Dec 5, 2022 - News
Salt Lake City's neighborhood boundaries aren't too controversial
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We recently asked you to draw the boundaries of several Salt Lake City neighborhoods, and it turns out we tend to agree on where we all live!
- The map above represents the average boundaries drawn by readers.
The intrigue: Neighborhood borders are subjective.
- Even our community council jurisdictions overlap, and official city descriptions do not always match what Google comes up with.
Flashback: The reasons for considering an area a coherent neighborhood can change dramatically over time.
- Sugar House got its name from sugar beet processing, which hasn't happened there for about 150 years.
- Calling Sugar House one neighborhood probably made a lot more sense when city blocks were contiguous along 1300 East from the Avenues down to city limits — back before a freeway cut the whole area in half.
Details: Most of your maps align closely with community council maps, with a bit of nibbling here and there.
- No one knows where Central City ends and Liberty Wells begins — including, apparently, the city government, which recognizes community council boundaries that overlap by a half-mile north to south.
- As defined by its community council and the Downtown Alliance, Downtown is a bit farther west, running up against I-15; your version stops at 400 West.
- You left Brickyard out of Sugar House, which is reasonable since it basically looks like a satellite territory on the map.
Yes but: Two neighborhoods were more mercurial.
- Liberty Heights is not represented by its own community council, so the most "official" map is from the realtors at Re/Max. Your map covers about triple the area.
- Marmalade appears to be a "You know it when you see it" situation, with the city, the tourism bureau and readers all identifying different borders.
What's next: You can keep playing our interactive game!
