Salt Lake City is organized into distinct street patterns. Its grid is based off of Salt Lake Temple, which is located in Temple Square. The city is divided into east and west sections, and each street is named after its distance from the Temple. The east side is generally cheaper to live in, while west side property values are higher.
The city has a multicultural population. By 1890, more than half of the city's four thousand residents were non-Mormon. As a result, Salt Lake City has a distinctly different demographic from the rest of Utah. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were over twenty million immigrants in the United States.
Salt Lake City has a mayor-council form of government, which has been in place since 1979. The mayor is elected for a four-year term, and four councilors are elected in staggered two-year increments. The councilors are elected to represent a district, with a geographic population boundary. Each councilor represents a district of about 26,000 residents. Unlike most other cities, Salt Lake City's government does not impose term limits.
The Salt Lake City metropolitan area is a major center of business and industry on the Wasatch Front. It is a gateway to several national parks and resort towns. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Delta Air Lines hub at the Salt Lake City International Airport are the two biggest employers in the area.