Provo, UT
I spent a sunny Sunday morning in Provo, Utah. As with Logan, Utah, I pretty much deemed it too brown and dry for my tastes (I’m not sure why the Wasatch Mountains by Ogden seemed greener than in Logan or Provo), but can pass on a few superficial impressions:
- The whole city was super clean.
- There are many newish apartment complexes and chain stores (Albertson’s, Lowes, etc.) all over the city.
- Downtown is primarily off of University Ave. south of Brigham Young University. On this Sunday morning, downtown seemed completely abandoned, presumably because most people were at church.
- According to a source referenced by wikipedia.org, Provo may be as much as 88% Mormon.
- I did see quite a few people in nice Sunday suits, including a helmetless guy wearing church garb while riding a Kawasaki Ninja sport bike.
- The few people I did see walking downtown were young, fit, well-groomed couples in formal wear pushing baby strollers.
- Roads were very wide here, and traffic non-existent.
- A couple of days after I visited Provo, a friend sent me an article about how BYU was deemed the “fittest” university by Men’s Fitness magazine. No surprise, as it seemed like everyone here was very fit, and I was later told that Mormons have pretty strict and healthy diets.
- BYU is also well-known for NOT being a party school.
- The influence of the Church of Latter Day Saints may be too much for some. See this CNN article from 2001 entitled Separation of Church and Career in Salt Lake City (be sure to click on the rebuttal letter from the LBS at the bottom of that article if you want a more balanced viewpoint).
