I'm moving to Salt Lake City -- any suggestions?

[jasper]

Watch out for the mayor he is vampire. And Bluebeard lives about 12 miles out of town. He occasionally sends his SSS units out for recuiting purposes. (Submersible Skeleton squads) Oh the pcs do get away with beating up the town folk.
Oh you talking about the real life city never mind was flashing back to one of my groups adventures.

 

[Desdichado]

Oh, well if you're gonna go that route, I can positively confirm that Cthulhu actually lies sleeping at the bottom of the Great Salt Lake, not the Pacific Ocean. As it continues to shrink, R'lyeh will rise on its own without having to "rise" per se at all. Also, SLC is riddled by a network of salt tunnels populated by all kinds of bizarre creatures from other planes of existence.

 

[FoxWander]

Also, SLC is riddled by a network of salt tunnels populated by all kinds of bizarre creatures from other planes of existence.

You may be closer to the truth than you think, at least according toAlienDave.com.

But seriously, to echo most of the others- Welcome to Utah. Don't believe the hype its actually a pretty nice place to live. I don't live in SLC (I'm in the Air Force and live in Roy near Hill Air Force Base.) but I can give you a few pointers.

Hastur Hobbies is probably the biggest gamestore in the area and if you go in on the weekends it'll be packed with gamers of various sorts as well. Most of the large, mainstream bookstores will have a limited selection of gaming books as well. There's also Hammond Toys and Hobbies in the Crossroads Mall (across the street from the Mormon Temple), they usually have an eclectic collection of stuff- if you can find the store. It keeps moving around the mall and/or shutting down temporarily.

Can't help you with any other kind of store in the SLC area. If you're willing to drive further north to the Layton to Ogden area, I can help more. Endzone Cards and Games is in downtown Layton and the Newgate mall in Riverdale. They have both a decent selection and are good places to find gamers. And I'll second (or is it third?) a recommendation of The Bookshelf in Ogden. There you can find a good selection of gaming products, comics, anime, used cds and games, AND a large collection of used books. Plus you get 10% of your purchase back as store credit for a return visit. And while ordering stuff online is fairly easy, they can also do special orders of any product type they carry.

As for internet, definitely check with comcast to their coverage of your preposed location. While non-broadband internet sucks anyway, it especially sucks in Utah. Before I went with Comcast, my supposed 56K line never got better than 22.4.

And finally I would recommend going with a cell phone company you like and not even installing a land phone line if you can avoid it, because Qwest is evil!

 

[Davelozzi]

...because Qwest is evil!

It's true! Qwest (assuming it's the current incarnation of US West, as I think) is the worst company I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. I rank them higher than Sprint, RCN, and Ticketmaster on my list of eeeevil companies, and believe me I'm no fan of the latter three.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Welcome to Utah, haiiro! And, as others have already mentioned, don't listen to the naysayers; Utah is actually a very nice place to live. Utah is especially great if you are an outdoorsman because you can do pretty much anything outdoorsy here: Rock climbing, skiing (both nordic and alpine), mountain biking, spelunking, fishing, hunting, hiking, river rafting, boating, etc.

I live in a small town located near the Provo/Orem area, and only occasinally drive up to Salt Lake City. The local gaming store in my area is called Dragon's Keep, but I usually just buy my gaming books online or from the local Media Play.

 

[KingCroMag]

For an apartment downtown you might want to look at the Brigham. They just lowered the cost from their olympic prices. I have a few friends who live there. They are really nice and the comlex is only a few years old. And what is more Utahn than living at the "Brigham". You might also want to look at the apartments in the Gateway. You don't get more close to the city than that.

Oh and the EndZone has a store in Trolley Square.

 

[haiiro]

Again, thanks to everyone for the welcome -- I got in Thursday night, and had a whirlwind day of meetings today. The long and the short of it is that I got the job, as you can see from my profile.

When I watched the valley unfold as my plane came in over the city, I knew that this was someplace I was going to want to live: the mountains are never going to get old.

I'm storing away all of your recommendations for gaming/comics stores, and they're very much appreciated. I'll probably try and visit Hastur Hobbies before I fly back to Michigan, and the rest may have to wait until I'm back for good.

As for some specific replies:

Psion - I don't think RPS has engineering positions, at least none that I've run across (we'd contract out for that). As for the real estate, your father in law's properties are way out of my league.

FoxWander & Davelozzi - I've been considering dumping the landline for awhile, so hearing that Qwest might be worth avoiding will likely help me make up my mind. Are they as evil as SBC/Ameritech?

Dark Jezter - It's been awhile, but I do enjoy hiking and camping, as well as mountain biking. I'm hoping living here will get me off my keister and back into some of that.

KingCroMag - Thanks for the apartment recs! I've been looking at places today, and there have been a few standouts. I'm bowled over by how much housing is available -- I felt like I was tripping over apartment complexes in some areas.

 

[thorian]

Welcome to SLC! I'll have to second (or third as the case may be) Hastur Hobbies. They have a good selection of WotC and other d20 materials. They also carry many other games, and you might be able to find a gaming group there. There are also monthly RPGA meetings at the University of Utah.

Salt Lake is a nice place to live, but there are a few quirks. I own a nightclub, so I am quite familiar with the liquor laws. There are many clubs from dive bars to mega-clubs and everything in between. As far as food goes, you have to search a bit for interesting places, but there are quite a few. To find out about local entertainment, the City Weekly is a valuable resource and can be found at coffee shops, bars, any many other places. If you like outdoor recreation, there are a lot of opportunities. Seven ski resorts are about 30 min from SLC; there are numerous rock climbing locations; southern Utah offers a plethora of places to explore (Arches, Moab, Zion, Bryce, etc.); hiking in the mountains 15-20 minutes away; etc. The Great Salt Lake is not that "great" for sailing or other water sports, but there are several reservoirs that are passable.

The area you are working in is downtown, so you should look for a place in the avenues, university or downtown area if you don't want much of a commute. The light rail runs from the university area fairly close to where you work.

If there is anything else you would like to know, post it here.

 

[dogboy]

Underwear

Make sure you get lots of underwear before you go or you'll be stuck with that weird type they sell in Utah. But, the two wives thing sounds cool, just as long as they are someone elses wives.

 

[haiiro]

Make sure you get lots of underwear before you go or you'll be stuck with that weird type they sell in Utah.

Dang it, now I'm going to have go find out what you're talking about. Not that you want to know, but I wear boxers -- hopefully boxers are the same here as everywhere else...

As for housing, thorian, I wound up going for a nice apartment up in the foothills, with a straight shot down I-80 to work. A 10 minute commute (assuming good traffic, of course), and I get to live on a mountain -- that just can't be beat!