There are two kinds of blooms this time of year in the state: 1) the brilliant colors of wildflowers in alpine meadows and 2) the nasty algae showing up in our lakes. Let’s start with the good blooms.

High altitude meadows in our section of the Rocky Mountains are flush in flowers right now, with the peak blooming season over by the end of July. Those of us near the capitol city drive up above Alta ski resort to Albion Basin to view the beauty there because it’s fast and assessible. Props to Alta Community Enrichment for creating the Wasatch Wildflower Festival with partners Alta Ski Area, Brighton Resort, Cottonwood Canyons Foundation, Friends of Alta, Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Solitude Mountain Resort, and US Forest Service-the Salt Lake Ranger District.  The festival is free and is held July 21 & 22 in BIG Cottonwood Canyon and July 28 & 29 in LITTLE Cottonwood Canyon. There are suggested trails, so you can take yourself on a little stroll to see the flora or scheduled three-hour hikes with trained wildflower guides. The varieties of wildflowers that grow here are astonishing! There’s Lupine, Indian Paintbrush, Fireweed, Mountain Pennyroyal, Larkspur, Columbine and so much more. Each flower hike is rated for ‘kids, beginners, intermediate and advanced hikers’ based on time and difficulty of trails. Some hikes involve rides on trams or chair lifts and discounts will be offered. Go to www.cottonwoodcanyons.org for more info.

Now for the bad bloom. Toxic algae are spreading across our waterways. Simple plants known as cyanobacteria are turning lakes here weird colors because the algae that exist in the water is like on some kind of plant crack and they are growing like crazy, especially in the hot weather.  This is extremely bad for all of us because the tainted water kills animals and humans alike who might ingest it accidentally or intentionally. These ‘blooms’ are often caused by nutrient pollution of nitrogen and phosphorus, activated by the sun in slow moving water. Those substances have been added to nearby farms and homes to fertilize crops and have run through the storm water into the waterways. Blooms can also come from wastewater, fossil fuel runoff, and electric power generation. They kill fish as the algae release toxins into the water. If your dogs run up to get a drink, they will become ill or die (as would people).  

Avoid water that basically doesn’t look like fresh water-even if it’s on a big fresh water lake, reservoir or river. If the surface looks green, scummy or smells bad get outta there! In the past two months there have been toxic blooms reported at Provo Bay, Lincoln Marina, Sandy Beach, Utah Lake State Park and parts of the Jordan River. Last year the Utah Poison Control Center had 173 cases of human and animal algae bloom poisonings.  It’s weird looking stuff and you naturally want to go up and look at it and poke at it. Don’t. This bloom can kill you, your kids and your pets.

https://poisoncontrol.utah.edu/images/upcc-algal-bloom-update.pdf

https://deq.utah.gov/health-advisory-panel/harmful-algal-blooms-habs/utah-lake-jordan-river-canals-algal-bloom-monitoring-2018

www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions

I love to drive new clients up the hill to the state capitol building, park, and show them the view of the entire Salt Lake Valley. You have to admit, it’s a breathtaking vista (when there’s no smog/inversion)!  Our bowl of a valley used to be a prehistoric lake that dried up a bazillion years ago, with only the dregs left today (aka ‘The Great Salt Lake’) to see. What’s super cool is that you can follow the ancient Bonneville shoreline with your finger as you stand there and look out, and point all the way around the east/Wasatch range and the west/Oquirrh range. And if you walk that line and pay attention, you can find evidence of life long gone-trilobite fossils, preserved flora and fauna. I have found several groovy rocks in my day up by the concrete “U” on the hill above the university.

In most U.S. cities with mountains nearby, the hills leading up to them are called ‘foothills’.  Here we call them ‘benches’. For some time, residents have been working with city and county officials to complete the Bonneville Shoreline Trail along the east bench of this valley. This amazing feat will one day stretch from the Idaho border to Nephi, more than 280 miles (go to bonnevilleshorelinetrail.org to see the full map and proposed works in progress). Trails like this improve life in so many ways and frankly, adds to property values of the folks who live within close distance of them. And people who don’t live so close want easy connections to get there.

According to Salt Lake City Trails & Natural Lands Program, “There are nearly 100 miles of “trails” in the Salt Lake City foothills, all of which will be considered by a proposed Foothill Trail System Plan. Of all these trails, only the Bonneville Shoreline Trail was professionally constructed with the intent of non-motorized recreation. Many existing trails in the foothills are unsustainable due to steep grades, widespread soil erosion, and costly maintenance challenges. Trailhead, wayfinding and regulatory signage is virtually absent. Lack of coherent trail design has created a system of trails that is unapproachable to many entry-level trail users, and that becomes increasingly prone to user-conflicts as use increases. Once approved, the Foothill Trail System Plan will mitigate user confusion, promote connectivity with the City’s alternative transportation networks, and minimize environmental issues (including challenges in protected watershed areas).” The 10-year time line for the project will apply to the benches between Emigration Canyon and the southern boundary of Davis County.

If you want more information on the Foothill Trail System, there are two public meetings coming up:  3/28 5:30-7:30 at the Natural History Museum and 4/2 6-8 PM at the Sweet Branch Library at 455 F Street or log in at www.slcgov.com/TrailsPlan.

http://www.slcmayor.com/pressreleases/2017/12/12/salt-lake-city-seeks-public-participation-in-creating-foothill-trails-plan

http://www.slcgov.com/TrailsPlan

It’s a fact that it’s hard to find a place to rent these days. St. George is virtually OUT of rentals, and despite all the high rises going up in SLC, we too have a huge shortage of housing. You may not have ever heard of the Utah Apartment Assn. unless you’re a landlord. According to their website they have over 3,500 members representing more than 75,000 apartments throughout Utah. You would probably be a member if you were an owner, manager, developer or builder of apartments because they really do offer some terrific benefits to both the one and multi-unit owner.

The non-profit group was founded in 1934 as the Apartment Assn. of Utah-84 years ago. The National Apartment Association is only 75 years old which to me indicates Utah was ahead of the pack in helping to assist owners and managers in the last century here. Why would a RENTER care about this group?

1. Their website (uaagq.org) does connect you to rentals.com, forrent.com, utahrealestate.com, and rentler.com;
2. Gives help line/phone numbers for tenants having problems with landlords, including Salt Lake Community Action, 2-1-1 information, Disability Law Center and Utah State Courts;
3. Directs veterans to specific resources for them;
4. And free forms for tenants to: a) give a landlord a notice to vacate/move out, give notice of a deficient condition, a reasonable accommodation request due to health issues, and a tenant request form to the landlord to provide deposit deposition/return of deposit.

For owners currently renting out property(s) or wanting to become a landlord, they offer a live ‘Good Landlord’ class throughout the state. Not heard of that? Well, if you as a wanna be or current landlord agree to evict problem tenants immediately and keep their properties ‘clean and green’ and in compliance with local housing codes you can possibly get a discount on licensing fees. As an example, Salt Lake City will discount a participant’s business license fee from $342 per unit to $322 per unit. This incentive is intended to educate landlords on management strategies to prevent crime, maintain equity and promote compatibility with surrounding neighborhoods.

South Salt Lake City says on their website that ‘the City has found that landlords who follow best management practices on background checks, tenant leases, crime prevention, and eviction procedures as necessary reduce the service costs borne by South Salt Lake taxpayers. Like many other cities in the state, South Salt Lake requires landlords to maintain a current business license for their rental(s), attend a class every few years on being a good landlords, use a written lease for every unit they rent out with all adults living in the unit listed on the lease, that all adults will have background checks done by the landlord in advance of leasing, protocols for crime prevention on the property will be followed via ‘Crime Prevention through Environmental Design’ and that the landlord agrees to maintain the rental dwelling(s) in a fit and habitable condition as required by State and relevant building, fire and land use codes.

http://www.slcgov.com/landlord/faq

http://www.southsaltlakecity.com/department-listings/community-development/good-landlord-programhttp://www.southsaltlakecity.com/department-listings/community-development/good-landlord-program

‘How much are all those condos going for that they are building everywhere?’  ‘ALL OF THOSE ARE APARTMENTS, NOT CONDOS!’  That’s right-just about every crane and every high rise in construction is an apartment building in the Salt Lake Valley and we are in a bona fide drought for condo buyers.

Who buys condos? Well everyone of course. But the demographic has traditionally been active seniors (Boomers) downsizing from their family homes once the kids flew off to college, and, single women. I remember a developer friend told me that when he built his first condo project in the 1990’s he was surprised to sell it out to mostly women. He learned that their motivation was security that they weren’t finding in the apartment inventory at that time. They wanted a lobby that was permanently locked except to visitors owners let in and a parking garage which didn’t open without a pass card or code. This amenity has become a must in today’s projects, from video cameras to nest door knobs.

There is no way in hell that I can give you the number of apartment buildings vs condo buildings under construction or completed in the Salt Lake Valley in 2017 without moving up a pay raise here at the weekly (from free to paid!). I’d have to call every city and burb and talk to each town’s planning staff. I can give you the data from the Wasatch Front Regional MLS tho: 2003 condos were sold in Salt Lake County in 2017; 264 have sale pendings and there are 271 currently for sale.  They report that the supply of condos has been about three months-worth until there would be zero inventory.

Condos currently for sale at the end of December range from $69,900 to $2,499,000 with an average asking price of $372,206. Oddly enough, the average asking price of a condo with a sale pending was $254,441-meaning it’s the cheaper inventory that’s selling. Sales prices in 2017 were an average of $299,836 per unit.  Sadly, I can personally count less than half a dozen new condo buildings initiated or built this past year in Salt Lake City itself. Instead, thousands of new rental units have reached up to the sky as well as the rents landlords are charging for them.

Builders these days have found that condo developments are harder to finance for construction than apartments, and simpler to build when you take in the grueling process of permits, planning and zoning. All in all, the WFRMLS reported 1671 homes for sale and 271 condos for sale mid December…that’s a total of only 1942. Certainly in a county with over a million people there’s been an obvious drought of not just snow this time of year but inventory of homes and condos to buy.

The President of North Korea keeps threatening to blow up the U.S. with nuclear bombs. Are you scared we might all be glowing with radiation in the near future? Are you ready for the apocalypse?

When I was a kid the same nuclear threat occurred in 1962 during what was known as the ‘Cuban Missile Crisis’. Our country feared we were all going to be vaporized in mushroom clouds from our neighbors to the south of Florida. School children like myself were drilled to protect ourselves (don’t laugh, this is real) by hiding under our desks when the school bell/alarm was set off. Nowadays I’m thinking kids do practice drills in case of a mass shooter attack, but back then we worried that an A-Bomb would go off, the roof would fall in on us and then an invisible gas called ‘radiation’ would kill us if we didn’t hide. Out teachers never spoke of guns, just bombs. Additionally, if we were able to crawl out from under our desks after the attack had begun, we were to go to the nearest “Fallout Shelter”. These hiding spaces were set up all around the country in public buildings like schools and were to serve as emergency spaces for survivors to stay in until some mysterious person would come and give the ‘all clear’ to us. Inside the shelter there would be provisions, bedding, water and medical supplies, flash lights and batteries, etc. that might last a week, a month or a year. Generally, the shelters were in basements marked by a yellow sign with three black triangles on it and the words FALLOUT SHELTER.

The man who designed/created/copyrighted that sign-Robert Blakeley-passed two weeks ago at the age of 95. This sign of the times marked an era of fear of our Cold War past that is just as real today as it was back then. However, we don’t have Fallout Shelters anymore to run to in case of foreign attack! The last four in Salt Lake City designated as community shelters were in the Masonic Temple on South Temple, The Utah State Capitol, The Pioneer Memorial Museum on 300 North and the YWCA. Yet by the 1970’s we had enough shelters to house Utah’s entire population. I called each one of them and no one I spoke with said the shelters were still available in case of attack.

In 1962 it seemed every neighbor had dug up their back yard and installed a small underground concrete bunker in case of a nuclear attack. Our family however, did not put one in. I honestly was terrified that we would thus die due to lack of planning. I asked my dad what we would do if we faced the end of the world and he said, “We’ll just use the neighbor’s shelter.” That sorta made me calmer.  Luckily the ‘crisis’ only lasted for about two weeks in and then the threat vaporized itself.