Wallace Steigner Country Where is the Wasatch Recession?

After spending the past week in Salt Lake City, an interesting hiatus from Silicon Valley, I have come to realize that the notion of a financial crisis is not absolute but relative to a commonly held baseline view of security. The banner headiine in the local paper, on the day of my arrival, screamed "Utah Joblessness Nears 5%", which apparently was considered a near calamity. Nears? Ironically, on the same day unemployment in California reached 10% .

During multiple business trips to Salt Lake City over the past few years, I fell into the habit of staying at one particular hotel in the suburbs close to a variety of restaurants and I-15. Over the years and seasons, this hotel has been packed with skiers, conventioneers, and contract workers building Micron and Intel plants. I fully expected it to be empty this trip. It was devoid of skiers who according to the folks behind the counter at Hertz weren't coming in for weeks at a time anymore but rather long weekends. Since the conventioneers didn't arrive until warmer days, I expected my pick of rooms with views of the  incredibly stunning Wasatch Mountains whose sharp  white peaks rise up from  the city.

But to my utter amazement, the construction guys packed the parking lot with their big SUVs and pickups.  Obviously the massive building spree that had been going on for a couple of years hadn't ended. Well, at least there won't be a line at my favorite Moroccan restaurant. Think again. I needed reservations. Hear tell from the wait staff, Valentines Day was booked for days in advance. The shopping centers' parking lots were full too.

The final straw was a flyer posted in the lobby warning guests that "in these desperate times" please don't leave any stuff visible on the seat of your car in the parking lot.  From my perspective, things actually looked pretty jolly compared to the strum und drang I left in California. Yes, real estate has lost value, about 11%, there are some foreclosures, and layoffs are are enough to move unemployment from 3.5% to 5%. But, golly, the state budget is balanced, there are no deficits, and communities are frantically organizing collecting donations of food, clothes and resources in case of darker days ahead.

From pioneer days, people here have struggled to build an economy and a community in the middle of nowhere next to a salty lake full of brine shrimp. Today there is a Hummer dealership, another Nordstroms is being built and IKEA is down the road, but where is the recession?  From a Californian's perspective, they are doing something right here and we could learn a lot, if we put aside our high tech/venture/startup/risk taking hubris.

Wallace Steigner,  the great environmentalist and famous author was appointed to Stanford University's Creative Writing Chair, teaching the likes of Ken Kesey in the 1960's. But he was raised in Salt Lake City where he sank his roots deep and learned well what it takes to stay true to one's core values.  They say there is nowhere to move to in this recession because it is everywhere. I'd say that depends on your perspective.