4th and the 2/3rd. But that in different communities things are really changing. And that more and more diversity comes into the area, that affects the "diversity" within the LDS church. I also think that as the church ages that you'll find more diversity. Like my dad's cousins, I'll point them out to my friends. But I tell them it's not that I think how they behave is an LDS traight so much as a traight of people who have really deep convictions, that's probably why they converted. But I think as time goes on, it's more and more likely for less orthodox folks to tag along. Even to the extent of people who believe but don't really practice much of any of the doctrine.

Ok, that's all a mess. It's easier to talk about than to try to type.

[oussan]

My first trip to the western US back in the early 80s my dad stopped the car somewhere in Colorado. We all got out and my dad explained that from that point the direction in which we pissed would determine the ocean to which our urine would flow. I thought that was the "Great Divide" (I now know that it's the Continental Divide).

My thought here is that the drama that is the religious divide in Utah is a joke, and the intolerance displayed on both sides more closely resembles a pissing match than anything else I've ever seen anywhere else that I've lived.

(Apologies to prk166 for such a juvenile post following one so thoughtful.)