Skybridge popular
77% of Utahns say they favor a walkway over Main
A Dan Jones & Associates poll, conducted May 21-24 for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, found that 73 percent of respondents in Salt Lake County either probably or definitely favor the bridge. Statewide, that number is 77 percent.
The poll questioned 410 people statewide and has a statewide margin of error of 5 percent. The survey included 161 Salt Lake County residents, and the margin of error for that portion of the poll is 7.5 percent.
Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson has vowed to do whatever it takes to stop the bridge from being built as part of the planned City Creek Center development. He is considering selling air rights or a conservation easement over Main Street to prevent the right-of-way from going to Property Reserve Inc., the real-estate arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is developing City Creek Center.
He worries the bridge will create a self-enclosed mall spanning two blocks at the heart of downtown, a "gerbil tube" that will benefit the mall's retailers but will keep people off the city's already struggling Main Street. Anderson, however, could not unilaterally sell air space above the proposed project without council approval.
In the poll, the bridge plan was most popular among LDS Church members, with 89 percent of self-proclaimed "very active" or "somewhat active" church members saying they favored it, although 81 percent of inactive LDS members were also in support.
The bridge has the approval of a majority of members of other faiths, as well, with 65 percent of Protestants and 55 percent of Catholics amenable to the plan.
Anderson has suggested that the City Council's recent approval of an amendment to the city's downtown master plan paving the way for a skybridge was passed because the developer is connected to the LDS Church.
Following a recent Deseret Morning News report that Anderson was considering selling the air rights to block the skybridge, dozens of e-mails to the paper accused the mayor of opposing the plan because he is anti-LDS. Anderson has roundly denied that charge.
Jones is an independent pollster who also does work commissioned by other entities, including previous work for Salt Lake City.
The new poll also asked respondents about their downtown visiting habits and whether they expect to change those habits as construction progresses on City Creek Center and other downtown projects.
Most residents — 72 percent countywide and statewide — said they expect they will visit downtown for work, shopping, sports, religious and cultural reasons to the same degree as they do now. Twenty percent in the county and 16 percent statewide said they planned to visit downtown less during construction.
City Creek Center is a 20-acre mixed-use project aimed at revitalizing downtown by replacing the defunct Crossroads Plaza and soon-to-be-closed ZCMI Center with office space, condominium and apartment housing, and indoor-outdoor retail shopping, including three anchor department stores. PRI expects it to be finished in mid-2011.
E-mail: dsmeath@desnews.com
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