Quote:
Originally Posted by WaterCat
Salt Lake City has a lower percentage of Mormons per capita compared to the rest of the state. I'm not sure if that is true for downtown as well because I know that there are a number of apartments and homes close to the temple with fair numbers of Mormons but I have to assume that, despite a few very strong wards in that area, the per capita number of Saints is the same as the rest of the city. Young LDS families don't consider that area as a destination spot.
I wonder if this change to downtown will help reverse the exodus. It seems that those two blocks will be very nice but the area on the whole will remain generally undesirable for the typical LDS family. Frankly, I think that the average LDS family has no plans for cosmopolitan city living and would rather stay in the suburbs and master planned communities of the Valley. I could see this as an area that attracts some younger LDS families, but most would probably want out of the area before their children hit high school.
If the changes to those two blocks act as a catalyst to improve the entire area, beyond just church properties, will more LDS families consider living in the heart of the Church? I'm not sure that I would. Any takers here?
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I was talking about this with my brother last night. I think an unintentional aspect of the downtown development will be that the area will politically become more liberal than it currently is. I hope that the side effect of this isn't to make the area somewhat more hostile towards the church because of the political beliefs of those moving to the area. They have the opportunity to build a lot of good will here.