Come to 801 Day! Data Center Questions, Cheap Weekend Fun.

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That's not the most Utah thing about me. Oh, yeah. I dip everything. Yeah, she's a freak. I love mustard. There you go. Allie, what is the most Utah thing about you then? I mean, if I'm being honest, it's that I, like, drive everywhere and complain about parking. But I do think, since I got my little Vesma, I'm better about that. But last night, I went to see a movie at the Gateway and met a friend for a drink next door at the Bruce beforehand, formerly about time. Saddled up to the bar and ordered what is like my new favorite drink, which is a vodka soda Utah double, which is just a vodka soda in a tall glass. So I'm like, this is so Utah of me. I'm drinking half the booze and twice the mixer. It's pretty nice. My friend that comes here. Same. Yeah. Hydrating. I like 3.2% beer. My friend that comes here from Portland, he always gets. vodka or tequila sodas here. And he's like, it's like I can drink twice as many than I can't in Portland. Yeah. Yeah, you're hydrated, buddy. Yeah, you could have six martinis. And you got to be hydrated. The elevation's so high here. Okay. You need to stay, stay hydrated folks. It's true. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about the 801 day party. What do folks need to know when they're absolutely raging with us tomorrow evening at the milk block on 9th South? Yeah, we're throwing a real ranger from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday at the Milk Block. Geez, we just got everything at this party. We're going to have live music presented by KRCL. There are going to be some excellent live musicians here, local. What else? We're going to have a beer garden sponsored by Neighbors Bar. Jack, I know Neighbors is a huge, a huge, I was going to say fan of yours, but you're a fan of theirs. Never talked about it. Yeah. Just about every week you're talking about Neighbors Bar. It's kind of the official CityCast Salt Lake Bar at this point. And we have a membership program that's called our neighbors program. Like it's, we're synchronized. It just works. I do have to say, though, probably the biggest thing that's happening at 801 day is we will be unveiling the new artwork for Out of the Blue, aka the 9th and 9th Whale. This is happening at 6 p.m. folks. So if you're trying to figure out, oh, when should I? Come by 801 day. 6 p.m. for sure. You're going to want to see this. So cool. They're updating that. I think it's really fun to keep that being a living piece of art for the community because the whales becomes such this amazing touchstone for that part of the city. It's fun to be able to see it take on a new shape. Totally. And it was always the plan that it would get new artwork every few years. Yeah, that unveiling is at 6 p.m. I'm... The thing that I love about this event that I think is so cool is that it's totally free. And it's able to be free because we have amazing sponsors, namely Rocky Mountain Power. So you can bring your whole family, your whole extended family, all your friends. Definitely bring a water bottle. It's going to be hot. We're going to have water stations for you. But it's all the music, like enjoying the vendor market, the whale on veil, like all these different pieces are totally free. And that walk through the milk block up to 9th and 9th. It's such a cool way to think about how Salt Lake City's grown over the years. Just that new part of the town here all the way to 9th, which was the original kind of like, you know, out of the blue, cool little neighborhood here in town many years ago. So a fun connected line there. Good.

Good tie there, Jack. Well, and if you're looking to go for a stroll down the nine line, I mean, we've got another great reason for you to do that. We've actually partnered with businesses all up and down the nine line, I think from ninth and ninth to about Fourth West. And they are offering special deals on 801 day, a lot of like, you know, Three tacos for $8.1.1 deals. But so many beyond that as well. We are so grateful to everyone who's partnering with us. Of course, we love supporting local businesses at CityCast. So this is a great way to do that, not just during the event, but literally all day long on Saturday. So like. I'm going to read a few. Loki coffee, buy one, get one free voucher. Lovebound Library, a free tote bag when you spend over $20. Monolis is doing a free ice cream with any purchase. Mochi Kids is doing button making. I saw Coffee Garden doing a slice of olive oil cake and a 12 ounce orange Oolong iced tea for $8.1. A lot of the businesses are doing like 8% off, 10% off. This passport is... Honestly, it's been a dream of ours to create something like this for a long time. So we invite everyone to make the most of it. And also, again, like, these businesses have AC. This is a great way to still get, like, out into the community while being able to safely tuck inside these little businesses and cool off during the day. Super cool. Love it. Super cool. Okay. I made you guys a quiz. Okay. You're so excited to present this to us. Well, I just love quizzes, but I thought it was funny. So like kind of an inside joke on this show is how much we use the word myth busting. We love to be like, we're myth busting this. We're myth busting that. And so this is the 801 day Utah myth busting quiz. Oh boy. And all of these things are based on things we've talked about in previous city cast episodes. I've got five questions here. And what you can do is just buzz in. So if you think you know the answer. So it's me versus Jess? We're competing. Make some sort of sound and buzz in. And you know what? There'll be no winners or losers. We're just going to learn some things. But I better win. But Emily had better win. That's the longest time in Utah. If you win, you have to buy me a peroni at neighbors on 801 day. Wait, I have to buy you something. That's what you win. That's a great deal for everybody involved. Perfect. Great. All right. Question one. What is Utah's number one export? Ding. Okay, Jack. Brian Shrib. That is such a good guess, but it's not correct. Emily, do you want to guess? It's people. No. The brain drain. Sorry. Is it alfalfa? No. It's gold. Oh, cool. Our biggest export is gold. And most of it comes out of one facility in West Valley. Canicot. Canicot. It's not wild. No. It's not Kennecott. That's copper. I know. I know, but they actually pull a lot of other.

Precious mineral's item. Right after copper, I think they put a lot of silver out of that mine. Or they used to. I don't know. Fun. Okay. Oh, interesting. That mind that you can see from space, that was almost a question. That's the one. Have you guys been there? We did a family field trip there once. I went there. That's the most Utah thing about you, ma'am. Yeah, actually. You know, when you're trying to entertain four kids, what do you do? You head to Magna to a tour of the compromise. It's a wild, it's a really wild site. Okay, question two. Where is the busiest swag location? Ding. Emily. Provo? No. 33rd. Orlando, Florida. That was a trick question. That was a trick. Exactly what I'd expect from a Florida woman. The trip had this great story where they also analyzed how many different swig flavor combinations you can make. And I don't know how to say this number, but it has 27 digits. What? That's like as many area codes we have. That's too many options. That's how much money Elon Musk has. Yeah. What percentage, question three, what percentage of Utahans according to self-identification surveying are members of the LDS Church? Ding. Emily. 42%. You're right. You're exactly right. Boom, boom, boom. Just 42% of Utahans identify as members of the LDS church. All right. Question four. This is true or false. City Creek runs through City Creek Mall. Ding, Emily. False. False. You're right. This is a myth that I spread for the first like five years that I lived here. That that water feature was City Creek? Yeah, but it was actual City Creek. It makes sense. Punch underground. Yeah, we have lots of urban rivers. Yeah, why not? Okay, the last question number five in the myth-busting Salt Lake City quiz. When this performer came to town for one night, it became the Delta Center's highest-grossing single night of all time. Who was it?

Ding. Emily. Guy Benson Boone. Nope. Beyonce has never been to Utah. Well, she actually did come to the Utah State Fair ones. Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny. Benito. Bad Bunny. He out, all right. He outgrossed. Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift. Wow. Let's go. Let's go. Baboni. There you go. I think Emily, you probably won. Yeah. You got at least one. I think so. But it. But I'm not happy about it. Like I said, I test really, really well normally. Yeah, yeah. You both did great. Thanks, Allie. That was fun. All right, executive producer Emily Means, Citicast Salt Lake contributor and executive director of Save Our Canyons, Jack Stouse. Let's talk about what is going on into Willa. This is a little county, 40 minutes west of Salt Lake City, and ashore the Great Salt Lake, which matters in this whole conversation. And it looks like, based on all this different reporting, they could be the home of a new nuclear facility, a data center. and a new wastewater treatment plan. People seem pretty pissed about all this being piled on their city and county. And when we were kind of parsing through all this different reporting, we ended up with more questions than answers about what's going on into a list. So Emily, you dug into this for us. Yeah, well, I tried my darndest. So I think the biggest headline, it's not even the biggest headline. The nuclear headline is also a big headline, right? But one headline that I really keyed into was this one from the Salt Lake Tribune. Utahan speak out as yet another data center is planned near the Great Salt Lake. Of course, we've talked a lot about the Stratos Data Center in Boxelder County, which is also like... upstream from Great Salt Lake. But there was a big public hearing earlier this week and all these folks showed up and they were carrying signs that was like, no data center in Tula County, blah, blah, blah. That public hearing wasn't even about a data center. It was actually about this. like water quality permit with the state that would be required as part of a development, a big development that's planned there through the inland port authority. Okay. I'm trying not to like weave too complicated a web here, but it is quite complicated. Remember when the inland port felt like it was the only story in Salt Lake City? I haven't heard about that in a while. Right, right, right. Well, so the inland port, for anyone who doesn't know, is like a plan in port. export, hub, I think trains, planes, automobiles. Trucks. Kind of like on the trucks in the northwest quadrant of Salt Lake County. But they were also looking to create what they called a satellite port in Tewilla County. So that's, this is the development now that we're talking about. Yeah. And the best way, there's a public hearing. The best way I've ever heard the inland port described is that it's where I-15 and I-80 intersect. And so it's.

the perfect place to import export because it's the two biggest highways in the West. And I was like, oh, ding, ding, ding, ding. That makes sense. Yeah, it all makes sense. So To Willa also wanted to get in on the inland port action. And so this is the project that we're talking about. This is what people showed up to comment on. Got it. But back to that headline that people are so mad about a data center that's planned in Tollah County. It seems... unclear that a data center will actually happen in Tuilla County. Like, this is part of the part of this development plan, but nothing official has happened yet. So folks were protesting a data center, but the data center isn't a real thing. Yeah. And so they never are up. I know, right. I called up the Tuila County assistant. County manager. And I was like, what the heck is going on here? I saw a comment from the inland port executive director that was like, oh, Tawilla County has a moratorium on data centers anyway, so we would never overstep that. And this assistant county manager, Brittany Lopez, said, actually, we don't have a moratorium on data centers. The plot thickens. And I was like, okay, so what do you have? And what they have is a new resolution. passed by their county council last month in June, that directs their staff to review their rules and their ordinances around data centers before. They make any decisions to put one there. Now, you might say, well, isn't that kind of a moratorium? And I think it kind of is. It's a safeguard. It's another layer of, you know, process, which is good. Process is always good. Is it possible they don't want to use the word moratorium because it's become, like, the word has become politicized, right? I actually think that's exactly right, Kelly. We talked to Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams on the show. a Democratic congressman. And even he didn't want to use the word more like moratorium. He referred to it as a hashtag because he felt like, oh, you know, that's not like, what does that even mean? It's sort of like the leftist. It's a leftist policy, the moratorium. Stop everything. Yeah. I think you're. Exactly right, actually. And looking at this resolution, I read the text of the resolution, it's very short. It literally just direct staff to, you know, review policies and come up with some guidelines. It doesn't say anything about pausing applications on data centers, but both this county manager and the staffer who presented it to the county council, they both said, we'll be pausing, accepting applications for data centers, which is a moratorium, right? So that's kind of what's happening there. But, you know, to the question, will the port project have a data center? Talking to this county manager, she says they haven't received any applications for anything like that. And like we just said, they wouldn't be able to at this point anyway. The only thing they've received an application for with this inland port related project is a gas station, like permitting for a gas station. So that's kind of the situation with this particular project.

project in Toilla County, but so many layers, and I can see, I mean, like, we were confused. I think the public in To Willa is probably confused about it. But yes, this is like a Mordicum situation. Interesting. I mean, it makes sense. And it's similar to a lot of projects that I've worked on, like especially like. new gravel pits or mines, there's just like all these layers of permitting, zoning, ordinances, councils that will, you know, hopefully have public hearings, but at the very least have a process for reviewing and accepting. And I think because of how much energy has been created around the data center space, I bet the folks in Tuila, the, the. town manager and the council, they're probably treading very lately around this issue. And for a good reason. I mean, we've seen direct political outcomes of people standing up. And to me, that's the silver lining of a lot of these big projects. It's like kind of turned everyone into environmentalist or somebody. waking up to environmental justice issues. And that's been kind of cool to see. It's like you could call it sort of nimbie, but it's like in everybody's backyards, you know? So it's like everywhere you go, there's one of these things happening. So everyone's kind of learning what tools they have and how to advocate for, you know, better use of their community space. Oh my gosh. The thing about this that I think is so interesting. I totally agree with you, Jack, is also like, I'm a person who really hates the nimbi-y-y paradigm, the not in my backyard, yes, in my backyard sort of paradigm. Agreed. I think it's a false paradigm because I am open to lots of... development or affordable housing projects in my neighborhood. I also don't think we should get rid of public comment. And I think that this whole data center battle has demonstrated exactly what happens when you do and why it is so important to have these kinds of processes, even though sometimes they can be a pain in the ass and they can kill good projects. They can also kill bad projects. And so like, I don't know, right now, like I'm like the two forces that are uniting Utahans in a bipartisan way are one. loathe of data centers and two loathe of Senator Mike Lee. And I'm like, maybe we need to keep both. Maybe we need to keep both in the ecosystem so that we can like continue to build bipartisan power. People react to crisis, right? And right now it feels like there's a lot of crises or a lot of the issues that people are. I've not been aware of in the past or haven't been woken up to. And now it's like really present. So people are getting energized. And that's really inspiring to see. But yeah, I fully agree with you. And I think like we do need stuff that, you know, maybe isn't what we always recognize as things in our community that will help our whole, you know, society uplift. I go back to the abundance thing too. It's so crazy that like we can't get things like trains. But like over the course of what seems like a couple months, they can plan and plan.

push through some of these giant data centers. It's like, well, we can do other cooler things that are better for the rest of us if they can make these so quick. Well, I want to train to Park City. I want it so bad. Oh. Keep dreaming. I can talk about that later. I got ideas. Just a note on, you know, these types of projects. And real quick, I'll say, I did ask, will there be any public comment on this? And yes, it seems like there will be opportunities for that because the Planning Commission, the Twil County Planning Commission needs to review, you know, whatever rules and ordinances they come up with related to Data Center. So that's one opportunity. Probably coming up August 12th, the county manager told me. And then it will also go to the City Council for approval. So there are a couple places where people can plug in. So just on the note of, you know, these projects that may not be good for communities, I tried to get a sense from the county manager, you know, what Toilla's opinion was on having a data center in their county. Is it the kind of thing that they would welcome with some parameters? She was like, no, we don't really have any formal stance on this. But one thing they're considering, Toilla is one of the fastest growing counties in Utah. They also have... A lot of undeveloped land still. And so I think for them, really, their biggest priority is it is economic development. And it's how can we bring more jobs into this county and, you know, make sure that we're not just like sending all of the people who live here out to Salt Lake City to work. Right. So I think that that's a big part of the calculus too for them. We can link this episode in the show notes. I went to this event that the Gardner Institute hosted about data centers and kind of reported out everything I learned. And this was before the Box Elder data center was like introduced. It's almost like they knew it was coming. And one of the things that this. expert that they brought in from California to like present on data centers actually was very specific about is that they are not good job creators. They don't take many people to staff. They don't create a lot of good jobs. And so like the data center piece of this, the job argument is like not the argument to be making. Now, will the inland port jobs be good jobs? I don't know. Our warehouse jobs, good jobs? Historically not. But if that's where they're going to, like, plant their flag, they should prepare for more of a fight on that because the data's not really on their side. Yeah. Well, good luck, Toilla.

Executive producer Emily means city guest solid contributor, Jack Stouse. On Fridays, we do pick of the week. This is something we think everyone should just know about. Jack, you're our guest of honor. What's your pick of the week? Oh, so honored. I am picking something close to home here for me, just a couple blocks away. I can walk over to Liberty Park and I can go to the public pool in the middle of the heat of the summer. I love that pool. People kind of like be like, oh, public pool. you know, kind of like maybe not the first thing you think of. Yeah, exactly. But I've been there. It's clean. It's awesome. And guess how much it costs? It's like $3 or something, right? It's $6? It's $2.50 for adults. So it's relatively cheap. They get like an ice cream bar in there for like a buck. It's, yeah, it's a nice summer activity. It kind of feels just like local and, yeah, you're in the park, but you can go in the pool. It's great. You can't get a gallon of milk for $2.50. I don't know what you can get for that much anymore besides a visit to the pool. Amazing. And if you want to walk over to the Ferris wheel, you can get a good empanada too. Jack, that's such, the Liberty Park pool is such a good one. And they're going to finish up that new playground soon. And hopefully that unveil will come ASAP. And then there'll be a perfect, perfect park. Crown jewel. Emily, what's your pick of the week? All right. You want to know what you can get for two bucks? Okay. The biggest ice cream cone I have ever seen in my life. I went to the Macy's grocery store. This is not the grocery store I shop at, but I was just like, you know what? I've heard about this ice cream cone. I need one. I believe it's called a Kong cone. like King Kong, like it's big. Okay. But at the same time, their sizes are so, they're so strangely named. Like, there's baby size, mommy size, daddy size. The patriarchal ice cream codes. Yes, yes. At the time, their chocolate ice cream wasn't working, so I only got vanilla. I would normally get a twist, but it was really good. I will say, though, halfway through, I was like, this is too much ice cream. But I couldn't just let it melt. You got to eat it. So I ate all of it. Nice work. Thank you. This is the grocery store. Like there's one across from Red Moose, right? Kind of near the East Bench. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I think it replaced a fresh market. The one I went to was in Mill Creek on Highland, I think. Nice. Listen, it really hit the spot. Like, in these extremely hot times when you need a lot of ice cream for a little money, it's a good one. Yum. So there you go. Love it. Allie, what's your pick? Okay, well, this is a crazy thing to do. you know, this close to 801 day. But my pick is in the 435. And I think they deserve a little love because there are not 35 days in April and that's not their fault. So I saw that the Utah theater, which is this really delightful historic theater in Logan in northern Utah, is doing movie screenings. all July and August. And their lineup for August is really fun. The nice thing about Logan is that you are up in northern Utah. It almost feels like, I think it's like Utah's New England city. Like, it just feels they get a proper fall there. Like, it just feels really quaint. It feels quintessential. And it's cool that they haven't toured down this theater. It's cool that it's like been restored and loved. So they're showing everything from.

Moana to the parent trap. No way. To the future. Men in Black. What? Classics. American graffiti, Jaws, the original summer blockbuster. What? And they've got movies all throughout August. They've got this great calendar. But the thing that makes this pick of the week worthy for me is that they have two specials. So you can buy the date night package, which is two tickets, a medium popcorn, and a box of candy for $22. Or you can get what I think is an unbelievable deal, the family pack. So this is $40, and you get... Five tickets, a large popcorn, and two boxes of candy. Whoa. Per ounce, that's like $2.50 for everything. That sounds really cool. That's super fun. I love when they bring back some of the old classics and make it. Yeah, it's so fun to see them in theater because we weren't alive when they came out. We talked about it. That was alive when Menop Black came out. My favorite movies. Well, I mean, me too. But like, Jaws, Jack, are you much older than I think you are? That's true. They're also showing the West Side Story with Rachel Ziegler. So there's stuff. Oh, my fair lady, Audrey Hepburn. Yeah, wasn't alive for that. Had a poster on my wall growing up. Yeah, this is like super cool. So head up to Logan, make a day of it or not, and check out. Logan is gorgeous. Their website is just the Utah Theater.com. Okay, now it's time to do something exciting. So if you are a CityCast Salt Lake neighbor, those are folks in our membership program, you get to stick around. There's more show for you. We've got a special segment. We're going to talk about our friend Sears Lake, which is about to be filled in as Inner Mountain finally kind of gets to it building a hospital downtown. So we've got an update on all of that. We're going to memorialize Sears Lake. If you are not in our membership program, it's not too late to join. You can do that at membership.citycast.fm. We ask you for $10 a month or $100 a year. We shower you in perks like special segments. You get to shout out things you love in our podcast and newsletter. We have cool, like, merch for you during campaigns. You get ad-free listening. It's a wonderful, wonderful time. So membership.citycast.fm is the place to join. If you join, you get access to an ad-free feed where you can hear the final segment of this show. If that's not right for you, we bid you farewell and we'll see you at 801 day. Executive producer Emily Means, CityCast Salt Lake contributor, Jack Stouse. Happy 801 day. I will see you tomorrow at the party. Woo, see you there. See you there. See you there. That is all for us today here on Citigast Salt Lake. Our executive producers, Emily Means. Our producers are Ivana Martinez and Matil Ophalino. Our newsletter editors, Therina Ria, our audience development manager is Angie Treasure. And I'm your host, Ali Viarta. Music is by the local band, mitochondria, with additional music from all the kimonos, Arc de Soleil, Wendy Marcini, Sven, Linval, Bagel, and Measlo. We will be back on Monday morning, officially in August, with more from around town. Have a great weekend.

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