GRIP IT AND RIP IT
So I drove three hours out of my way on Wednesday to ask a single question.
In case you all think I’ve lost a step or don’t give a crap anymore.
I drove to Walker for a Mono County District Four Candidate Forum. Two-term Incumbent John Peters versus challenger Trond Gottfried, a retired law enforcement lieutenant and current captain on the Bridgeport Fire Dept.
I drove to ask the question because Mr. Gottfried had skipped a District Four candidate forum hosted by Mammoth Voices.
And seeing as 25% of District Four voters are Mammoth voters – crazily wedged into a district with Bridgeport and Walker because the county’s population is so skewed by Mammoth that to balance the numbers, that district has to take Mammoth voters – I just wanted to see if Mr. Gottfried even pretended to care about his future Mammoth constituents.
Because I knew Mr. Peters had actually walked the Mammoth part of his district and knocked on doors.
So during the meeting I asked Gottfried, “In your opinion, what are the top three issues that are most important to your Mammoth constituents.”
And the guy stood up and sat there blinking for a few moments. To his credit, he didn’t dodge and he didn’t lie. He simply admitted he hadn’t spoken to any Mammoth voters, but if he had to guess, he’d say there was a housing issue.
Congratulations, Mr. Gottfried. With that guess, you can now run for any office in any geographic area of the country.
I do feel for Mr. Gottfried in this respect. He is hugely frustrated by the lack of progress in rebuilding Walker in the wake of the most recent Mountain View (November, 2020) fire which wiped out 100 homes.
In a region which is already struggling to retain an aging population, the difficulty in navigating the system is causing many to just abandon ship and move elsewhere rather than rebuild.
Mr. Gottfried’s solution (“we’re gonna streamline the building requirements and remove the red tape” or “we’re gonna incentivize builders with tax breaks”) – sounds nice, but I imagine a lot of these folks are playing the waiting game trying to figure out what sort of legal settlement they’ll reach so they know what they can spend on a rebuild. Or not.
As Mr. Peters observed, the county’s building codes are no more stringent than the state’s.
Onto Mammoth’s Measure I – that’s the school bond measure. The school district says it will spend a portion of the money building staff housing.
I’m against.
If you have the Town threatening to raise the TOT rate (it says it will spend the money on housing) and placing a moratorium on short-term rentals in an effort to depress home values (with the idea these owners will either then be forced to rent to a long-term tenant or give up and sell their properties), then why would any rational property owner agree to further self-punishment by extending a tax?
Never mind that the local School Board shouldn’t be in the housing business. And every entity in Town shouldn’t be lining up to run its own housing program.
But what better excuse to soak the taxpayer?
The idea that the Town wants to raise TOT another two points is patently absurd.
You don’t need to raise TOT so much as allocate it properly.
Which means growing a backbone and standing up to the marketing department.
Why would you simultaneously keep your foot on the marketing gas pedal ($10M+ per year) while your other foot is slamming on the brakes with an STR moratorium?
Speaking of pandering to Mammoth Lakes Tourism (because you’re afraid of taking their Kodachrome away), the Mammoth Lakes Recreation Allocations Committee for tax measures R and U made its recommendations this week.
Well over half the money ($450,000) will be dedicated to subsidizing MLT’s new event (the Obstacle Course Race world championships) while the remaining 27 community events will split approximately $300,000.
Why isn’t the OCR being funded out of MLT’s own budget?
Or why isn’t MMSA footing some the bill, since it benefits the most as the event host?
The rich get richer …
But I’ve got one more thing to say about housing – before we’ve even filled one unit of The Parcel.
We keep talking about housing the “workforce” as if the “workforce” is just a means of production. A mere widget. As if all workers are just faceless entities – one no more important than the next. Another brick in the wall.
But some workers are really awesome – truly critical to the success of an organization.
Others are just warm bodies.
Because of the income limits one must adhere to when you take state or federal dollars, Parcel units will go towards the folks who make the least.
And it’s not hard to imagine that some folks will work less in order to make less in order to qualify for the $600,000 lottery ticket – because that’s what it is. You get a home built for you with a cap on your rent and all you’ve really got to do is meet a minimum requirement to work locally in some capacity.
A Faustian bargain.
The price the Town pays for taking “free” money.
And a recipe for filling the end of one’s bench I suppose, but … I imagine The Parcel will be housing very few of a business team’s starters.
Which is why, after the Town says it’s spent $30 million over the past five years, that it still needs to pass yet another tax increase so it can finally get around to housing the people it wants to house, the “missing middle.”
Which brings me to a final thing that’s been nagging at me – which is government’s insistence on interfering in the marketplace.
When did the shift occur whereby the guy who showed up in town last night and slept in his car suddenly moves to the front of the line?
And to address Councilmember Rice, when did the guy who doesn’t show up at the meetings, the guy who’s in line to score a massive handout in the form of a government-provided place to live – when did he become the #1 priority?
And it’s not just because he’s working three jobs that he can’t bother to show up. Stop it.
Fifteen years ago during the first round of affordable housing construction, those who stood to benefit damn well showed up.
But I’m getting off topic. Which is … if you have a whole slew of folks short-term renting their units, at a certain point, there’ll be saturation. You won’t be able to charge the rate you want. The cost of doing business (housekeeping, maintenance) will rise. There’ll come a tipping point where it’s not feasible – and an inevitable correction, not only within the local market, but perhaps within the state/national market will occur.
But we have no patience.
We perceive trend lines as endlessly heading in a uniform direction. So we immediately have to jump in to play savior and solver.
It’s helicopter parenting writ large.
It’s California-style, Big Liberalism at its absolute worst.
Speaking of which, NO on Proposition 1. If the Newsom administration has just run us into a $73 billion budget deficit ditch, why would you hand that team another nickel?
