Utahns bid 2009 farewell, welcome 2010

Tom Newman watched his children slide across the Gallivan Center ice rink Thursday, the last day of a particularly difficult year.

"I'm a builder," the Star Valley, Wyo., man said.

No more explanation was needed.

For Newman and millions of others, 2009 was a year marked by plummeting stock prices, bursting bubbles and credit crunches.

"It's a down year, especially for snowboarding," said Taylor Murray, an event organizer from Portland, Ore., who was helping set up a snowboarding display downtown. "It's a pastime, and people who are cutting back start with that."

But Salt Lake City set aside the hardships of 2009 Thursday, as downtown hosted an end-of-the-decade blowout, replete with laughter, dancing and a countdown to starting over.

"It was a rough year," said Danica Farley, a spokeswoman for the Downtown Alliance. "Every day is a new day, but there's something so wonderful about waking up to a new year and knowing you can start again."

To be fair, the past year wasn't all bad for everyone.

Carlene Wall of the Utah Humane Society said the economic downturn probably helped her organization achieve an adoption rate higher than it has ever been.

"My resolution is just to increase that rate," she said, as she watched a group of children work on craft projects at The Gateway mall. "The more pets we get adopted, the more lives we save."

Brandon Isenhour, head of security at Keys on Main, a downtown piano bar, said 2009 was the year he started a job he loves.

"I've watched this place grow," he said. "It's been fun to see the progress."

Regardless, the evening was occasion to escape the harsher points of reality, as the Downtown Alliance's three-day EVE celebration concluded Thursday with thousands of people converging on the streets of Salt Lake City.

As the night carried on, rock music blared from Gallivan, and the sounds of organs emanated from Temple Square.

This night, the troubles of 2009 seemed distant to the cork-popping glass-raisers; the dancers in the street; the lip-locked lovers, young and old; the slack-jawed children as midnight fireworks exploded in the night sky.

"We want to remind people how it is to be happy," Farley said. "That's the most important thing in life. The economy and whatnot affect us, but let's go out and enjoy each other."

e-mail: afalk@desnews.com