By Kevin Woo | One+

 

Not long ago Jan Sneegas began planning her organization’s annual event.  Her requirements weren’t overly onerous – she wanted the host city (preferably a west coast destination) to have enough meeting space to host 3,500 attendees during plenary sessions, hotels and meeting space that were affordable and modern, and all the facilities had to have green initiatives.

As she evaluated her options San Francisco and Los Angeles were immediately eliminated due to cost leaving Portland, Phoenix and Salt Lake City as the leading contenders.  

 

In the end, Sneegas chose Salt Lake City because the city put together an “elegant” meeting package, the hotels were within walking distance of the convention center and (much to her surprise) the host hotels and many of the restaurants in town had adopted extensive sustainability initiatives.

 

That Salt Lake City was chosen as the host city certainly wasn’t news.  What made the selection unique is that Salt Lake City, a city whose history is tied deeply with the Church of Latter Day Saints, was selected to host the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations’ annual meeting.

 

Unitarian Universalists are welcomed by Salt Lake City

Unitarian Universalists are about as far on the other side of the religious (and political) spectrum as you can get when compared with the Mormons. UUA members don’t believe in a specific theology but instead draw inspiration from a variety of Judeo-Christian religions. The group is made up of people from different faiths, atheists and many others who feel marginalized by society and who consider themselves “free and (on) a responsible search for truth and meaning.”

When Salt Lake City was chosen as the convention destination not every UUA member was warm to the idea. “We got some push back because we were going to Salt Lake City right after California’s Proposition 8 (the same-sex marriage initiative) vote. People were upset that we were going to a conservative city. There was a belief that Mormon money had helped finance (opposition to the bill),” Sneegas says.

But then a funny thing happened as the UUA members, some of whom were skeptical, began to arrive. As they immersed themselves into the Salt Lake City community, the concerns about the Mormon influence and the city’s perceived conservatism began to vanish.  Many UUA members came to realize that in the decade since the city hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City had changed, it had become more open, liberal, tolerant and accepting of alternative lifestyles.

 

SLC’s LGBTQ Pride Center

“When you look at Salt Lake City, what you’ll find is a diverse, democratic and progressive city with a lot of LGBTQ people, a lot of people who care about the environment, public education and social welfare,” says Marina Gomberg of Salt Lake City’s LGBTQ Utah Pride Center and a partner with UUA during its convention.

For Sneegas the change in attitude was welcome news but as the event organizer she focused most of her attention on hotel meeting facilities and transportation. The general assembly events were held at the Salt Palace Convention Center and among the most popular topics on the agenda included in-depth discussions on Darfur and Sudan; global HIV-AIDS; immigration reform; Iran and Iraq diplomacy; and torture. Without question it was a heady agenda that might not have been as easy to pull off a decade ago.

 

 

UUA community service project 

 

As part of the conference the group hosted an evening event called, “A Prom for All” where people of all gender identities, expressions and sexual orientations were welcome to attend alone or bring the date they always wanted to but may have been prohibited to in the past.  

Sean Parker Dennison, a Unitarian Universalist minister, said the event was especially impactful to local LGBTQ youth, “The youth had a place to be themselves and they (realized) that there’s a religion that accepts them for who they are.” 

 

The UUA through ticket sales and its members were able to raise $25,000, which was donated to the local Pride Center. 

Being one with the local community

One of the seven guiding principles of the Unitarian Universalists is “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are part.” It was with this principle in mind that Sneegas and her team insisted that host hotels and meeting facilities comply with the UUA’s sustainability requirements and host a green meeting. 

 

By working together with the hotels, the conference center and UUA were able to divert 50 percent of their waste away from landfills by recycling and composting.  To support the local growers one-third of the food served by the hotels or convention center needed to be organic and 50 percent needed to be grown locally.  The UUA was also able to save more than $85,000 because Salt Lake City has superior public transportation infrastructure, the city is very walkable and bicycles were provided for people who wanted to peddle their way around town.  

 

But perhaps the biggest environmental impact that the UUA made on Salt Lake City was the reduction of the carbon footprint.  The UUA requires its host hotels to use clean and renewable energy. Hoteliers and convention center managers aren’t the only ones in Salt Lake City who embrace green initiatives.  Much of the city has adopted sustainability practices and it’s readily apparent than the trendy, young and hip neighborhood of Sugar House, which is considered a local hotspot for restaurants, bars and nightlife.

Among Sugar House’s most popular restaurants is Pago. The menu at Pago is created in collaboration with local growers and artisans and is based on the seasonal availability of fresh fruits and veggies. Pago has also established partnerships with other specialty food and beverage makers, such as Utah Brewers, a local microbrew, to serve some of the region’s best beer and Amano Chocolate, a location confectioner whose sweets find their way into Pago’s decadent desserts.  

 

Although the menu features bunch, lunch and dinner entrees, the dish that draws the most raves from diners is the Pago Eggs Benedict. Brunch at Pago’s is extremely popular, particularly on weekends.

 

Down the street from Pago is Café Trio, a trendy yet casual Italian hotspot among Sugar House locals. The menu ranges from breakfast comfort food (omelets, eggs benedict and salmon hash) to the more adventurous dinner entrees (ravioli with butternut squash sauce). Reservations are recommended (especially on nights when there are live performances at one of the nearby venues) and the wine list is limited. 

Foodies are not limited to restaurants in Salt Lake City.  Believe it or not, one of Salt Lake City’s most popular grocery stores called Liberty Heights Fresh spent its first 73 years as a gas station.  Located on the northwest corner of 1300 South and 1100 East, Liberty Heights Fresh, an independently owned market like Whole Foods, has become a passion for Steven Rosenberg, Liberty’s chief eating officer. 

 
Rosenberg travels the world to find the best meats, oils, cheeses, fresh organic produce and local produce such as balsamic vinegars, specialty chocolates, cheese and cured meats. The result is a business that is built on relationships and a store that has become a favorite among Sugar House residents. 

While many of the restaurants still have limited wine lists, the relaxation of the rules that govern drinking have helped give the meeting and convention industry a boost.  It used to be that in order to buy a drink you had to pay to become a member of wherever you wanted to drink. While the “membership fee” was nominal, usually around $5, it still added to the complexity of having a few cocktails with friends.

But all that has changed. Beer, wine and mixed drinks can be found throughout the city – even on Sundays.

Not surprisingly a number of microbreweries have popped up around the city and are popular with both out-of-towners and locals.  Among the most popular is the Wasatch Brew Pub & Brewery which was founded by Milwaukee native Greg Schirf. Two years after his arrival in Utah in 1986 Schirf proposed a bill to the State Legislature that made brew pubs legal in Utah.

In 2000 Schirf and his biggest competitor, the Salt Lake Brewing Company, decided that they were more likely to increase their local market share and compete with national brewers by creating a partnership and thus the Utah Brewers Cooperative was born. But while building a multi-million dollar business is serious work, the names of the beers made by Utah Brewers Cooperative aren’t without humor – First Amendment, Polygamy Porter, Evolution and, of course, Brigham’s Root Beer.