The Battle for Ballpark | Cover Story | Salt Lake City Weekly

October 12, 2022 News » Cover Story

The Battle for Ballpark 

Ten Salt Lakers share their hopes and fears for a neighborhood in distress.

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DEREK CARLISLE
  • Derek Carlisle

Less than two miles separate the Ballpark neighborhood apartment complex where a recent homicide occurred and the new fiberglass whale that soars out of a roundabout near 9th & 9th.

A person could walk between them in 30 to 45 minutes, or bike it in much less. But within that relatively short distance lies a pronounced shift in city living. And this social gap exists even though both the crime scene—one of five violent deaths in the Ballpark neighborhood this year—and the whale are located in the same Salt Lake City Council 5th district.

The issues that keep Ballpark residents up at night—dominating their discussions over kitchen tables, backyard fences and social media forums—are profoundly different from the conversations in 9th & 9th. According to data shared by the Ballpark Community Council, residents here report 10 times the number of "person crimes"—aggravated assaults, homicides, rapes, robberies—than their neighbors in East Liberty Park. As a result, Ballpark can often feel like a separate city within the city.

The Utahns who appear in this article chose the locations where they wanted to be interviewed. Their perspectives—condensed from longer transcriptions and edited for clarity—show a tight-knit community of neighbors and business owners who are proud of Ballpark's identity, aware of its challenges and profoundly concerned about its fate. They describe a crossroads neighborhood facing many possible futures, but one that no one can be sure of.

click to enlarge “I don’t think there’s anything else in Salt Lake City like it.” - —Taylor Anderson - COURTESY PHOTO
  • Courtesy Photo
  • “I don’t think there’s anything else in Salt Lake City like it.”—Taylor Anderson

The Urbanist
Taylor Anderson
Partner and editor, Building Salt Lake
Interview location: 1700 S. Main, SLC

This intersection is the place I most affiliate with Ballpark. I live two and a half blocks from here, in Liberty Wells, but the closest mixed-use commercial node of any significance is right here. And I love it.

I don't think there's anything else in Salt Lake City like it. It's a true mixed-use, urban neighborhood that still has grit and affordable prices. There's mixed-use next to businesses, next to dive bars, next to yoga studios, next to car dealerships, next to tire shops, next to a 7-Eleven across the street, plus office space on all sides.

The people that were here when I first got here are still here today, and it's fascinating to see how it's growing. And what's wild is that the new development isn't pushing out the older stuff.

At this intersection, there's low-income housing right across the street from new, for-sale row housing that's all sold out. The new housing here didn't displace the low-income housing.

Ballpark is huge, maybe one of the city's biggest, densest neighborhoods that's not on the west side. Many parts of Ballpark have crime problems. It's still in District 5, but the issues facing Ballpark are so different from Liberty Wells and East Liberty Park.

Since Ballpark was ignored by the city in the past, it's nice to see that it's getting more full-throttle attention today with the new Ballpark Station Area Plan. It might be desperate attention from the city—because they are afraid they could lose the Salt Lake Bees baseball team. I hope that the city can figure out how to keep them. A lot of the families here are deciding to get out of Ballpark for a slew of acute issues that no other neighborhood is facing.

When I moved to Salt Lake, I wanted to live in the most walkable, most urban area. Yet, I like to garden, so I wanted to have some space. Ballpark offers that. Anything that I would want to do is right here, and it keeps growing every month and every year. I'm bullish on Ballpark's current and its future path forward.

click to enlarge “I’m hoping this is a neighborhood where younger families can get a foothold.” - —Amy Hawkins - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “I’m hoping this is a neighborhood where younger families can get a foothold.”—Amy Hawkins

The Advocate
Amy Hawkins
Chair, Ballpark Community Council
Interview location: RoHa Brewing Project, 30 E. Kensington Ave., SLC, 385-227-8982, rohabrewing.com

Kensington Avenue is a street that's undergoing transition, and it's a transition that absolutely needs to happen. It's a short street—only a couple of blocks long between Main and State streets—but it has real problems.

Two homicides happened here, the first across the street and the second a few doors down.

If you look at a map of homicides, you see they happen in certain places—like Ballpark—over and over.

This community is experiencing the cumulative effects of violent crime. I've sat on this patio and heard sirens go by when somebody was stabbed to death a few blocks from here. That's substantial. Any other time I'm sitting on this patio and hear sirens, I check to see if someone else was stabbed to death.

A few weeks ago, we held the first ever Kensington Avenue Street Fair sponsored by the city and RoHa Brewing Project. We had artisans selling their goods, plus two murals were being painted. There were activities for kids, and we had a beer tent. And city officials and the mayor were here to engage people about how they want to see Kensington Avenue transform.

We want those empty storefronts full of local businesses. We want a nice mixture of denser, owner-occupied housing. I'm hoping this is a neighborhood where younger families can get a foothold in Salt Lake City, maybe choose to make it their long-term home. I would love to hear about families moving into the neighborhood instead of moving away.

I want to see more people engaged. The phrase "eyes on the street" gets used widely without thinking about whose eyes are watching. People need to feel ownership in the neighborhood to say, 'Hey, what's going on here?' and intervene and make a positive difference.

I hope the Bees are still here in the future. Beyond being the namesake of the neighborhood, the Bees are vital because we need the stadium activated. That place brings outsiders in. That activity deters crime. When the Bees have a game, they hire extra security.

The public becomes more familiar with Ballpark because they visit to see the Bees. And I think it's an important time for everyone to check in on our progress. I would hate for them to lose that opportunity.

“The city is stuck in stasis. They can’t make a decision. They can’t do anything.” - —Jim Grisley - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “The city is stuck in stasis. They can’t make a decision. They can’t do anything.”—Jim Grisley

The Family Business Owner
Jim Grisley
President, J.M. Grisley Machine Tools
Interview Location: 1485 S. 300 West, SLC

Our company is 100 years old, and we've been at this location on 300 West for 60 years. I've personally been here 45 years. In the last two years, since the Gail Miller [resource] center has been in place, our neighborhood has completely devolved.

It is extremely disappointing. Before, we never had to lock the doors. We didn't have a security gate. We didn't have to lock our cars. It was completely safe. And now, it's completely unsafe.

At first, they promised that everything was going to be Alice in Wonderland with the homeless center. We wouldn't have to worry about anything. And we took their word for it.

After about a year, the street was literally dangerous. People started getting assaulted. My tenant next door had a gun put to her head. Her car was stolen. I have a new tenant who had his front windows busted out. Then his side windows were broken. He just moved in two weeks ago.

The city is stuck in stasis. They can't make a decision. They can't do anything. So, the local businesses got together, and we started emailing and campaigning to get our situation in front of people who can actually make a decision. Our goal is to get these centers into compliance or have them shut down until they do so.

We are not unsympathetic to the homeless issue. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done urgently. The way it's currently being handled by Salt Lake City means that everyone should be fired because they are not making decisions and helping these people who so desperately need it.

click to enlarge “We went into crisis mode from literally the day we opened ...  The resource centers  were never able to function the way we hoped.”—Matt Melville - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “We went into crisis mode from literally the day we opened ... The resource centers were never able to function the way we hoped.”—Matt Melville

The Manager
Matt Melville
Former director, Gail Miller Resource Center
Interview location: Outside Horizonte High School, 234 S. Main, SLC

My connection to Ballpark began long ago, when I would visit family who lived here. My dad grew up here, and my mom and grandma lived on 1700 South.

It was just a beautiful neighborhood. I remember going to Salt Lake Trappers games and eating at Coachman's on State Street.

I came back to Ballpark and oversaw the Gail Miller Resource Center. I worked heavily in setting it up and running it for almost two years. At first, there was a lot of excitement around the resource centers.

I started attending every Ballpark Community Council meeting. I was just blown away by how dedicated this community is. They had their qualms about the centers and questions about funding and resources. It was a big ask for this community—not just once, but twice.

Looking back now, it is difficult seeing the promises made by state and policy leaders to nonprofits and the communities. All of the nonprofits knew the bed reduction was a big mistake. But leadership told us it was going to work, and we would be able to get people into housing much sooner.

The reality is that we went into crisis mode from literally the day we opened, knowing we couldn't meet the community's needs. The issues we are seeing today were predictable by almost everybody who was involved—besides the people who made the decisions.

The resource centers were never able to function the way we hoped because we didn't have enough resources. Case managers were getting stretched every which way.

We were having to turn people away. And when that happens, it spills into the neighboring communities.

We can bring Ballpark back to those glory days by making sure that public safety is a priority for all community members, including the unsheltered.

We need to make sure it's a safe neighborhood for everybody who is coming through, even if you're just buzzing by on Trax from Draper to Salt Lake. People need to know that they'll be safe in Ballpark.

click to enlarge “The violence escalated. There was crime that we had never seen before.”—Shelley Bodily - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “The violence escalated. There was crime that we had never seen before.”—Shelley Bodily

The Emigrant
Shelley Bodily, former resident
Interview location: Outside SLC Fire Station 8, 15 W. 1300 South, SLC

My husband Terrell and I owned our house on Richard Street for 15 years, and we rented before that. We bought our house in 2007 when places were selling for $70,000.

We moved here because we were both going to the U. Living in Ballpark, we had mass transit, we had commercial areas, we had a little bit of open space, we had proximity to downtown, we had affordable housing and we had the stadium.

At the time, it was a little bit gritty. We had some petty crime, but it didn't affect us. It wasn't terrible when we had our first daughter.

Then the two homeless resource centers came in. I have mixed feelings about this because I think homeless shelters weren't necessarily a bad thing. But when you place one homeless shelter about five or six blocks from a second one, with Ballpark in the middle, I think that's a design flaw.

The violence escalated. There was crime that we had never seen before. It got so extreme that we didn't know if it was ever going to get better. The neighborhood just turned for us.

There were four or five families on our street with small children, and they're all gone now. When our next-door neighbors—who had children the same ages as ours—decided to leave, that was the breaking point for us. We just decided we couldn't stay.

We still have good friends in the neighborhood that we talk with all the time. We love to see what's changing and hopefully good things will continue to happen, and we'll be wrong.

When my husband and I drive through Ballpark, it still feels like home. But now it feels like a home that I don't regret leaving. Before, it was very upsetting and emotional.

Now we live in Fruit Heights. It's lovely. It's wonderfully clean and quiet. It's not Ballpark, it's not this. Ballpark was our home. I wanted to be here for a reason. We came here for a reason.

click to enlarge “It started out really pretty good ... But over time, it’s just kind of gone downhill a little bit each year.”—Clay - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “It started out really pretty good ... But over time, it’s just kind of gone downhill a little bit each year.”—Clay

The Longtimer
Clay
Gail Miller Resource Center resident
Interview location: 1500 block of 300 West, SLC

My first name is Clay. I was one of the original ones in the Gail Miller shelter when it opened up three years ago.

It started out really pretty good. It was clean and nice and all that—less troubles. But over time, it's just kind of gone downhill a little bit each year. They do have case managers to help you out, but they're so overwhelmed that only a small amount of people actually get help.

I generally try to stay close to the shelter during the day so that I can return for lunch or dinner. The bus transportation is a little costly and it's not worth the $100 fine trying to ride Trax without a ticket. So, I just kind of stay close to the shelter around here.

In order to leave the shelter, you need to have some sort of income—like disability or a part-time job or something like that. The housing vouchers they give out aren't enough.

In December, I found an apartment listed for $950 including utilities. But when I contacted the management, they said the rent is actually $1,300 plus utilities. So, that won't work. And it's just like that all the time. It's twice as hard to get back on your feet.

click to enlarge “If you’re an individual who is in recovery, how many times can you walk by a drug dealer before you fall off the wagon?”—Tom Danielson - COURTESY PHOTO
  • Courtesy Photo
  • “If you’re an individual who is in recovery, how many times can you walk by a drug dealer before you fall off the wagon?”—Tom Danielson

The Next-door Neighbors
Bob and Tom Danielson
Owners, Alpha Munitions
Interview location: 268 W. Paramount Ave., SLC

Tom Danielson: What I always think about is if our mayor, our police chief—you name it—walked out of their house and if at the corner of their street, every single day, there were people doing drugs, drinking and telling them they're not leaving, and the police aren't going to do anything ... would things change? Would they allow that? Would they feel safe? Would they let their kids out of the house? That's what we live with every single day here.

Bob Danielson: We don't know, when we come into our business every morning, if our windows are going to be busted out again. It's 50-50.

You know the comfort you feel at your home when you're sitting on your couch, or when you go to your office and can just focus on work? That can't happen here. Because if you do, something horrible is going to happen.

Tom Danielson: It's not that we're not compassionate. We see people leaving the resource center early in the morning wearing their high visibility vests to do their construction jobs. But if you're an individual who is in recovery, how many times can you walk by a drug dealer before you fall off the wagon? Is it three? Do you last a month, or two months?

To me, the current situation—which is people on the street doing drugs and alcohol when the individuals that shelter is designed to help are being preyed upon—is the least compassionate thing you can ever do.

click to enlarge “It feels like so many people in this neighborhood are artists and creatives, healers and social workers.” —Erika Carlsen - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “It feels like so many people in this neighborhood are artists and creatives, healers and social workers.” —Erika Carlsen

The New Friends
Erika Carlsen, resident
Ron Johnson, owner, Stained Glass Illusions
Interview location: Stained Glass Illusions, 1414 S. West Temple, SLC

Erika Carlsen: I moved to Ballpark about a year ago, and I'm still settling in. The thing that I love most are my neighbors. It feels like so many people in this neighborhood are artists and creatives, healers and social workers.

Ron and I met recently when I wrote a little flier and passed it out to my neighbors. I said, "Hey, I'm going to have some wine and cheese at my house, bring whatever you'd like." I always love getting to know my neighbors because it just makes for a stronger community. And as the new kid on the block, I want to meet new people.

Ron Johnson: She lives right over there, but I didn't know her until then. I went on a whim because I had no idea what was going on. And that's really unlike me because I'm very shy and introverted.

I bought this building in 1973. They built it in 1938 as a grocery store and then converted it to a barber shop.

I ran a sign shop for 35 years before switching to stained glass when the Olympics were here. I live next door, which means I spend way too much time in my shop. But it's been fun. I've really enjoyed this area, even as it changed.

Carlsen: It feels like the last year has brought a lot of changes, from new development on Main Street to the road work on 300 West. I've also observed an increase in what my neighbor calls "informal residents" in the neighborhood—the people who don't have a home.

Johnson: I'm concerned about the homeless people in the neighborhood, but I'm more worried about the gang activity. I used to enjoy going for walks, but I don't do that here anymore.

Maybe if I was younger, I'd feel differently. But with gangs of kids running around, I just feel intimidated

Carlsen: Maybe we should organize a walking group? I definitely need more motivation to get out of my house and be active.

Johnson: I like that idea. I used to walk everywhere. I bought this house in the first place because of the convenience you can't find anywhere else in town. When I first moved here, there weren't any huge grocery stores on 300 West. We had a little IGA down the street and that was it. The improvements made to the neighborhood have been fantastic.

Carlsen: I'm also here because it's so convenient. All the shops that we need are right here. If we need to get on the freeway or catch a train, they're nearby. I love hearing the Bees games, when I'm in my living room and I can hear the crowd cheer and the fireworks go off. It feels like Ballpark is nestled in the right place.

click to enlarge “It is the darker corners of the city where people find refuge.” - —Wendy Garvin - COURTESY PHOTO
  • Courtesy Photo
  • “It is the darker corners of the city where people find refuge.”—Wendy Garvin

The Go-Between
Wendy Garvin
Executive director, Unsheltered Utah
Interview location: 1500 block of 300 West, SLC

This block of 300 West is filled with semi-industrial buildings. Most of them are older buildings. Right here is a small brick building next to a larger warehouse, and there's about a 3-foot gap between the two buildings. Currently, it is blocked off by some sheet metal, but there are similar gaps all around us.

These little spaces between buildings are prime real estate for the folks who are looking for a way to escape the elements. These gaps block the wind, and provide shade and protection from rain or snow. You could put a tarp up and be protected from the elements.

I have a friend who owns a business here and she keeps me updated on where the camps are. She almost always has people camping in this back alley.

The challenge facing business owners is that sometimes people want to light fires for warmth. And that puts the buildings at risk. There's this constant give-and-take where even the most compassionate business owners start to feel unsafe because of fires or break-ins in the area.

When I first started coming out to this part of the city, there were a few dozen—maybe 50—unsheltered people. Now, it's more like 200 or 300 people living on the streets.

I'm sympathetic to the challenges businesses face. At the same time, I'm more sympathetic to the people who are living exposed to the elements. The homeless resource centers aren't big enough, there's just not enough to go around.

I spend a lot of time on foot. I walk in and out of camps on a regular basis. I also use tips from social media to learn where an encampment is growing.

It is the darker corners of the city where people find refuge. You have to be willing to go into those corners. And it is really a fantastic society and community that they build.

Not without its challenges, for sure, but I feel well rewarded by the connections that I have with the unsheltered population. They are great people.

click to enlarge garvin-location_4_-crp.png

The Instigator
Bernie Hart
Founder, Understanding Us
Interview location: Library Square, SLC

Salt Lake City doesn't have a homeless problem—we have a problem dealing with the homeless people in our city. We cannot meet their needs, and we cannot solve their problems.

Our inability is the real problem. The people who are homeless are just there. They're waiting for help. They're waiting for change. They don't want to be homeless, but they're stuck in a place that we don't understand how to get them out of.

I talk to people in Ballpark because I want to know what they think. They don't like the stuff that is happening—the needles in the street, the drunks and addicts, and the people wandering around talking to themselves.

click to enlarge “These little spaces between buildings are prime real estate for the folks who are looking for a way to escape the elements.” - —Wendy Garvin - JASON STEVENSON
  • Jason Stevenson
  • “These little spaces between buildings are prime real estate for the folks who are looking for a way to escape the elements.”—Wendy Garvin

They expected the city to step up and fulfill their promises to help the population, but they're not seeing it. These people are questioning the city's inability, and now they're angrier at the city than they are at the homeless.

The people in the homeless community—other than those dealing with severe mental-health conditions and addiction problems—seem to have found a home at the shelters. They are extremely comfortable there. They've learned to deal with the turmoil of being bedded down with 200 people every night. They know they have a bed and a meal.

But the shelters aren't providing them with the services and the interaction they need to gain the confidence and expand their ability to deal with the problems of society. They're stuck.

I want to know what the system does with those people. I want to know how long they've been in the system. I want to get information about the effectiveness of the system. And nobody wants to share that information.

I am pushing their buttons and insisting that they share that information. And they can't. And every time I ask them to share it, they get more upset at me.

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