Most Significant Events in Salt Lake City 1984-2010 

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Deeda Seed, former Salt Lake City Council member and city administrator, now with Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Past 25: “I would say passage by the Salt Lake City Council of the nondiscrimination ordinances prohibiting discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation that was also supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Loosening of liquor laws in the state was a good thing, or a significant thing.

It remains to be seen what happens with the City Creek development, but certainly the LDS Church’s investment of billion of dollars to redo the two downtown malls is going to be significant, although it’s not done yet and we haven’t totally seen the end result. In addition to those specific things, Salt Lake City has become more progressive and livable and more diverse, and all of those things are great.”

Next 25: More bicycles than cars, a more robust transit system, and a very robust, thriving small-business community. [I would predict] that Salt Lake continues to be an interesting, culturally diverse, livable city with an excellent quality of life.”

Craig Fuller, Utah State Historical Society historian
“Utah historian Dale L. Morgan wrote in 1959: ‘There is no end to change: a city that does not change is dying.’ Indeed, like many U.S. cities elsewhere, Salt Lake City during the last quarter century has undergone a physical change—even a radical face-lift.

“Salt Lake City’s wide streets have narrowed—at least on the city’s downtown Main Street. The streetcar that once rumbled on the city streets at the turn of the 20th century only to be removed has reappeared on the city’s now narrower Main Street as TRAX.

“Main Street’s lining of small retail establishments (with the exception of ZCMI) was replaced in mid-20th century with large fortress-like shopping malls. During the first decade of the 21st century, the big-box shopping malls were torn down, to be replaced with smaller high-end national chains, the historic ZCMI facade being returned to its previous location as well as mixed-use property with much more open space that invites pedestrians. Many of the small retail shops in the malls have been relocated to The Gateway, once the location of the busy Union Pacific Railroad.

“For much of the first half of the 20th century, residential properties and hotels dotted Salt Lake City’s central district. Over time, these residential properties were replaced with high-rise business structures and hotels such as the Boston and Newhouse Buildings, the Kearns Building, the Newhouse Hotel and the Hotel Utah, as well as nondescript warehouses and business establishments. In the 21st century, downtown Salt Lake City is witnessing a resurgence of residential properties in the form of high-rise condominiums and apartments and the once-warehouse and commercial property altered into lofts, apartments and condominiums.

“The public transportation face of the city was once dominated by the Salt Lake City Bus Line. Public transit is now again on the rise, powered by cleaner-burning diesel and other cleaner energy systems. Salt Lake City, once linked to communities north and south by the Bamberger-owned inter-urban railroad is now linked again to communities north and south with the slick FrontRunner.

“Salt Lake City once housed multiple baseball fields where on one field, the old Pacific Coast professional baseball team, the Salt Lake City Bees, played. That baseball field was replaced with Derks Field, which in turn has been replaced with a pleasing, architectural-designed baseball stadium and home of the Salt Lake City Bees of the Pacific Coast League. Other sports teams, such as Real Salt Lake MLS soccer and ECHL Utah Grizzlies hockey have located to Salt Lake City, joining the resident (since 1979) NBA Basketball team, Utah Jazz.”

Michael Clara, community activist
“Wake up and smell the tortillas! Utah’s 2035 slogan will be: ‘Welcome to your ancestral homeland.’ In the midst of today’s xenophobia hysteria, the ultimate irony of U.S. history is that the true natives of this land are now considered the immigrants. The ancient homeland of the Aztecs is where modern-day Utah currently is. Research conclusively debunks the racist mantra of telling Mexicans ‘to go back where they came from.’ These red-brown peoples, who have been vilified as aliens, have roots to this land that go back thousands of years. Shockingly, they even pre-date the days of ’47 Pioneers.”

The Rev. Tom Goldsmith, First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City
“As I look ahead 25 in Salt Lake City, no clear picture emerges; just a mounting heap of deep concern. Since we already have the worst air in the country, the prospects of a clean environment in the future grow less tangible. Incomprehensibly, we still seek to expand widely the growth in our valley without much consideration of public transit, open spaces, regulating polluting industries, or zoning laws that preclude sprawl and protect water resources. We still have a narrow window in which to make good choices. Either we thrive as a green model city or choke on our perverse ways of seeking all that to which we think we’re entitled.”

The Rev. France Davis, Calvary Baptist Church
“By 2035, Salt Lake City will be a majority minority, racially and religiously. The law or ordinances, although largely conservative, will have changed to reflect the needs of this new population. People denied opportunity 25 years ago will now be in charge. While the economy will be strong, those without higher education or technical skills will struggle to get jobs and make ends meet. More technology will make us less people-oriented and less interactive with others. Young professionals will live in the downtown area and get around by train, bus, bicycle or walking. We will be a crowded yet exciting community.”

Ken Sanders, Ken Sanders Rare Books
“I consider the Salt Lake City-hosted Olympics to have been an imposition foisted off on the majority of us by ‘Goodman Beaver’ types who either actually thought they were doing something for the greater good or, as is more likely, were just setting themselves and their cronies up to make a bundle of money off of the Olympics at the expense of the rest of us. I disagree with City Weekly’s contention that the SLC Olympics were one of the most important things that has happened to the city in the past quarter of a century.

“Unfortunately, most of the significant changes over the past 25 years that come to mind are mostly of the negative variety and not celebratory: the continuing planning to destroy Main Street, Broadway and the south end of downtown, no matter what name they call it this time around; the unfortunate sell-out of a city-owned block to a privately owned corporation; the draconian liquor laws that inhibit any sort of nightlife in the downtown corridor; the demise of the Terrace Ballroom and the Newhouse Hotel to make way for Mr. Earl Holding’s gigantic parking lot on Main Street, now the LDS Church’s $25 million dollar parking lot (oops, this one was slightly before 1984); the continued pandering and financial assistance and tax credits to foreign and large corporations at the expense of small and local businesses that make cities unique; well, I could continue my rant, but you get the general idea.

“As to what will Salt Lake City be like in another quarter century: The north end of the city will become ‘MoD’ for Mormon downtown as the LDS Church continues to reinvent the blocks on all sides of Temple Square in their own image; vast developments will arise on the west side that will dwarf the likes of the Gateway; the former Kennecott Copper Corporation will become primarily a real estate- and housing-development company and they will figure out some manner, likely using empty containers from China, to turn the gigantic hole in the ground (the copper pit) into the world’s largest anthill terrarium condominiums, which Babs De Lay will be selling in her dotage after scoring the penthouse condo for herself; the LDS Church, after purchasing every block of downtown from the Jordan River to 700 East, will announce that the Earl Holding parking lot block will be paved over and kept as a parking lot in perpetuity; and that the nearest spot to drink an alcoholic beverage will be on the west bank of the Jordan River and the Hogle Zoo, after another massive infusion of public cash will open their new ‘Restaurant in the Wild’ wherein patrons can stalk and kill their own favorite animal prior to having it cooked and served to them in burger form for only $50 each, plus tax. Oh, and the Wasatch Fault finally slips, and out of the rubble, the Boyer Company announces its new Liquefaction condo project, after purchasing that portion of the valley not already belonging to either Kennecott or the LDS Church for one dollar from the city.

“The future state slogan? Utah, Gateway to Nevada. Gasp, Baby, Gasp.”

Joe Redburn, founder of early Salt Lake City gay nightclubs, including The Trapp
“Most important event in Salt Lake City: Salt Lake City Council passing a nondiscrimination ordinance. Salt Lake City in another quarter of a century will be too big and smoggy. The city slogan should be, ‘Welcome to the most beautiful city in America.’ Tell John Saltas, ‘congratulations!’ ”

Palmer DePaulis, former Salt Lake City mayor and now director of Utah Department of Human Services
Next 25: “We would have finally revived Main Street and connected it to The Gateway. We would be a greener city with lots of pedestrian traffic and people living downtown. We also would likely be in a bid again for the Olympics and would win hands down. Our rail system would be finished and our valley would have significantly cleaner air. We would be rated as one of the most livable cities in America.”

Alan Hebertson, owner of the Coffee Garden
“One of the most important changes in Salt Lake City has been the adoption of the anti-discrimination ordinance by the city and its backing by the church. And I think that City Weekly is responsible for a great deal of the change in attitude in people in Salt Lake City when it comes to accepting alternatives—alternative newspapers, alternative lifestyles, just saying that there is something out there that they haven’t been fed all their lives.”

The Rev. Jerry Hirano, Salt Lake City Buddhist Temple
“I hope that Salt Lake City will continue to grow in accepting the diversity of our community, culturally, religiously and politically. Diversity only benefits all of us—a closed mind detracts from all our lives.”

Tom Barberi, former talk-show radio host
“For me, having had the opportunity to be on Gov. Huntsman’s Transition Team on the Alcohol Committee, and being able to tell the governor in our study and final report that getting rid of the archaic private club law would go miles in letting the world know that Utah was not a dry state. Utah has always been looked upon as a dry state, even though we all know that isn’t true. The abolition of the ‘private club’ rule gives the world the impression that our liquor laws have been normalized. This one change goes a long way in being able to better promote Utah as vacation-convention-business-friendly, as an open state that isn’t a closed society, as many think.

“The next 25 years will see Utah grow in population and prosper as business growth expands greatly. Companies will locate or relocate here because of all the advantages we provide: great natural wonders, excellent location to do business in, educated workforce, business-friendly government.

“I think/hope that Utah will see the mantle of ‘Reddest State in the Country’ disappear and become more balanced in its political atmosphere. I see the Legislature becoming more balanced to represent all the citizens and views instead of the narrow-minded, good-old-boys club it is. The staunch Mormon population is around 60 percent, while the Legislature’s makeup is about 85 percent Mormon—not what you would call true representation of the state’s population. As for a state slogan, how about, ‘Utah, Beautiful Inside and Out,’ or ‘Utah, We’re Not All Crazy.’"