Amanda Moore
Amanda is not from Utah; she grew up in Rural Tennessee, a mid-size county of about 100,000 people. “There were a couple black families on our street, but it was mostly white. Religions weren’t obvious.” She moved to Utah for graduate school at the University of Utah and obtained her MFA. The first local neighborhood she rented in was 9th and 9th because she was immediately drawn to the walkability of the area. She later moved to the avenues to be closer to the university and enjoy the aesthetics of the area. After that her and her husband took over her husband’s parent’s house in Sugarhouse before moving to Rose Park two and a half years ago.
So why Rose Park? “When it comes to the various neighborhoods we lived in, I wouldn't say that we didn't choose to stay in them because we weren't Mormon, each had different reasons. Like in the Aves, we really didn't feel like there was opportunity to be involved or make things better so to speak and in 9th and 9th the houses really became unaffordable when we were ready to buy (same with aves really). It became clear very quickly that Rose Park was for us.”
Having lived in other surrounding neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, Amanda knew the negative images associated with Rose Park - higher crime rate and gang prevalence – however the chance to be accepted and acknowledged, to feel like a part of something outweighed those. She has now been living in Rose Park for 2 ½ years for the reason she initially moved there, her and her husband do feel like a part of the community. And even with its flaws and the common stereotype that the west-side is not the place to raise children, Amanda would prefer to stay here when she has kids so they are raised in an area where “they not only understand they are entitled to a good life and quality education, but they understand that they are not entitled to it because of the color of their skin or what their parents do. That everyone is entitled to it…We love living in Rose Park and we are expecting our first child this fall so we are going to be selling our home and buying a larger house in the neighborhood. We were thinking about looking elsewhere but felt strongly about staying here. We just need a little more room and there are some great houses coming on the market so it’s a great time to buy over here.”
“We’re looking north of tenth north and on the very west side of rose park proper… the river is the boundary, but there's all these cool mid-century crazy houses that don't match anything else in the neighborhood and of course nobody ever sells them but I love em. I love to ride my bike past em; I'm so jealous. They're like so quiet and, I don't know, everybody's very mellow back there. That's kinda where I would like to be but we'll just kinda wait and see what happens. Yeah, we'd like a little bit bigger of a house. You know you just kinda outgrow your space. We have a lot of animals; we're kinda outgrowing our first space. We think about it, and I have a studio in the basement that's kinda depressing because it's in the basement. I would like to have like an old fashion like family room as my studio, like we've talked about that. But yeah, we want to stay close. I can't imagine if we moved anywhere we would, we would probably live like around the capital and down here. We just like everything west of the capital. The rent is nice, I do think people overall here are friendlier. I don’t know why, they just seem to be friendlier. They're nice when you pass, when you walk and I don’t know. Just seems like it. Whereas in Sugarhouse they wouldn't like say hi when you walked by. I think that's crazy.”
“People want to be a part of something big, want to be a part of a neighborhood.”
And in Rose Park they can be. Amanda has called the area a blossoming neighborhood that has all the potential to be as vital and valuable side neighborhood of Salt Lake City as the avenues or Sugarhouse. It has the people, the passion, the talent, and the space. So what is needed? What can result? She thinks more walkability, more parks (even a dog park), more local shops, farmer’s markets, better sidewalks, and an investment in the children. The investment in the children is the need she stressed the most.
“I'm not going to act like there's not an issue with gang stuff because there is an issue with gang stuff. It’s an inevitability when you don't have an investment in these kids and when the community doesn’t see the investment. Maybe we need to actually figure out how to actually prevent this kind of thing, instead of worrying about the punishment of it. That’s another one of those million dollar answers. And things like the after-school programs that they have around here—I’m a hundred percent for them. Anything to keep kids busy.”
Amanda sees the west-side neighborhoods as idealistic because they are places where youth can get involved in the community. Here she sees the youth work to keep the community alive; they restore houses and paint murals around the round-a-bouts. As the youth are joining the communities the communities begin to flourish. When everyone comes together to develop parks, run ethnic stores, referee after school sports, splash their artwork across the city, the vitality and vivacity of the west side stays alive and shows Salt Lake what it is they have to offer, and what they have been missing out on.
