Lodging Incentive redo, letter to the editor 2014

I'm posting some old letters to the editor. This is so I can remember what I wrote, and to keep myself honest.  I'm posting them in the order I wrote them so this goes back a couple of years.

The more things change….

Fall 2014

The City Planners graciously invited me to participate in their "lodge feedback session". I was hoping this would be a fresh start for the lodging initiative. That's me, hopeful.

Sigh…. sadly this was a rehash of ordinance 19. The presentation had not changed one jot. The same studies were cited, the same conclusions pushed forward and we were told outright that this was not the place to "share opinions". We were given push buttons and slide show of questions. There was no "none of the above" option there was only the  "I don't understand the issue" option. (Like hell I don't understand the issue).

When several of us tried to clarify the questions- by pointing out clear bias- we were told that we could write down our concerns on the post it notes provided.

There was no attempt to incorporate the resounding slap back referendum petition from the electorate. After all when was the last time you heard of 797 City voter signatures collected in under a week during off season? I've haven't seen that degree of bi-partisan support here since Tommy Moe won the downhill.

My sad conclusion is that it doesn't matter how many petitions or post it notes we, the public, give our local government. They will continue to propose the same tired strategies over and over again hoping that eventually they will change our minds instead of listening to our concerns. (….and continue to call for public input during weekday working hours so that people who have 9-5 jobs cannot attend but that's a different letter)

The key issues remain the same:

1. Building Height.

2. Building new rentals.

3. Upgrading existing rentals.

Please stop lumping these into one question.  Issue 1 and 2 are linked but you can surely have one without the other, issue 3 is not linked to the other two. We do not need a power point presentation. An honest calm exchange of ideas on how to address these three issues  and how to implement those ideas is what we need. In a community this small, this tight knit and this wealthy that should not be an impossible task.