Salt Lake City: Livability in the 21st Century

SALT LAKE CHAMBER
For more than 125 years, the Salt Lake Chamber has
stood as the voice of business, supported its members’
success and championed community prosperity. With
its strategic partners, the Downtown Alliance and World
Trade Center Utah, the Salt Lake Chamber is Utah’s largest
business association and business leader.
On March 2, 2012, the Salt Lake Chamber honored
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the
recent completion of City Creek Center, the mixed-use
development in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City. Many
prominent business leaders gathered at Abravanel Hall
to celebrate the completion of the crown jewel thus far
in the Downtown Rising vision statement, announced
almost exactly five years earlier. Far from complete, the
business-led Downtown Rising endeavor continues to move
forward with signature projects to enhance our capital city.
Business associations were nothing
new in Salt Lake City when the Salt Lake
Chamber of Commerce was organized
under the laws of Utah Territory on
April 23, 1887. Territorial Governor Caleb
West hoped that the new organization
could help bring competing elements
together on common ground—with an
eye toward statehood. Fifteen years
later, Utah was indeed a state, but
the chamber of commerce was in
shambles—the victim of a depression
and state partisan politics. Important
issues of the day, however, required a
strong business organization, and so on
February 11, 1902, Salt Lake’s business
leaders reorganized as the Salt Lake
City Commercial Club. It was not
long before they reverted to the name
“Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce.” This time, however,
“Utah’s Business Leader” was here to stay.
The chamber is involved in almost every major economic
and quality of life issue—from developing a solid infrastructure
to promoting tourism. Throughout the years, the Salt Lake
Chamber has spurred thousands of improvements in the Salt
Lake area, including downtown growth and development,
the birth of a transit system, the creation of an international
airport, the securing of the Utah Jazz basketball team,
continued economic expansion, and effective government
and public affairs work. At one time, the Salt Lake Chamber
even had its own baseball team and its own vigilante security
force. The Salt Lake Chamber’s involvement in the past is
matched by its current programs and involvement.
As Utah’s largest business association, the Salt Lake
Chamber has been consistent in representing the interests
of Utah’s businesses to government. In 2006 the big issue
was transportation. The Salt Lake Chamber supported giving
voters a choice to expand transportation infrastructure by
way of a sales tax increase. The Salt Lake Chamber took this
position after an extensive study, which showed that Salt
Lake’s congestion would triple if action was not taken. Voters
agreed—approving Proposition 3 to increase funding for light
rail, commuter rail and roads. This was only the beginning
of addressing huge transportation needs and finding
solutions. The Salt Lake Chamber recognized that to keep
the economy growing, transportation must keep flowing.
First published in 2008, the Chamber’s annual Public
Policy Guide sets the stage for legislative initiatives and policy
changes, including clean air, education and immigration.
Similar to the way it acted as a catalyst to bring solutions
to Utah’s transportation crisis, the Salt Lake Chamber will
continue to be a place where business, government and
community leaders come together on common ground to
find ways to improve Utah and its business climate.
S A L T L A K E C I T Y — L i v a b i l i t y i n t h e 2 1 s t C e n t u r y
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