In August, builders broke ground on a new transit-oriented development on land where Geneva Steel Works once stood on the east shore of Utah Lake in Vineyard.
The plans are for a mixed-use community that will be both sustainable and walkable and will contain high-density living, single-family housing, a second Huntsman Cancer Institute headquarters, a boardwalk, retail shopping, schools, churches, parks and offices. Sounds great!
The developers — The Flagship Companies and Woodbury Corporation — last week announced the name of the forthcoming urban core of the county.
Utah City.
Which ... I just ... I ... I mean ... really? Are we sure?
It’s certainly a bold choice. A little too bold, maybe.
Look, I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m no city planner. And I’m certainly not great at naming things. My headlines tend to be run-on sentences and naming my children was three of the most difficult decisions of my life. Followed by naming my dog.
But I’m pretty sure the name Utah is taken.
“But what about New York City?” you may protest. Well, what about it? You think New Yorkers aren’t annoyed every time they have to clarify whether or not they mean New York City every time they say they’re from New York?
Imagine how annoying it would to be to say “I’m from Utah,” and then be asked, “Oh, Utah City?” Or having to say “I’m from upstate Utah” to describe Salt Lake City?
And that’s another thing. It is unnecessarily confusing to have the word “city” attached to the name of a city. It’s like naming a potato “potato potato.”
Remember when they announced Salt Lake would be hosting the 2002 Olympics? The spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee said the Olympics would be coming to “the city of Salt Lake City,” which is just too many cities in one sentence.
We should do whatever we can to simplify the process of identifying Utah cities. It’s confusing enough that we have two cities named for different types of forks (Spanish and American), and a smattering of names we stole from other states — Plymouth, Providence, Boulder, etc.
WE CAN DO BETTER.
I say all this as someone who lives in a completely landlocked city named Sandy. There’s not a beach nor a grain of sand for hundreds of miles from here. lt doesn’t make sense. It should make sense.
But I do believe we can come up with a perfect name for the 700-acre development that isn’t already the name of a place. By “we,” I don’t mean “me,” because as already explained, I am not the person to turn to when you need something titled.
However, in the spirit of brainstorming, how about something that pays homage to what came before? How about Geneva? Oh, what’s that? There’s a town in Switzerland named Geneva? Also a pretty famous series of treaties and protocols? Shoot. OK, yeah, naming a city is difficult; I see that now. But if anyone is prepared to come up with a brand new name, it’s Utahns, who are notorious for giving their children names that some might consider peculiar.
This has been cause for derision in the past, but I believe it’s our superpower. With our collective abilities combined, we’ll have a new, better name for Utah City in no time. Turn the naming over to the moms on Instagram and we’ll have it in five minutes.
The good news is that we have a lot longer than five minutes.
Utah City, or whatever better thing we decide to call it, is 15 years from completion. So in the meantime, maybe we just call it “The Utah County urban core that has yet to be named.”
But even if Utah City sticks, we’ll know it’s not the worst name ever. That honor belongs to X.