There exists some misunderstandings about the City Creek Mall built next to the Salt Lake Temple. The most common question is: Why are we building this?
In a 2010 Forbes article, Mark Gibbons, The president of City Creek Reserve says, "The church's primary notion is to protect the Temple Square and the headquarters of the Church, that's first and foremost. This development would not have been done just on a financial basis, I can tell you that."
Another answer comes from an article in the Dec. 2006 ensign, which says, "The Church first announced three years ago it was planning to redevelop the downtown area to energize the economy of the city that houses its headquarters and to bolster the area near Temple Square. No tithing funds will be used in the redevelopment."
Prior to the 2002 Olympics, the Church did another project with the Main Street Plaza for the similar reason to protect the area around the Temple. At that same time, there were many public and private projects for the other similar reason to revitalize downtown.
Some sites I have seen say without citation a large $3 billion figure or more. However, recent news articles from Deseret News says $1.5 billion and The Salt Lake Tribune says $2 billion. KSL was saying $5 billion, but that was clearly meaning all of the various public and private downtown revitalization efforts combined. In any case, it's more than just a mall -- it's 2.5 city blocks of retail, office, and residential. It's pretty fancy and LEED certified. I'm not at all surprised at its cost.
But I suppose what they are really getting at is why we aren't pumping this kind of money for humanitarian aid. (Since that's the only reason anyone cares besides worrying about tithing money.) I want to argue that Haitians don't need an expensive mall, so we've donated over 350 tons of food and supplies last year worldwide that the impoverished do need. Or that over 230,000 hours of volunteer labor given to humanitarian aid last year makes things cheaper than paid mall-building labor.
But you know what? Perhaps they have a point. Making excuses isn't the right answer. We only spent $22 million in emergency aid last year. I'll do my part and increase my donations to the humanitarian aid fund.
In a 2010 Forbes article, Mark Gibbons, The president of City Creek Reserve says, "The church's primary notion is to protect the Temple Square and the headquarters of the Church, that's first and foremost. This development would not have been done just on a financial basis, I can tell you that."
Another answer comes from an article in the Dec. 2006 ensign, which says, "The Church first announced three years ago it was planning to redevelop the downtown area to energize the economy of the city that houses its headquarters and to bolster the area near Temple Square. No tithing funds will be used in the redevelopment."
Prior to the 2002 Olympics, the Church did another project with the Main Street Plaza for the similar reason to protect the area around the Temple. At that same time, there were many public and private projects for the other similar reason to revitalize downtown.
Some sites I have seen say without citation a large $3 billion figure or more. However, recent news articles from Deseret News says $1.5 billion and The Salt Lake Tribune says $2 billion. KSL was saying $5 billion, but that was clearly meaning all of the various public and private downtown revitalization efforts combined. In any case, it's more than just a mall -- it's 2.5 city blocks of retail, office, and residential. It's pretty fancy and LEED certified. I'm not at all surprised at its cost.
But I suppose what they are really getting at is why we aren't pumping this kind of money for humanitarian aid. (Since that's the only reason anyone cares besides worrying about tithing money.) I want to argue that Haitians don't need an expensive mall, so we've donated over 350 tons of food and supplies last year worldwide that the impoverished do need. Or that over 230,000 hours of volunteer labor given to humanitarian aid last year makes things cheaper than paid mall-building labor.
But you know what? Perhaps they have a point. Making excuses isn't the right answer. We only spent $22 million in emergency aid last year. I'll do my part and increase my donations to the humanitarian aid fund.
