EXIT THE SHALLOW END

Dear Editor,

It would seem that both Mono County and the Mammoth Lakes Town Council are poised to let another wonderful opportunity to build some affordable workforce housing slip on by.

The rapidly deteriorating halfway house on Davison is surrounded on all four boundaries by condominiums.

It would seem so sensible for the Town to get together with the County to leverage grant monies, building and planning expertise to build a Yotel type condominium but owned jointly by the County and TOML.

The CC & Rs could have stipulated that so many rental days each year should go to the local workforce, transient and otherwise.

A development corps using building department expertise and local contractors and labor force could have leveraged those dollars to maximum effect back into our town’s economy rather than to some out-of-town advertising or consulting firm.

Because market rate housing can be constructed for far less than “affordable” housing, it would have been very doable.

But that would assume we have people on our council and in our county who can think laterally.

But I guess that owning an appreciating asset is not as valuable a use of of tax monies as gifting consultants exorbitant amounts or providing marketing gurus with a bigger bonus and more days off.

It seems ironic that the guy right next door to the halfway house was able to think laterally; he navigated the hurdles put in place by the town and turned the awful and generic three-plex into a much more attractive and valuable three-unit condo. That was before he went off the deep end and held up a liquor store with a brown paper bag over his head while armed with a chisel.

But I don’t expect any exciting actions from our clown council as it paddles and splashes in the shallow end rather than swim out with real purpose.

Graham Inder

Mammoth Lakes