Opinion: Tahoe dying from being 1 dimensional
Why isn’t the South Shore promoting snowshoeing-hiking, history, art and hockey? It’s time to be more than a ski destination. Photos/LTN
By Kathryn Reed
Unemployment, jobs and the economy were big topics in President Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night.
“Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by – let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all,” Obama said.
They are topics that also resonate in the Lake Tahoe Basin, especially this winter. With the dismal amount of snow, businesses are not hiring the number of people they usually do this time of year. Hours are being cut. It’s getting hard to pay bills.
The national unemployment numbers that came out this week are the lowest in five years at 6.7 percent. California’s unemployment rate is at 8.3 percent, whereas Nevada’s is 8.8 percent.
The good news is unemployment numbers for South Lake Tahoe and Douglas County ended lower than what they started at in 2013. The numbers are also lower than what they had been the previous few years during the height of the recession.
Even though retailers and ski resorts tend to ramp up hiring in December, it’s not unusual for the unemployment numbers to slip a little compared to November.
Here are the 2013 unemployment numbers for South Lake Tahoe:
January 10.2 percent
February 9.6 percent
March 9.4 percent
April 8.6 percent
May 8 percent
June 8.1 percent
July 8.5 percent
August 7.8 percent
September 7.4 percent
October 7.6 percent
November 7.6 percent
December not released.
These are the unemployment numbers for Douglas County in 2013:
January 11.8 percent
February 11.5 percent
March 11.3 percent
April 10.8 percent
May 10.2 percent
June 10.4 percent
July 9.6 percent
August 9.5 percent
September 9.4 percent
October 9.6 percent
November 9 percent
December 9.5 percent.
This all equates to an annual rate for Douglas County of 9.4 percent. Data is not collected in a manner to know the unemployment rate just at the lake portion of Douglas County.
What will be more telling about the local economy is what the numbers are like the first quarter of 2014 because of what the weather has done to hiring practices.
But what does not show up on unemployment charts is people with reduced hours, pay cuts or people who have stopped looking for a job.
People aren’t coming to Tahoe to play and spend money right now because it’s a one-dimensional economy. Tourism works when there is a product. Lake Tahoe is known for its winter snow fun and summer beach-hiking-biking fun.
If spastic, unpredictable weather is the new normal, then the status quo is no longer acceptable from our government leaders and more important our tourism officials. Why isn’t there a push to get people to Tahoe to enjoy what the locals are doing? Talk to hikers and cyclists – trails are pretty incredible. Learning to ski or snowboard is ideal now because roads are clear, skies are blue and those slopes are well covered in white stuff.
Having a chamber official tell a Sacramento television station that people can kayak and paddleboard is dangerous when morning temps are well below freezing. It’s one thing for locals to tackle Tahoe this time of year; it’s another for those unfamiliar with this unforgiving body of water.
Then having her say come to Tahoe to shop because ski gear is cheap isn’t really touting what Tahoe has to offer.
Where was the promotion for the restaurant week that happened earlier this month?
The South Shore needs to be showing people what the area is about, not using gimmicky make-believe characters telling people to come to the wild side.
It has long been proved that events bring people to town. But on the Lake Tahoe Visitor Authority’s website there are no events listed for January or February, and one for March on the “2013 Tahoe South Travel Planner”. Note the year our tourism people are telling visitors about.
What about a big Super Bowl party? It doesn’t matter that there isn’t a California team in the game.
Why not have a mini Olympics or make up sports that locals and tourists could compete in? Why aren’t we embracing our athletes who will be going after gold next month?
Another thing Obama said Tuesday night was, “In today’s global economy, first-class jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure.”
Are you listening Lake Tahoe?
The SLT Medical Marijuana Initiative will create 100 jobs and pump $10 million into our local economy, based upon our analysis of what happened when Oakland legalized medical dispensaries. Unlike the big corporate players in SLT, the money from local dispensaries and growers will stay in the local economy, not be shipped off to out of state corporate accounts. And the money that stays in our local economy benefits the entire town. Marijuana is already a fact of life in SLT. All we want to do is regulate it and create prosperity for our city and its residents.
Obama is nobody to talk when it comes to job creation. His reign has given us the lowest labor participation rate since 1978. Further, Wall Street has profited at the expense of Main Street.
The State of the Union address is not to prop up a lousy president, it’s to take pride in the nation’s achievements. Those have been few & far between in the Era of Obama, unless you count food stamp participation.
How many businesses have tried to navigate the entitlement process in Tahoe only to end up in Douglas County, Carson City, or Reno? I can think of many.
The one place I truly agree with you on the opinion is the comment about infrastructure. Let’s start with our roads and airport – they could use some improvement. Wouldn’t you agree?
Look at some of the job killing measures the area has taken in recent months – banning the use of plastic bags for example. What about the people who make those plastic bags, deliver those plastic bags, sell those plastic bags, and recycle those plastic bags. You just killed a lot of jobs as a result of banning plastic bags.
Let’s think about more than just our backyard in the decision making process.
Medical marijuana Yes to me that would be a solution ,more dispensaries ,open,and it would solve jobs for many, Lake Tahoe needs to get there ass in gear, Its about surviving,And helping the needy ,I have Cancer and I am for it, I have friends that have MS, and medical cards and the place here is way to high for there medical needs , open up to solutions ,Lake Tahoe is well known for it, so show it, and do not be scared to go with the rights ,fight for what you believe in, I am all for what Steve says, REGULATE IT AND GET TO WORK,
Good article. There is no lack of event ideas. The problem seems to be agreement in a specific event and competent implimentation. Also important is staying power to allow events to grow over multiple years.
Kathryn Reed hits on some great points, but she doesn’t seem able to see the forest through the trees.
Several industries in this region have been shown the door thanks to misguided environmental policies. Industry creates jobs, take note of that.
A few examples of industries that are no longer with us in this region:
Timber harvesting – wood is the ultimate renewable resource, but thanks to extreme environmental policies, timber harvesting is an extinct species in the Lake Tahoe area. Now we have overgrown forests that are nothing short of tinderboxes just waiting for an ignition source. I had many friends who used to harvest timber for a living in this area. That timber was milled into lumber, again, in this area, and then exported out of the area. This industry supported thousands of jobs in the area, all gone.
Air transportation – once a thriving industry in the area, it supported hundreds of jobs. NIMBYism and extreme environmental policies cost gate agents, pilots, baggage handlers, air traffic controllers, rental car employees and maintenance personnel their jobs in this area. At one time, not only did airlines fly into Tahoe, UPS did too. All of that economic activity is a thing of the past as the businesses pulled up their stakes and went elsewhere.
Gaming & entertainment have been of course the big losers thanks to over saturation of gaming outside of Nevada. But there was no need for the entertainment industry to wither on the vine in Tahoe. Why hasn’t anyone picked up on this, and turned Stateline into an entertainment lynchpin in the industry?
Tahoe has a lot going for it, but it has become a one horse town when it comes to industry. If all we can accept is tourism as a core industry, then we’re not going to have much of a local economy.
Thank GOD the republicans are leading the charge in job creation! where oh where would we be in our nations economic recovery without their wisdom, their strong yet compassionate leadership? Oh that evil black man we electrd dictator…that scourge, that socialist, that communist, that LIBERAL(even worse!) that muslim, that evil satanic eater of small children! Life was SO WONDERFUL for all americans before his TYRRANY was inflicted upon us!
“You just killed a lot of jobs as a result of banning plastic bags.”
BS
HEY STEVE! In my neighborhood the “growers” are now mixing Pot with Beer. They smoke out the entire block then the step outside and puke their beer on the streets; really interesting smell – pot and beer.
HEY BITTER! Give it up… nobody listens to your whining anymore. President Obama got us out of Iraq and Bin Laden sleeps with the fishes; that’s enough for me.
in so much of this still resides the feeling “build it and they will come.”
No one seems to want to deal with the fact that other places are competing for tourist dollars, societal interests have changed, and despite deteriorating infrastructure, Tahoe is way overbuilt, especially in terms of way too much retail. (and we are adding more no less!!). Add to that hyper-inflated commercial lease rates that bear no relationship to actual income potential and hyper-inflated residential living costs that also bear no relation to local income potential.
I think LTN has got the headline right on this one – Tahoe is one-dimensional, but there is also a reason. People don’t go to the mountains in the winter except to ski. Skiing, never cheap, is now outrageously expensive. People do stuff in the outdoors less than 20-30 years ago, they dont take two week Tahoe trips anymore, the population is aging, people from SF or Sac looking to gamble don’t have to come to Tahoe to do it, and someone looking to hike and bike in winter, even if you could do it in Tahoe, are better served by doing it in So Ca or Arizona, where the chance of actually getting snow ins’t part of the “risk”. Plus, despite all the talk of year-round travel by empty nesters, people in the U.S. are more geared to the calendar (out of habit?) than any weather reality on the ground.
Tahoe used to be a very functional summer resort, and the ski industry and the gaming industry gave the hopes of a year-round financial mecca, and now for a number of reasons that is proving to be a false hope. Perhaps if we give up on that hope, we can get the cost of doing business here to where it should be for a mostly summer resort, and that would have a better positive impact and more likely to make a difference than thinking someone isn’t coming to Tahoe and going to loose there job because supermarkets can’t use plastic bags!
The concept that plastic bags are connected significantly to job loss is so far stretched as to be ridiculous.
If not plastic then paper. Somebody has to make the paper bags or the non disposables too.
The few places that have abandoned plastic bags around the country cannot be more significant than a drop of water in Lake lake Tahoe. Find something realistic to whine about.
And Steve Kubby….I don’t disagree that medical pot has a place in the world, but sell it from the drug stores, which are equipped already to handle it.
The sleaze that attaches to, and accompanies hole-in-the wall dispensaries is undeniable, and we do not need more sleaze in SLT. There is enough already to supply several towns.
As the namesakes of the prominent businessmen that actually did an exceptional job of creating a local economy in South Shore (1st Bill Harrah, 2nd Harvey Gross), their names are still on the buildings, but they cannot speak for themselves now. . .
Granted, Bill Harrah spent a lot to bring top-flight entertainment to both the original & subsequent South Shore Room – but it allowed a growth rate commensurate with excellent service (it was too busy not to have it), and managed to fill up most of the motels doing it.
Harvey Gross built the first hotel (1963) with convention facilities that drew larger groups than local service clubs (Harrah’s upstairs Edgewood Room was mostly doing that) – but Harrah did not build their hotel for a full decade after that, mostly due to a loyalty to the above-mentioned lodging community – realizing correctly that their “sales floor” [casino surface area] needed those extra numbers as there were more facilities than even “their” own hotel could serve. . .Count the rooms, then multiply by the number of ‘one-arm bandits’, and you begin to see the strategy (a problem needing a solution didn’t happen !). . .
Fast forward to ‘today’, and the problem of “exportation” is the only survivor: export gaming everywhere, export the jobs that go with it, (and of course export the ‘bottom line’ profits [if there are any]), then expect the same number of visitors as you had before. . .
It is then that the unreality takes hold, except that the gaming (i.e. euphemism “entertainment”) world lost enough momentum that mismanagement, age, whatever, caused them all to be absorbed by just a few names (the name Harrah hung in there for awhile, but Caesar’s prevailed; Station Casinos, etc.) and Tahoe is the main recipient of that policy: exportation. . .
Who cares if it was the “birthplace’ of the enterprise ?
If we can get a couple of investment banks (2008, just before the crash) to buy all this up (20 billion $$ ++), we can then export whatever is left of the capital to support other, more “important’ locations. . .
We have now elapsed enough time to not have anyone here remember or even relate to that more vital time, when folks had enough hours, enough money in their pockets, & were enough conscientious enough to expect a promotion for the excellent service they provided – no such luck now.
Hold on to the job anyway possible, as that’s all you get or are going to get. . .Northern Nevada already went through a period of recognizing the need for “economic diversity”, but also realized a backfire from advertising “our low-wage” workforce, because, as it turned out, most of the labor pool had only been trained to ‘carry change’, not enough to draw significant company support. . .
Tahoe is in a similar situation now. . .
The current emphasis on “events” won’t end up doing much, as that relies on too much of a promotional (‘week in, week out’) stance, versus the real Tahoe need: a marketing campaign strong enough to “turn the tide”. . .
Unfortunately, that’s also problematic, as the “product” has slipped just far enough that “marketing” Tahoe well-enough would only serve dissatisfaction. . .
Tahoe was built-on the ‘nickel’ (2014’s “quarter”) player, not the ‘high-roller’ or ‘whale’, as those only added spice to the Tahoe experience – there are not enough of either numerically to support as many facilities as there are that think they can stay afloat with them. . . besides there are a lot more places that cater to then than Tahoe can draw – beauty or not. . .
These are serious dilemmas. . .but need another vision beyond just ‘planning’ – starting with understanding the market you’re in. . .’one dimension’ may need at least “three”. . .
The divisive whining and finger pointing seen in the comments is an indication of what things are like in Washington DC and why nothing gets done. Kae has some good ideas and explores some concepts that deserve consideration in our community. No need to get all tangled up in the plastic bag controversy.
El Diablo who is in that bldg. on Market street,
is behind the destruction of our Town.
I have told you before they are trying to lower the number of residents and the number of visitors by 35%
don’t know how much my opinion is worth looking in from the out side….
my family has been living in , around or just visiting tahoe for 4 generations.no snow and no work is the best thing that could happen for tahoe in the long run. thin out the panhandlers, easily influenced and other non producing progressive liberal posers.
i work hard for my vacation dollar, if i wanted to spend it on seeing how stupid lives i would go to berkeley.
hey outsider-I have great news-if you want to see how stupid lives you can save tons on your next vacation-just stay right at home and look in a mirror
oh see there, i went and hurt t girl’s feelings. guess your’e not a business owner.
if you were you might know the hurt of of watching the “unwashed” stinking up any chance for a return on investment.
make your choice tahoe. most of slt is conservative hows all that “save the whales, save the lake,save the bong” working for you?
the place looks like “occupy” lake tahoe already and some fool thinks weed is going to provide jobs for the ambitionless already loafing on the street?
if you do you will go from an “occupy” movement to an “inundate” movement when every scrote bag from oakland moves east like it was a
“career” move.