🌱 Office Of Rail Safety Coming Soon + Sinkhole In Downtown Salt Lake

Hello, hello. It's me, Sean Peek, your host of the Salt Lake City Patch newsletter — back in your inbox with all the most important things happening in town these days.

But first, today's weather:

Partly sunny. High: 84 Low: 61.

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Here are the top three stories in Salt Lake City today:

1. Salt Lake City officially has the sixth most Airbnb rentals per resident in the United States according to a new study, however, the city's rentals are not as expensive as other major markets in the country. The Chamber of Commerce gathered statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and analyzed more than 160,000 Airbnb cities in some of the most populated places. Salt Lake City ranks behind major travel destinations such as Miami, Scottsdale, and New Orleans. In Salt Lake City, nightly rentals are on the more affordable end with the average stay being $168 per night as opposed to the most expensive in Oxnard, CA coming in at $488 per night. (ABC4.com)
2. Safety concerns are continuing to rise in the state of Utah around the more frequent and visible train derailments occurring throughout the country. A less-publicized incident occurred in Salt Lake City in March where train cars did derail but luckily stayed upright, and another March incident in Ogden involved derailed cars that fell over and leaked magnesium chloride, which is not a hazardous material. Around 1,700 train cars derail every year, but with more people having access to reporting news via the Internet more of these incidents are spoken about. Utah is creating an "Office of Rail Safety" which will look into worker and train safety. (KUTV 2News)
3. Earlier this week in Salt Lake City, a road near State Street and 200 South had to close one of its lanes because a sinkhole appeared. The hole was reported Monday night around 7:00 p.m., and photographs showed it was around three to four feet wide while the depth of the hole is unknown. Not many details have been provided for the city's plans on how the hole will be filled or when the lane will be reopened for safe usage. (KUTV 2News)

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Today in Salt Lake City:

• CLEAR In-Person Hiring Event At DoubleTree By Hilton (8:00 AM)
• Wednesday Weekly Bottle Share Meet-Up At Scion Cider Bar (4:00 PM)
• All Time Low At The Union Event Center (7:00 PM)

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From my notebook:

• Be sure to mark your calendar for the FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention taking place Sep. 21-23. This will be the 10-year anniversary of the event, and passes are now available for purchase at this link. (FanX™️ via Instagram)
• The Salt Lake City School District is sending a special congratulations to the students of West High School who competed in the International Science and Engineering Fair and won big awards. Cole Chu and Alex Hernandez Juarez were awarded renewable tuition scholarships valued at $10,000 per year at the University of Arizona as well as $1,500 cash prizes for their projects presented at the fair. (Salt Lake City School District via Facebook)
• Nominations for Regional Advisory Council for the Utah Wildlife Board are officially due by May 31. If you or someone you know has an interest in the decision-making about fish and wildlife management in Utah, be sure to send your nominations by the deadline. You can learn more at this link. (Utah Division of Wildlife Resources via Facebook)

You're officially in the loop for today! See you tomorrow for your next update.

— Sean Peek

About me: Sean Peek is a writer and entrepreneur with a degree in English Literature from Weber State University. Over the years, he has worked as a copywriter, editor, SEO specialist, and marketing director for various digital media companies. He currently co-owns and operates content creation agency Lightning Media Partners.