BLOODIED BUT STILL UPRIGHT

The great Jon Eisert was in town this week for my birthday Tuesday. Which involved 18 holes at Bishop Country Club. And which went straight downhill (or uphill, depending upon one’s perspective) after the first, tasty Bloody Mary. 

So blame the following post-hangover cranky on the Ski Surgeon.

I was forwarded a story this week which appeared approximately six months ago in the Tahoe Daily Tribune. 

Turns out the city of South Lake Tahoe had also considered a two-point TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) increase for placement on the November ballot. 

But South Lake Tahoe’s council elected not to pursue a ballot measure. 

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

“‘People who come to Tahoe still, will come to different parts of Lake Tahoe. They will not come to the South Shore as much as they did,’” said Jerry Bindel of Forest Suites Resort. He explains the increase would make the city higher than North Tahoe and Nevada casinos. 

‘Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg – tourism,’ Sheron Kerrigan of the South Tahoe Association of Realtors said. ‘It’s what we depend on.’

Bindel says raising TOT by 2% would put it upwards of 16% when adding the Tourism Improvement District fee. 

North Lake Tahoe and Truckee’s TOT is currently between 10-13.25%.” 

Whereas Mammoth’s Council insisted on putting a TOT rate hike on the November ballot once it passed on capping or regulating nightly rentals. 

The solution to the housing shortage reduced to ‘raise money, spend money, drill baby drill.’ 

Councilmember Chris Bubser did indicate at the time the STR Committee wrapped up, that if a tax increase wasn’t passed, Council would reassess its options, including a revisitation of the STR issue. 

I say bring it on. 

Anything’s better than embracing default bad policy just because you’re desperate to do something.’ 

Councilman John Wentworth has suggested I’m on a ‘smear’ campaign regarding the Town’s ill-conceived TOT ballot measure. 

Nah. I’m on a truth campaign. 

And the truth is, politics is about the collection and spending of money, and it’s absolutely the right and healthy thing to argue about both. 

Saying you care about housing and will do anything for housing is just conformist and weak and exceptionally unoriginal. 

Because it’s sure easy to make decisions when everyone can praise you for your humanity and you don’t have to prioritize anything and there’s no price tag.

And with housing right now, it sure feels like a buy high/sell low scenario. 

Although I did appreciate this little story John Mendel told (Mendel always has a fable for every occasion). 

And in regard to housing, he told this story about a whole slew of starfish washing up on the shore in some unfortunate natural event. And they’re all beached and destined to perish, but there’s some guy walking along the shore, and among these thousands upon thousands of beached starfish, he’s tossing them back in the water one at a time. 

So another guy approaches and says, you know, what you’re doing is pointless. It’s a mere pebble in the ocean. Theer are too many. It’s not gonna matter. 

And the guy replies as he tosses another starfish back in the water, “But it mattered to that one.” 

On a personal level, my story would be this. 

I used to travel a lot more – particularly to places like Reno and Vegas for a quick getaway. But I pay attention to the receipts, and the resort fees and the room taxes … everything about it has skyrocketed. And the impact has been that I just don’t travel much anymore, and if I travel, I stay with friends. So yeah a percentage point or two, you may think it doesn’t mean much, but it can actually at some point tip you into a whole set of new behaviors.

This is a time to tread carefully. 

The snark on the opposite page – refers to an approved project that was ultimately torpedoed due to the Great Recession. Further, money set aside for that project was absorbed into the general fund and then squandered to shore up a series of budget deficits. That parking structure still needs to get built and it’s the town’s responsibility. Don’t hear much about that these days. Because the folks who would benefit (business owners and visitors) – we too often treat them as nothing more than ATMs. 

And from Klusmire’s desk … 

It’s time to bite the bullet and admit that the Eastern Sierra Fall Colors Extravaganza marketing effort is a classic case of selling the sizzle not the steak. Compared to the country’s premier fall color locations, the Eastern Sierra offers slim pickings, if not a downright starvation diet when it comes to “spectacular vistas bursting with color when Mother Nature paints our stunning landscape with fall colors.” 

Egad. Give it a rest. 

In the Rocky Mountains and New England, folks can drive on numerous highways for hours on end and see a smorgasbord of hills and mountains covered with reds, yellows and oranges. Hours. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet. 

In the Eastern Sierra, the menu is meager. Folks can enjoy 15 or 20 canyons or creeks or lakes with some assorted clumps of trees with magical color. While that is thin gruel for jaded locals it is an impressive feast for the beach and desert dwellers from SoCal that are the area’s bread and butter, which means the best fall color is the color of money spilling out of visitors’ pockets as they ooohh and aaahh and fork over one last hearty serving of cash for local mountain resorts to feast on before winter.