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?