The Future of Salt Lake City

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine has just come out with their pick for the Best Cities for the Next Decade and has Salt Lake City ranked #5.  Jenney Nalevanko states,

"The Salt Lake valley offers a variety of distinctive neighborhoods that boast walking-friendly centers. These hip, diverse districts provide easy access to locally owned retail shops, galleries, restaurants and coffee shops. With the help of the city’s wide, bike-friendly streets, the proximity to such amenities makes it easy to live quite comfortably in these neighborhoods without much need for a car. They provide a small-town feel within steps of the heart of the city."

Furthermore, the Kiplinger article also states that Utah's talented and educated population is one of the keys to it's economic success.  If abounding construction is evidence of good days ahead, it certainly looks as though Salt Lake City's future is bright.  According to leaders, organizations, and corporations who have envisioned Downtown Rising, Salt Lake City is “A city on the cusp of a grand and prosperous future fed by the region's commitment to an energized urban core.” Downtown Rising, , believes that the city is "on the rise and has the potential for greatness."

In the midst of our country's current economic situation, is the vibrancy at the heart of Salt Lake City's core unique?  In a recent article entitled, The Future of American Cities: Part 1, Tim Keller points out that during the 20 years between 1970 and 1990, American cities went into sharp economic decline as white flight contributed to ghettoization in American cities.  Keller states, "Cities were polarized into poor non-white centers and affluent white suburbs."

However, Keller says,

"Since 1990, American cities have experienced an amazing renaissance. During this time many cities' population declines have reversed or at least slowed. People began moving back into cities in droves, and downtown/center cities began to regenerate at their cores."

Keller gives some reasons for this movement back to the city.  These reasons include economic growth, the creation of new wealth and new jobs, a decrease in crime rates, and cultural mood. Furthermore, Keller states,

"Perhaps most important of all, changes in immigration law in 1965 (the Hart-Celler Act) opened the door to an influx from non-European nations. Between 1965 and 1970 U.S. immigration doubled and then from 1970 to 1990 it doubled again. Most of this wave of immigrants went into America's cities, renewing and diversifying many neighborhoods. It also completely changed the older, gridlocked, binary black-white dynamic of urban politics to a far more complex, multi-polar situation of many ethnicities and nationalities.

As a result many American cities began to surge. New professional-class neighborhoods developed along with working class and poor ones. Sometimes the gentrification was more destructive and disruptive to the social fabric, while other times it was more healthy. The main new residents in this upsurge included empty-nest Boomers returning to cities, young professionals seeking cities to live and work in, and a wave of immigrants in inner city neighborhoods and inner suburbs that produced second-generation college graduates who moved in to the center city to live and work. These groups joined the communities of homosexuals and artists who have always chosen urban communities to live in."

This kind of surge is indeed evident in Salt Lake City where approximately 60,000 or 33% of the city’s urban core population (which is just over 180,000) are non-white residents.  This non-white population continues to grow as many refugees and immigrants migrate here.  Because Salt Lake City is 1 of just 22 regional offices for the International Refugee Committee, the refugee population will certainly continue to grow and add beautiful diversity to our city.  The city has also become a place of refugee for a large homosexual population, and with the emergence of at least five new residential towers at City Creek Center alone inevitably Salt Lake City will attract more and more young professionals into downtown.

With regard to today's American cities, Keller states,

"We have reached the end of an era. The Great Recession is upon us, and even if it has officially ended - or has it? - we expect a protracted time of high unemployment and fitful, sluggish economic growth. This same kind of economic environment in the 70s and 80s was destructive for cities. The question for us now is, what lies ahead for American cities?"

In light of my current context, the questions I'm asking is, what lies ahead for Salt Lake City?  How am I called to cooperate with others here and contribute to the future of this city?