A New Side to Downtown Provo

I am a little embarrassed to admit it, but while walking through downtown Provo, my inner snob immediately broke out. Everything outside of Center Street seemed to be dirty and rundown and I was quickly turned off by the whole area. I was determined to capture cool shots but was frustrated by the lack of unique, hipster, exciting places to capture. And yet, the more time I spent looking around, the more intrigued and impressed I became with the area. Yes, the general area was definitely far from manicured lawns and brand new cars, however, the people clearly put in effort into making what they had work. Someone had clearly taken quite a bit of time and effort to build a makeshift stand out of cinder blocks and old metal shelves in order to keep their A/C unit running and keep his interior cool and pleasant. Meanwhile, someone else who did not have a stand to put their mailbox instead carefully balanced it on the ledge so he could still receive mail. A blank white wall was not abandoned and left to be covered in graffiti, but instead hand painted to add creativity and color to an otherwise dull space. Though there was trash upon trash nearly blanketing center street, the township tried to beautify the space with benches and trees. Even a man who had his entire store front covered in construction in order to update and upgrade the outward appeal was also putting in the effort to blow away all the garbage from his store before the clean up crews could get there. Overall, I learned a lot about the people that live in downtown Provo. They may not be rich, but they care and they will go to all lengths to appear and function the best they can. This was a surprisingly humbling experience.