An out-standing contribution

The story of our detached garage

By Geoffrey Dean

A couple of weeks ago we had a rep from the city’s home improvement program come by to give his opinions as to what needed improving about our home. My secret hopes of getting some logistical and financial help in tearing down and replacing our current garage were dashed by his overt enthusiasm when he saw it, a decaying wooden structure set about ten feet from the back of our house.

Substantially right and wrong

A personal update

By Geoffrey Dean

Back in October I had been amused to hear my uncle, who owns a home in the nation’s most affluent zip code, characterize what I consider to be our very modest property in Salt Lake City as “a substantial piece of land.” I have since thought often about his assessment, and at times I have been inclined to agree with it. One such was following an early December day of unabated snowfall. Watching my neighbor with his snow shovel, conscientiously clearing a foot of snow from the “substantial” length of sidewalk on his corner lot, opposite ours, I had a terrible thought – what if his were not merely an act of good conscience, but actually one mandated by the city?

Thor's Day: Glimpses of Jesus in Salt Lake City

The Beehive House, 67 E South Temple St

Why the tour was free

By Morris Dean

My wife and I returned to Salt Lake City on April 30, hoping this time to have no problems with that city's street nomenclature. I had its coordinate system securely installed in my head this time, the x-axis being South Temple and the y-axis Main, and my mind was clear this time that South Temple (and all streets named South or North) run east-west, not north-south, which I had been confused about last October and was forever spinning my head over ["How long does it take to become fluent in Salt Lake City's street nomenclature?," October 29, 2014].

Ask Wednesday: How long does it take to become fluent in Salt Lake City’s street nomenclature?

It depends on who’s trying

By Morris Dean

We were in Salt Lake City, Utah, for four days recently, and though we depended on GPS to get from here to there, a particular fascination of the place was trying to master the street nomenclature. It should be very easy. The original streets were laid out by the compass, the center of town being Temple Square, the seat of church-state government and Brigham Young's homestead and many-wives household. The concept was that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' prophet, Joseph Smith. In 1831 he envisioned the "City of Zion" laid out that way. His plat called for "all streets to be 132 feet wide. These created square blocks of 10 acres measuring 660 feet on each side." [Urban Planning Library, Cornell University]