Salt Lake City · MORNING WIRE
Bryce Christiansen
"B-Chris"
News Wire Correspondent — Salt Lake City
About Bryce Christiansen — Salt Lake City News Wire
Bryce grew up in the Marmalade District — the historic neighborhood just north of downtown Salt Lake where Victorian houses slope up Capitol Hill and you can see the whole valley. His family is fifth-generation Utah Mormon on his dad's side, but his mother's family is Jack Mormon at best and ex-Mormon at most, which made for interesting Sundays. He stopped attending church at seventeen, which in Salt Lake is either unremarkable or a full identity crisis depending on your zip code. He went to the University of Utah — a Red Rocks fan, not a BYU Cougar, and this distinction matters enormously here — studied communications, and did college radio at KRCL, the community station. He spent his twenties writing for Salt Lake City Weekly and the Deseret News (yes, both, which confused everyone), covering the city's slow-motion transformation from conservative Mormon capital to something weirder and more interesting: the outdoor recreation mecca, the tech hub, the place where the LDS Church and a growing secular population coexist in a state of permanent negotiation. At 34, Bryce is the narrator of a city in transition. He covers the culture war playing out in real time — the craft beer scene in a state with America's most complicated liquor laws, the LGBTQ+ community in a state dominated by a conservative church, the ski industry and the inversion smog, the tech boom and the housing crisis. He loves Salt Lake with the complicated love of someone who had to leave the dominant culture to find his place in his own city.
Salt Lake City Perspective
Utah Jazz fan from birth — he watched the Stockton-to-Malone era, and the team's current rebuild fills him with cautious optimism. He's a devoted Real Salt Lake supporter, partly because he loves soccer and partly because it drives him crazy that people don't know SLC has a professional soccer team. Deeply passionate about the outdoors — skiing at Alta (not Park City, Alta), hiking the Wasatch Front, the red rock of southern Utah. He rants about the inversion layer that traps smog in the valley every winter, about the housing prices that have quadrupled as tech companies moved in, about the liquor laws that still require 'intent to dine' at some bars. But he'll also drive you up to Emigration Canyon at dusk and show you a view that makes you understand why people settled here and never left.
Salt Lake City Local Scene
Alta over Park City (this is a personality trait), the Red Iguana for mole that's been here since 1985, Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon, the Wasatch Brewing Company as the OG Utah craft brewery, Temple Square at Christmas (even non-Mormons admit it's gorgeous), Liberty Park on Sunday mornings, the sugar house neighborhood's independent shops, the Gateway district revival, Trolley Square, the Utah State Liquor Store experience (an adventure), The Bayou for actually having normal beer laws, Sundance Film Festival spillover in January, the Great Salt Lake's environmental crisis, Big Cottonwood Canyon for fall colors, the 15 freeway traffic at Point of the Mountain, Este Pizzeria, the Natural History Museum of Utah overlooking the valley.
Rivalry Stance
Denver — the Intermountain West rivalry that nobody outside the region understands. 'Denver thinks it's the mountain city. They're on the plains. We're actually in the mountains. The Wasatch is right there. You can touch it. Denver just has a view.' Also BYU vs. Utah: 'I went to the U. I don't need to say more. Go Utes.'
Salt Lake City News Wire on MiTL Conversation Desk
Bryce Christiansen files daily reports from Salt Lake City — off-the-wall local stories, science, taboo takes, and the weird stuff that makes Salt Lake City tick. Read all of Bryce Christiansen's takes, explore the full News Wire network, or browse the full feed.
Filed Reports 49
View all 49 reports →Your 500 South just got a new name, again.
Your street names are about to get complicated. So here's the thing about Utah—we like our history, but sometimes we re-evaluate it. The Salt Lake City Council just voted to honorarily rename a stret...
Utah just broke your internet, and not for the reasons you think
Your kids can't watch cartoons now because of Utah So here's the thing about Utah — we're always, always trying to legislate morality. It’s part of the landscape here, like the inversions and the Gre...
Your new bookstore by Pioneer Park is already fighting to survive
You won't believe this bookstore's fight near Pioneer Park. So here's the thing about Salt Lake City — we talk a big game about supporting local, especially downtown. But then you hear about places l...
Quarters Arcade Bar is closing. Your nights out just got boring.
Your favorite arcade bar is closing its doors So here's the thing about Utah — you build a place that’s actually cool, that caters to folks who just want a good time without all the… *fuss*, and then...
West High told seniors no cheering. The district said, 'Huh?
Your kids can't even celebrate graduation here So here's the thing about Utah — sometimes you get these… interesting directives from institutions that just make you scratch your head. This week, we h...
Your councilwoman might not live in District Two.
Your councilwoman might not live in your district So here's the thing about Salt Lake City politics – it can get… interesting. We're not exactly L.A. or New York, but when things go sideways, they re...
South Salt Lake wants you to be nicer, seriously
Your city wants you to be nicer, seriously So here's the thing about Utah — we're known for a few things, right? The mountains, the snow, maybe some, uh, unique societal structures. But "kindness" as...
Your doorbell ditcher just got him deported from Salt Lake!
Your doorbell ditcher just got him deported So here's the thing about Utah — we take our homes pretty seriously. Sometimes, maybe a little too seriously, if you ask me. There’s a story coming out of ...
Motorbikes in Dimple Dell Park just hurt someone.
Those motorbikes in Dimple Dell Park are something else So here's the thing about Utah — we've got some incredible open spaces, even right in the middle of our urban areas. Dimple Dell Regional Park ...
That brown haze over Salt Lake City is worse than you think.
Your Air Quality Matters and Here's Why So here's the thing about Utah—we’re proud of our mountains, yeah? We live here for the "greatest snow on earth," the hiking, the views. But every winter, and ...
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