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Comment by sbrother | Hacker News Reader

Totally agree with this as a non-Mormon living in Utah. The culture is pervasive -- largely in a good way IMO. We moved here from California (ahem, sorry for filling up your mountains and desert) and love it. It's totally normal to have a family in your twenties, head out of the office at 5:00 sharp, and make friends hanging out with the kids in the mountains. Even as an ex-coastal democrat I am totally fine with the Mormon "compassionate Republicans" like Romney, Huntsman, and Cox. Wouldn't want to live anywhere else at this point. Now if we can just figure out traffic in the Cottonwoods.....

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> Now if we can just figure out traffic in the Cottonwoods.....

This problem is actually the main reason I haven't moved to SLC yet. So much of the draw there is about being able to get up into (and out of) the mountains quickly, and during ski season (as you know but other readers might not) it can get really terrible. Like worse than I-70 west of Denver terrible

I have tried the ski bus approach, but had a frightening experience of being on one of the last buses down on a crowded day when LCC went into an interlodge event. I have heard a lot of proposals for solving the problem, from gondola to restricting car access and pushing people toward the buses, but so far I think there is no end in sight?

I hate to say it because Alta is maybe my favorite place on earth, but I just avoid them now. We moved up to Summit Park area (just over the pass, in Park City school district) and ski Canyons, plus a lot of backcountry in the Wasatch back. The cottonwoods are getting loved to death and I don't see a great solution -- widening the LCC road and adding a dedicated bus lane would work, but it's a narrow canyon and I'm not sure it's even possible.

The traffic in the Cottonwoods is not that bad as long as you avoid the weekends particularly powder days and holidays. But if you head up to any of the cottonwood resorts midweek there's not really any traffic. I often ride Park city on busy weekends instead of in the Cottonwoods because Park city is better able to handle the crowds. But if your trying to do a weekend day in the Cottonwoods get up and in the canyon early before the conga line starts.

They should add an expensive toll. Voilà, problem solved.

Curious by your username: are you from Venezia, Italy, and/or are Italian?

(I am Italian, living in San Francisco)

> head out of the office at 5:00 sharp

If only we could figure out a way to work out a technology/innovation culture that lets people work with laser-like focus on a productive 40 hour work week, have lots of time with their friends/familiar/hobbies, but without the religious part. And without a huge percentage of community social activities revolving around one particular religious ideology.

Thanks for sharing. May I ask how much of a paycut should we expect for the move?

This is anecdotal based on my experience in both the Bay Area and SLC, but the pay differential is extreme at the top end, and practically nonexistent in the middle bands. That is to say, the kind of developer who might be able to command a $400K+ salary in the Bay Area may be able to get $200K in Utah. But if you qualify for the kind of position that pays $150-180K in the Bay Area, maybe at a startup with equity, you'd get about the same in Utah, maybe a little less. But you can buy a really nice house in Utah for $500K.

That rings true to me - mostly just due to the companies present. I was near $400k in CA, and now around $200k here in Utah. But frankly, the lifestyle you can afford here on two >$100k salaries is ridiculous.

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