The Goldilocks Project: South Jordan, UT

South Jordan is in the Salt Lake Basin, south of Salt Lake City and it is the first spot that we officially visited with the van! We were in southern Utah last week for another practice trip (more on that in a later post) and had enough time on our drive back north to stop in to South Jordan for a walk, some bubble tea, and a late lunch. Since South Jordan has plenty of parking lots, and since it was a Sunday (which are typically pretty slow in Utah) we had no issue parking Vanjie.

I must admit that I went into this visit already somewhat dismissive. From our few months in Mountain Green I've stated to form some unfavorable options about Salt Lake suburbs. Despite some preconceived misgivings, I wanted to give South Jordan a fair shot. Not to foreshadow too much, but arriving on a somewhat gloomy Sunday after a week of strenuous hiking may not have been the ideal conditions for our visit.

The Good

Great views of the Wasatch Mountains and only 30 minutes to Alta Ski Area.
Seems like an active community; despite the pending rain we saw multiple people of all ages going on walks and jogs along the river trail.
Lots of walking trails along the river + many parks.
Close enough to SLC, which opens up lots of activities and restaurant options. Plus, I really like the SLC airport.
Being so near to SLC and skiing means that we could reasonably expect regular visits from friends and family.
Based on an internet search, there are lots of annual community events (e.g., egg hunt, outdoor movies, a pumpkin promenade, and hosting the state fair).

The Bad

There is no downtown. Leading up to our arrival I was trying to find the town's hub but with limited success. There were two main areas, however one was just a business center and the other was an extended strip mall.
The businesses and homes all seem very cookie-cutter.
It's white suburbia. The LDS temple is by far the most prominent building in town and virtually every business includes a reference to being family-focused in their names.
The top recommended activities in town are golfing, Mulligan's mini golf and batting cages, and the Megaplex movie theater. Oh, and to break up the white suburbia just a teeny bit, you can also visit the Hindu temple (yes, that actually pops up as a top-10 activity).
The top two rated restaurants in town are a sushi place which is closed on Sundays (because, Utah) and the Pie Pizzeria which we went to and I found to be mediocre. This town relies very heavily on SLC for any modicum of interest and culture.
Although we didn't experience during our visit, the Wasatch front can have bad pollution during the winter.

The Verdict

Absolutely not. Actually, I hated it so much I had to run out of the restaurant to cry in the car. If this is the sort of place my research resulted in then I clearly have missed something very fundamental about what it is that I want in my permanent home.

Because of this, I have added a new column to my research: "is there a downtown?" Based on that, I've removed four towns: Milton, MA; Sharon, MA; Grosse Point Woods, WI; and Grosse Point Park, WI. There was one other (Russel, Ontario) that didn't seem to have a downtown but I'm giving it a pass since it is described as a rural farming community outside of Ontario proper. I think as we continue through this project I may be more cautionary about suburbs as a whole, but for now I can still appreciate the benefits of living just outside of "the big city." For now, I consider it good news to bring our total number below 40!

The river walk was nice, but it was surrounded by office buildings and apartments.

The mountains are also lovely, but this side of the mountains can be rather polluted. If we end up in Utah I'd like to focus our search to the Wasatch back.