The Changing Face of Salt Lake City
December 10th, 2009
For better and for worse, the downtown area will never look the same
by Richard Markosian
This December, downtown Salt Lake City is aglow with Christmas lights and holiday charm. Whether you go to the Capital Theater to see the Nutcracker; Temple Square to see the millions of lights or to the Gateway Megaplex to watch "Disney's Christmas Carol in 3D" -- you can almost hear Bing Crosby singing "Even stop lights Blink a bright red and green as the shoppers rush. Home with their treasures." SLC is a beautiful place during the holidays.
But besides the usual stops, you might consider venturing South past the cranes foisting beams erecting high rise condominiums for the city Creek Center to the new owner operated restaurants, pubs and coffee shops on Main Street. Although Rocky Anderson did all he could to attract investment on Main Street, a combination of strict zoning laws and landlords not caring if their properties sat vacant, made most of the street blighted for the past 10 years. However, today there are a few brave people who are taking the plunge into entrepreneurship on Salt Lake's City central thoroughfare.
Utah Stories online was started three years by asking the downtown survivors how they had managed to stay in business while so many other failed and what they would recommend for making downtown a local destination again.
Business owners such as Tony Weller, John Speros (Lamb's Restaurant) Bart Stringham (Utah Woolen Mills) -- all has similar thoughts concerting government intervention: "Please don't kill us with your kindness". According to all of these men, all of the past city's projects to improve Main Street and spark investment have been harmful rather than helpful to local business.
While government leader's intentions might have been good, the dismal results speak for themselves. One such ill-fated example was the first downtown "beautification project". While the city was suffering a decline in retail, they consulted experts from Chicago who recommended the city tax businesses in the effort to widen the sidewalks from approximately 12 to 25 feet wide.
Besides a hefty additional tax burden placed on all Main Street business owners, this sidewalk widening project was a major headache taking three long years and leaving huge, unsightly piles of dirt in front of shops for months.
Even worse, construction not only removed parking, but according to newspaper archives, customers couldn't even get in the front door of business owner's shops! These well-intentioned side effects killed many small businesses, like the Keith O'Brien Department Store and caused Wolf's sporting goods and Standard Optical to move their businesses. The final result was half as much parking and still little foot traffic.
Once again, the city attempted to come to the rescue and gave the green light for the Crossroads Mall offering ample parking they hoped would certainly accommodate the small business owner's needs. But there was just one problem -- nobody wanted to venture outside of the mall to the retailers two blocks down the street.
A few years after the malls were completed, there weren't any tears shed over the closing of Utah's oldest retail department stores: Auerbachs or Paris Company. Nobody was crying when Pinebrokes and Broadway Music finally went under -- because inside of the Crossroads Mall and ZCMI Center were Weinstocks and Nordstrom -- not to mention food courts with McDonalds and Burger King!
Are the Golden Years of Main Street Lost?
If you know where to look, you can find photos of Main Street when it really was the life line of the city: Saint or Gentile could stand outside of the Tribune Building to listen to the World Series, buy a cigar, get a bite to eat, or watch a parade. But a nation obsessed with the future doesn't spend much time looking back, and the ma and pop retailers of Main's golden days became ancient history as malls and franchises inched them out again and again.
Once again, there is Main Street is undergoing another major change. Certainly Most readers are already aware of the 3.2 billion dollar investment by the LDS Church into a bigger and better mall on Main Street, but as a precursor to completion of C.C. there are a few brave, local businesses staking their claims in close proximity to the monstrous project. In this issue, we discuss what impact the LDS Church funded City Creek Center project will have on Main Street and local business owners. We will also spotlight the small shops that are bringing warm, new light to the street that isn't far from the afterglow of Temple Square.
It's once again exciting to walk down Main Street: there is something there besides "the spirit of Christmas" -- it's a spirit of authenticity: one that the Gateway or other malls can't provide and the City Creek Center will almost certainly lack.
The spirit of authenticity occurs when more than a single entity owns a street and the rules that will govern it. The recently fallen downtown malls are dead because they lacked this authenticity.
The Story of the Survivors
Dreams and ideas being tested in the furnace of the free marketplace are once again the spirit of Main Street. "We are testing a new concept," J.R. Lopes describes his reason for choosing Main Street to open Braza Express.
Though they are not numerous, the few unique local shops that were not created with a cookie cutter in some sterile corporate lab are the essence of Utah Stories coverage -- individuals sharing passion for what they do. Certainly there will always be chain stores, corporate eateries, and retail, but more people are realizing that homogenous retail is as bland as a fast-food combo meal: it fills the stomach, but never satisfies.
In this issue we look at both the old and the new -- and how old ideas have become new again, and we invite you to celebrate with us these success stories of innovation, passion and endurance.
For better and for worse, the downtown area will never look the same. This issue Utah Stories takes an in-depth look at the past, present, and future of a dynamic city center.
