Quality of life in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City is the capital of, and largest city in, the U.S. state of Utah. It is a destination for outdoor recreation, with nearby mountains full of hiking trails and ski resorts made famous by the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is also well known as the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon church.

Salt Lake City has about 190,000 residents within the city limits, and is the downtown hub for a metro area of over a million people. Geographically, it sits on the border between the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin, lying in the Salt Lake Valley along the Wasatch Range urban corridor, sandwiched between the Wasatch Mountains to the east and the Oquirrh Mountains and the Great Salt Lake to the west.

Notable neighborhoods in Salt Lake City include Downtown, the financial core and home to Temple Square (a two-block complex that includes the LDS church headquarters, the Salt Lake Temple, and various other sites related to Mormon history and culture); Central City, a mostly residential area from approximately 400 South to 900 South; Sugar House, a commercial/residential district in the southeastern corner of the city, known for its funky shops; The Avenues, a historical neighborhood with many old buildings, northeast of downtown; University, the area around the sprawling University of Utah campus and the adjacent Research Park, VA Medical Center, and Fort Douglas; Federal Heights, a small, affluent neighborhood in the hills east of The Avenues and north of the University; East Bench or Foothill, a residential neighborhood between 900 South and I-80, bisected by the major arterial road Foothill Boulevard; Capitol Hill, an affluent sloping district north of downtown, topped by the Utah State Capitol building; the Marmalade District, a quirky area immediately west of Capitol Hill with some unusual architecture and decor; Rose Park, a residential neighborhood northwest of downtown, near the airport; and Glendale, a heavily Hispanic residential district and home to the International Peace Gardens, at the southern end of the westside. The benches refer to a handful of residential, upper-class communities along the slopes of the Wasatch Mountains on the east side of the valley, and to a lesser extent on the Traverse Mountains at the southern end of the valley and the Oquirrh Mountains on the western side. The predominant economic divide in the Salt Lake Valley is between the eastern and western halves, with the east side traditionally being more affluent and conservative.