Salt Lake earns high marks for livability and fitness

SALT LAKE CITY — Businesses or individuals looking for high quality of life, elbow room and workers or neighbors who are both well-educated and healthier than most might like the Beehive State's capital city.

Salt Lake City and its surrounding area earned national kudos in both livability and in fitness this week.

Salt Lake is No. 5 for quality of life, according to Portfolio.com, a business news site that ranked 67 major metro areas on everything from an abundance of self-employed workers to its education levels, traffic flow and population stability. Raleigh was No. 1. And the American College of Sports Medicine's American Fitness Index, released Monday, puts Salt Lake at No. 15 of the healthiest and fittest of the largest 50 metro areas. Top honors went to Washington, D.C.

Besides personal habits like getting exercise and not smoking, disease rates and economics, ACSM considered dog parks and playgrounds, swim pools and tennis courts — all tools that woo people outside to play.

That's something the Salt Lake Valley Health Department pushes, said Beverly Hyatt, director of health promotion. They work with specific communities on events, such as Sandy's weekly Shape Up and Slim Down community walks or Herriman's just-finished Pedalpalooza for bicyclists. The events attract a good crowd, even when it rains, she noted. "This is one of our highest priorities right now," to address obesity, safety, fitness and other issues.

Salt Lake even has its own "FIT" multi-agency collaboration, the Salt Lake Fitness Improvement Team.

"Out and about" is important to Salt Lake City government, said Lisa Harrison Smith, spokeswoman for Mayor Ralph Becker's office. The city has added bike lanes, with 38 new miles this year and plans for more next year. The city is home to 22 acres of off-leash dog parks and future plans may include more as mixed-use areas. New and reconfigured streets typically now include bike lanes or walkways because the city wants to increase both walkability and bikeability, she added. Other quality-of-life and fitness efforts include better air quality, such as boosting green transportation options and safety efforts like the recent addition of pedestrian crossing signals on 1300 East.