The Gateway — Attraction in Salt Lake City

"Gateway Mall: Aside from food and experiences, what do you go there for?"

-a shallow look at face value-

Dateline, Salt Lake City...

What opened at the cusp of the Olympic games at the dawn of this century, has found itself worse for wear. Not Detroit-beat-down, but certainly not keeping in with what a quarter-century building should be degrading at, considering our climate.

Surrounding

A large portion of locals steer clear of The Gateway because of the multitude of homeless shelters in the immediate vicinity, which invite roving pack of aimless cogs to maraud through.

Access off the I-15 is decent during off peak hours.

Eatings

The restaurant scene lacks depth, character, variety, and destination restaurants. With a few national names and some local startups, the offerings don't scream out for being craveable. Nothing noteworthy or special, the same veggies, meats, and American staples.

Shops

A ghost town. What did you expect? We all save money by shopping online now... We are all equally guilty in the death of local retail.

Mall Infrastructure

Various escalators are usually always off, and the wind and dust kicking through the North-South thoroughfare mall orientation doesn't offer any respite from freezing winter winds or any matter of inclement weather. The huge Biohazard floor level fountain still works, but it doesn't bode well that the last time I was there, it was being used as target practice for peeing children, which is better than a few times before that, when an adult male was using it as a bidet, I suppose.

Parking

AVOID ON WEEKENDS

It's an absolute mess on the weekends, taking 45 minutes to find parking at 7 pm on a Friday. When exiting, doing so after movies let out, or heaven forbid, a Delta Center Event... can be brutal! With the number of spaces this mall accommodates, and the few number of entry and exits to parking, the mall management automatically created a bottleneck at all entry and exit points, costing their patrons hundreds, if not thousands of hours collectively each weekend.

Still being Salt Lake City, car break-ins are common, so leave valuables at home, or better yet, don't have any valuables... less for others to covet and steal, in a nasty repetition of the poor stealing from the poor.

Benefits of Gateway

-Only Dave and Buster's in Utah -not busy on weekdays -main traffic from weekdays is office workers -outside freedom when shopping

It used to be, malls were an automatic destination. Now, it's a struggle coming up with reasons to visit The Gateway.

Final Results

Combine trips. If you aren't jumping on and off the lightrail, you'll need 3 or more good reasons to go through the hassle of going to...

I watched a movie there, and the reception was good. There was a large snack and drink station available for purchasing refreshments to enjoy during the film. The restrooms were clean, and there were no issues with crowd management. However, I encountered three problems:

Firstly, the sound quality was a tiny bit lower than expected and it didn’t have a high clarity.

Secondly, I experienced a very strange and frustrating confusion. In the auditorium, there are two doors at the front. One is the main exit leading to the restrooms and ticket check, and the other is a direct exit to the street. When I wanted to go to the restroom, I mistakenly took the second exit, marked only with a large green exit sign without any description, and found myself in a long, spooky hallway with door after door. After passing through three doors and finding myself unable to return through them, I continued forward. I ended up in a closed-off part of the cinema and eventually made my way to the street, only to find myself on the opposite side of the building. I had to walk around to reenter the cinema and pass the ticket check again without a ticket. Thankfully, the attendant was aware of the issue and let me pass to return to the auditorium. He mentioned that many people make the same mistake. This was one of the most confusing and bizarre situations I have ever experienced.

Third and last, the seats were not entirely comfortable. When you leaned the seat back and laid on it, and someone needed to pass by, you had to bend your feet and then stretch them out again afterward. This was a bit uncomfortable, (I have an...

Public Notice from Reviewer The Gateway is currently in preparation for Utah's Last Hurrah 2018 New Year's Eve Party (Notice Picture Below of Crystal Ball) This event will be free to the public from 8 PM to midnight at The Gateway Courtyard and Fountain (as I like to call it) below the Barnes and Noble December 31, 2018. Just take caution of where you are walking, and as always respect property. There will be lots of food, drinks, activities, and live music all leading up to the start of 2019.

The Gateway has fallen really empty and silent since the opening of City Creek Center. However, the mall has current and vast revamps of the entire mall. Changes, big ones, to evolve and uplift the Gateway to bring back people, to bring a whole new fresh current vibe back to the downtown area, and to expose new shops and stores, as well as activities and social structure for everyone in 2019 starting not long after the New Year near Spring. The Mall does contain the Clark Planetarium which is a treat for the space and science enthusiast or geek, also has large Barnes and Noble, a well known book store, plenty of great restaurants for friend, family, happy hour/bar Hangouts, has a GameStop, a Sprint Mobile store, and also a Megaplex Theater to get your movie watching on, just to name a few of the more known places and...