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 64
View all 64 reports →Your downtown ballot box was blocked. What gives, Salt Lake?
Your ballot box access in Salt Lake City might surprise you So here's the thing about Utah — we're particular about our elections, but sometimes the execution gets a little… complicated. This primary...
Utah just won Best State in the U.S. Again.
Your favorite state just won a four-peat So here's the thing about Utah — people who live here mostly love it, even with the inversions and the liquor laws. But it always feels a little bit like the ...
Your commute just got deadlier: Utah's 100 days of danger are here.
Oh man, your commute just got way more intense. ### The Days Are Getting Deadlier So here's the thing about Utah — you think of the greatest snow on earth, right? You think of red rock, maybe the Ja...
A Salt Lake City Marine is finally coming home after 80 years
Your ancestors still remember this Marine So here’s the thing about Utah — we hold onto our history, sometimes in ways that surprise you. There’s a story coming out of Salt Lake City this morning tha...
A Salt Lake City playground shooting. What happened?
You won't believe this indoor playground drama So here's the thing about Utah — you think you've heard it all, but then something happens that just makes you tilt your head. New details dropped this ...
This Kearns 11-year-old just cleared his school's lunch debt.
Your kid just cleared their school lunch debt So here's the thing about Utah — you see a lot of folks doing quiet good, even when the rest of the news cycle is, well, something else. This week, what ...
Eagle Mountain shut its splash pad. Your lawn is next.
## A Splash Pad Closed? You Know It's Dry So here's the thing about Utah — we talk about water a lot. Not just because of the Great Salt Lake's disappearing act, but because it feels like every other...
Your BYU study says what about AI boyfriends?
Your BYU study says what about relationships? So here's the thing about Utah — we're often early adopters of technology, but sometimes the applications of that technology get a little... out there. A...
Your new data center looks like a sci-fi movie and needs water.
Your favorite data center just got real weird. So here's the thing about Utah—we’re always trying to balance growth with, well, being Utah. And sometimes, that balance gets tricky. Take this new data...
Your Salt Lake City gas prices are still climbing. Here's why.
Your gas prices are still going up, here's why So here's the thing about Utah — we're kind of at the mercy of the world when it comes to gas prices. You drive past the Sinclair up on 1300 East, or th...
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