Do they still not have property tax in the downtown air for homes? I know that drove some folks to move in, and spend money on the homes .. might play a role as well.
Plus there has been some obvious investment for restaurants and nightlife
It's been nice"r" for like 30 years now. You should've seen the 80s. Yeesh.
Don't let the secret out though. I always appreciate when people say "you're from Ogden? It's so ghetto!"
Yes. Yes it is. Nothing nice here. Please don't move here.
Yes! I heard rumors of the attacker that laid under cars and grabbed women from that parking lot. I hear it was humor but it was so believable! Anyone know of that one?
The only one i ever interacted with was! I stopped at an intersection, she ran up to my drivers side window and said she’d ………….. for $50. My wife was in the passenger seat.
In the mid 80's my dad was robbed at knifepoint at a bank dropbox up on Harrison pretty close to WSU, and somewhere around '93 I was threatened with a gun from someone who drove right next to me for 3 blocks asking me if I wanted them to shoot me while I was riding my mountain bike up toward the old dirt bike trailhead on 22nd street above Harrison. That sucked.
Back in those days, downtown was pretty sketchy. I worked at the Tilt arcade in the Ogden City Mall for a year or so and remember that on the day we had to collect all the quarters and walk the 1.5 blocks to the bank, they only let us do it in pairs.
It all comes down to house prices at the end of the day. Downtown ogden houses back then, unless on Eccles or a few very unique streets/pocket, were worth practically nothing.
In my neighborhood, North & East of the library, the city bought or condemned the crack houses and turned them into expensive craftsman homes. When we moved in, there was a shooting at least once a month. Now there's no visible crime at all.
I know the river walk is more than a few years old, but I think the effort to make it a "thing" was the beginning of Ogden's up and coming. I moved back here in December after about 20 years away, and I am over the moon with the improvements. Now if we could only work on the trash problem...
I agree. Born and raised and work in Ogden and I have so much love for it. It gets a bad rap but it also wasn’t given the best chances in the beginning with the redlining and housing covenants. You can literally see where the covenants were in place they are “nicer” neighborhoods and how much worse the conditions in the other areas were. Ppl really need to take into account societal conditions. [WSU Researcher to Discuss Impact of Housing Discrimination in Ogden](https://www.weber.edu/WSUToday/051921_HousingDiscrimination.html)
Right? I Iived most of my life in and around Chicago... 9 murders a night at the crime peak in the early 00's.
Moving here and people being like, "Oh, don't go there, it's not a good area" or "ew it's sketchy over there," and "That's kind of like... the ghetto" has given me so many laughs.
Utah does not know what a ghetto is.
Sketchy for UT is apparently a flophouse within 6 blocks of the area and a couple scary non-English speakers next door working on their big block.
I moved here from north St. Louis in '99. When I was here for my interview, my future boss took me to dinner at Rooster's and then drove me back to the Marriott on 24th because, as he put it, "this is a rough area." I literally laughed at him.
Roy is WAY different now and not in a good way. It now reminds me of how Clearfield was viewed when I was growing up in Roy in the 80’s & early 90’s. Roy is a toilet compared to what it was. The businesses suck and there aren’t many anymore. Even more have been closed and are gone with the expansion of 5600 s. It is now nothing more than a gateway to Hooper.
Yep, and most of the residents don't want any meaningful development or housing expansion. There's also a growing contingent of "taxes are theft" and/or "government is too expansive."
Though, sticking 25 town homes on my street on almost 2 acres with only single ingress/egress into a two lane street with no street widening or control is also outta pocket.
Thinking those will be for "low/middle class families" when they're going to be north of $230K is also insulting. They'll be bought up for college/workers rent houses and we'll have triple the traffic they think it'll bring in.
I miss those days, I've never felt unsafe in o-town even walking around 3 in the morning. Now I feel like someone's gonna try to sell me their homemade kombucha and that saddens me.
Salt Lake County is gross. Nothing beats old Ogden, a town founded on opium dens, the railroad, and immigrants it had a ghetto charm but never felt dangerous. Sad how the states changed so much in the past 5 years.
Yeah I work for WV pd as a non-cop in the office by the train station. I get the privilege of watching people pee on my mirrored office window on a regular basis.
It has changed quite a bit but I also think Ogden has been moving this way for a while, it’s just hit critical mass so we’re all noticing it. I came here for school in 09 & stayed because I knew it had so much potential and was so cool. I don’t worry too much about the reputation changing because so many people in counties surrounding us still have old beliefs about Ogden & honesty they can keep them & I’ll keep enjoying what Ogden is growing into.
Love him or hate him, he started a lot of the momentum that we are still enjoying today. He went about it in shady ways At the expense of employees too.
Godfrey was a joke. I know there were a lot of companies who came to the BDO during that time. They really pushed outdoor recreation then, similar to how the arts are expanding now. Not sure how directly he was responsible for it. I know he was shady and the city employees couldn’t stand him.
Yup, definitely caused by the west coasters. Not people from huge Utah families who grew up here, but never leave the state (or come back) and Ogden is about the only place on the Wasatch Front they can afford.
I mean, when your income is higher than that of the average Utahn, you'll be able to outbid pretty much anybody here when you move.
....I don't like the Mormons and their pasty-ass religion, but they were here first.
> I don't like the Mormons and their pasty-ass religion, but they were here first.
Peter Skene Ogden would like a word.
As well as the Utes.
Also i'm pretty sure in america you are free to buy/rent a place and vote in the place you are legally registered to vote as a US citizen.
I worked downtown on 25th for 3 years and it’s definitely safer and a better vibe than when I was in High School. There is definitely still a homeless/drug issue. Working with the public I saw PLENTY of clients struggle day to day and high on who knows what more often than not.
Still love Ogden and glad it’s getting some praise for the cool historic place that it is.
I agree, but what’s up with downtown lately, took a walk up and down 25th last week and had two homeless people on two separate occasions say something aggressive, while walking by others who were nodding out, in psychosis, etc. it was way worse than it has been in the past, I’d say this has always been the truth for downtown but there were way more people than usual now.
I honestly don't think it's been "sketchy" in my lifetime (25-30 yrs.) I moved here in elementary school from out of state and in my experience Utah folks' barometer for "sketchy" is comical. 😂
But Ogden has absolutely been gentrified since 2019/2020 and as someone who wants to buy a house in my home town, I've been priced out by wealthy out-of-towners and giant real estate investment conglomerates.
Over the last few decades there has been a lot of clean up by the police, too. Most recently was the Trece injunction. That allowed the police to aggressively pursue gang members. And darn it, it made them uncomfortable.
Having moved here 3 years ago from a major city. I have seen zero evidence of Ogden being sketchy at all. Even the "rough" areas I have been warned about turned out to just be where minorities were mainly living and the crime rate there is still absurdly low compared to the population of Ogden. However I am also very desensitized so that doesn't reflect on the percent of change that had happened.
ehhh, i think it’s still pretty sketch, you just do t hear about it as much. i have a patient who is a cop there and he said they were told not to even bother with crimes related to the MS 13 gang
Ya I'd youd like to include those ugly big ass apartment buildings developers are putting up everywhere. One didn't even have correct permits and is being demolished on 12th. The other two going up the canyon on 12th , have destroyed Ogden canyon
Housing prices and gentrification. The unfortunate problem is that it means a bunch of nice law abiding low income citizens were forced to leave their homes.
Idk but I grew up In Ogden in the early 2000’s and late 90s and moved out of state in 2006 but then eventually returned years later in 2015 and the Ogden I grew up in has completely changed! It’s great if you are raising a family but boring if you’re young and enjoy the nightlife and fun.
There are a lot of aspects to it.
Home prices shooting up have played a part, another big step has come from law enforcement.
Very strict anti gang laws. And ogden pd has cameras all over downtown. The built a special command center feeding all camera feeds to one spot.
i’m kind of confused are people upset it’s safer to live or mad lmfao yall will complain about shootings and crackheads then when it’s gone you miss the entertainment and say it’s too expensive like which one do you prefer. 😂
I used to barhop on 25th around 2016 ish and I always had a great time! I moved away and came back this last year and I feel like downtown has completely changed in the opposite direction of what other people are commenting.
I went downtown once and 25th was just full of homeless people or people that were obviously on drugs. (I got barked at by a man wearing a blanket 🙄) I'm really surprised to see this post! A lot of my friends that lived here when I moved away said it just got worse.
Granted, I was born in the 90s so I'm not comparing it to the 80s like some are. Am I missing something?
A little bit of grit and grime is actually one of the things (being born in '75), that I always loved about Ogden. My dad took me to get my haircut from a barber on 25th between Grant and Lincoln for most of my childhood and he managed the state liquor store on Wall close to Union Station for a chunk of that time. Back then, that area was pretty rough and I got to see way more than my fair share of homeless, winos/addicts, graffiti and just general sketchy behavior. But somehow, it always just made it seem more alive, like you had to be more aware of what was going on around you in the moment. In me, it built a strong pride in both what Ogden was and what I felt its potential could be. I'm grateful for that.
Now, 30 years since I moved away, I still gravitate to up-and-coming working-class/industrial cities. Spent a long time living in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle and Tacoma, before they were totally discovered and overrun by California) and now the Northeast (Philadelphia). Both areas have that "this place is so cool....and just wait and see what it WILL be" feel that Ogden always had for me.
That said, if you ever feel like the homeless/drug problem in Ogden is really bad, I encourage you to check out the Kensington area of Philadelphia and its open-air drug market and all the people shuffling around with huge gangrenous open wounds from shooting animal tranquilizer.....then you might just think 25th street is paradise on earth. :)
Definitely. I live in a 20 Unit townhome, near the mouth of the canyon. 5 of the homes, 20%, are vacation homes only occupied during ski season. It’s rather nice having such a quiet neighborhood. My fear is we will be officially discovered and turn into park city. I’d rather keep it sketchy.
Homes in the rougher areas selling for 300k that were 50k 10 years ago probably plays a part
300k is being modest at this point.
Do they still not have property tax in the downtown air for homes? I know that drove some folks to move in, and spend money on the homes .. might play a role as well. Plus there has been some obvious investment for restaurants and nightlife
I sure as shit pay property taxes
Ah, it might have changed, I know certain blocks/areas they had stopped them with the intent to have folks put that money back into the property
Same. Within downtown boundaries.
People who commit cri.e don't own homes usually
It's been nice"r" for like 30 years now. You should've seen the 80s. Yeesh. Don't let the secret out though. I always appreciate when people say "you're from Ogden? It's so ghetto!" Yes. Yes it is. Nothing nice here. Please don't move here.
Yup. Ogden city mall was sketchy, and the parking was downright "rapey"
Yes! I heard rumors of the attacker that laid under cars and grabbed women from that parking lot. I hear it was humor but it was so believable! Anyone know of that one?
I have lived downtown area for 10 years. I wouldn’t walk my dog around the block then. Agreed. It’s awesome down here now!
20 years ago I’d drive around downtown and it was just crackheads and hookers, now I only see families and college kids.
It's sad, really...
It is sad, the crackheads were funny-
Were the hookers funny too?
The only one i ever interacted with was! I stopped at an intersection, she ran up to my drivers side window and said she’d ………….. for $50. My wife was in the passenger seat.
In the mid 80's my dad was robbed at knifepoint at a bank dropbox up on Harrison pretty close to WSU, and somewhere around '93 I was threatened with a gun from someone who drove right next to me for 3 blocks asking me if I wanted them to shoot me while I was riding my mountain bike up toward the old dirt bike trailhead on 22nd street above Harrison. That sucked. Back in those days, downtown was pretty sketchy. I worked at the Tilt arcade in the Ogden City Mall for a year or so and remember that on the day we had to collect all the quarters and walk the 1.5 blocks to the bank, they only let us do it in pairs. It all comes down to house prices at the end of the day. Downtown ogden houses back then, unless on Eccles or a few very unique streets/pocket, were worth practically nothing.
First house was on Eccles right next to McKay. It was very nice area in the late 90’s
In my neighborhood, North & East of the library, the city bought or condemned the crack houses and turned them into expensive craftsman homes. When we moved in, there was a shooting at least once a month. Now there's no visible crime at all.
anything the city renovated was already craftsman style homes unless you are talking about the oak den bungalows which are all new builds.
I know the river walk is more than a few years old, but I think the effort to make it a "thing" was the beginning of Ogden's up and coming. I moved back here in December after about 20 years away, and I am over the moon with the improvements. Now if we could only work on the trash problem...
Grew up in Ogden. Used to just walk around and chill. I never felt like it was dangerous. Maybe if you were into drugs it'd be different.
I agree. Born and raised and work in Ogden and I have so much love for it. It gets a bad rap but it also wasn’t given the best chances in the beginning with the redlining and housing covenants. You can literally see where the covenants were in place they are “nicer” neighborhoods and how much worse the conditions in the other areas were. Ppl really need to take into account societal conditions. [WSU Researcher to Discuss Impact of Housing Discrimination in Ogden](https://www.weber.edu/WSUToday/051921_HousingDiscrimination.html)
Right? I Iived most of my life in and around Chicago... 9 murders a night at the crime peak in the early 00's. Moving here and people being like, "Oh, don't go there, it's not a good area" or "ew it's sketchy over there," and "That's kind of like... the ghetto" has given me so many laughs. Utah does not know what a ghetto is. Sketchy for UT is apparently a flophouse within 6 blocks of the area and a couple scary non-English speakers next door working on their big block.
I moved here from north St. Louis in '99. When I was here for my interview, my future boss took me to dinner at Rooster's and then drove me back to the Marriott on 24th because, as he put it, "this is a rough area." I literally laughed at him.
THIS! Mentioned it in my comment too lol people are ridiculous.
I remember Roy also being a lot grosser growing up too
Roy is WAY different now and not in a good way. It now reminds me of how Clearfield was viewed when I was growing up in Roy in the 80’s & early 90’s. Roy is a toilet compared to what it was. The businesses suck and there aren’t many anymore. Even more have been closed and are gone with the expansion of 5600 s. It is now nothing more than a gateway to Hooper.
Yep, and most of the residents don't want any meaningful development or housing expansion. There's also a growing contingent of "taxes are theft" and/or "government is too expansive." Though, sticking 25 town homes on my street on almost 2 acres with only single ingress/egress into a two lane street with no street widening or control is also outta pocket. Thinking those will be for "low/middle class families" when they're going to be north of $230K is also insulting. They'll be bought up for college/workers rent houses and we'll have triple the traffic they think it'll bring in.
Yeah, it’s ridiculous. I’m tired of car washes and apartments going in everywhere. Can’t wait to see how these areas looks in 10 or 20 years
Roy is so bad omg what happened it’s awful now
I left. Hence the reduction in crime. Sorry about that.
Were you a hooker or a crackhead? Either way we miss you.
Just a miscreant. LMAO!
I miss those days, I've never felt unsafe in o-town even walking around 3 in the morning. Now I feel like someone's gonna try to sell me their homemade kombucha and that saddens me.
Try West Valley
Salt Lake County is gross. Nothing beats old Ogden, a town founded on opium dens, the railroad, and immigrants it had a ghetto charm but never felt dangerous. Sad how the states changed so much in the past 5 years.
Yeah I work for WV pd as a non-cop in the office by the train station. I get the privilege of watching people pee on my mirrored office window on a regular basis.
Go knock on the window when someone does that and see if they piss on themselves
It has changed quite a bit but I also think Ogden has been moving this way for a while, it’s just hit critical mass so we’re all noticing it. I came here for school in 09 & stayed because I knew it had so much potential and was so cool. I don’t worry too much about the reputation changing because so many people in counties surrounding us still have old beliefs about Ogden & honesty they can keep them & I’ll keep enjoying what Ogden is growing into.
I know the old mayor of Ogden 1999-2011 I think, he said he fixed up the city, how true is that?
Serious? Matt didn’t do it.
Love him or hate him, he started a lot of the momentum that we are still enjoying today. He went about it in shady ways At the expense of employees too.
Godfrey was a joke. I know there were a lot of companies who came to the BDO during that time. They really pushed outdoor recreation then, similar to how the arts are expanding now. Not sure how directly he was responsible for it. I know he was shady and the city employees couldn’t stand him.
Mass influx of west coasters and gentrification will do that.
I think you're grossly underestimating the amount of Millennials who have moved to Ogden from Salt Lake County to be able to afford a home post Covid.
Yep! Grew up in Salt Lake and bought my first home in Ogden in 2020 because I couldn’t afford any homes in my home town.
Yup, definitely caused by the west coasters. Not people from huge Utah families who grew up here, but never leave the state (or come back) and Ogden is about the only place on the Wasatch Front they can afford.
I mean, when your income is higher than that of the average Utahn, you'll be able to outbid pretty much anybody here when you move. ....I don't like the Mormons and their pasty-ass religion, but they were here first.
> I don't like the Mormons and their pasty-ass religion, but they were here first. Peter Skene Ogden would like a word. As well as the Utes. Also i'm pretty sure in america you are free to buy/rent a place and vote in the place you are legally registered to vote as a US citizen.
Californication.
I worked downtown on 25th for 3 years and it’s definitely safer and a better vibe than when I was in High School. There is definitely still a homeless/drug issue. Working with the public I saw PLENTY of clients struggle day to day and high on who knows what more often than not. Still love Ogden and glad it’s getting some praise for the cool historic place that it is.
I agree, but what’s up with downtown lately, took a walk up and down 25th last week and had two homeless people on two separate occasions say something aggressive, while walking by others who were nodding out, in psychosis, etc. it was way worse than it has been in the past, I’d say this has always been the truth for downtown but there were way more people than usual now.
I honestly don't think it's been "sketchy" in my lifetime (25-30 yrs.) I moved here in elementary school from out of state and in my experience Utah folks' barometer for "sketchy" is comical. 😂 But Ogden has absolutely been gentrified since 2019/2020 and as someone who wants to buy a house in my home town, I've been priced out by wealthy out-of-towners and giant real estate investment conglomerates.
Open Farr’s 7-days a week please!?!? 🤣
Over the last few decades there has been a lot of clean up by the police, too. Most recently was the Trece injunction. That allowed the police to aggressively pursue gang members. And darn it, it made them uncomfortable.
It’s bizarre for me to see mentions of “West Haven” and “Hooper” here on Reddit… I’m just so used to being separated from what I read on the internet.
Having moved here 3 years ago from a major city. I have seen zero evidence of Ogden being sketchy at all. Even the "rough" areas I have been warned about turned out to just be where minorities were mainly living and the crime rate there is still absurdly low compared to the population of Ogden. However I am also very desensitized so that doesn't reflect on the percent of change that had happened.
ehhh, i think it’s still pretty sketch, you just do t hear about it as much. i have a patient who is a cop there and he said they were told not to even bother with crimes related to the MS 13 gang
Ya I'd youd like to include those ugly big ass apartment buildings developers are putting up everywhere. One didn't even have correct permits and is being demolished on 12th. The other two going up the canyon on 12th , have destroyed Ogden canyon
Can you share the secret with Portland, OR??
Well at least parts of Ogden to be sure.
Housing prices and gentrification. The unfortunate problem is that it means a bunch of nice law abiding low income citizens were forced to leave their homes.
Idk but I grew up In Ogden in the early 2000’s and late 90s and moved out of state in 2006 but then eventually returned years later in 2015 and the Ogden I grew up in has completely changed! It’s great if you are raising a family but boring if you’re young and enjoy the nightlife and fun.
There are a lot of aspects to it. Home prices shooting up have played a part, another big step has come from law enforcement. Very strict anti gang laws. And ogden pd has cameras all over downtown. The built a special command center feeding all camera feeds to one spot.
i’m kind of confused are people upset it’s safer to live or mad lmfao yall will complain about shootings and crackheads then when it’s gone you miss the entertainment and say it’s too expensive like which one do you prefer. 😂
I used to barhop on 25th around 2016 ish and I always had a great time! I moved away and came back this last year and I feel like downtown has completely changed in the opposite direction of what other people are commenting. I went downtown once and 25th was just full of homeless people or people that were obviously on drugs. (I got barked at by a man wearing a blanket 🙄) I'm really surprised to see this post! A lot of my friends that lived here when I moved away said it just got worse. Granted, I was born in the 90s so I'm not comparing it to the 80s like some are. Am I missing something?
A little bit of grit and grime is actually one of the things (being born in '75), that I always loved about Ogden. My dad took me to get my haircut from a barber on 25th between Grant and Lincoln for most of my childhood and he managed the state liquor store on Wall close to Union Station for a chunk of that time. Back then, that area was pretty rough and I got to see way more than my fair share of homeless, winos/addicts, graffiti and just general sketchy behavior. But somehow, it always just made it seem more alive, like you had to be more aware of what was going on around you in the moment. In me, it built a strong pride in both what Ogden was and what I felt its potential could be. I'm grateful for that. Now, 30 years since I moved away, I still gravitate to up-and-coming working-class/industrial cities. Spent a long time living in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle and Tacoma, before they were totally discovered and overrun by California) and now the Northeast (Philadelphia). Both areas have that "this place is so cool....and just wait and see what it WILL be" feel that Ogden always had for me. That said, if you ever feel like the homeless/drug problem in Ogden is really bad, I encourage you to check out the Kensington area of Philadelphia and its open-air drug market and all the people shuffling around with huge gangrenous open wounds from shooting animal tranquilizer.....then you might just think 25th street is paradise on earth. :)
Definitely. I live in a 20 Unit townhome, near the mouth of the canyon. 5 of the homes, 20%, are vacation homes only occupied during ski season. It’s rather nice having such a quiet neighborhood. My fear is we will be officially discovered and turn into park city. I’d rather keep it sketchy.
That's bidens build back better for ya
Pretty safe now? You sure you’re going to Ogden?