Survive Utah's Holiday Shopping Season With the City Weekly Gift Guide 

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• Benjamin Wood
• Get where you need to go with a Hive Pass, but only if you live in Salt Lake City.

Stocking Stuffers
Essential items for living like an SLC local.
By Benjamin Wood

What do you want for Christmas?

It's a terrible question we're all expected to answer. There are plenty of safe answers to trot out. We always need socks, maybe ties. Gift cards to our regular haunts are productive (and can be found at discount rates on the City Weekly Store site). Or tools, I guess? Jewelry? Fragrances?

But if you're a Salt Laker—or for the Salt Laker in your life—you'll need a little more muscle on the bones of your XMas list. Here are some universally beneficial items for life in our beautiful winter city.

Hive Pass
Regular readers of this newspaper may have noticed my not-so-subtle affinity for public transit. It's hard to remain quiet about a service that improves your life, bolsters your health, strengthens your neighborhood and saves you money in the process. Available only to those who reside within the city's boundaries—real Salt Lakers, if you will—the Hive pass costs roughly the same as a full tank of gas ($42), meaning it need only save you one trip to the pumps every 30 days—and/or a few rounds of paid parking downtown—to offset its cost and start putting money back into your pocket.

Particularly if you live and/or work near a Trax stop—I check but one of those boxes, sigh—you may be kicking yourself for not getting one sooner. An annual Greenbike bike share membership is included and, as an added incentive, I like to imagine that every time a UTA card reader dings, somewhere in the state, a transit-skeptical lawmaker feels a fleeting, but acute, pinprick of pain at the base of their skull.
More information at ridewithhive.com

Neighborhood Map Stickers
Now that you've got a transit pass, you can start freely exploring the nooks and crannies of the city, beginning with your home neighborhood. And to help you remember where exactly your neighborhood begins and ends (I don't know who needs to hear this, but 9th & 9th is not Sugar House) check out the series of stickers ($6 ea.) created by Bryant Heath, who contributes a weekly column to City Weekly when he's not out on foot exhaustively cataloging every square inch of land around him.
Find it at slsees.myshopify.com

Merch by Matt Crane
For a different kind of treasure map, check out the iconic artwork of Matt Crane, who does business online via the nom de Etsy HouseofCattitude.

Crane's city landmark design is second to none and makes for a helluva T-shirt ($20-$25), but his talents go further with re-creations of City Creek Canyon, Gilgal Gardens and the Bobsled mountain bike trail ($10-$20+), or maybe a coffee mug featuring the legendary Fun Time Kidz Care ($11)?
Find it at etsy.com/shop/HouseofCattitude

• Benjamin Wood
• The Fuego pullover from Cotopaxi is a distinctively local cold-weather favorite.

Puffy Coat
For many Salt Lakers, the question is "Should I wear my casual puffy, or my dress puffy?"

If you've been reluctant to get down with goose down, consider this your personal invitation from Uncle Ben. Both incredibly lightweight and incredibly warm, most puffy coats are collapsible—often into their own pockets—making it an efficient layer you can store in a purse or bike bag and stash away once indoors and out of the cold.

Varieties abound but to really show your local stripes (pun intended) head to Utah's own Cotopaxi for their signature Fuego pullover ($275) or its less-insulated sibling, the Capa ($215). That said, in my experience, it's worth swinging for the extra stuffing, and always remember that sunshine adds 10 degrees and the difference between 33 and 31 is more than just two.
Find it at Cotopaxi, 74 S. Main, SLC, 385-528-0855, cotopaxi.com

Orange Flags
On average, two people died on Salt Lake City streets each month during 2022. And just four streets—1700 South, 1300 South, 400 South and State—contributed at least 11 of those deaths, including that of an 11-year-old girl walking in a crosswalk on Nov. 30, 2022.

That most deadly streets list includes both city- and state-controlled corridors, so there's plenty of blame to go around. While the scale of death and destruction is relatively quantifiable, predictable and preventable, the primary strategy to date has consisted of keeping people out of cars' way (shouldn't it be the other way around?) and asking pedestrians to wave garish orange flags in areas where confrontation with drivers is inevitable.

Sure, there are public flags stashed around town at key intersections, but can you really rely on that to keep you safe? I called around to local hardware stores and couldn't confirm any with orange hand flags in stock, but Marshalls Industrial Hardware on the west side sells orange yard flags with a 21-inch stake for 18 cents a pop. You could buy them in bulk and attach them to anything that might reasonably have to cross State Street: your bike; your scooter; your backpack; your friends; your pets; your children; your grandmother. The potential need is truly endless.
Find it at Marshalls Industrial Hardware, 2210 W. California Ave., SLC, 801-978-0555, marshallshdw.com

• Benjamin Wood
• Be prepared for summer fun with a straw hat from Fisher Brewing.

Straw Hat from Fisher Brewing
Maybe winter's not your jam? No judgment. For the Salt Laker anxiously awaiting spring, stoke the flames of their excitement with Fisher Brewing's straw hat ($38). Come summertime, when the temperatures climb and the inverted smog layer gives way to a mist of arsenic dust, you'll be ready to rock and keepin' it cool with your personal shade-maker, a cozy piece of headwear that sure pairs well with a pint. Cheers!
Find it at Fisher Brewing Co., 320 W. 800 South, SLC, 801-487-2337, fisherbeer.com