Salt Lake City, Utah with Dwayne Atikinson
[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Where Do Gays Retire podcast, where we help you in the LGBTQ plus community find a safe and affordable retirement place. Join Mark Goldstein as he interviews others who live in gay friendly places around the globe. Learn about the climate, cost of living, healthcare, crime and safety, and more. Now, here's your host, Mark Goldstein.
[00:00:30] Mark Goldstein: Today we take a journey to Salt Lake City, Utah, with our guest Dwayne Atkinson. Dwayne was born and raised in the northern Utah area, Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, and he also spent time in Southern California in Oxnard. He was educated in Utah through high school, went to Weber State University, majoring in architecture, but continued his education.
[00:00:57] Mark Goldstein: Raised in the predominant religion of the area, the [00:01:00] Latter day Saints Mormon. He served a church mission to South Korea. He has since left organized religion and he has been in a relationship since 1987. That's a long time. Congratulations. Thank you. They were legally married in Oakland, California when it was legal in California and then again in Salt Lake after the federal recognition of same sex marriage.
[00:01:26] Mark Goldstein: His employment is in fire protection and he worked in the Salt Lake area for eight years and currently in the Oakland, San Francisco, California area for 27 years, but remains living in Salt Lake City, Utah. So how does that work? You've traveled back and forth?
[00:01:44] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, as needed. Early, early on in my career there, I was traveling every single week.
[00:01:49] Dwayne Atkinson: And then later, you know, with technology caught up, I was able to work more remotely.
[00:01:54] Mark Goldstein: Okay. And Dwayne also lived downtown Salt Lake since 2002. [00:02:00] He, they recently sold their condo and, and live in South Ogden. They enjoy the Salt Lake City community vibe, since Dwayne is a city guy, his husband not so much.
[00:02:14] Mark Goldstein: He's part of the neighborhood community. But also supported the gay community, but he's not active or involved in the community. He has already planned for retirement locations and has a tiny home in Littlefield, Arizona. Boy, it must be so little, I don't, never heard of it. It's a sliver of Arizona between Utah and Nevada.
[00:02:36] Mark Goldstein: And also he has a place in Baltimore, Maryland. They chose to remain in Northern Utah for their primary retirement location. Hobbies are camping and maybe considered glamping, gay camping, hiking in the summer, snowshoeing in the winter, riding the side by side in the mountains and desert, attending local car shows, local [00:03:00] community festivals, small venue, music concerts, evening with friends, enjoying dinner and wine.
[00:03:07] Mark Goldstein: He's still working but enjoys traveling when they can to different places around the country and sometimes around the world. Dwayne, thank you so much for coming to the podcast and tell us a little bit about your life in Salt Lake City. You've been there for quite some time. Did you ever live outside of Utah besides California?
[00:03:31] Mark Goldstein: Give us a
[00:03:31] Dwayne Atkinson: little background. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I did. I mean, like, like I said, growing up, I was always living in Utah. In Southern California during the summer months, it was came back to Utah to go to school during the school years. So I spent a lot of time outside of the state of Utah, which made for a very great perspective to be living here, having that, you know, perspective from different locations, but also before I moved back to Utah, I was living out of the country for quite a few years.
[00:03:58] Dwayne Atkinson: And I, I came back to take [00:04:00] care of a a parent. And so that's why I ended up living back in Utah. I. Didn't actually intend on living here or maybe even retiring here, but I did come back home. That's how I ended up coming on moving back to Utah.
[00:04:11] Mark Goldstein: Gotcha. So tell, tell the audience geographically, where is Salt Lake City located in the state of Utah?
[00:04:21] Dwayne Atkinson: It's considered northern Utah, the northern part of Utah. And it obviously we have the, the, all the way down the Southern part, a little bit more desert in the North part, a little bit more mountainous and, and, and wintry.
[00:04:33] Mark Goldstein: So, so like city gets wintry. Tell us about the climate there. Are summers hot and dry, or do you have like monsoons like we do here in Arizona and Phoenix?
[00:04:45] Dwayne Atkinson: We, we it's, it's, the summers are hot and the winters are cold, obviously. And during the summer, there is kind of a that month of in the summer, you get a little bit of monsoon, a little bit more rains, but it's usually hot and dry you know, gets into the recently in recent years. It's been getting into [00:05:00] the you know, 105, 107, 110 range some days we have, you know, those 17 days plus.
[00:05:06] Dwayne Atkinson: And this year, obviously, like everyone else, we had a record days of number of hot days. But yeah, we do have the hot summers here, mostly dry. And then the, the cool summer cool spring and fall and then cold
[00:05:17] Mark Goldstein: winters, right? What does it go down to
[00:05:20] Dwayne Atkinson: in the winter? Well, you know, you obviously, you know, you get down into the teens and the single digit numbers at night.
[00:05:27] Dwayne Atkinson: And during the day, you'll be back up into, you know, around freezing sometimes. On some good warm winter days, you're in the low 40s, you know. You have your, you're, you know. A lot of times what we call a January thaw, I guess, have a few days or a week in January, we have some, some low forties, which is nice and warm, right?
[00:05:44] Dwayne Atkinson: So it's a warming trend. For you, for you, not for me. But we, I, you know, it's so, yeah, it definitely has the four seasons, the four seasons for the climate here.
[00:05:55] Mark Goldstein: Wow. Yeah. I wouldn't I would. I wouldn't think it would get that [00:06:00] cold, but I guess, yeah, in Utah mountains, it's beautiful. I mean, I've seen pictures of Salt Lake city.
[00:06:06] Mark Goldstein: It's actually, it's absolutely beautiful. It's gorgeous. Just to, I mean, looking at the mountains and back of the city, it's just unbelievable.
[00:06:15] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, it really is a beautiful city and literally is right at the base of the mountains. I mean, I think Salt Lake is an elevation around 4, 000, 4, 200 feet to start with.
[00:06:26] Dwayne Atkinson: And then your mountains go up to, you know. 9, 000, a couple of years, 10, 000 elevation for the peaks on the, on the mountains in the area. So we're already at a elevation. It's a, you know, it's a high desert, but yeah, so yeah, North and high. So 4,
[00:06:40] Mark Goldstein: 000 is not bad. Cause I remember like, Santa Fe, New Mexico is around 7, 000, I think.
[00:06:49] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. So, Is there, I mean, as you go up the mountain, do you have homes that are on the mountain too, that are higher
[00:06:58] Dwayne Atkinson: elevation? The [00:07:00] foothills or the, what they call around here, they call the benches, the foothills. They have houses up, up there, you know, they're up to the, you know, 6,000 elevation. 'cause it, you have the hills that go literally out from, from downtown Salt Lake and go up to those elevations.
[00:07:13] Dwayne Atkinson: The homes are built up, the hillsides. Wow. And then Park City, of course, is obviously a higher elevation up the canyon from Salt Lake. You get to that automatically, that, you know, 7, 000 foot elevation right into Park
[00:07:24] Mark Goldstein: City. Then the air gets a little thinner up there too.
[00:07:29] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes, for those that are used to the lower elevations, it would, it's definitely a challenge sometimes.
[00:07:34] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, I'd be
[00:07:36] Mark Goldstein: Right? Yeah. Do you get a lot of rain at all?
[00:07:41] Dwayne Atkinson: You know, we don't, it's not considered a lot of rain. We, I mean, your, your spring rains and then the little bit of the summer monsoons and a lot of the fall rains, it's not a really, you know, it's not a rainy climate really at all.
[00:07:56] Mark Goldstein: Really nice, except for the cold winter is not for me [00:08:00] personally, but there are people who love the winter and love skiing.
[00:08:04] Mark Goldstein: So, well,
[00:08:05] Dwayne Atkinson: and we do, we enjoy the winter and we don't mind getting out. And it joins the, you know, the winter climate, you know, the snowshoeing and such. So there's, there's, there are plenty of things to do in the winter, you know, and if you don't like it, you just yeah. Stay indoors with the heater on.
[00:08:20] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah. I
[00:08:20] Mark Goldstein: wonder, you know, I have to visit one day and I have to even check out the winter because although I'm getting used to very warm climates, I used to live in New York and you know, I would think New York winter is probably different than Salt Lake City winter. I don't know. It probably feels different.
[00:08:38] Mark Goldstein: So it's just something I'd like to check out sometime. Maybe for a quick, quick
[00:08:45] Dwayne Atkinson: stop in for the
[00:08:45] Mark Goldstein: day. Yeah. Yeah. Get some hot chocolate and say, okay, I experienced it. So you said in the summer it gets warm. Is there, I'm sure there's some quick getaways where you can get cooler because of the mountains,
[00:08:58] Dwayne Atkinson: right?
[00:08:59] Dwayne Atkinson: [00:09:00] Correct. Yeah. And so, you know, there's, there's a lot of people have, you know, go camping up to the hills where it's cool. You know, you, you, you drop in temperature, you know, 10 to 15 degrees when you go up to higher elevation, it's cooler in the mountains and the trees and the canyons, a little bit of water up there.
[00:09:13] Dwayne Atkinson: It makes it a little bit more refreshing. Oh,
[00:09:16] Mark Goldstein: nice, nice. And glamping, you do some glamping.
[00:09:20] Dwayne Atkinson: Oh, yeah, yeah, we gave up the camping days years ago. No more tents and sleeping bags, you know, it's a, it's glamour,
[00:09:27] Mark Goldstein: glamour camping.
[00:09:28] Dwayne Atkinson: It's, it's a trailer with a mattress and, you know, a screen gazebo to keep the bugs away and, you know.
[00:09:35] Dwayne Atkinson: You
[00:09:35] Mark Goldstein: know what my idea of camping is? Going to a, going to a four star or five star hotel. Yeah.
[00:09:42] Dwayne Atkinson: We still, we still like being out in the wilderness a little bit, you know, but just a little bit more taking care of when you're out there.
[00:09:48] Mark Goldstein: Right. That's sort of camping, at least, at least it's semi camping, so yeah, glamping sounds good.
[00:09:55] Mark Goldstein: So, all right. So is there any [00:10:00] type of LGBTQ community in Salt Lake City? I know Salt Lake has. I think they have a vibrant, don't they have a vibrant gay community there?
[00:10:10] Dwayne Atkinson: They actually do and it's really odd thinking about you know, a very predominant conservative Christian religion dominating the state and yet Salt Lake is, is, is very more liberal and there is a strong gay community, which is really, it's really nice.
[00:10:27] Dwayne Atkinson: It's, it's odd, but it's, it works out great. You know, they do have a nice community. You know, not many gay bars. We have a few gay bars. They have a lot of community activities. They have a gay pride, a large gay pride. They have a pride center that provides services to the younger generation and, and, and seniors in the community as well.
[00:10:46] Dwayne Atkinson: So there's a lot of activities.
[00:10:48] Mark Goldstein: Wow. That sounds, it sounds kind of refreshing that it's like a little oasis, you know, that they have definitely they've built a gay community there and they [00:11:00] don't have any problems. With the, with organized religion and stuff like that.
[00:11:05] Dwayne Atkinson: Well, I mean, there's always those, those issues out there, obviously.
[00:11:09] Dwayne Atkinson: And the, the hate crimes, you know, as, as they're not extreme here, but they are on the rise, you know, the little minor confrontations and, and such, they are on the rise here. Like probably they are everywhere else with things going on with in, in, in, in the areas, but yeah, it's, there's, there's, there's a lot of You know, the, the, I, I am not real negative since I grew up with the the predominant religion here as a Mormon.
[00:11:33] Dwayne Atkinson: I'm not real negative towards it, although I don't no longer agree with it. I find they are very, because of their, their beliefs, they are, they're a little bit more kind about it. They're not hateful. They're not, they're not mean. They're not cruel. They may not agree with you. They may not like you but they don't hate you.
[00:11:48] Dwayne Atkinson: So it makes it a little bit easier to get along with them. Right. Gotcha.
[00:11:51] Mark Goldstein: So is living in a LGBTQ. Is the LGBTQ community important to you?
[00:11:58] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes and no. I mean, it's [00:12:00] nice to have, but it's not the main focus at this point in my life. I'm a little bit more of the overall community and not specifically the gay community.
[00:12:08] Dwayne Atkinson: I know a lot of people feel differently about that, but I, you know, grew up in neighborhoods where we were the only gay couple at the time. And we became very good friends with all of our neighbors. So I'm a part of the community. I don't necessarily, I've learned to build a community with the people around me.
[00:12:25] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes, we have gay friends out there, different cities around, we get together, but it's more of a, yeah, I don't absolutely have to have a gay community to, to be in the area where I live.
[00:12:37] Mark Goldstein: Okay. All right. Does Salt Lake City have like a gayborhood? Is there like an area of Salt Lake that they have the gay bars and they have restaurants and, and retail and stuff like that?
[00:12:50] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes. So there are like, I think there's probably three locations kind of considered the gayborhoods. One of the areas is mostly where a lot of the, the gay community would, [00:13:00] would live, meaning not necessarily a lot of gay retail or things like that, but a lot of people, prominent, a prominent area for the gay community to live in the foothills between actually downtown and the Capitol building.
[00:13:11] Dwayne Atkinson: It's called the Avenues. That's a really nice area, older homes part of the, you know, original area where Salt Lake was developed. And so that's where a lot of, a lot of us live. And then, of course There's an area called 9th and 9th a lot of, you know, gay owned coffee shops, bookstores, a little bit more of the retail and also from that area, again, a lot of the gay community live in that area as well.
[00:13:33] Dwayne Atkinson: So that's that, and that's, that was kind of the original gayborhood of Salt Lake, and then there's another gay friendly area Kind of just slightly South and East of Salt Lake is called Sugar House. It's another kind of predominantly gay area. You know, a favorite area for, for us all to, to live and hang out.
[00:13:50] Dwayne Atkinson: Sugar
[00:13:50] Mark Goldstein: House sounds sweet. Yes. Okay. Three, three gayborhoods. So, okay. I'm definitely, [00:14:00] definitely looking to check that out. So how easy is it to make friends? Okay. In Salt Lake is the gay community friendly? Are they kind of like, is, are there different meetup groups and stuff like that where you can meet people?
[00:14:17] Dwayne Atkinson: They, they do have a lot of the groups out there. If you look it up, you can, you know, whether you're into bingo or hiking or just walking or, you know, movies, whatever. They have a lot of different gay sponsored groups for those types of things. Now that, you know, how friendly it is, you know, with every community, you're going to have the, the, you know, I don't know, you different clicks, you different snobs or, you know, whatever.
[00:14:36] Dwayne Atkinson: So that's definitely out there. So it depends on how sociable you are, would be how easy or difficult it is. I'm not as sociable. My husband is very sociable. So, you know, we're able to make a lot of friends because of him. Otherwise I would have just a couple of friends and sit home a lot more. So, you know, you kind of have to put yourself out there a little bit and get out there and meet people.
[00:14:55] Dwayne Atkinson: But it's, it's really not that difficult. There are what I found a lot of, you know, [00:15:00] groups to, to, to get together with. To find friends. I understand.
[00:15:05] Mark Goldstein: Okay. Tell us a little bit about the local economy. For instance, if I was looking to purchase a condo in Salt Lake City, what am I looking for? I'm what am I looking at in terms of price approximately for like a two bedroom, two bath?
[00:15:23] Dwayne Atkinson: You know, with real estate, it's always about location, but you know, an 800 square foot condo is. You know, depending on the location, the building, whatever is going to be from 300 to 700, 000. That's a large range, but they're, the prices have obviously gone up in the last few years, almost doubled for a lot of those, those condos that are right downtown.
[00:15:45] Dwayne Atkinson: So housing has become a little bit more expensive than it has been. Like I recently sold my condo for 800 square feet, 425. Wow. So, yeah.
[00:15:55] Mark Goldstein: And that's, I mean, that's not an [00:16:00] extremely large condo either.
[00:16:01] Dwayne Atkinson: No, but it was literally right downtown. Oh,
[00:16:04] Mark Goldstein: okay. So it's primary, primary
[00:16:07] Dwayne Atkinson: area. Yeah. You step out, you drop down to, you know, 300, 000.
[00:16:12] Dwayne Atkinson: Okay.
[00:16:13] Mark Goldstein: Because 400, 000, 400 and change, 400, 000 is expensive. And then
[00:16:17] Dwayne Atkinson: you, you get to the houses and you're, again, you're, you know, 425, 750 range for houses, you know, some of the bungalows and such outside the downtown area. You know, so,
[00:16:28] Mark Goldstein: so we're talking like, let's say I wanted a condo and I was, I don't know if they exist, but right now I'm living in one with 1700 square feet.
[00:16:36] Mark Goldstein: So if I had a 1700 square feet condo, would I be paying 600, 000 downtown?
[00:16:45] Dwayne Atkinson: Downtown, you're looking closer to. 800, 000 for that price range up to the 1. 2.
[00:16:51] Mark Goldstein: Wow. Nice. So, I mean, that's,
[00:16:55] Dwayne Atkinson: that's, that's again, that's, I mean, it's right downtown, you know, you move outside [00:17:00] that area, you can get it more of a townhouse with you know, with that square footage and you, you, you drop quite a few hundred thousand off of that.
[00:17:07] Dwayne Atkinson: Got it. Just because you can't get it for the 5, 600, 000.
[00:17:11] Mark Goldstein: Got it. Okay. How about tell us a little bit about cost of living and expenses. So groceries cable bills, electric bills, water bills, stuff like that. What's that? Like,
[00:17:26] Dwayne Atkinson: I think they're typical to other cities as far as cost of you know, electricity and, and food costs.
[00:17:34] Dwayne Atkinson: I don't think there's much difference there. You know, obviously. Right downtown some stores because we have to pay for their their lease space. Maybe, you know, they mark up their prices slightly, but it's still it's pretty much the same as it is anywhere else. You know, there again, you have your local tax.
[00:17:51] Dwayne Atkinson: That is food tax. You have that in Utah, but they have reduced it and and removed it from, you know, Milk and [00:18:00] eggs and the basics. They, they changed the tax on that where they used to have a food tax on everything across the board. They changed that. Now the only tax, you know, You're like your bag of potato chips that are taxed, but it's, but milk and eggs type stuff is not, you know, all the right.
[00:18:16] Mark Goldstein: Got it. Got it. And they do
[00:18:18] Dwayne Atkinson: have, you know, taxes on yeah, they're the electric bills again. There's their, I don't know how to make a comparison, but again, I don't think from what I pay at my other property, I don't, they don't appear to be much different than other states for the cost of electricity. And a lot of people here have natural gas, which is a little bit more affordable than oil like they would have back east or all electric they would have in other states.
[00:18:45] Dwayne Atkinson: They do have the natural gas, which is a little bit more affordable than, than, than electricity, I believe.
[00:18:51] Mark Goldstein: How about taxes? Are they high?
[00:18:55] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, they are. Actually, I, I believe they're a little bit higher in Utah. You know, you have your [00:19:00] six and a half percent sales tax on general merchandise. That's 8 percent depending on what it is. Right. And then my You know, my property tax seemed like it was pretty expensive for my, you know, 800 square foot condo was 2, 600 a year.
[00:19:13] Dwayne Atkinson: You know, which seemed pretty expensive to me. Yeah. For property
[00:19:17] Mark Goldstein: tax. Yeah, for 800 square feet, yeah. Because I'm paying, I think, 2, 800 too as well. And it's 1, 700 square feet. So, yeah, it seems a
[00:19:30] Dwayne Atkinson: little more. They it's a it's a, you know, a value based tax. They don't have a prop 13 like California where you, you kind of set your tax at the price and the value you paid for your home when you purchased it.
[00:19:42] Dwayne Atkinson: And then, you know, minimal increases based on the on on changes. But, you know, this is based on the value as the value goes up. Okay,
[00:19:53] Mark Goldstein: tell us about how about rentals? If you, if I wanted to rent an apartment, like [00:20:00] a one or two bedroom apartment, what are we looking at as far
[00:20:03] Dwayne Atkinson: as recently? They've gone up as well because of housing demands, but, you know, you still find things for rentals.
[00:20:11] Dwayne Atkinson: It, it's a broad range, but anywhere from eight, 900 to 1800 depending on, on your location and you know the amenities you want with the apartment, you know? Right. If you need a gym and a pool, whatever. So it's obviously gonna be the $1,800 range for that.
[00:20:25] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. I'm spoiled. I need, even though I don't use it.
[00:20:30] Mark Goldstein: you want the amenities. I just want it being there just in case. I want to use it 1, 800 and I'm so, I don't know what to do. Tell us about Salt Lake city's arts and culture scene. Does it have any theater, museums and galleries and stuff like that?
[00:20:58] Dwayne Atkinson: It does. And actually the, the community [00:21:00] is really supportive.
[00:21:00] Dwayne Atkinson: The community in general is very supportive of, of the arts. They have Utah opera, which is, is, you know, well established. They have ballet West and they have a, another repertory theater group as well, a dance group. They have a fairly new beautiful theater for the touring Broadway shows and some local Broadway shows.
[00:21:22] Dwayne Atkinson: And they, you know, it's a beautiful, huge theater that can where they can have the, the larger productions with no issues. Previously, they had a smaller theater. They couldn't get all the tour and Broadway shows. So now they're able to get all those. They have a lot of smaller community theater groups as well that are actually doing that.
[00:21:36] Dwayne Atkinson: Really, really well done. So they, we really enjoy those. There are some, you know, modern art museums basic regular art museums. And yeah, there's, there actually is a lot of that in the community. I'm really surprised how supportive the community is and how much funding they provide to help support that in the community.
[00:21:54] Dwayne Atkinson: Wow.
[00:21:55] Mark Goldstein: It's are they all located like in the downtown area? Are they [00:22:00] accessible?
[00:22:01] Dwayne Atkinson: Most of them are, yes. Some are a little bit farther, like there's one theater a little bit farther south of Salt Lake in the South Valley, they call it. But yeah, most of them are located within mostly, you know, the Salt Lake area.
[00:22:13] Mark Goldstein: Is the is the, like the theater, like the traveling Broadway? theater. Is that downtown?
[00:22:21] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, it's right downtown. Yeah.
[00:22:23] Mark Goldstein: So is, is downtown at all walkable? Like if I live there, could I walk to like the grocery or restaurants? Definitely.
[00:22:34] Dwayne Atkinson: Oh, we were able to do that. Definitely. You know, they have a great grocery store.
[00:22:39] Dwayne Atkinson: I mean, A beautiful, huge grocery store right downtown, and that's really helped to bring in people to live downtown because they're, you know, they have to leave the area for groceries, you know, have a couple more just barely outside of downtown. We're all more the you know, the 5 story apartments, the townhouse are all are, they have another grocery store there, and I think they, I think they plan for that because they knew it was important to be able to [00:23:00] build a community there.
[00:23:01] Dwayne Atkinson: They needed those resources, you know, the food, a couple of gas stations, those types of things. Small retail in those areas is very walkable to all of that. So you
[00:23:10] Mark Goldstein: live there, right? Like walkable? Yes. So that's great. So you can go, you can walk to the grocery? Yes. Do you ever walk or do you take your car?
[00:23:21] Mark Goldstein: Walk.
[00:23:22] Dwayne Atkinson: You do? Yeah, I walked to the grocery store where I lived. It was only a block. How about like
[00:23:27] Mark Goldstein: a pharmacy and a bank and you know, some essential restaurants? Can
[00:23:32] Dwayne Atkinson: you walk? All right, all right, Dan. Literally, you could walk two blocks here, two blocks there, and be able to find, you know, CVS, Walgreens, restaurants.
[00:23:42] Dwayne Atkinson: Wow. Right within downtown.
[00:23:44] Mark Goldstein: Wow. So, downtown is, I mean, that's the place. Yes.
[00:23:49] Dwayne Atkinson: To be. And even the large grocery store that was, was a block away was, had a pharmacy in it as well. So it was very convenient.
[00:23:55] Mark Goldstein: That's great. So you have your own little walkable [00:24:00] community. . Yeah, I gotta look that up on, what is that?
[00:24:04] Mark Goldstein: Walk score.com and see what the walk score is for Salt Lake. And they
[00:24:10] Dwayne Atkinson: also have some really great, they, they integrated some bike lanes downtown for they've really tried to, to create a very bikeable city as well.
[00:24:18] Mark Goldstein: That's great. Yeah. That's great that, I mean. That's what I want in retirement. It's like, I don't want to drive.
[00:24:26] Mark Goldstein: I'm right. I'm a spoiled New Yorker. New Yorkers They took the subway all their lives. They got used to the subway and transportation. Everything was at their fingertips So if I wanted a Starbucks, it would be up the block if I wanted a restaurant and be up though, you know Everything was walkable and in Manhattan at least
[00:24:49] Dwayne Atkinson: so It was very similar to downtown Salt Lake.
[00:24:51] Dwayne Atkinson: I had that type of experience. Yeah, my type. Obviously, it's not New York, but yeah.
[00:24:56] Mark Goldstein: Right, but my type of retirement is just like, hey, [00:25:00] have a place, be able to walk to all of these places, and hey, you get exercise too.
[00:25:07] Dwayne Atkinson: Well, you'd have to bundle up here if you go out in the winter.
[00:25:10] Mark Goldstein: Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true.
[00:25:11] Mark Goldstein: Well, you have to, you have to unbundle here in the summer. There you go.
[00:25:16] Dwayne Atkinson: There you go. It's a
[00:25:17] Mark Goldstein: balance. Yes. So that's interesting. Do you, do you have a car? Yes. Oh, okay. Is gas expensive?
[00:25:27] Dwayne Atkinson: It, well, it is in Utah, I believe it's higher than most places because they have a high gas tax, you know, to, to, to maintain the roads and, and infrastructure there.
[00:25:38] Dwayne Atkinson: They, it's a high gas tax, I believe, in my opinion,
[00:25:40] Mark Goldstein: higher than most states. What's the per gallon price approximately right
[00:25:45] Dwayne Atkinson: now? Currently, it's like 4 a gallon, 4. 07 a gallon, 4. 09 range, where, you know, other places might be 3. 75, you know.
[00:25:56] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, it's still not bad. Phoenix is, Phoenix [00:26:00] is pretty high. Yeah.
[00:26:01] Mark Goldstein: Compared to every place else. And California is even higher. Yeah. California is even higher. Yeah. California is like, I don't know if they're up to 7.
[00:26:09] Dwayne Atkinson: So it's, it's very affordable compared to California. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Right. So it's all, it's all in perspective, I guess. But when I go to Maryland, it's, it's, it's cheaper back
[00:26:18] Mark Goldstein: East.
[00:26:19] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Yeah. And I remember when I lived in Florida, I was like, Oh, yeah. Oh my God. It's so cheap. The gas. But okay. So how about restaurants? Let's talk about food. One of my favorite subjects are there any good restaurants in Salt Lake and what can you get and can you walk there?
[00:26:41] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, you can walk to most of them from when you're right downtown, and they have some great local restaurants.
[00:26:48] Dwayne Atkinson: They have some local brew pubs, which is again, really odd thing for Utah, but there's quite a few of them and some really, really good beers, really good whiskeys are [00:27:00] manufactured in Utah, surprisingly. So, you have all that downtown. There are some really great restaurants for whether, whether you want you know, a gourmet Ramen place you can walk to or sushi or, you know, deep fried, you know, chicken tenders, whatever you want, or some high end steak and, and, and really fine French restaurants as well.
[00:27:20] Dwayne Atkinson: You do have that.
[00:27:21] Mark Goldstein: So they have it all. They have any like five star Michelin restaurants?
[00:27:26] Dwayne Atkinson: I don't think they have. You know, I, I don't follow that as much as I could, but I don't think we have any five star restaurants here in Salt Lake. They might have one up in Park City where all the, you know, all the you know, outside tourists come that would, would maybe expect that have a little bit more fine dining up there because the clientele downtown, you have some really good restaurants, good food, good restaurants.
[00:27:50] Dwayne Atkinson: I don't know, as far as, I I don't know about the rating of them.
[00:27:54] Mark Goldstein: Okay, not a problem. Where do people come to ski? Do they ski in [00:28:00] Salt Lake? Or do they go to Park City?
[00:28:03] Dwayne Atkinson: It's a mix of words. It's only 40 minutes, maybe a little bit less from downtown Salt Lake, literally downtown, maybe from the airport downtown to Park City.
[00:28:12] Dwayne Atkinson: A lot of people stay in Salt Lake right downtown and then they'll go up to the resort in Park City, but there's also other resorts that are not in Park City that are really Great resorts. And so people will actually stay in Salt Lake and go to those resorts rather than going to Park City.
[00:28:29] Mark Goldstein: Now, tell me about those resorts.
[00:28:30] Mark Goldstein: Now, I'm curious. So what kind of resorts are there?
[00:28:33] Dwayne Atkinson: Ski resorts. So there's ski resorts and they also have summer activities with your zip lines and biking and hiking in the summer, obviously these same resorts. Snowbird is a phenomenal resort one of the most popular ones and it's the most developed.
[00:28:45] Dwayne Atkinson: It has a hotel actually up at the resort and some really fine restaurants and fun activities of a Snowbird up, up, you know, there's Alta and Brighton. Some of the smaller ones, well established, have been around ever since I was a young kid. And you know, they're still really Do you [00:29:00] ski? Currently, I do not, but I did my entire life.
[00:29:04] Dwayne Atkinson: It was since I was probably 10. Back then we had table bindings and lace boots, right? So I started, I started very young. Oh, they don't
[00:29:12] Mark Goldstein: have that anymore. That's how old I am. That's how, that was the
[00:29:16] Dwayne Atkinson: last time. Yeah, technology has advanced slightly for us, right? So, I went to Snow Basin, it's a little bit farther north, to a resort that was farther north called Snow Basin.
[00:29:26] Dwayne Atkinson: Love it. That's where I grew up skiing. It's more in the Ogden area. And from my house, it's maybe 25 minutes max from my house. So it's very close by, very convenient, very, you know, accessible with a nice freeway and highway up to the resort. And yeah, but I, yeah, why'd you give it up? Just some, some limitations physically had to give it up.
[00:29:47] Dwayne Atkinson: So, I, I, I still crave it. Some winters, like last winter, we had a phenomenal winter with the amount of snow and I just, some days I just craved to go skiing and I couldn't, so it was frustrating.
[00:29:58] Mark Goldstein: That's one craving [00:30:00] I don't really have. Okay. I mean, coffee. Yeah. I crave coffee. You can't really say I crave skiing.
[00:30:10] Mark Goldstein: Now. It probably goes back to my younger years where I used to go upstate and from work we, I used to, I used to plan these ski trips upstate New York to these Skiing resorts, and we have a bunch of people, a couple of busloads go up there. But, you know, I was always the beginner skier, and one time I was following my friend.
[00:30:39] Mark Goldstein: I knew nothing about skiing, and he's showing me, all right, this is the way you snowplow, blah, you're going this way, you go this way. And then all of a sudden, like in the middle of the mountain, there were like five people in a circle. Like blocking my way. And I'm like, Oh my God, what are they doing? Just like standing around talking.
[00:30:57] Mark Goldstein: And literally, I think I [00:31:00] was like the bowling ball and they were the pins. Because I went, I couldn't stop. And some of them landed on the floor. I landed on the floor.
[00:31:13] Dwayne Atkinson: And you keep at it, you get better. And it was, it was, it was a great sport. It's, it's, it's, it's great to be out in the in the outdoors.
[00:31:21] Dwayne Atkinson: That's probably, that's probably why I enjoy the climate, enjoy winter. Cause I, I was very involved in winter activities out there, you know, out playing in the snow, I didn't mind it. So I don't mind the cold weather. Our vacations are more, you know, cold weather climates. We're not, we're not the type of people that hang out at the beach and the heat.
[00:31:38] Dwayne Atkinson: We are more, you know. Norway, Iceland the South tip of Argentina, Alaska, that that's more our style of vacations. Okay.
[00:31:47] Mark Goldstein: Hey, fair enough. Hey, you know what? There's a, a load, a big population that prefer cold over warm too. So, and love the winter months and [00:32:00] skiing and stuff like that. So,
[00:32:02] Dwayne Atkinson: okay. I get a little
[00:32:04] Mark Goldstein: education here. Tell us about. Does Salt Lake City have any public transportation to get around or is everything either foot or car?
[00:32:14] Dwayne Atkinson: No, they have actually have light rail, a really extensive light rail system that goes all the way to the South South end of the valley. We call it the old Salt Lake Valley. So it goes to the South end of the valley, the South West end up to the East side by the university, all the way out to the airport.
[00:32:29] Dwayne Atkinson: So you could literally take the light rail from the airport, downtown. Every day. That's important.
[00:32:33] Mark Goldstein: It is. That was a smart move.
[00:32:36] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, they extended the light rail out to there as part of the program. When they did the airport here recently, they extended the light rail out to the airport. They also have a commuter train.
[00:32:45] Dwayne Atkinson: So that goes all the way from down the kind of the Provo, Orem area where a lot of the tech is now, and that, that, that, Commuter train goes up into downtown Salt Lake. Same with up north you know, about 40 miles north you know, [00:33:00] Ogden has the same commuter train coming into Salt Lake as well.
[00:33:04] Dwayne Atkinson: Is
[00:33:04] Mark Goldstein: Provo south?
[00:33:07] Dwayne Atkinson: South. Yeah, Provo is south and Ogden is north. It's a big town too, right? Yeah. And all those towns over the years, they've grown together, used to be separated, you know, Salt Lake and then Ogden to the north and Provo to the south. Now it's community all the way, connected all the way north to south.
[00:33:24] Mark Goldstein: And it's all connected by train? Yeah. Like
[00:33:27] Dwayne Atkinson: commuter? Yeah, commuter train and of course freeways and it's developed all the way between here
[00:33:32] Mark Goldstein: and there. That's great. I mean, that's really good. And it's so important to connect Light rail with the city, the downtown, and I think the airport, because I mean, here in Phoenix, we have a light rail right across the street from our condo, and it's so convenient to go to the airport.
[00:33:53] Mark Goldstein: We don't drive to the airport anymore. Why leave the car, park it, spend money. We just take, we take our [00:34:00] suitcase on the light rail in 20 minutes, we're at the airport. Yeah, it's very, you know,
[00:34:05] Dwayne Atkinson: and we would do that. We were downtown. It was, it was very convenient. It's very easy for that reason. You didn't have to drive out there and pay for long term parking.
[00:34:13] Mark Goldstein: What's the traffic situation in Salt Lake? Is it?
[00:34:18] Dwayne Atkinson: Well, unfortunately, since it's, it's, it's a growing city, it's, it's traffic is getting worse and worse. And they're, they've recently tried to, um. Promote some expanding of adding more lanes, right. And promoting using more light rail to get people off of those added lanes.
[00:34:33] Dwayne Atkinson: But yeah, it's, it's, it's, you have your, you have your you know, five o'clock commute type thing is to be pretty rough shower. Yeah. It can be all pretty backed up on some days, but it's not as bad as other big cities and Salt Lake's not really a big city yet, but it's, yeah, it's definitely not as, as, as congested as other cities, what was the population?
[00:34:53] Dwayne Atkinson: Actually the downtown area, I believe is literally like the downtown area is just over 200, 000, [00:35:00] but the Salt Lake Valley and Salt Lake area is like 1. 2 million, I believe. And then the entire state is only three and a half million.
[00:35:11] Mark Goldstein: Hmm. So most of it's in Salt Lake.
[00:35:14] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah. Most of it is the Salt Lake area.
[00:35:16] Dwayne Atkinson: And
[00:35:17] Mark Goldstein: 200, 000, it's a nice size city. Yeah. Yeah. Not too big. Not too small. I think it's just right. Sounds good to me. So it gets traffic y like rush hour, right? Yeah.
[00:35:32] Dwayne Atkinson: In the mornings and in the evenings, obviously, but for the most part during the day and some email. If there's an event going on downtown, there's a, you know, a sports event that can be a little bit congested or, or any large conventions can be a little bit congested down, literally downtown and getting, you know, the off ramps into the city can be a little bit backed up, but it's not, it's not horrible to the point. Like, Oh my gosh, I'm not going to go downtown.
[00:35:55] Dwayne Atkinson: Just forget it. You know, you don't ever get that feeling.
[00:35:58] Mark Goldstein: Do you have like, an arena downtown [00:36:00] where they have concerts, like where you can see
[00:36:02] Dwayne Atkinson: concerts? Yeah, there's a really large arena right downtown where they have the, the jazz basketball games, and then farther south, the south end of the valley, have a large stadium for the Real soccer team.
[00:36:17] Mark Goldstein: Gotcha. Interesting. I'm getting to like Salt Lake City more and more every time I, you know, it's, it's a nice, it seems like a nice place to at least visit and vacation. To most people, Visit during the winter or the summer?
[00:36:36] Dwayne Atkinson: Well, that it's it's interesting actually both because you obviously the biggest part of tourism they promote is the skiing so you have a large amount of Visitors in the winter, you know people who want to experience that winter and and ski they you have a lot of tourists in the winter and then because of the The amount of hiking that's available in the hills and the camping.
[00:36:58] Dwayne Atkinson: You have a lot of [00:37:00] people visiting in the summer as well. Yeah, it's really a an odd, both season, you know, type of use for the, for the area.
[00:37:09] Mark Goldstein: But, and I would imagine in the summer, it's not like Phoenix where you have to get up at Three in the morning or five in the morning to get out. And if you wanted to hike, do it before like 6 a.
[00:37:20] Mark Goldstein: m. Do it at 6 a. m. Or else you'll die of heat exhaustion.
[00:37:25] Dwayne Atkinson: And it does get hot in the hills, hiking, obviously. So, we'll usually do it, you know, earlier mornings, but you don't want to go out and start your hike at high noon. Right, right. It still gets
[00:37:35] Mark Goldstein: too warm. Yeah, that reminds me of this dumb thing I did in Florida.
[00:37:41] Mark Goldstein: I'm mowing my lawn and it's like 90 something degrees with a hundred percent humidity and I'm mowing my lawn at 12 noon and I'm like, wait a minute, I really feel like I'm going to pass out. Yeah. So I like stop mowing the lawn. I
[00:37:57] Dwayne Atkinson: mean, you can always get a great tea time at noon because it's the warmest [00:38:00] period of the day.
[00:38:00] Dwayne Atkinson: So there's always a tea time available. So there you go.
[00:38:03] Mark Goldstein: There you go. So tell us a little bit about crime. What's crime like? Is, will I feel safe going out at night if I had to walk my dog to go to the bathroom at three in the morning, two in the morning? Would, you know, would I feel
[00:38:22] Dwayne Atkinson: safe? For the most part, I think you would.
[00:38:25] Dwayne Atkinson: I mean, there's obviously areas where you wouldn't want to do that, like any city. And there are bad, bad areas, so to speak, of town where you probably would not want to do that. But for the most part, yeah, we always felt safe. I don't think there's ever felt threatened. And You know, Hey, I'm not going out at this time and I forget it.
[00:38:43] Dwayne Atkinson: I just, I've never quite felt like that. You got to be smart, be safe, watch your surroundings. But I don't think it's, it's really you know, an unsafe city,
[00:38:53] Mark Goldstein: right? Is there a big homeless population?
[00:38:57] Dwayne Atkinson: Unfortunately, yes, it's grown and the [00:39:00] previous mayor made some decisions. Again, I don't, don't get into politics too much.
[00:39:03] Dwayne Atkinson: Sorry, but To kind of diversify the main location and separate it to spread out the issue. And it's made it more difficult for the homeless people to get their resources, where it used to be a main location closer to downtown. The mayor didn't want those Around downtown, so they try to scatter the resource a little bit and it's made it more difficult.
[00:39:28] Dwayne Atkinson: So, more of them are just hanging out downtown. So, it's a, it's a growing problem. Like, any city recently is, you know. Yeah, it's gonna be more and more difficult.
[00:39:38] Mark Goldstein: So are they like building tents? Yes.
[00:39:42] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes. There's there's areas where they have the, you know, encampments for the homeless encampments and the police will come in and push them out and there's been protests.
[00:39:51] Dwayne Atkinson: Where do they go? Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's a growing problem everywhere.
[00:39:55] Mark Goldstein: It's a big problem everywhere in America.
[00:39:57] Dwayne Atkinson: But it is, it is, but it is growing here in Salt Lake as well, [00:40:00] unfortunately. We got to
[00:40:01] Mark Goldstein: do as the Europeans do. They take care of their own, you know, people take care of their own family and stuff like that.
[00:40:10] Mark Goldstein: So we got to be better at doing that. Yeah. As far as crime and are there any 55 plus communities? There and gated communities in Salt Lake City area. I'm sure they're going to be in the outskirts. Yeah,
[00:40:27] Dwayne Atkinson: there are not. Yeah, obviously, in more of the suburbs, a little bit farther out from downtown.
[00:40:32] Dwayne Atkinson: There are those you know, you've got 55 plus condominium communities and some gated communities as well in the area where we've recently relocated. They, they do exist. There's not as many of them as you would see in Arizona or California, but they, but they, they, they are here.
[00:40:52] Mark Goldstein: Do you live in a gated community?
[00:40:55] Dwayne Atkinson: No, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a condominium complex where we recently [00:41:00] moved to and it's mostly older folks like ourselves, but they do have a lot of families there as well. It's a little bit mixed, but it's mostly an older community. Without being,
[00:41:12] Mark Goldstein: without being a 55 and older, correct. It's older. Yeah.
[00:41:16] Mark Goldstein: It's
[00:41:16] Dwayne Atkinson: older. It should not legally designated as a 55. As a 55.
[00:41:21] Mark Goldstein: Okay. But that's good. You, you know, you don't have little kids screaming, running around. So, no, no. That's,
[00:41:30] Dwayne Atkinson: that's up my alley. I don't know. These, these large families have all our grandkids come to visit, you know, these large families. So there's always grandkids around.
[00:41:37] Dwayne Atkinson: It's fun.
[00:41:38] Mark Goldstein: Yes, and they have large families.
[00:41:40] Dwayne Atkinson: Yes, they do. Yeah.
[00:41:43] Mark Goldstein: All righty. So tell us about the health care health care is such an important topic wherever you retire what's what's the health care like in salt lake city? Are there hospitals around? Do I have to go somewhere else?
[00:41:58] Dwayne Atkinson: No, there's actually some some [00:42:00] really large, Hospitals and health services in the area.
[00:42:04] Dwayne Atkinson: Obviously you know, Huntsman Cancer Institute is up by the University of Utah and all the research there is a really large, predominant hospital, University of Utah hospital and the Huntsman Cancer Institute. So it's very accessible for the community there as well as right downtown, like, from where we live, there was a hospital.
[00:42:28] Dwayne Atkinson: A few blocks away. And then there was also one mid valley farther down. There's also one a little bit farther up the hill as well. So there's, there's quite a few hospitals just right in that general area. So it's, it's very accessible for health care for the, for the community.
[00:42:42] Mark Goldstein: So if you needed surgery you'd feel comfortable going to one of the local hospitals.
[00:42:47] Mark Goldstein: Yes. Yeah.
[00:42:48] Dwayne Atkinson: Okay. So they have a regional hospital, which is connected to, was it, what, a mountain star or something like that? The, the healthcare and then Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah Healthcare. There's three main [00:43:00] health systems in the area, and I feel comfortable going to any of those for, for surgeries.
[00:43:05] Mark Goldstein: And is your doctor, is it nearby, do you have to travel, take the car, or can you even walk to your doctor?
[00:43:12] Dwayne Atkinson: I. Take a car to that to the doctor to that location. It's not as easy for you know, light rail or commuter rail to get there. So I would, I would. Drive to that, but it's very accessible.
[00:43:23] Mark Goldstein: Very good.
[00:43:24] Mark Goldstein: Very good. How about dentists? They have plenty. Oh, and what's the wait time to get to see a doctor or dentist? Is there, is there a long wait? Like, you're going to wait two weeks to get in?
[00:43:40] Dwayne Atkinson: I've usually had like, to schedule an appointment, spend a few days, you know, 3 or 4 days. If I don't plan ahead, sometimes it is like a week and a half.
[00:43:49] Dwayne Atkinson: If you want to get in to see like a ear specialist or something. Yeah, you can a 2 week wait, maybe sometimes a month, but for the most part, it's you know, you're. Yeah, a week out [00:44:00] and they also have the insta care. Now care facilities. If you can't get into your doctor, you can definitely go to a a care facility that have the insta care.
[00:44:07] Dwayne Atkinson: Now care, you know, what's that? You don't have to have kind of like a a miniature er like urgent care. Urgent care. Yeah. It's secure. Now care. Urgent care. Yeah. So, yeah, same, same type of thing. Those are, they have quite a few of those around in the community for people to get access to. The dentist, I don't, don't make me think about the dentist.
[00:44:27] Dwayne Atkinson: I need to make an appointment. That reminds me. I've got, I've got a crown I've got an issue with, but yeah again, it's easy to make an appointment, you know, like a week out. It's easy when I don't want to do it. I don't want, I put, I keep putting
[00:44:41] Mark Goldstein: it off doctors or dentists. Oh my God. It's like, you know what?
[00:44:46] Mark Goldstein: When you retire, it's like you have to retire because there's so many doctors you got to see, it's crazy. How can you work and do both? It's like, oh my God, every day I'm like something [00:45:00] else. It's like a day after my birthday, I have my physical. I don't know why.
[00:45:04] Dwayne Atkinson: At least after your birthday, it's not before, you know, it doesn't ruin your day.
[00:45:07] Mark Goldstein: Well, yeah, if I wanted to drink have a martini before, it's not good for the blood test. Oh,
[00:45:12] Dwayne Atkinson: can't do that. Gotta, gotta, gotta wait. Yep. That'll disrupt your, your, your lab
[00:45:17] Mark Goldstein: tests. Yep. So yeah, so it's unbelievable. It's like in the past week I had the flu shot, the COVID shot, the RSV shot, the pneumonia shot had all of those shots just in a week.
[00:45:32] Mark Goldstein: So it's
[00:45:33] Dwayne Atkinson: crazy. Hey, got it all done. It's all over with now.
[00:45:37] Mark Goldstein: That's true. It's behind me for at least for now. Right. Yeah. Okay. So what do you wish that you don't have in Salt Lake City that you might have had elsewhere? Maybe in California or anything? Is there anything that's lacking? [00:46:00]
[00:46:00] Dwayne Atkinson: You know, I don't know.
[00:46:02] Dwayne Atkinson: I guess I, I don't, I can't really think of anything off the top of my head because I guess I'm familiar with what I have. I don't, and I, yeah, I. My biggest thing is I wish we didn't have the controlled liquor commission. So I get the wines I wanted right now being in Utah. You can't ship wine to Utah from a winery from a vineyard Chateau You can't ship it to Utah because it has to go through the alcohol, you know beverage control Commission really, you can't just ship wine to your house.
[00:46:34] Dwayne Atkinson: It's not legal. So the vineyards can't do that. So, and, and they have wine stores, they have liquor stores in the, in the community and they're accessible. There's plenty of them, but you can't get all the wines you would normally want. If you find a wine, you're somewhere, you're in France and Bordeaux, and you want to get this wine when you get back home, you're not going to get it.
[00:46:53] Dwayne Atkinson: It's not available, Utah. You can't have, The Chateau and Bordeaux ship it to you because it's not legally allowed [00:47:00] for them to do that, to ship to Utah. So, that's one of the things I wish we had here. But if you don't drink, it's not an issue, you're just fine.
[00:47:07] Mark Goldstein: Right. I've never heard of that anywhere else.
[00:47:11] Mark Goldstein: Yeah,
[00:47:11] Dwayne Atkinson: I think the state they have, there's a few other states that have the same issue. Yeah, Utah's not the only place. Really? Yeah. Is
[00:47:18] Mark Goldstein: it a religious
[00:47:19] Dwayne Atkinson: thing? No, I, I think it might be more of a, a tax thing. You want to tax your and control the liquor in the state, you know, cause
[00:47:30] Mark Goldstein: there's such a That's weird because you can go into, you can go into a wine store or a liquor store, purchase the liquor, but you can't have it shipped anywhere.
[00:47:41] Mark Goldstein: Wow.
[00:47:42] Dwayne Atkinson: Right. And, and Can you take it
[00:47:44] Mark Goldstein: back with you? Let's say I went to Bordeaux and I had a couple of bottles that I put on there. Plain. Yes, you can.
[00:47:52] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, it's, it's gotta be in your check bag. Obviously you can't get through TSA with liquids anymore, but yes, you can. If you can get in your luggage without it being [00:48:00] broken on the way back, you can bring it, you can bring it back.
[00:48:02] Dwayne Atkinson: Not worth it. We, we did, we did that recently. Yeah. Oh,
[00:48:04] Mark Goldstein: it worked. We brought back two without being broken. Yes, we did. Yeah.
[00:48:08] Dwayne Atkinson: Also brought some mailba You missed it, malbac back from Argentina and we've Wow. Yeah, we've done that before. So, but yeah, because in, in, in, you know, in California, you walk into the grocery store and get your wine.
[00:48:19] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah. It's really odd that you don't have that here.
[00:48:21] Mark Goldstein: You do here too. Yeah. In Phoenix. Yeah. We go to the neighborhood supermarket and we have a we have a huge selection of wines. Yeah. And liquor. You don't, so no, no wine is sold in a supermarket? No. Interesting. Only,
[00:48:40] Dwayne Atkinson: only beer.
[00:48:43] Mark Goldstein: Interesting. I'll have to sneak some wine in for you.
[00:48:50] Dwayne Atkinson: And to be honest, I, I used to have some shipped to cause I'm so close to the border of Idaho. I had family that lives mostly all up in Idaho. [00:49:00] I would have it shipped to them and go pick it up. I take the hour and a half drive, two hours, right? I would too.
[00:49:06] Mark Goldstein: Hey, you know what? It works. So yeah, that's a good thing that you miss.
[00:49:11] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. Absolutely. Like, I'm from New York, I miss a good bagel. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. Or a good pastrami on rye. Or cheesecake. It's always come back to food with me. I don't know why. That's
[00:49:26] Dwayne Atkinson: why I can't lose weight. Here we go. It's just a food and wine blog.
[00:49:29] Mark Goldstein: Yeah, this is, this is why I can't lose weight.
[00:49:32] Mark Goldstein: Because I'm always thinking of food. Yeah, I'm always salivating when I think of food. Anyway, okay, so, Living in Salt Lake City, what would you say are the cons? Are there any cons? There have to be cons.
[00:49:51] Dwayne Atkinson: Oh, there are, you know, you know, again, Different cause would be from my perspective, but, you know, the [00:50:00] increasing cost.
[00:50:03] Dwayne Atkinson: Of of things going up as far as housing, how it's just. Crazy here, I know that's that's a con for people to be able to move here now. It's a little bit more difficult. You know, the, some people, the con would be the winter or the hot summer, but that to me, that's that's a non issue. You know, the increasing, you know, homeless population, increasing crime, like most cities.
[00:50:22] Dwayne Atkinson: Yeah, that's a con as well. It didn't used to be like that here, but like everywhere else, it's a growing city, growing pains. Those are some of the cons that are not there. They may not be keeping up with it as, as, you know. The problem is increasing.
[00:50:36] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. And those are kind of cons that pretty much, like you said, all cities or all growing cities that are in gentrified go through, it seems like that's, that's the normal no other cons for living there.
[00:50:53] Dwayne Atkinson: No, not that I could really think of just, yeah, no.
[00:50:56] Mark Goldstein: Okay. That's, that's a good thing. [00:51:00] So in wrapping up What would you say to our audience if they're thinking about relocating to Salt Lake City?
[00:51:09] Dwayne Atkinson: Oh gosh, you know, there's, there's been so many people live here or move here, like stay away. That's my, that's my advice.
[00:51:16] Dwayne Atkinson: We have so many outsiders. I mean, don't, don't move here. Right. That's, that's, that's actually a lot of the the old, old time. Locals are, I have that attitude, right with all the, we've had a, it actually surprised me. We had a large influx of people from New York, the state of New York and New York city, a large influx into Salt Lake.
[00:51:36] Dwayne Atkinson: I think a lot of the financial, uh, Industry or businesses have created a sub base here in Utah. And so they brought in a lot of the, the, a lot of that work here. So a lot of those New Yorkers moved in and that Southern California who all the, you know, the, the, the Central Valley and Southern California conservatives [00:52:00] have moved to Utah.
[00:52:01] Dwayne Atkinson: They wanted to get out of California and move to Utah, so we had a large, large influx of, of California people who were here, but
[00:52:08] Mark Goldstein: yeah, conservative California people. Yes,
[00:52:11] Dwayne Atkinson: yes. Okay. Who want to get away from, from that? So anyway but yeah, as far as moving, I mean, I mean, I, I would suggest it's a great place.
[00:52:20] Dwayne Atkinson: I, I think it's fine. It's, you know, it's not everybody's place to retire but for a lot of people, it is. There are people that move here. So we recently had neighbors move from New Hampshire to retire here.
[00:52:33] Mark Goldstein: Yeah. I mean, if you could, if you enjoy the winter months, it sounds like a really nice place.
[00:52:40] Mark Goldstein: And again, I saw, I saw some pictures of a friend. She was, there was a run. I don't know if it was a 5k. But it was through Salt Lake city. A few weeks ago, she took pictures and it was just absolutely, to me, it was breathtaking. It was just beautiful because she had pictures of the [00:53:00] runners in the front and the mountains were right in the back.
[00:53:02] Mark Goldstein: I mean, she might've been blocks away from the mountains.
[00:53:06] Dwayne Atkinson: You know, you literally are, that's, that's the way it is from downtown. Yeah, it was
[00:53:11] Mark Goldstein: absolutely. Beautiful, beautiful. So yeah, it's someplace I definitely would like to check out. So do you have any any last, you know, words to our audience if they're thinking about relocating?
[00:53:29] Dwayne Atkinson: No, just, just research your areas of where you want to live, where you might want to live. Do your research to verify if it's the right fit for you. Check out the community. To make sure that's a good fit for you. And, and yeah, hit me up with a message if you have any questions.
[00:53:45] Mark Goldstein: Absolutely. I certainly will.
[00:53:49] Mark Goldstein: Well, Dwayne, thank you so much for coming and being a part of the podcast. We do appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me. Of course. And we'll [00:54:00] talk soon. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Bye. Bye.
[00:54:05] Outro: Thank you for listening to the Where Do Gays Retire podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our podcast and consider making a donation by clicking the coffee cup on any page at www. wheredogaysretire. com. Each cup of coffee that you buy costs 5 and goes towards helping us continue the podcast.
[00:54:28] Outro: Thank you for your continued support.