Entries by Babs De Lay

Groovy, Baby

2014 I know this will date me as two years older than a pterodactyl, but I remember when the coolest thing in college that you could own was a waterbed. If you’ve never seen a waterbed, it’s like a giant pillow made of thick vinyl, full of hose water and held in a clunky wooden […]

Condo Sales Recap for 2013

2014 Condominium owners in Utah and Salt Lake County saw increasing values in 2013, just as single family homeowners enjoyed last year. I think the condo market is back to damn healthy levels and we’ve now leaped over that ugly abyss of the crash. For some reason condos here were not initially affected by the […]

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2014 Burrrrrrrrrr. When trapped under an inversion of smog in single degree weather it’s hard to remember sweat and single layers of clothes during the summer. Salt Lake City’s GREEN-BIKE program has taken away its fleet of 65 bikes downtown until the snow melts in the spring with the promise of 30% more bikes and […]

Planning Our Future

2013 Our poor little downsized (but brave) newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune, has tried for the last few years to get crime stats on buses and trains here from the Utah Transit Authority. Folks want to know how safe it is to take public transportation here, right? After a few years of mumbling and jockeying […]

Pop Up Vendors

2014 It’s not a craze; it’s a great and small form of creativity and commercialism sprouting up all over the Wasatch Front in unlikely and obvious spaces. Pop-Up businesses and restaurants have become the new standard for hyper-local fans and the DIY generation. We’ve all grown used to the fake roses and stuffed animal vendors […]

Holiday Wheels

2013 “My wife and I live in a condo with very little parking. It would be expensive and stupid to own two cars, have two car/insurance payments each month especially since Salt Lake’s version of Zip Cars has a rental parked outside of our home. A cute little Mini has been stationed there for a […]

Drinking in Utah

2013 Here’s an excellent party trivia question: “How many liquor stores are in Utah?” Answer: 44 State Liquor Stores. Unlike most states in the good ol’ USA, we in Utah cannot control our adult cravings and must have the government pick what we drink, when we drink and where we drink. Yet, we Utahn’s have […]

Parklets

2013 Let’s go back in time to the early 1900’s in Salt Lake City. The J.G. McDonald Chocolate Company had just built a 100,000 sq. ft confectionary factory that produced sweets, chocolate and a chocolate drink intended to replace tea and coffee. J. G.’s dad had been a taffy maker in the 1860’s and his […]

When Can You Buy Again?

2013 Ah, the bad old days-when home buyers who picked strawberries for a living could buy a McMansion through a crooked lender. How many people lost their homes? Maybe you were one of the unlucky ones who lost their house or condo and had to short sell or go through foreclosure. Now many like you […]

Field of Dreams

2013 Did you hear that really loud Latin cheer from the Northwest quadrant of the City two weeks ago, the one that sounded like the soccer announcer saying: “GOAL!!! ???” You might have missed the noise because you’re so engrossed in the outcome of REAL Salt Lake’s (RSL’s) standing in the league. This is bigger […]