Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

VISIT SALT LAKE
The world is quickly discovering what Salt Lake locals
have known for the past few years: Salt Lake’s urban scene is
on the rise, fast-becoming one of the nation’s most desirable
places to live and a “must visit” destination. In recent years,
articles in nationally acclaimed publications have offered a
glimpse of the revolution happening in Utah’s capital city,
celebrating the changing landscape of Salt Lake’s restaurants,
nightspots, and neighborhoods.
Residents and visitors alike are truly enjoying the
renaissance that has been taking place recently throughout the
city, the centerpiece of which was the opening of City Creek,
the $2 billion redevelopment project. Located in the heart of
downtown, City Creek’s sustainably designed mixed-use
development of retail stores, restaurants, residences and
offices has already proven to be a game changer for those who
frequent the downtown business district. City Creek,
combined with the opening of two groundbreaking
museums—the Natural History Museum of Utah and The
Leonardo—and scores of restaurants and bars in the
downtown core alone, Salt Lake’s urban renaissance truly
positions this “Crossroads of the West” into one of the nation’s
most desirable cities in which to live and visit. Taking it one
step further, on tap for 2016 is the opening of the new
performing arts center, the Eccles Theater, a 2,500-seat, stateof-the-art
facility also located in the heart of downtown, fully
complementing Salt Lake’s Capitol Theater, Abravanel Hall
and Rose Wagner Theater.
This sizeable shift within Salt Lake included not only brickand-mortar
improvements, but those of the culinary and
nightlife variety as well. For such a compact downtown, dozens
of new restaurants, bars and nightclubs have infused the city
with a vibrancy sure to astonish the first-time visitor (or anyone
who has not visited Salt Lake in the past five years). From a
celebrity-owned Euro-style beer bar and nightclub to an exciting
and ardent music scene, Salt Lake is pleasantly surprising
many long-time visitors and, in all honesty, some locals as well.
Further adding to Salt Lake’s reputation as being one of the
most user-friendly cities in terms of getting around, the muchanticipated
airport TRAX line now whisks travelers from SLC
International Airport to downtown in just twenty minutes.
Running every fifteen minutes, the airport TRAX line connects
with Salt Lake valley’s existing vast network of TRAX lines, bus
lines and FrontRunner trains to Provo and Ogden, making for
a seamless experience regardless of your final destination. And
the city’s bike share program, GREENbike, has exceeded all
expectations, recently doubling the number of bikes and bike
stations available throughout the city after just one year.
These exciting changes are merely the beginning of what
city planners and community leaders have in store for Utah’s
capital city. Additional community enhancements to benefit
locals and visitors alike are constantly being discussed, moving
from the idea phase to the drawing table and to reality before
our very eyes. It is definitely an exciting time to be in Salt Lake
City, with even more wondrous changes on the horizon.
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Top, left: Downtown Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains.
PHOTO BY SEAN BUCKLEY.
Above: City Creek Center, in the heart of Salt Lake City.
PHOTO BY SEAN BUCKLEY.
Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E
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