that.

Not sure, Utah wants to be equated with SLC, but alcohol, marijuana laws, and diversity are not on par with SF or LA, so I don't know where that belief originated.

In what way is SLC like California?

No beaches.
No warm weather.
No easy alcohol or marijuana.
No elite universities a la Cal Tech or Stanford or Cal. (Yes I love BYU but we're not at that level in reputation or academics, no harm admitting it).
No world renown cities, LA, San Diego and SF are far more known than SLC.

Just how are they related?

Oh, no winning football programs this year. Yeah they are exactly alike.