Group 8-Sugar House

Adam Jones, Jackson Myrick, Michael May, Sami Crouch, Josh Southwick, Hector Zumaeta

For our most recent walkabout group eight visited the neighborhood around Sugar House and its well-known shopping complex. I’d like to focus on the neighborhood first so that I can later contrast it with the much busier part of our excursion.

The neighborhood we visited was built around a grid street system, making it very easy to navigate. The houses were low to the ground and mostly single level. Though the ranch style house was the most common style of architecture (bungalows and revival styles present as well) the one theme that pervaded all of the houses was in the use of brick. This helped to construct a very traditional and very homogenous atmosphere within the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood. Along with the abundance of foliage, the raised houses, and the tucked away garages, the neighborhood felt very secluded and secure.

Most of the people we met during our roaming of the neighborhood appeared to be locals; either people coming home from some activity or walking by with their dogs. The amount of children’s toys left on the sidewalks also lent itself to the feeling of security within the area.

We also came across the local church while walking around. Its half-timber architecture added to the traditional feeling within the area. The church seemed to be a place of gathering for more than just religious services, since while we passed there were a number of local kids playing football on the lawn to the side of it.

Shopping district

The streets surrounding the neighborhood by comparison are extremely busy; the flow of traffic nearly constant. In addition to the busy streets there is a power station across the street from the neighborhoods showing how much of a utilitarian shift there is between the two.

The shopping area itself is comprised of the typical, generic, popular shops. Places such as PayLess, Red Lobster, ShopKo, and Barnes & Noble. These seem to pull both local people from the surrounding neighborhoods and from the larger metropolitan area.

The one shop we entered (in part to escape the cold) was a shop called Dolce Coffee. It had a very modern, stylish interior. There were not a lot of people in the shop despite the time which we arrived. The prices were pretty high, nearly every drink offered was above $2-3, but the black coffee was cheap and not didn't need any cream or sugar, a staple by which I rate the value of a coffee shop.