Category Archives: Fairpark Community

Annual Community Coat Exchange

coatexchangehaveaheart1Bring a coat, take a coat: If you need a coat, come get one. If you have a coat, we know someone who can use it.

Fairpark Community Council is once again partnering with Blue Sky Institute for its annual Community Coat Exchange.

The Community Coat Exchange has been an ongoing event in Salt Lake City, Utah since 2005.

The event is held annually at Pioneer Park from 10am to 1pm the day after Thanksgiving.

The Coat Exchange is a collection and distribution of winter coats and other clothing items.  The idea is for people to bring donations to any of the drop off centers before Thanksgiving or to the event itself.  The drop off for Fairpark is All Chay restaurant, 500 North 1264 West. Chapman Library is the drop off for the Poplar Grove area, 577 South 900 West.

At the event, no questions are asked:  If you need a coat, come get one.  If you want to exchange a coat, bring the coat you want to donate and take one in exchange.  If you have a donation of coats, we know people who can use them.

Left over coats are donated to the Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store, a project of the Crossroads Urban Center which advocates for low income and homeless people.   The Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store gives clothes away to poor people and also sells clothes and other goods in its retail shop to the general public to help fund the Crossroads Urban Center programs.

Please call 801-502-1991 for more information.

http://www.coatexchange.org

2017 Utah State Fair a Success!

Utah_State_Fairgrounds_entranceThe 2017 Utah State Fair is expected to break another record for attendance, a record broken just the year prior. This year’s success can largely be attributed to the additions of the circus and the new Days of ’47 Stadium, which allowed for more large-scale events. This latter trend will continue throughout the year, as the Fairpark is planning upwards of 30 stadium events through 2018. Stay tuned to what’s in the works by checking www.utahstatefairpark.com (and keep an eye out for the more informative, user-friendly website design).

pumpkinnightsThe Fairpark is excited to announce Pumpkin Nights October 13-29. Pumpkin Nights is a family-friendly, immersive Halloween experience (that highly encourages costumes). SLC is one of 3 cities they chose to host the festival this year, so it’s a pretty big deal for our community. Tour 4,000 carved pumpkins, carve your own, watch Halloween movies, get lost in a hay-bale maze and complete a site-wide scavenger hunt. Visit www.pumpkinnights.com/slc/ for more details. Click on the image for a full size map to illustrate what’s in store for you at Pumpkin Nights.

Renaming Jackson Elementary

Thank you to all the community members that have contributed to the discussion jacksonelemnewersurrounding the renaming of Jackson Elementary. At this point, Jackson’s School Community Council has approved the formation of a committee to rename or rededicate Jackson Elementary. If you are interested in participating, please contact Dr. Jana Edward directly at jana.edward@slcschools.org or by calling the school at 801-578- 8165.

Fairpark Community Council Annual Meeting and Board Member Elections: April 27

voteThe Annual Meeting of the Fairpark Community Council at the April 27th when a vote will be taken on a slate of officers and board members for the coming two years.  A nominating committee has been convened and chaired by Tom King.  If you are interested in being involved in the community as a Board member, helping with issues, events, or to just meet some of your neighbors, please email the Chair, Bryce Garner at brycewgarner@gmail.com and he will forward your information on to
the nominating committee.

Your Vote Counts: Fairpark Building Demolition

There will be a vote at the next Fairpark Community Council meeting (February 23, 6:30pm) on whether or not to write a letter of support to the state for the Utah State Fairpark_Admin_Bldg_09-21-01_KH

Fairpark to demolish two contributing structures which include:

  • The Administration Building – on the National Historic Register,
  • former DMV Testing Facility

 

The State wants to build the new Department of Agriculture building where those two buildings are now.

Read more here.

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Nature in the City Proposal

Seventeen local, regional and national environmental groups have endorsed a proposal called “Nature in the City”, to create a riparian greenway along the Jordan

Pictured here is the new Fred and Ila Fife Wetlands Preserve, west bank Jordan River at 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah

Pictured here is the new Fred and Ila Fife Wetlands Preserve, west bank
Jordan River at 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah

River all the way across Salt Lake City. The plan, which has also been endorsed by both the Glendale and Poplar Grove community councils, would designate a series of
“nature parks” along the river corridor, mostly on existing city-owned open space. It would regrade stream banks to reduce erosion, replace non-native plants with native plant communities, add new wetlands, improve water quality and connectivity along the river both for people and wildlife. It would also promote nature
education, urban agriculture, off-street commuter bike trail expansion along, to and from the Jordan River Parkway Trail, and the creation of several nature-themed
community centers to serve as gateways to the river.
This proposal will be presented at the October Fairpark Community Council Meeting.
Pictured here is the new Fred and Ila Fife Wetlands Preserve, west bank Jordan River at 900 South, Salt Lake City, Utah

Westview Media has a feature on this proposal here.

Red Iguana, A Community Cornerstone

bill-lucy-croppedThe name speaks for itself. It’s a respected restaurant with strong community roots with over 30 years serving west side residents. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Lucy Cardenas and Bill Coker of Red Iguana this month and learned a little more about this family owned restaurant — a gem along the North Temple corridor.

Red Iguana has been involved in the Fairpark Community Fairpark for decades.

“I try to do what I can by taking care of our properties, and bringing people in. I also love helping our neighboring schools. I really just want to support what we have here,” said Lucy.

“There’s a lot of potential to see North Temple turn into a Grand Boulevard. We want to invite people to come check us out!”

If she could fix one thing about the neighborhood, it would be the trash. “My biggest thing that drives me crazy is the trash. I live here in Fairpark and I walk a lot. I walk between the restaurants. We walk downtown and to the dog park. I want this to be a walkable neighborhood and I want it to be safe and
clean.” We couldn’t agree more!

Also, Red Iguana is growing! The Red Iguana 2 restaurant expansion is now open. “A lot of people thought it was counter intuitive to open a restaurant nearby. But really, I didn’t want to leave the neighborhood. It will be fantastic thing – funky and cool. So I said, you know what, we are going to open up right here in this neighborhood! It’s in operation and it’s going beautifully. Really, really nice. We are so appreciative that the community supports us.” They are open 363 days a year, and closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When asked about growth in the neighborhood Lucy said, “I love the idea of more restaurants coming into our neighborhood. People have a real perception of this neighborhood and we need to fix that. I’d love to see a floral shop, or a specialty food store. Just bring it on in! If another restaurant opened up nearby, we would love that. Having grown up here, North Temple used to have all kinds of things happening, a movie theater, a bowling alley, a Dees and a lot of stuff going on. I’d love to see that come back.” For more information, hours and menu, go to rediguana.com.

National Public Lands Day at Backman Elementary

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(Click photos to enlarge.)
Join Council Member James Rogers who will be helping Backman Elementary celebrate National Public Lands Day Saturday, September 24! Students will mulch a part of the Jordan River near their school with a helpful hand from their District 1 Council Member. The purpose of this event is to help get kids outside and teach them to take care of an area that is close to home for many of them.

National Public Lands Day

Saturday, September 24
10:00 a.m. – Noon
Backman Elementary
backman

Utah State Fairpark Arena Construction Underway

We at the FCC are extremely proud to have established a strategic partnership with the Utah State Fairpark to help drive economic development along North Temple.  We met with the Executive Director Larry Mullenax again this week to get an update.  As you may have seen, demolition is nearly complete of the old arena, bleachers and horse stables to make room for our new state of the art outdoor equestrian and FairgroundsConstructionconcert venue.  This State-sponsored project is well under way and went through the appropriate DFCM contractor processes selecting Okland Construction as the General Contractor on 8/5.   A camera was installed so neighbors can see real time construction!  See our website for a link.  Demolition is set to be complete 8/19 and construction begins 8/22 with a completion date set for July 1, 2017, just in time for the Days of ’47 Rodeo.  Because of the construction, motorized events and equestrian events have been cancelled for this session of the Utah State Fair.   In its place, the circus and live music events will run all 11 days.  There will be an exciting automotive exhibit by the Diesel Brothers featured on the Discovery Channel on the opening day.

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