Why is it that every announcement of a bigger building or expansion of a corporate entity is welcomed as progress? Intermountain Health may be a nonprofit, but it acts like every other for-profit entity.
So the prospect of a 26 story hospital in downtown Salt Lake City is regarded as a great use of inner-city space. The existing hospital building on the Avenues is too small, too old. So it will be torn down. It’s a great location for more luxury housing.
This too is welcomed as progress.
Bigger is better, whether it’s high-priced apartments sprouting all over the city, expanding the airport to accommodate larger convention groups and wealthy skiers, or moving the Bees out to a larger venue in South Jordan.
Meantime, locally-owned businesses, such as Ken Sanders Book Store, the Tavernacle, family-owned restaurants, are priced out or have their properties torn down for more high-rises.
Where are the voices for the middle-class, the working class, those living on fixed incomes or living on the streets? Are the power-players aware of what is happening in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Manhattan? Do they care? Unbridled growth that benefits the realtors, developers and politicians adversely affects everyone else.
Ray Wilmot, Salt Lake City
