Electric Porsche

Current Exchange converts classic roadster to electric collectible

By Al Sacharov

The Porsche 911. A driver eases behind the wheel of this classic 1980s sports car. While shifting gears, the engine roars its approval. At the Current Exchange in Salt Lake City, it is the same clean-lined Porsche, but with an electric engine that will purr its approval. Martin Prouty and Kyle Palmer started The Current Exchange to convert Porsche roadsters into electric vehicles. The two entrepreneurs have known each other since college days in Arizona. After both held stints in the corporate world, they decided to follow their passion for Porsches. They chose the Porsche 911 because it is ideally suited for conversion. A Tesla motor nestles into the rear engine compartment and the batteries

sit in the front. But most importantly, a devoted following already exists for the car. “An electric-powered Porsche will be the next cool thing for a collector,” Kyle says. They estimate their prototype will be road-ready this summer. The convertible’s interior will have the look and feel of the original. Porsche power will remain, and the car will have a 100 to 150 mile cruising range on a single charge. “The Porsche is meant to be driven. Most 911s have reached the lifespan of their original engines, and by converting them, they can be enjoyed well into the future. It’s the perfect car to tool around with on Sunday,” Martin says. The vehicle will have a price tag of “150,000, well within the range of collectable cars. The two hope to convert up to 10 cars a year by 2025, obtaining originals through specialty brokers and auctions. A goal is to utilize local auto specialty shops along with the electric vehicle program at Weber State University. The shop on Richards Street is start-up spartan. But on the wall is a surrealist picture dating back to the duo’s college days. It features a table surrounded by figures drawn as light sockets. A play on words ensued — electric current, current dreams, Current Exchange. It is indeed a picture worth a thousand words.

Walnut Lane Development

Affordable Housing in Moab

By Richard Markosian

When a mobile Park home went up for sale on Walnut Lane in Moab, it would have been a sure bet for any area developer to realize windfall profits if they flipped it into luxury condos. Instead, Moab City stepped in and decided it would be better to safeguard the park and its residents against eviction and use the site for future affordable housing. In the past five years, mobile home parks have become a target for developers who can triple or quadruple the property values by evicting long-time, low-income residents and replacing them with second home owners with extra cash. All over Utah, this trend has escalated, as we have reported previously, especially in Bountiful and Centerville. Low-income residents who have invested thousands of dollars into their double-wide trailers and yards only to end up displaced and feeling completely hopeless when they learn that Utah State law mandates that a ten-year old must be abandoned or demolished and cannot be moved to another location. Moab residents all seem to agree that

the lack of affordable housing threatens the town’s very existence. The lifeblood of the tourism economy relies on tour guides, restaurant staff, hotel staff, and service-sector employees. The plan for Walnut Lane is to transition the property from trailer-park to a multi-use housing complex. They plan to increase the number of housing units from 37 to 80, which will include a mix of housing types including apartments and duplexes, built exclusively for low-income residents. The plan is also in phases so that none of the current residents at the site will be displaced. The City is working with Architectural Squared to design the units to integrate well with the neighborhood. The plan also includes the integration of sidewalks, an internal loop offering trees and landscaping, plenty of bike parking, storage lockers, and an outdoor gathering area. Moab still has many trailer park areas which are some of the last affordable sites in the city. Moab also has many farms and open land on the far-south end of town. Why not build there? The difficulty in developing more of these sites is providing additional infrastructure, mainly water and sewage. Moab has invested heavily in a new water-treatment facility that is 90% more efficient and effective than its old system, using far less electricity and making all of the town’s wastewater reusable. But there is resistance to developing more farmland and open space. Long-time locals do not want to see zoning law changes or more density. They believe that a densely-packed town doesn’t fit with the two national parks and the surrounding wilderness, but zoning changes and in-fill needs to happen to accommodate employees at all of the new hotels that have gone up in recent years. Still, water is still the major limiting factor. Besides supplying water to its 5,400 residents Moab needs to supply water for an additional 19,000 visitors in peak season. This requires a huge amount of additional capacity which is provided by three storage tanks and several aquifers and wells. The city needs to drill at least two more wells in the near future to accommodate projected demand and population growth. We reported in our previous stories that many of the hotel and restaurant staff are living out of their vehicles and often need to wait or seek apartments and housing for up to one or two years before they find actual housing. Accommodating growth while preserving the quality of life of Moab is a huge balancing act that Moab leaders are working to solve. The main barrier now is that the city is still extremely congested, and all amenities and infrastructure are maxed out at peak season. Locals and leaders have the mindset that they currently do not want to see more tourism in peak season. Still, many residents would rather keep things nice for locals than cater to the elites who want to buy up every available property in town. A gentleman we found meditating on a park bench along the Mill Creek Parkway last fall put it succinctly, “I’ve lived in a lot of places, and this is where I want to raise my daughter and live.” He works at the Moonflower Market in town and lived in a cave for two years before finding a home.

Mending The Mind Body Connection

Naturopathic Medical Doctor Todd Cameron believes psychedelics ‘change lives’

By Sona Schmidt-Harris

Dr. Todd Cameron has been around. Not only is he a Naturopathic

Medical Doctor (NMD), he has also worked as a pediatric ICU nurse and is certified in Advanced Wilderness Life

Support and as a Wilderness Medicine

First Responder. Because of his vast experience, he has had a number of residents who spent up to two years in his clinic,

Cameron Wellness Center. He still gets a lot of requests from “medical students of every ilk” who want to work with an instructor. “It’s because I’m old, and I’ve been around,” Cameron laughs. The old guy is a strong proponent of medical marihuana, CBDs and psychedelics as treatment for various disorders. “I’m very, very thankful that we’re now living in a world where we can do serious research again on psychotropics without the stigma that Timothy Leary kind of dragged along in the 60s when he wanted people to drop out,” he said. Richard Alpert, later known as “Ram Dass” and Leary studied LSD extensively and were pioneers in the field. They “were doing remarkable things

in prisons with violent criminals, like really opening up their minds and getting them away from thinking violent thoughts,” Cameron said. Cameron speaks from experience and not just medical literature. “With my patients, especially the ones that are in a lot of pain or have a lot of anxiety or have a lot of depression, it changes lives and it does so quickly,” he said. This proves to be especially true of the suicidal. “They go through a couple of different sessions and realize how beautiful the world is and how beautiful they are, and how much more grounded they can be.” His enthusiasm for the subject, seemingly unbounded, continued, “In my opinion, every single person that ever wanted to take public office should go through some sort of guided treatment with some sort of psychotropic substance,” Cameron said. “If they’re going to go into a position of responsibility over everything that we are losing in this world, including climate change [and] politics leading to war, this would change the way they see the world immensely.” As much as Cameron is concerned with the mind, he is equally concerned with the body. “If they don’t have very good mental health, their physical health can be better. So, it’s kind of all wrapped up in one,” he said. The Menninger Clinic, a psychiatric hospital and research center, published case studies which particularly interested Cameron. One such case regarded a child who was about seven years old who had multiple personality disorder (now known primarily as dissociative identity disorder) from trauma. “When he was in one personality, he would get hives if he drank orange juice, but if his personality changed, his hives would immediately go away,” Cameron said. He also studied another case at a conference of a woman who was allergic to chocolate cake, but only at weddings. “So, you have to take not only what you’re eating into consideration, but the mental state and the emotional state of the individual.” “We are wheels within wheels within wheels,” Cameron said. “Within my experience as a clinician, there is really nothing that I can think of that exists alone in its effects in the body. I mean, quite literally.” Cameron believes that if you want to know how you respond to a particular food, you need to eat it by itself. For instance, fasting before eating sugar or starch alone, and then later measuring your response on a glucometer, is a great way to see how an individual responds to sugars. “The onus is on the individual to find out, if they really want to find out,” he said. Though Cameron acknowledges the differences between individuals, he believes that if you want to stay both mentally and physically healthy, most people should reduce the amount of food that turns into sugar quickly on an empty stomach, “because that’s your worst enemy. It spikes your sugar, it spikes your insulin, you start getting free radical damage. That starts cardiovascular disease, and it’s a mess,” he said. With 85 five-star reviews on Google, it seems that many patients of the Cameron Wellness Center believe and practice that which Cameron and his staff purport.

Alternative Approaches to Dining & Drinking

By Ted Scheffler

Let’s face it, we all get into ruts. I know I do. With hundreds and hundreds of restaurants to eat at and support, how many of us tend to default to just a handful? Maybe it’s a matter of just thinking a bit out of the box. You know, choosing perhaps to enjoy a non-alcoholic alternative to a classic cocktail, or something like a raw food meal rather than a steak and potato? There are numerous ways of alternative eating and drinking. Here are a few favorites. Who doesn’t love a tasty dessert?

About a dozen years ago, Nanette

Wessels opened City Cakes & Cafe, specializing in delicious vegan and gluten free cakes, cookies, muffins, donuts and such. Yes, vegan. I’m not vegan, but I can testify to how yummy

City Cakes & Cafe baked goods are. In fact, they are so popular that a second

City Cakes & Cafe location was opened in Draper. They offer cakes that are vegan, gluten free, soy free or a mix of all three — all custom made from scratch. Customers can select cakes ranging in size from four inches to 12-inches in flavors like red velvet, lemon coconut, orange poppy, carrot, and more. Beyond cakes, City Cakes offers gluten free sandwich buns, gluten free whoopie pies with plantbased “fudge”, and dairy-free buttercream, cinnamon rolls that are vegan and gluten free but taste like the real deal, and much, much more. At Ogden’s WB’s Eatery in The Monarch, you can indulge in specialty cocktails such as the White Widow Colada, Acapulco Smoke, Skywalker Margarita, and the delish Lemon Diesel Caipirinha. But WB’s also caters to cocktail lovers who prefer to eschew the alcohol. The talented bartenders at WB’s Eatery can craft cocktails using low alcohol ingredients or no alcohol, such as Ritual Zero Proof, Kentucky 74, Lyres, and Monday, to make dry cocktails. Or, enjoy Thomas and Scott vegan,

dealcoholized, organic sparkling Chardonnay or Giesen Sauvignon Blanc with the alcohol removed. There’s even 0% alcohol Surreal Juicy Mavs IPA beer to enjoy. WB’s also offers gift boxes and ingredients for making alcohol-free drinks at home, such as their Acapulco Smoke Whiskey alternative box. Way back in 2005, Omar Abou-Ismail saw that there was a market and a need for a restaurant serving healthy, organic, sustainable, gluten free, non-GMO foods prepared with low temperature techniques or raw (Omar has a B.A. in Science Degree), and so he opened the original Rawtopia in Sugarhouse before relocating more recently to Olympus Hills. For example, the sushi-style Seaweed Roll is made with a choice of macadamia nut rice or forbidden rice

Stein Eriksen Lodge Alpenglobe

and cucumber, bell pepper, avocado, hemp seed, scallion, carrot, romaine, served with sweet curried almond ginger sauce, sweet basil sauce, or sweet & spicy tamari sauce. And that’s just one example from a menu that includes an abundance of tasty temptations like the Beanless Tostada, Labneh Pizza, Egousi, Dandelion Salad, Nut Burger, Vegan Tacos, and much more. Oh, and there’s even a robust beverage selection that includes cocktails, wine, beer and cider. For some of us, the pandemic isn’t over. If you’re wanting to dine out but not wanting to encounter restaurant crowds, the Alpenglobe company has you covered. Alpenglobes are private, enclosed wood and glass dining modules that can be outfitted with mood lighting, infrared heating, fresh air circulation, sound systems, and more. Most importantly, they allow you and your close-knit dining party to enjoy a restaurant meal without having to rub elbows with people you don’t know. Designed and fabricated right here in Utah, Alpenglobes can be found at restaurants such a Midway’s Cafe Galleria, the Montage, Stein Eriksen Lodge, High West Distillery, Nelson Cottage, and Butcher’s Chop House in Park City, as well as La Caille, Wasatch Brew Pub, and Franck’s in Salt Lake City. It’s a safe and fun alternative way to dine. And, let’s not forget about our fur babies. Would you want to eat mass-produced kibble from a big box store? I didn’t think so. And neither does your dog. That’s why Kris Johnson and Sadie Gabler created Drool Small Batch Dog Treats as a healthy alternative to the treats most of us give our dogs. These are literally dog treats that humans could eat. They’re made using natural, human-grade ingredients. For instance, Drool Chicken Soup Biscuits are made like you cook a stew at home — slow cooking an entire chicken with tasty ingredients like carrots and celery, ultimately ending up as biscuit treats that your dog (and maybe you, too) will absolutely love.