They bought main street!?

The immense power and persuasion of the Mormon Church is evident across Utah on a daily basis. Whether it is Sunday morning and the complete lack of open businesses, or the massive church related structures that take up most of downtown and many of its surrounding suburbs, it’s hard to miss the influence all around you for the people right down to the very architecture of the city. This fact was made very evident in the late 20th century when the church acquired a new piece of property that shocked many of Utah’s resident, both non-LDS and LDS alike. They managed to pull off a deal with local politicians that allowed them to purchase a major and central portion of downtown Main Street and convert it into a church plaza.

Former main street with LDS temple behind it

That’s right; the local Utah government effectively sold very public property (i.e. a major city street) to a private religious body that had absolutely no plans of making the area a public space or creating some kind of alternate route of transportation. The one block stretch of road was quickly renovated and served as a massive plaza area connecting various buildings such as the LDS Temple, LDS Conference Center, and various office buildings directly associated with the church. Even the area beneath Main Street became a massive parking structure for church goers to use exclusively.

Obviously this created a major uproar among much of Utah’s liberal population as it was, well illegal. Guidelines exist that prevent city officials from selling public space such as city streets to private bodies without a series of votes from various public offices. But due to the lack of funding and manpower against the body of the church, the sale went through almost unopposed and before long a massive reflecting pool and church walkway was erected where main street once sat.

The issue was further pushed after construction was complete when the Church took their new found property and made some very unique rules regarding the area. Free speech began to be controlled by restricting the area of allowed protest to small out of view areas, not allowing people to stand still or walk backwards in the plaza sidewalk area, and prohibiting the use of any sound amplifying devices. Believe me we’ve gone out to the plaza on more than a few occasions to test these rules and they are in full effect; walking backwards will get you an escort from the plaza, standing still will get you hustled out of the area, and a fisher price karaoke machine will be confiscated without a second thought.

Protest area designated by the LDS Church

Once again a protest against these rules was present but due to the sheer majority of LDS church members, it eventually proved to be ineffective. Like so many other aspects of the LDS Church’s rule over the state, traditional means of public debate and protest become nearly useless in such a church dominated state. Instead creative means of protest and opposition have sprung up across the state, comedy and irony being the most readily available tools. That combined with the ever growing population of diverse individuals moving to the state has finally created a great base of opposition. This is not to say that I want the Church to all of a sudden have no power, simply that all people will have a voice that can be heard over the booming influence of the church and have some kind of effect in a government that is theirs just as much as anyone else.