Debating Z
Couple talks about looming ballot measure, stays engaged despite difference of opinion.
On Tuesday, I drank several margaritas and discussed Measure Z with my fiancée, Forrest Cross.
What follows is a discussion between two laymen, though I suspect Forrest has the upper hand on the issue because he’s been dealing with Mammoth town politics for the last 13 years and has owned a home, whereas I only stopped living in a tent in Yosemite a few years ago and don’t even have a checkbook.
I’d like to think we’re both smart folks, though we differ politically, sort of a ski town James Carville and Mary Matalin. My editor, in his infinite wisdom, thought it would be fun to show how two people can disagree on an issue and still kiss each other goodnight. As of press time, we’re still engaged.
On Peak Occupancy
S: Mammoth is a tourist town! We’re turning people away because we don’t have the capacity to house them.
F: It’s never 100 percent [occupancy]. So for three weeks out of the year are you willing to degrade the quality of life for people who have bought these homes in these areas…they live in these places because single family nightly rentals are not allowed, and then suddenly people say “Oh, we’re gonna do rentals on a nightly basis and you’re gonna have partiers all weekend long all throughout the season.”
S: Not all throughout the season, you just said there’s never 100 percent occupancy. There’s not going to be people in these houses every weekend.
F: You have the possibility of that.
S: If you move to a resort town, a town whose only industry is tourism, and you want to live a quiet life where nobody is next to you and nobody bothers you, move to Markleeville, or some other pretty place where the whole industry is not based on tourism. That’s all we have.
F: There’s already a place set up for [tourists] to go, in the condos, in Snowcreek … If there was a significant problem with bumping up against full capacity all the time, I think I would have a different view on it, but I don’t think there’s that big of a shortage. And if you open [homes] up to nightly rentals there’s not going to be a great increase in TOT, because you’re shifting it from one place to another. There’s only 22,000 people that can ski on the mountain at one time. You can have 80,000 people in town but you can still only have 22,000 on the mountain. So if this town actually had a “crisis” of all the homes being rented out for a significant portion of the year, I would agree that we needed to open stuff up, but the fact that there’s all these rental properties available and they’re not filled up the majority of the year—I don’t think there’s a dire need for this to happen.
S: You don’t think that we need to be progressive…
F: “Progressive,” that’s such a bullshit word.
S: These [people] that are doing this [Measure Z] and costing this town thousands of dollars going to this referendum when this town is bankrupt…I just feel like they’re so deeply entrenched in this idea that ‘This has to be stopped!” that they can’t even see out of it right now. They’re just creating this slog; nobody’s ever going to be able to change anything. Do you not trust town council?
F: I don’t know if I can trust them or not.
S: They’re our elected officials.
F: I didn’t elect these people because I didn’t get my change of address in soon enough to be able to vote in the last…
S: Oh, okay, so you procrastinated?
Now this was a dirty trick on my part because I always hassle F about procrastinating, so we decided to move on.
On the Democratic Process
S: So what about the idea that people vote on what has to do with them. And the majority of this issue is about second homeowners, who don’t get to vote on what happens to their homes. What do you think about that?
F: That’s their choice to make on where they choose to claim their residency. If they’re more concerned about what happens up here versus where their primary home is, that’s their choice.
S: It says yes, yes on the right to vote, but they don’t get to vote on what happens to their homes. It’s not a very good example of the democratic process.
F: They’re not voting on who is on town council either. So that doesn’t matter. They don’t have a vote on Council, Measure Z, their vote isn’t here. They don’t have a vote no matter what. I don’t own property here but I can vote for town council…so that’s kind of a red herring.
Long pause. Glass gets knocked over.
On Trying to Make it in Mammoth:
S: What if we bought a house, and we wanted to go up to your parents’ house for Christmas, and rent out our house? That would pay two months, three months of our mortgage. But we wouldn’t be able to do that now.
F: Honestly I don’t think I would be comfortable renting out my home while I was away.
S: Even if it would pay thousands of dollars?
F: It’s not gonna pay three months’ mortgage.
S: People pay like a thousand dollars a night for houses!
F: It’s not feasible, babe.
Then F proceeds to do some math, and I’m at a disadvantage because I’m terrible at math and also slightly inebriated, so I make him move on.
S: What about a young couple who doesn’t make a lot of money who are desperate to pay their mortgage so that they can have a home here?
F: I definitely struggle with that for sure, that’s one of the hardest parts, but…why is it okay for you to rent your home when it’s located next to people who bought these homes years ago with the idea that “I bought this house because nightly rentals are not allowed and now all of a sudden a council of people decides that it’s okay that these people can rent out to whomever they want?” I just haven’t heard a really good argument for the “No” yet.
S: You just said that that was a good argument!
F: I didn’t say it was a good argument, I just said it was something I have trouble coming to terms with.
S: Would you think it’s fair to say that because you make a decent living and you’re not living paycheck to paycheck you don’t fully understand the position some people might be in and how it would greatly benefit them to have nightly rentals?
F: No, because if you’re living paycheck to paycheck there’s no reason you should buy a place here where you can’t afford a house. I make decent money and I still can’t afford a house.
S: Exactly! Do you think there’s something to be said for the fact that people who bought their homes when it was affordable…do you think they don’t want to extend that opportunity to anyone younger and less fortunate? Sandy Hogan worked for the USFS and bought a home in Mammoth. But if I was in the same position today I would never be able to.
F: Well, that’s the position I was in when I bought my place in Bishop, because I couldn’t afford a place in Mammoth.
S: Don’t you think that if you had been able to rent your home out for the holidays you could have afforded a place in mammoth?
F: But you’re not allowed to rent your home out and that’s the way it is.
S: But if you were though, do you think that might have changed your mind and you would have lived where you actually wanted to live? Because you commuted from Bishop, every day, for ten years!
F: I’m not somebody who’s gonna want to rent my home out.
S: I am!
At this point I realized we’d better reckon this philosophical difference at a later date.
Then we did some looking at maps and comparing of colors and it was way past our bedtime so we decided to call it.
On Being Grown-Ups:
F: I’m not saying that if i don’t hear a good argument, I won’t change my mind, but everything that I’ve heard so far makes me lean towards voting Yes on Z.
S: And I’m sorry babe but I’m voting No, so I guess we’ll cancel each other out. Let’s make some tea and go to bed. I love you.
F: I love you too.
