Salt Lake City nightlife, or lack of it

This article discusses the pluses and minuses of nightlight in Salt Lake City. Some of the challenges are no central entertainment district, restrictive liquor laws, and too many empty streets.

Salt Lake City Tribune, 5/6/07 - In search of Salt Lake's night life: "Once you find the places to go, there are some great places here,' said Allison Martin, a development researcher for the Utah Symphony, who moved to Salt Lake City from Austin, Texas, four years ago. 'It's funny - you go out and you see people you know all the time,' Martin said. 'It's 'Small Lake City.'

The relatively small number of Salt Lake night owls means club owners such as Louise Millington have to work harder to woo customers.

'You have to capture a niche for yourself, and I think that's what makes good night life here,' said Millington, who owns The Red Door, a martini bar. 'You have to know what people want here.'

... the perception remains, said Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, that buying a drink is an ordeal.

'There is absolutely no good modern-day justification for a private-club membership requirement,' he said. 'If you want to go to a couple places during the course of the night to hear music, or dine one place and go have a drink somewhere else, it can be very expensive and a huge hassle. And if we experience that as natives, consider how bizarre and inhospitable this is for people visiting our city.'"

The arts and economic growth

The whole premise of the creative class is that they enrich an area and attract high quality economic development.

Here's a bit on that from the blog that covers the subject in depth.

The Creativity Exchange: The Bohemian Factor:

"Arts, design and related occupations are very highly correlated with regional wages, income and housing values. They are more closely correlated with income than life scientists, engineers, and management occupations. Only two occupations - computer scientists and business and financial professionals - outperform them.

The core arts occupations of fine artists, musicians, dancers, and so on are most important of all. The correlations between them and regional wages, income and housing values are far far higher than for designers and decorators, entertainment and media, and sports where the correlations are low or insignificant.

The top 10 regions for core arts occupations are: New York, DC, LA, Honolulu and San Franciso.

Santa Fe tops the list for fine artists.

LA leads in actors with Orlando second.

Honolulu, San Fran, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City top the list for dancers.

Honolulu, New York, San Fran and Nashville lead for musicians."

economic development
creative class

Salt Lake looks to Denver's model

One of the best articles about how Denver moved forward as a cultural center was recently posted in the Salt Lake Tribune, 7/02/06, AMSLC arts lovers are inspired by the success of theater complex in Colorado, which hopes to duplicate the effort.

"With more than 11,000 seats, Denver's [Performing Arts] complex stands next to a newly expanded convention center on Curtis Street and 14th. Only pedestrians are allowed on the 12-acre block. Parking is a snap at a 1,700-stall garage. Light rail is handy.

"There also are three restaurants - one includes a lounge singer who wanders the room in a shimmery pink evening gown - along with a banquet hall, design studios for sets and costumes and theater schools (including the National Theatre Conservatory) for adults and children.

"... after building the Buell in 1991 from the shell of an arena that once showcased wrestling matches, Denver leaped to the A-list. Suddenly, it was Denver, not Los Angeles or Chicago, launching the national touring shows for Disney's 'The Lion King' in 2002 and 'Sunset Boulevard' in 1996. ...

"Today, the city says the theaters attract 1.1 million to 1.6 million visitors a year and they generate about $30 million in ticket sales, according to The Denver Post."