Center for Story
Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn eyes light up as he described the ideal vision of his city. Street lamps, high-rise buildings, Broadway shows. Atmosphere. Imagine State Street with trees lining the median, antique shops, corner delis and art galleries fill the buildings.
You can almost smell the pastries and a latte on the side of the boulevard from a circa 1900 building that houses both the artist and his art gallery.
Almost.
In fact, everything you need to destroy this idyllic vision is a quick look around Orem. There are no skyscrapers or many distinguished buildings.The signs are not ostentatious, they advertise legal services and payday loans. Restaurants abound, but fast food is no match for a sidewalk cafe. You can walk the streets of State, but why do you want?
In his book of 1980, The Executioner's Song, the author Norman Mailer wrote of State Street:
"There were shopping malls and fast-food palaces, used car dealers, chain clothing stores and gas stops, appliance stores and road signs and fruit stands. There were banks and real estate companies in the compounds of offices from one floor and rows of condominiums with mansard roofs sawed-off.It hardly seemed a building that has not been painted in a nursery color: pastel yellow, pastel orange, pastel gray, pastel blue. ... On State Street, six miles from Orem to Provo, these houses seemed as old as saloons border. "
Replication New York Theater District may be, but city officials and residents Orem many want their city to be a place for the arts - so much so that in 2005, residents approved a sales tax, with funds earmarked for the arts and recreation. Objectives included Theatres, museums, art studios and one day, a neighborhood arts.In 2006, the City Council commissioned a study to examine whether SCERA, as it is nestled among the strip malls and billboards, could become the backbone around which the museums, galleries, classrooms and small stages emerge.