'ALL ABOUT MAKING THIS ERA OF PROSPERITY CONTINUE'
Brice Wallace
About two decades ago, a vision called “Downtown Rising” led to vast changes in Salt Lake City’s core. Now a broader initiative looks to achieve a similar ascension for the entire state.
“Utah Rising” seeks to bring together elements of the private and public sectors to create and implement a vision aimed at replicating the success of Downtown Rising.
“Now we face a situation where this is about more than just Downtown Rising or one single city rising,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, at a news conference announcing the effort. “We have seen growth across our entire state over the last 20 years, and that’s why we are calling this a vision for Utah Rising. Utah Rising will ensure that Utah’s economy and its people prosper far into the future.”
Convened by the Salt Lake Chamber, participants in Utah Rising will focus on addressing issues faced by the state with innovative and long-term economic solutions for all Utahns. Miller said the initiative “is all about making this era of prosperity continue.”
Natalie Gochnour, director of the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and the Salt Lake Chamber’s chief economist, said Utah is a state in constant change. Its challenges include a slowing economy, housing affordability, growth, congestion and threats to the Great Salt Lake. A shared vision can help address those, she said.
“In Utah, thanks to the Salt Lake Chamber, free enterprise and private-sector leadership, we’re not going to be rolling the dice and hoping for the best,” Gochnour said. “We will come together, do our research, do our planning, and build the future we want.”
Miller said the effort is seeking participation from diverse private organizations, businesses, the public sector, and state and local governments “so that this vision will be able to address critical issues with innovation and with long-term economic solutions for all people who call Utah home.”
A steering committee will continue to meet this summer, and the Utah Rising vision and plan will be released this fall, likely to be updated every two years over the next decade.
While event speakers said the plan will be flexible, they announced several guiding principles:
- Common ground and collaboration for a shared vision of sustainable growth and statewide prosperity.
- Bold vision and pragmatic action to harness market forces and achieve results that reimagine the possible.
- Quality of life and upward mobility that creates opportunity for all Utahns.
- Culture of hard work and community building that give Utah a distinct competitive advantage.
- Private-sector innovation and public-sector support to unleash the power of free enterprise.
“So, the journey ahead is both exciting and essential,” said Spencer P. Eccles, chairman of the Utah Rising Steering Committee and co-founder and managing partner of The Cynosure Group. While the economy will rise and fall, he said, “our effort is to create a vision that enables us to be resilient and proactive. As we mentioned, it calls for leadership and a visionary-yet-pragmatic, ambitious-yet-grounded effort.”
Utah has reaped the benefits of prior visionary efforts, and Utah Rising will shape the state’s future in a responsible and innovative way that will also be inclusive and reflective of Utah’s values, he said.
“Do not underestimate the power of alignment,” Gochnour cautioned. Downtown Rising was successful because it aligned visions, she said.
“When you align big business with small business, with different regions of the state, with local government, with the nonprofit sector and state government, you can do amazing things in this state,” Gochnour said.
Chris McCormick, president and CEO of the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce, called upon every chamber in the state to create their own plan in line with the Utah Rising vision.
Miller said that like Downtown Rising, Utah Rising will bring people together, but with the state’s growing population and expanding diversity, even more people will need to be involved. Eccles said Utah Rising does not replace visionary efforts of the past but instead will expand upon them. Utah, he said, has proven that it can come together to solve problems.
“These things that we’ve mentioned here,” Eccles said, “build upon all of that in the past, but this is a moment in time where we need to have a bold effort, a unified effort that is collaborative and coordinated across the state, and we all would be well off if we would think in terms of solutions and not in problems.”
Details are available at utahrising.com.