The Single Story - West Valley City

Whenever I introduce myself to anyone as "from West Valley City, Utah" I get one of two responses. If the person isn't from Utah, they'll usually say something like "I've never heard of that, where is it?" Those who are familiar with my hometown, however, often give me some version of "was it scary growing up there?" or "did your house ever get shot at?" or even "were you in a gang?" There is a definite single story about West Valley City and its residents, which has been perpetuated, intentionally or not, by the local media.

I could tell dozens of stories of when I have encountered this single story firsthand, but I'll only include the most recent, and perhaps most interesting one I can remember. Just a few months ago I introduced myself at the orientation meeting for newly accepted journalism students. As always, I proudly proclaimed that I was from "The one and only West Valley City, Utah" which drew a few laughs as I'd hoped it would. After the meeting, Professor Walz approached me and, after introducing himself, said: "I worked for ABC4 and KSL TV for many years, and I would have had a lot of boring days on the job if not for your family and friends in West Valley." I laughed in response, knowing he was mostly kidding, but at the same time I also knew it wasn't completely a joke.

A simple search of "West Valley" on Twitter revealed this collection of tweets from three different local media outlets on the same day:Additionally, my wife, who is always checking news updates online, loves to point out every negative story she sees about West Valley. She thinks it's hilarious that she finds one at least once a week; I, however, do not share in her amusement. Within the past two years, West Valley has made major improvements to the Valley Fair Mall, an Embassy Suites hotel was built, Granger High School was completely rebuilt, and the Miller Group created the West Valley Megaplex - probably the most technologically advanced movie theater in the world. While I'm sure each of these events was reported in the news, why is it that all anyone thinks of when they hear "West Valley" is gangs, violence and illegal immigrants?

I mentioned before that I always proudly introduce myself as being from West Valley City, never Salt Lake, although it would be significantly easier. I do that because I enjoy the conversation that follows. If they are unfamiliar with it, I usually say that it's the second-biggest city in Utah by population and area, which always surprises them. If more people knew how big a city West Valley is, perhaps the fact that crime seems to be so prevalent would seem more normal. After all, there are robberies and shootings every week in Salt Lake City as well, but no one is afraid to go there.

West Valley City is not a scary place to live......but in the interest of full disclosure, my house has been shot at, and I was in a "gang".....