This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City's urban vibe thrills Betsy Tracy.
"The small-town girl in me is still enamored with the big buildings and all the hustle and bustle," says the 23-year-old broadcast journalist, who grew up in the small Missouri farm community of Harrisonville, an hour south of Kansas City.
Tracy works long but rewarding hours as a KSL Radio reporter and TV producer, having been hired right out of Brigham Young University-Idaho in April 2013. After short stints in Provo and Sugar House, she moved to the newly built Citifront apartments at 641 W. North Temple.
"I chose it because it's just a rock's throw from where I work," says Tracy. In fact, her commute amounts to a short walk over the North Temple viaduct to KSL's offices at the Triad Center. That allows her to forgo the expense of a car, one of the many advantages she attributes to renting.
"I'm not going to invest in a home until I know for sure, 100 percent guaranteed what I'm going to be doing," she says. "My feet are not in wet cement."
Day to day, Tracy has virtually no time for housekeeping. Her work schedule "is topsy-turvy," she says. "I barely have a social group, let alone a relationship."
But she makes a point of taking a weekly evening stroll around downtown and dining at one of Salt Lake City's food trucks or hitting an occasional Bees baseball game at Smith's Ballpark.
"It makes my heart so happy just to be here," Tracy says of life downtown. "I love just meeting people. I love the diversity. Every demographic is covered."