By JIM DALRYMPLE, UPP Contributor—

A few months ago, some friends from out of town came to visit and, as we drove past the still-unfinished Zion’s Bank building, they wondered aloud why such a quaint town would erect such a large eyesore. Though I got defensive (we need the jobs, I thought — and besides, they were outsiders), the underlying assumptions of their statement were worth taking seriously: bigger and newer isn’t always better.

This year, Provo will be putting that idea to the test. A few days ago, The Daily Herald broke the news that Nu Skin will be expanding its downtown facilities and operations. The article provides a number of details, but the most important are probably that the expansion would involve Nu Skin purchasing and replacing a number of older buildings in the downtown area, and that the Provo City Council is pretty enthusiastic about the idea.

In many respects, the Nu Skin expansion will indeed be a positive thing for Provo. I’ve mentioned before in Rhombus how dismal downtown Provo has become, and anything that puts more people on the streets has to be seriously considered. Even though the expansion looks like it won’t create a lot of new jobs beyond some temporary construction work — it appears to be more of a consolidation of existing workers into one place — it should still theoretically benefit fantastic places like Sammy’s, Stumpy Burger, and Gurus. All in all, the expansion should put more people, money and activity into the struggling area. According to the Herald article, Nu Skin also seems genuinely interested in creating a usable, aesthetically-pleasing community space.

Yet before the city rushes to raze large swaths of Center Street, it’s worth considering what the trade-offs will be….click here to continue reading

Jim Dalrymple is a frequent popular culture and occasional political correspondent for Rhombus Magazine. He recently finished studying English and Film at BYU and is preparing for graduate school.