Valiens

 

Well Vail has spoken and the 9990 gate is closed for good.  They have thrown us an access bone to our public lands and left the Peak 5 gate open at all times for those who can navigate the obstructions and negotiate to the safe skiing.  We locals were not invited to the table for discussion but neither was the ski patrol, from what we have heard.  The stake holders were the corporate share holders, and maybe an accountant and a lawyer or two.  Its too bad since we might have agreed with them on this decision and then they would have had transparency as well as local and patrol buy-in and not our heightened disdain or dissent. 

We get It that it was a safety decision for the loss of life up there is unacceptable, but it was not a binary decision.  The 9990 gate cold have been equipped with a screening mechanism or the ski-patrol could have regulated it to prevent the uninformed or ill-equipped from using it during unsafe times.  Or the Peak 5 gate may be more dangerous.  Instead, the qualified and compliant are being punished for the actions of the unqualified and non-compliant. 

It won’t hurt Vail even if all 1800 signees of our Petition for Meaningful Discussion didn’t buy a pass this year but they are losing an important population of those who created that resort’s vibe. We did not invent this mountain town lifestyle, but we perfected it.   Park West, Pork Worst. Wolf Mountain, The Can or Park City, it does not matter what you call it, It’s about the people.  Vail needs us on that ridge line, they want us on that ridge line.  Every skier on that mountain would look up at those fine backcountry lines and think to them selves that they too could ski there, even if they never did.  Now they will look up at empty bowls with avalanche fences on them and wonder; what are they really for if not for ultimate powder skiing.  Isn’t that what it is all about. 

We don’t want our money back, we want our mountains back.  We want our town name as well as it’s reputation of low key, world class powder skiing.  Skiing at the Canyons has now become prosaic and pedantic instead of being world class like they advertise.  Weekend and holidays are off limits and Powder days are now a crowded joke where if you can get on the mountain by 1100 it is all skied out by those who have better credentials.  There is no public access to the local backcountry and public lands and we are forced to drive into the gridlock of the Wasatch Front or out to the Uintas for long approaches and alternative fall lines. 

Vail’s gifts to our community are greater density developments, crowded slopes and roads, and a ‘Je ne sais quoi’ attitude towards our local thoughts and opinions.  We made our Faustian deal with the devil for their cheap season ski passes and found that everyone in town has one, not to mention Salt Lake City, Colorado, LA, New York, Switzerland, and Australia.  Their hostile takeover of our resorts has resulted with us as the vanquished, relegated to the backseat with nothing to say.  It’s either that or pack our little boxes and get out.   Is that being a good neighbor?  Now as they parcel out their inholdings they are asking for bigger buildings, higher densities and less restrictions along with better busses, parking, roads and services.  Its like they own the place.  And maybe they do.

Vail is the biggest employer in town but they impose their will with impunity.  We are only a small handful of interested skiers that are easy to ignore but we believe our politicians and leaders should step up to this corporation on land access and other issues, in a public forum where it is not so easy to ignore the will and wishes of the people.  This is not a company town yet and only good conversations and communication will keep it that way.  Keep this in mind next November when we determine who will have these conversations.   It is time for our public officials to stand up to the bully corporate ski industry to give voice to their constituents to save our quality of life and the soul of our town.

Equal TIme

 

It seems symptomatic to me that while this town struggles for its philosophical soul and balance, this venerable newspaper replaces an old school and respected columnist with a pro growth newcomer, the Director of the Chamber of Commerce.  What’s next, having Vail write a column on expanding development densities and zoning changes?  Is this equivalent to the fox guarding the hen house?  Where is the balance, where is the local opinion, where is the consideration of those who live and work here?

Now she is probably a very nice person, and she certainly is a good writer and very professional with good vision and values, but do we really need another public cheerleader for oxymorons such as ‘sustainable growth’ or ‘industrial tourism’.   Existing columnists Tom and Amy are polite and funny, and Terri is a great historical and matriarchal grounding influence so maybe we need another columnist to bring up alternative opinions on growth, economics and politics and the skiing industry. 

The Chamber, along with the Main Street Merchants, have always been very effective, maybe too effective, and have spurred unprecedented growth and economic development even during down times.  They were especially quick to recognize the ‘driving solutions’ to the Covid crisis and continued to put heads in beds and welcome the car culture to town this past year.  They deserve our thanks and support as well as our opinions on Sundance, Olympics, the Art Festival and the future of our town.

At a Leadership Meeting, years ago, I asked them when enough would be enough and was told that our economy was like a swimming shark and that to slow it or stop it would mean death.  I countered with the belief that endless growth is the mindset of a cancer cell, and we should be careful not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.  Maybe the Chamber and Merchants are too powerful or outdated and they are entities that need to be questioned or revised.  Do we really need to fill all the beds all the time, have three or four events each weekend or sell more and more T-shirts on Main Street?  What about the people who live here?  Isn’t it our town too?  What price can we put on peace and quiet, a weekend off or perhaps even a shoulder season?

So, I ask for an equal voice and column space for the dissenters, those who support our quality of life and not just real estate, development, and the almighty dollar.  Why don’t we give Rich Wyman a shot with his pointed questions about the next Olympics, or Peter Marth and Kathyrn Decker battling up on the top of Main Street for residential district rights, or even Myles or Dana or John Haney for some old ideas and new opinions on one way streets, satellite parking  or affordable housing.  I realize they don’t run for office or buy advertisement or support the newspaper in many ways but they represent who we are or who we could be and they deserve a voice too.  There is a place for the Chamber’s opinions, but do we need it every week?   What about the rest of us?

 

Perspective IV - Positive Solutions

 

Councilman Tim Henney once told me that I should recognize some of the good things in Park City and be thankful, otherwise I’m just another old curmudgeon grumbling in my beer.  Tim is usually the smartest guy in the room, if Chris Robinson is not there, so here it goes:  

Park City has a Northern Colorado Plateau, high desert - mountain climate with 300 inches of light-dry snow each year, cold-wet winters and cool-dry summers.  We have two local world class, destination ski resorts, with several others nearby and copious, public land backcountry that provide some of the best skiing in the USA.  We have several beautiful lakes and forests nearby and the Uinta Mountains - Utah’s Yellowstone without Grizzley bears.  We have over 500 miles of regional mountain bike trails, not to mention the paved bike trails and wide shoulder bike lanes.  We have a world class Film Festivals, Art Festivals and Silly Markets and we host more special events and cultural happenings in this town than you can shake a stick at.  We have great restaurants and bars, galleries and T-shirt stores, bike and ski shops, coffee bars and sushi-smoothie stands. 

I’ve also been told that I should supply solutions to problems that I highlight, or else I am just bitching into my beard.  So here are some of my transportation ideas, however personal or draconian:  Day skiers should not drive past Kimball Junction.  Parking at the ski resorts should be paid parking only with the profits going to regional transportation.  Workers, locals and day skiers should use the bus and the park-and-ride lots or pay dearly for parking at the resorts.  Rental cars should be verboten and overnight visitors should use the bus too.   Workers should be paid for their bus commute time and skiers that ride the bus should get free coffee at the resorts.  You need to use the stick and the carrot to get people on busses.  Busses should have bus lanes so they go faster than traffic and major intersections should use all available lanes and shoulders for traffic flow.  This town should be a No-Park City Zone.  I don’t care what the Chamber of Commerce says.  They put enough heads in beds. 

No one should drive to Main Street for special events.  Main street does not need any more big events since it is a strong enough attraction to stand on its own.  It is our hometown, not Disneyland.  Festivals should be held out at the Kimball Junction - Redstone Center or the new Culture Center and not in a residential, dead end, box canyon like Old Town.  Commercial Main Street should be one-way, up, with diagonal parking and a return towards more parking down a one-way Swede Alley.  Main Street should be a pedestrian mall after 500 PM and for special occasions like it was during the Olympics.  I don’t care what the Main Street Merchants say, they sell enough Tee Shirts. 

We are fortunate to have countless great, active citizens in Park City.  We have new movers-and-shakers with fresh ideas as well as wise old timers who still set the friendly vibe for the town and smile and say ‘hello’ or ‘on your left’ when they pass.  It is still more about people and lifestyle than money and stuff, recreation is still the metric and free time is still the barometer here.  Yes, we could stand a few improvements to resist money grabbing, car-culture domination and keep up with our own success.  Park City doesn’t suck, its people rock, and it is still a pretty great place to live or visit.  Let us be thankful and work hard, together, to keep it that way.

Perspective III - Traffic

We used to imagine that we could control development with our limited water supply, but if you have privilege or wealth in the west, you have water.  Water flows to priority and money.  We solved that problem with regionalization, cooperation, conservation, good engineering, and money.  Well done.  I vacation in small Central Coast towns that have little water, want no extra water and control growth with water shortages.  This is an effective but a cowardice way of confronting development.

We thought that traffic would be the equitable, growth limiting factor in PC because you can’t use privilege or buy your way out of a traffic jam.  We told UDOT years ago that we were not ‘Flyover people’ so they redesigned Kimball Junction in just two doomed dimensions.  Then we put a two mile center lane planter box in the middle of our other entry corridor on 248. 

We have 10,000 – 20,000 units to be built around here over the next ten to twenty years.  More and more of these people will live here full time.  That’s 100,000 to 200,000 new car trips a day!  We already have grid-lock on weekends, powder days and during festivals.  While it is reprehensible to the locals what has become of our crowded streets, new people don’t think it is that bad compared to where they came from.  Perspective is everything.

We still have redundant double-wide shoulders, huge empty center-lane dividers, bike lanes AND bike paths on our major roads when shoulders could be used for traffic flow, turning movements or for bus lanes, as they were during the Olympics.  We also have a one lane exit ramp from I-80 east to UT-40 south that worked better as a 2 lane exit during the Olympics.  The Olympic traffic that we saw in 2002 is our daily traffic now and the traffic for the next Olympics is the traffic of our future and should be considered now. 

We have crazy, painted impressionistic bike lanes on the Pinebrook Frontage Road and on Park Avenue that no one understands or can follow.    We can’t pave our way out of traffic jams, but we can be consistent with road widths to avoid unnecessary pinch point constrictions and ineffective zipping.   We have competing and redundant bus systems (with empty buses and unobtainable park-and-ride lots out on the perimeter) that go no faster than traffic and have no bus lanes to drive in during peak hours. 

We have traffic light systems that are not fully coordinated or actuated with simple sensors and microprocessors, and we have traffic planners depending on Apps, bogus studies, social media, mapping and ebikes to solve our problems.  We still have busses, trucks and utility vans trolling over Guardsman, through old town and residential areas, looking for the quickest routes on their Google-Maps App.  We have traffic consultants pushing data and reports that they have not analyzed or even read.  Luckily, we have Randy Barton to tell us of the true traffic catastrophes on the radio or we would all be doomed.

Traffic is about trip generation and trip attraction, pressure, flow, velocity, and friction.  It behaves just like water and electricity.  It is iterative and adaptable, changing constantly, living, and responsive, psychologically correcting and compensating, dependent mostly on one critical mechanism – the nut behind the wheel.  We could all do better by hanging up, paying attention, and driving safely.  Yield to the right and to roundabouts, green means go, red means stop, yellow does not mean ‘punch it’.

In the end it is about supply and demand.  We need to provide more supply or less demand for our hydrologic and transportation systems.  Don’t count on water or traffic to control growth.  It takes leadership with vision and spine.  So, we ask our new and old leaders to think ahead, sac-up and save this town from itself and its success.

Perspective I

 

This town is toast.  From an old timers local perspective we have come to another turning point in our history.  We have thrown in the towel so many times that we have run out of towels.  Park City, It still doesn’t suck.  Is that enough?  Is that what we want.

The major historical inflection points for this ski town are important to note.  The first was when the John F. Kennedy Presidential administration gave us a few million dollars to jumpstart the ski industry in town in the early sixties and the Park City ski resort was formed.  The second was when Deer Valley Ski Resort came on line in the early eighties bringing style, class and customer service to the local lexicon.  The third was the expansion of upper Deer Valley in the early nineties, valiantly protested by the Citizens for Responsible Growth but ultimately settled for more than 1000 more units added to the already 2000 units approved for the resort.  Then came the Olympic games in the early 2000 where we welcomed the world here and put Park City on the map as a major international destination resort.  After that came the American Ski Corporation expansion of The Canyons master plan of several thousand units.  Finally Vail came to town and tried to take over our name while offering cheap season passes, limiting backcountry access and installing avalanche fences above trophy homes.

In between we suffer from an almost imperceptible incremental lifestyle entropy where every day there is another condo or resort, another traffic light, another annual festival or event added to our sleepy little home town.  Its like boiling frogs, where we hardly notice that it is getting hotter or more crowded.  We offer up some protest during the process, occasionally show some regulatory spine but often buy out unsightly developments at extortion prices in back room deals among the players.

 Now we come to another turning point in our history.  Both Park City and Deer Valley are on the fast track to eliminate their day skier parking lots to build larger resort centers with commercial and residential components and there is no doubt that Vail will eventually replace their lower parking lot with some kitschy Bavarian Village replica development.  Parking replacement will be minimal and only for residents or those who can pay the price.  This might not be a bad idea to help utilize our busses and satellite lots and keep traffic out of town, if the developer would contribute some of their millions in parking lot savings and profits to the cause.  And this is not to mention the creation of the Mayflower Resort, Hideout Expansion, Sliver Creek Village or Industrial Park zoning change just to mention a few.

In the past we used to imagine that we could limit development with water supply but if you have money in the west, you have water.  Some of us remember the days of dry tanks, water main blow outs, rationing and water moratoriums but we threw a lot of money and expertise at that and solved that problem by regionalization and pumping most of our water from over on the Weber river.  Then we thought traffic would be the limiting factor because you can’t buy your way out of a traffic jam.  While it is reprehensible to the locals what has become of our streets, new people don’t think it is that bad compared to where they came from. 

We used to contemplate the public good and the human welfare when considering projects and problems and evaluating real cost/benefits for all, not just the chosen few who get to make the big deals and the decisions.  I get that this state and country are now more concerned with personal property rights and individual freedoms more than the common good but this town has always been better than that.  We are a community that cared about our town and each other more than the almighty dollar.  Most of us came here for the ‘quality of life’ thing and not to get rich.  We don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg but mostly we don’t want to lose our tight little town where everyone knows your name and says hello.

So it is a matter of perspective for us who remember how this town used to be and our dreams for what it might become.  We used to say we didn’t want to be another Aspen with their empty trophy homes, expensive restaurants, and fur shops, but have we just become another Vail with its car and condo culture, long lift lines and impersonal developments?  This may be the last time for the old timers to stand up and say enough is enough, before we cash in on our million dollar homes and slink off defeated with our tails between our legs to Mexico or Arizona or Maine, because this town is toast.  Or is it?

Perspective II

 

As I have mentioned before, Park City has experienced several turning points in its growth; namely the start of the Park City, Park West, and Deer Valley ski resorts in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s respectively, The Canyons in the 90’s, The Olympics in the 00’s and the Vail hostile takeover in the 10’s.  These inflection points changed the tone and the tempo of this town, spurring unprecedented growth and development with new infrastructure and new loads on old infrastructure such as water, schools, roads, and housing. 

Now we stand at precipice of change, another inflection point.  There are plans to allow a thousand new residential units in the Industrial Park at Kimball Junction, another thousand in the parking lot at Deer Valley and another thousand in high rises at the Park City Base.  And this does not include thousands of new units and commercial properties at the new Mayflower Ski Resort, the Hideout Ranch, the Browns Canyon intersection, Silver Creek Village, the Canyons Master Plan, Coalville, Kamas and Heber.  This could be at least 10,000 new units in the next ten years and some/most of these folks will live here full time!  What are you people thinking?  This housing explosion would generate 100,000 new vehicle trips a day on our already crowded roads.  This is not OK.  We should be afraid, very afraid.

Historical approval consideration used to contemplate the public good and the general human welfare when considering local projects and problems.  We evaluated real and comprehensive cost/benefits for all, not just the chosen few who get to make the back room deals and decisions.  We respected Zoning limits and historical agreements, not just the developers bottom line.  We weren’t afraid of their threatened lawsuits that maximized densities and profits or bemoaned illegal ‘takings’. 

What were these potential developers thinking when they bought their undeveloped property at a lower price for the original reduced Zoning densities?  Now they want to upgrade zoning or past approvals for larger densities and higher buildings and rake in the big bucks or extort us to pay for them not to build.  Why should we adjust zoning, prescribed densities, heights, parking demands or usage types to satisfy a developers perceived entitlement?  What about the community entitlements?

I get it that this state/country are now more concerned with personal property rights and individual freedoms than the common-good, but this town is better than that.   Most of us came here for the ‘quality of life’ thing and not to get rich.  We valued nature, mountains, recreation, isolation, open space, the challenging climate, and each other.  We didn’t invent this mountain lifestyle, but we have perfected it.  The ‘essence’ of this place is still pretty nice.  Let us not forget these values as we take the next steps in our growth and development up the stairway of our success.  Is it a stairway to heaven or a highway to hell? 

Will we ever have the political temerity or community cojones to finally say ‘enough is enough’?  Growth should be the defining issue of the next local election, not climate change or social injustice.  Those are important global problems to deal with at a higher level.  The time is right to elect people who will protect the public welfare and the future of this town, without polarizing us into ‘locals’ and ‘newbies’.  Ask the candidates where they stand on unsustainable and unsupportable growth, zoning and developer entitlements.  We don’t need any more platitudes or backroom deals.   We need vision and backbone.  Cactus Ed Abbey said we ‘don’t need more growth, we need more democracy’.  Lincoln and Jefferson said we need ‘government by the people’.  Vote carefully Park City, like your future depends on it.