Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Updated US State Statistical Profiles

See below for updated statistical profiles for the following US states:

25 comments:

Eduardo said...

Vermont struggles to show any real overall growth lately. Was the guy who wanted to build the Joseph Smith schematic city there, or at least own some land there? I can see a lot of Church opposition in corners of Vermont, perhaps more than the average state.
The Sharon Smith birthplace is a great site, I recommend it. Amazing that an explosion in Tambora Indonesia caused the Smiths to move from there, which may have led them to the Hill Cumorah of the Mormon battles, if that is there those wars actually took place. Perhaps it (buried items of Moroni) was transferred from Guatemala or Mexico, hard to know.

Eric S. said...

Orem Temple groundbreaking set for September 5th!

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-date-announced-orem-utah-temple

Christopher Nicholson said...

People who live in the middle of nowhere do so intentionally. It's more than understandable that the residents of rural Vermont would adamantly oppose some out-of-stater coming in and building a noisy, crowded city from scratch. I hope he never succeeds.

(The Church actually expressed opposition to his plan too, but he was just like "I don't care, they're not the boss of me")

Eduardo said...

I don't know how much you know about this futuristic city that was designed, but it does not seem noisy or crowded. This "to do" is about control or power, and vision, which scares people, like many new things.

John Pack Lambert said...

By Vermont standards Hickman's city would be crowded. It also would not give people much space to live in. It would majorly increase the population in the area.

Some people feel he has done unethical things to advance his goals for rebuilding in Provo as well. He is opposed by the type of left leaning academics who his claims his plans would help the environment are meant to cater to.

Keep in mind most Vermonters are ex-New Yorkers. They have deliberately rejected the big city and little living space.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Christopher Nicholson & Eduardo:


Here is an article I read back in 2016 (and recently re-read) on David Hall (the Latter-day Saint tycoon with plans to apply Joseph Smith's "Plat of Zion" in Vermont).


https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-newvistas-mormon-utopia/


Some of my main takeaways from the article:

-David Hall, though well intentioned, because of his myopic determination to carry out his idyllic city plan (despite the continued outspoken opposition of the actual Vermont residents), comes across in the author's and the Vermonters' minds as "a rich crazy Mormon cultist" and doesn't seem to be doing the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS any PR favors by continuing to push his plan on people that don't want it.

-The futuristic city plan he designed might not in actuality be noisy and crowded if it ever became implemented, but it seems like it would be that way in the opinions of the Vermonters who oppose it.

-Even in Utah County there has been opposition to his plans to try and implement the Plat of Zion near Provo, so this isn't just a matter of church members vs non church members (or, if you prefer, believers in Joseph Smith vs non-believers). There seems to be something that David Hall isn't grasping about the nature of people in already established communities (in states as diverse from each other as Vermont and Utah) not wanting planned communities dropped in right next to them.

-I can relate to both the already established residents of Vermont and the Utah County residents. Back in 2004, a rich real estate tycoon wanted to drop a sprawling new subdivision right next to the rural unincorporated road I'd lived on for years and where my family had built our home, farm, and mechanic's shop.

Additionally, they wanted us to pay for the improvements of our street from a dirt road to a paved street, including any connecting utility lines. My dad, and the majority of the 10 or so households on our road were adamantly opposed to the idea, and they and I attended a town council meeting to air our disapproval. Many people in Montana (particularly in our small community) lived there or moved there for the specific reason of living a rural lifestyle, secluded from large communities of neighbors, enjoying privacy and nature. The new subdivision would have fully annexed our property into the town, disallowing my father to continue the tractor mechanic business he used for a living while we remained a part of the unincorporated county.

Additionally, the subdivision owner wanted to use our road as the main thoroughfare for traffic from said subdivision to the nearby school. So for those of us who were enjoying a quiet private lifestyle, this new planned community did have the potential of turning that lifestyle into one that could soon become noisy and crowded.

Well, the subdivision did end up happening, but we managed to convince the city council not to annex our road or our property, and they didn't end up connecting to our street as a through street (residents of the new subdivision had to take the "long way around" of a few extra blocks to get to the city proper).

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

-The Plat of Zion is a good idea. But I think what Brother Hall is missing in his understanding (something that Brother Joseph and his successors came to understand) is the principle of agency and a sustaining vote. The ideal planned community could have worked in a Zion-esque community where the people were ready and willing and all of one heart and one mind. One lesson I take away from our Church History (from my understanding) is that the Jackson County, MO experiment failed in part due to the overzealousness of many of the saints to try and build up that ideal city too quickly (against the council of Bro. Joseph and the Lord).

Additionally, the pre-established Missourians became concerned about the sudden influx of new homesteaders and a new, unfamiliar culture with the potential of disrupting their way of life.

Compare that with the settlement of Salt Lake City - another idealistic city with pre-planned plats and a temple lot. I believe a main reason Salt Lake may have succeeded where Jackson County failed was due to not having to butt up with any other pre-established permanent white settlers in the area (in a location that nobody else wanted at the time - sans perhaps the Native Americans, but I personally don't know how much the tribes at the time wanted the Salt Lake basin).

Also, the saints seemed more unified at that time under the leadership of Brigham Young, due to having to stick together and be obedient in temporal things from the trials of being expelled from Missouri and Nauvoo and crossing the plains (Nauvoo would be one other example where we built up an idyllic city, but again, the issue of the neighbors not wanting it/us there contributed to the city's dissolution).

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Eric S.

Looks like the Orem Temple is following the new 70-96,000 square ft model that we're seeing with Tooele, Pocatello, Taylorsville, Saratoga Springs, Washington County (and even previously with Payson). I like the different variations we've seen so far with that central-spire design.

Chris D. said...

@Matt, Don't forget to update the list of "Stakes and Districts Discontinued in 2020" to include the "Irkutsk Russia District" that was discontinued last week and removed from the Classic Maps site on Saturday 06/20/2020.

https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=52.483216,104.058377&z=9&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Irkutsk%20Branch&find=ward:433330

Chris D. said...

"17 June 2020 - Accra News Release Africa West Area Leaders Visit New Ga Mantse

Leaders in the Africa West Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Friday, 12th June 2020 paid a courtesy call on the newly enthroned King of the Ga State, Ghana, His Royal Majesty, Dr. Tackie Teiko Tsuru-II. The Church delegation was led by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, second Counsellor in the Africa West Area Presidency and were received at the Ga Mantse’s Palace, North Kaneshie, Accra."

https://news-gh.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/africa-west-area-leaders-visit-new-ga-mantse

Eduardo said...

Perhaps the Plat of Zion (thanks for the name, I had forgotten the name) would be more advantageous to experiment with in a sprawling part of India or Nigeria, a more crowded and less developed part of the world? Or, perhaps it would be worth doing in very remote Utah, Nevada, or Alaska, assuming it could access proper water and energy. Why not Patagonia or Newfoundland?
Back to the point of Vermont: the Church has not gained much traction there, regardless of certain factors we have discussed. I wonder how many friends they baptize per year in that mission?

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Eduardo

I think it would be interesting for them to try the Plat in a more remote area, too (no neighbors to raise a ruckus!). Perhaps if Mr. Hall can prove it's successful somewhere, he'd get more people asking for it, rather than opposed to the idea.

On a related note, isn't there a sort of planned community that an interest group keeps trying to get approved down in Herriman? Close to the site where James Stokes has indicated the Church has property purchased for a potential temple? I've also heard of the Daybreak Community, which was down near West Jordan, I believe? Anybody here know more about that one?

James G. Stokes said...

Johnathan Whiting, the Daybreak development is in South Jordan, not West Jordan. And the temple associated with that community is the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple, as outlined in the following article:

https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/oquirrh-mountain-utah-temple/

I will have to dig around in my sources for the information I found verifying that Herriman is where the land is for the southwest Salt Lake Valley temple mentioned in 2005 by President Hinckley. Stay tuned.

Jim Anderson said...

The Deseret News ran a story with a map showing a possible site on the west side of 4800 West in Herriman, and at that time it was on the boundary of Herriman and Bluffdale. A legal squabble over a piece of land on the east side of 4800 West eventually led to Herriman annexing it as the reason for the squabble was Bluffdale not rezoning the property to the developers liking.

The site is about 140th South, that Deseret News article will have the exact site thought to be it, and the general conference where President Hinckley proposed but did not announce was either April or October, 2005 and it was during his opening statements at one of those he said something about two in the southwest valley.

Jim Anderson said...

In the Orem Temple groundbreaking announcements and similar announcements about Utah temples, it is usually pointed out that the Church population is 2.1 million, out of 3.2 million total, for Utah. That leaves loads of room for growth.

Also, only about half of those who are church members are active, according to a general authority seventy who presided at my stake conference over a year ago. So inside the metro, only about half are members and only 1/4 the total metro population is an active member. That means that almost any part of the metro, over time as missionary and reactivation success improves, could see one or more additional temples, and given what has been announced and already built, that number of additional temples inside the metro could be substantial.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

Thanks for the clarification, James & Jim!

And I found the other proposed community near Herriman that I'd read about. It's called "Olympia." (or rather, it would be called, "Olympia," if it ever gets built)

https://fox13now.com/2018/06/05/610841/#:~:text='Olympia%2C'%20a%20master-,business%20complexes%20and%20community%20spaces

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

That article I posted is from the original proposal.

Here are two updated articles from The Tribune for the Olympia Hills planned development:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/03/10/call-it-olympia-hills/

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/01/12/olympia-hills-is-back/

Jim Anderson said...

When President Hinckley proposed the idea, there was already Rosecrest further west, more in the corner of the valley. But this is just one of several things that are, or will yet come, to the area west of the planned U-85 freewaym the frontage/feeders are built, the main lanes have yet to be started save for a stretch where there are four lanes and you exit then enter again at the planned crossings.

This is expected with everything else in that side of the valley, to possibly have a total off 750k more people than we have now in SL County.

Bryansb1984 said...

Of course they're not the first temples with similar designs. Take a look at Boise,Idaho, Dallas, Texas, Chicago, Illinois, Frankfurt, Germany, Johannesburg, South Africa and Las Vegas, Nevada. They all seem to have that long triangle shape with the towers on the sides.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

With all that growth, the Southwest Salt Lake Valley Temple seems inevitable.

Eduardo said...

I drove through Herriman in 2017 and it has a lot of nice neighborhoods. Always growing...

James G. Stokes said...

Hello again, everyone! Recently, the Church News published an announcement indicating that the Seminar for New Mission Leadership this year would be condensed and online-only:

https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-06-24/2020-mission-leadership-seminar-streamed-online-187507

Today, the initial reports for that seminar were shared. I have a couple of obobservations I wanted to pass along about those reports, which I originally shared on my blog on Saturday afternoon. First, Elder Holland gave a standard-length address at the Seminar, which seems to indicate he has been able to resume his apostolic dutiesm to a certain extent, following his recent hospitalization.

Secondly, in the coverage of President Nelson's address, one of the images shared showed the First Presidency seated side-by-side. I am hopeful that that means that social distancing may not be necessary for the leaders in attendance at the October 2020 General Conference. It seems likely that, regardless of where that conference might originate from, how many leaders attend each session, what is done with respect to the music for the conference, and whatever might occur with the Saturday evening session for that conference, that all apostles may be able to attend each of those 5 sessions.

There will likely be quite a few more reports about the 2020 Seminar for New Mission Leadership in the days ahead. I will be particularly intrigued to see which representatives from the Missionary Department and the Missionary Executive Council participate. For the last several years, Elder Brent H. Nielson has been the Executive Director of the Missionary Department, but since he has been called to serve in the Presidency of the Seventy effective August 1 of this year, he has been or will yet be released from his role as the Missionary Department Executive Director.

Onne other notee here: I had some thoughts about recent comments in this thread regarding temple designs, but will need to e those at a later time. In the meantime, it is worth noting that, with the latest updates which have been provided on the Tooele Valley, Washington County, and Taylorsivlle UtaH Temples, I anticipate that at least those 3 could potentially see a groundbreaking announcement made within the next two weeks or less, though there are 3 other temples in the United States and 1 or 2 of the ones outside the United States for which such announcements could come down the pike sooner rather than later.

As I observed on my blog just recently, if it turns out that the Church doesn't schedule any other groundbreakings between now and the first Saturday in September (by which time each of the 3 groundbreakings currently scheduled will have taken place), then with the Orem Utah Temple becoming the seventh of the 18 temple groundbreaking referenced by Elder Bednar during the April 2020 General Conference, the Church will need to break ground for roughly 1 temple a week between September 12 and the last Saturday in December. But since no temple groundbreakings are likely to occur the Saturday of the October 2020 General Conference, or the one or two Saturdays immediately preceding and following Thanksgiving Day, or on the final 2 Saturdays of 2020 (when Christmas and New Year's observances will be held), that leaves only the Saturdays of Septemer 12, 19, 26, October 10, 17, 24, 31, November 7, 14 and (possibly) 21, and December 5 and 12.

That said, I could possibly see the Church scheduling more than one groundbreaking on any of these Saturdays, or for that matter, on any of the 3 Saturdays on whihch one is already scheduled, or between the weeks of those already scheduled, but my point here (sorry for the lengthy way I got to it) is to illustrate that it will be intriguing to see how that all works out.

Given the extent to which we have seen temple-related announcements being made thus far this year, I hope there's much more ahead in that respect. I look forward to seeing it all unfold.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...
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James G. Stokes said...
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John Pack Lambert said...

Seems I misremembered his name. His father was Tracy Hall, a truly great scientist.