Salt Lake City Presented With Golden Opportunity To Improve Culture
by MADELINE FERGUSON
While many people may be feeling sad or let down by the recent news that the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team, are moving out of Salt Lake and south to Daybreak, it can also be viewed as a golden opportunity for improvement.
A good bar and food culture is essential for tourism and happy residents, while Salt Lake City has improved dramatically in this area as of late, there continues to be room for growth, especially when it comes to variety.
Currently, there is only one place close to Smith’s Ballpark and that is local-favorite, Lucky-13, famous for its burgers
During a press conference about the team’s move, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said the city will open a portal for propositions from people and businesses about how to use the space left by the ballpark.
She listed a multitude of options for the space like libraries and community center, but one that caught my interest was “distillery row”.
Distillery seems a little too specific considering what I mentioned about the Salt Lake City bar and food scene lacking diversity but I think the Mayor is on the right track with that line of thinking.
This space could provide an incredible space to enhance Salt Lake’s food scene in the often overlooked and dumped on South Salt Lake neighborhood. Semi-close to the area of 1300 S and West Temple, some trendy breweries and distilleries have already found a spot to call home like Salt Fire Brewing and Beehive Distillery.
ADVERTISEMENT
Community members and businesses can submit their ideas and proposals for the area online. The program, introduced by Mendenhall, is called Ballpark Next.
“Salt Lake City is excited to announce the Ballpark NEXT Design Competition – an opportunity for residents, post-secondary students, and development professionals to tell us what they envision for the future of Smith’s Ballpark site. After 100+ years of baseball on the site, we’re excited to get input from you on what’s next, and for you to provide your ideas to help the City reimagine uses for the site that will serve the neighborhood, City, and our residents for decades to come!” describes the program online.
If the city wants to keep the area family friendly a mixture of bars and restaurants and maybe even a play area (think the new Gateway) would be ideal. New bars could not only revitalize the area year round (remember Smith’s Ballpark was only really used during summer) but it would add so much to the entire city for locals, not to mention the huge benefits it could have on the city’s tourism industry.
Last year, The Utah Bee spoke with Tamara Gibo, owner of Takashi Sushi and Post Office Place in downtown Salt Lake City, about the essential nature of a bustling bar and restaurant scene. The interview is sure to convince you that the city has a huge opportunity with the newly opened Smith’s Ballpark area.
ADVERTISEMENT
