Opinion: Ask questions before forcing change on people
By Kathryn Reed
The problem with the sentiment – If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem – is that you might not agree with the solutions being presented. That, in my opinion, does not make you part of the problem.
That is one of the problems with some of the people in the Lake Tahoe Basin. They have a vision – be it for the South Shore, Tahoe City, Incline Village, Homewood, Kings Beach, you name it – and they expect everyone to jump on board. And when you don’t jump on board, you are accused of being part of the problem and/or of wanting the status quo.
Wanting the status quo is a valid opinion. It might be working for someone even if it is not working for you.
Not being engaged is being part of the problem. And whining anonymously on Lake Tahoe News is barely being engaged – in my opinion.
People need to explain why they want or don’t want something to happen. It’s not that more studies need to be done. But people really need to start proving their ideas are valid. Showing pretty pictures is not enough. Saying someone wanted it in the 1980s is not a reason to do it 30 years later. And then they need to listen to those who disagree. And the dissenters in turn need to make a case for their ideas or a case for why the status quo is OK.
When it comes to the loop road on the South Shore someone asked me to name another town where a state highway goes through it where that city is doing well.
Solvang. That’s my answer. I visited this Central Coast city last month for the first time.
A disclaimer – it’s not an apples to apples comparison; I don’t know if any city is enough like another to have that apples to apples analysis.
But here goes – Solvang is a tourist town with a state highway through it. But the speed limit is much lower than South Lake Tahoe’s. That is where I think South Lake Tahoe needs to make a change. It needs to work on its legislators to lower the speed limit – to get Caltrans to change the policy of how it determines the speed limit. (And this suggestion is coming from someone with a bit of a lead foot.)
In Solvang, the sidewalks are wide. Has anyone noticed how narrow the sidewalks are in South Lake Tahoe that Caltrans has put in? Our sidewalks need to be wider – like Ski Run Boulevard, Linear Park, Heavenly Village.
I didn’t see any paid parking in Solvang. Cars were parked on the main street and some of the businesses had parking in front of their places.
I noticed fewer ingresses and egresses – so as a pedestrian I didn’t feel like I was about to get hit. Could property owners in the basin work together to share driveways?
A big difference between all the towns in the basin and Solvang is how they are laid out. The basin towns are linear. Solvang is on more of a grid, with several streets easy to walk up and down. The vision some have for Tahoe City is for businesses to go off the main drag of Highway 28. This would create a more pedestrian-friendly town like Solvang. If the types of businesses changed near Stateline, that’s what South Lake Tahoe could have, too.
Solvang didn’t have a single bike rack that I saw. I’m pretty sure we locked our bikes illegally.
However, I was not scared to ride my bike on that state highway. I can’t say the same for any of the highways in the basin. I’m scared to be on two wheels on Tahoe’s highways.
I didn’t see any empty buildings in Solvang. This gave the appearance of a thriving economy. The opposite is going on in Tahoe.
How the built environment looks in parts of Lake Tahoe is atrocious. That is what needs to change.
But we also need to change the mindset of how much money we are going to make. The ledgers from the 1980s are history and are not likely to be repeated. It’s time to adjust to that.
It is also time to accept that nearly every place else in the world has tourism as part of its economy. That means the traveler perceives there are more places to visit. That would likely mean fewer repeat visitors to Lake Tahoe.
When I was in England this summer a taxi driver said he likes to ski at Heavenly. But then he said something like, “But there really isn’t anything to do in Tahoe in the winter if you don’t ski.” I paused. Then I agreed with him.
He nailed it. Not only is the Lake Tahoe Basin dependent on tourists, but also we only attract one kind in the winter – the kind who plays in the snow. And last winter we had no snow so we had no visitors.
To me, to stop the downward spiral, these are questions that need to be asked and answered of those who live, work and play in Tahoe, as well as those who own property and businesses:
• What improvements do you want to make to your property and/or business and why aren’t you?
• Are you satisfied with how your property looks?
• Are you willing to join a business district like Ski Run Boulevard in South Lake Tahoe created in order to establish a pot of cash for improvements to your area?
• Would you be willing to donate X number of hours a month/year to help another property owner (residential or commercial) to make improvements to their property so the cost of labor is eliminated or greatly decreased?
• What are you doing to market your business to locals and/or people outside the area? Do you know what the return on investment is? Would it be better to pool your resources – say all the restaurants in an area – to showcase the variety that is available?
• What are you doing to make Lake Tahoe a better place to live, work and play?
• What activities/events need to occur throughout the year to get locals engaged and tourists in beds?
(Note: I’m on the fence about the loop road. No one has proven to me that it is going to be better for the entire South Shore. If we eliminated all traffic through that area, I might be able to have a definitive opinion.)
our problems here in Tahoe is we have been led down the garden path two many times by people with possible good intensions. Now every thing is suspect. We are faced every day with crack pot ideas I think the hole has made every one a little gun shy and with good reason. Please lets get things fixed before we start something new. If state line (casino alley) has a problem let them and Nevada fix it.This is not a SLT problem.
If the speed limit from the city of South Lake Tahoe to stateline is 25 MPH with no lights, and it takes the same amount of time for most people to go that distance on either method, why are those expensive looking, most likely smog elevating traffic signals there?
Well said Kae. Everyone keeps pointing fingers and complaining about that darn hole. There is plenty to work for in the rest of town. Things are working 100% in most parts of town. Ski Run is a great example of how it can work.
Harrison Avenue will soon look nice and hopefully have the same result as Ski Run did.
I love Solvang. Perhaps the way it works too is that there are only 5,000 residents and the town isn’t miles long. You slow down for a short drive through the very nice business district. Doesn’t mean we can’t do it because I think we can.
I think the city’s neighborhood meetings are a great idea…they’re getting out and discussing, learning, sharing. It’s a start. Same format for just business areas would be a good move too, as you said…form BIDs. You can then have special events, tax income, a unified effort to make things right.
And the City Manager of Solvang is a former Public Works Director of South Lake Tahoe. Maybe the City should try to hang onto its employees rather than driving them off.
Probably the best article ever written on here. Shared driveways are the smartest idea, working together to solve problems and design more attractive store fronts or ingresses. Stop blaming, start solving. Thanks Kae.
Great questions and comments. I have one with regards to the Loop Road.
I believe the goal isn’t to move the road, it is to create a better pedestrian/bike environment in the tourist core area. Here is an idea which eliminates the need to realign the road, no residents or businesses would need to be relocated, no eminent domain would be required, more business would be created in the core area, it would have South Lake Tahoe stand out from every other mountain resort area.
Build a pedestrian/bike skyway over the existing Hwy 50 running from the Mont Bleu to Pioneer Trail. An elevated area running from the MontBleu to the Pioneer Trail intersection would be a unique feature for a Mountain Resort area. The 4 lane wide structure could be constructed like a bridge with glass walls and roof so that tourists could see the mountains as well as the Lake thereby giving them the feeling of TAHOE all along the core tourist area. All buildings along the route could be connected at the elevated level to the skyway as well as having ramps to the ground level. The roof would be designed to be opened in the summer yet closed in the winter. One could walk or bike from the Mont Bleu during the winter months in a protected structure and exit at the Gondola or continue down to a connection at the Crescent V shopping center. Think of this idea much like the wide concourses at today’s big airports. Retail shops could be included and leased along the expanse. Special events could be held with no traffic interference. The future “convention center”, or whatever is erected at the Project 3 site, would be designed to take full advantage of this elevated space. The costs for this project would only be the elevated structure and interconnecting walkways. The “loop” road would not be needed. The reconstruction of the existing highway would not be needed. No residences and businesses would be displaced and the costs (both monetary and political) to do so would be avoided.
When you have hotel owners like the Nickolodean with busted out signs that the city won’t make the owner replace – what do you expect. Gang writing on the hotel sign for months at the corner of Carson/50 that Albertossi is supposed to have erased – what do you expect. I’d say the city is not walking the talk.
Hey Kae should I check and see if the our sidewalks are ADA compliant ? LOL
Thank you for your thoughtful opinion piece, Kay. It made me think. So here are some of my questions.
Does Solvang have a five lane interstate running from one end of it to the other? How hard is it for pedestrians to cross the highway there? Here we need our five lanes for possible emergency wildfire evacuation. But for the traveler there is little sense of arrival.
What sort of helpful business change do you envision near Stateline? Remember, every business in this town is a surviver business. So many have come and gone-including Stateline businesses.
Solvang with its grid type town layout establishes a sense of place that both visitors and residents recognize as the town. Here, highway 50 with its lines of cars make visitors feel that there must be some other-they may not know what or where- better place. This destination has historically been Stateline with its “Food, Fun and Fortune”. Now, some of our politicians and business leaders are tagging this area “downtown”. Geographically and psychologically we do not know nor have we ever ever known who or where we really are. We have always been an add-on to Stateline and we are still struggling with this sense of disorientation. Some business owners do not maintain or beautify their properties because they feel no identification with what is not recognizably their town.
The Tahoe Valley Plan is the best example of how people became very constructively engaged for years-jumped on board. A consultant was hired, one million dollars of tax payer’s money was spent; the plan was never completed, is now obsolete and sits on a shelf in some city office gathering dust. After that, what does constructive engagement mean anyhow? And no explanation for the failure to implement
was ever given, either. The Tahoe Valley plan is seldom mentioned anymore.
Finally, historically, I don’t believe many of our elected leaders have liked us very much. They dream of a better sort of people and don’t have a bunch of respect for us. John Upton, for example, dreams of a destination quality museum. This dream and many others may be realized in the Stateline Improvement Dream-or not.
Kay – this is a really really good op/ed piece.
Your indentification of the excessive linearity of towm is spot on, but what is even more spot in is there has been very little planning effort to change that that basic landscape. The few areas that do have a sense of grid now (Ski Run, and some aspects of the Marriot complex) probably dont function as well as they can because town is still visually dominated by strip mall development and perceived issues with parking is still a deterent (and the parking isnt as difficult as people perceive!!. We also have the idea that these spaces are not for locals.
Shared driveways, shared parking, less draconian parking schemes – these are all things that can create a more visually appealing area. Our commercial areas need to appeal to bioth tourists (for obvious reasons) and locals (because at this point we just dont have tourists here many months of the year, and perhaps never will).
I think one of the spatial challenges here is we are not big enough to have non-linear commercial development from the Y all the way to stateline (not that I would want that), so we dont have anything even close to resembling a downtown, and the nodes that we do have are not big enough to be self sustaining and too spread out to really have realistic pedestrian connections that are actually used by most folks.
The Skywalk idea integrating the casino core with South Lake is certainly interesting. And yes, it’s not just cars going through town that makes statline non-pedestrian friendly, it’s the speed and noise. Kudos to Statline Brewery for giving us at least one sidewalk cafe – and curiosuly enough folks use it to indicate that such physical layout appeals to folks even with the noise! Given our summer weather it certainly is interesting how few outdoor eating places we have?
So – how does the city encourage nodal development rather than just tweaking the linear layout – there are going to be winners and loosers and getting agreement is going to be brutal (look at the comment “let Stateline solve their own problem”??). As to how this town visually looks and how few propoerty managers maintain their propoerties is certainly the result of the cash cow mentality – hey it’s Tahoe, I will be rich and I dont have to do anything but buy the property. So many non-local commercial property owners certainly doesnt help. And commercial real estate rental rates are still priced beyond what retailers can bear for any length of time. We also need an environment where more business owners can actually afford their property and maybe we would see better appearence and certainly sharing of costs on certain upkeep (parking, landscaping, etc). This may mean our real estate values still need to adjust – downward I dare say. When you are in an environment when the only one that can afford a building is an investment firm from Chicago or LA – I dont know that you get community.
In conclusion, many of the ideas are great, and when we need to realize is at present Tahoe is way overbuilt, needs to condense, not spread out. How many nodes we will maintain will be the real politiocal challenge as will somehow avoiding what seems to be where we are headed – total domination by Vail – who my crystal ball says will eventually have the Embassy Suites propoerty and the convention center site. This may be good in the short term, but it will spell the doom of successful commercial businesses districts in other parts of town.
Kae accurately describes her observations about Solvang as not comparing apples to apples. I’ve visited Solvang many times and the difference in topography and climate alone make it a poor comparison. The town also has a Scandinavian theme and matching architecture. We have a mish-mash of architectural styles from crappy old motels to elegant alpine style high-end lodging. There is no continuity. There is no sense of “place” with the exception of the Heavenly Village area with its’ wide sidewalks and mountain elegant architecture.
Along with the deplorable state of such a large number of our structures, our entire 60’s vintage transit system is keeping us mired in the mediocrity of being a second rate resort destination located in a world class environment. The debate about how we go about changing that is both necessary and fruitful. As I’ve said before, the entire Loop Road and hole debacle actually presents an opportunity to massively re-invent our town and ourselves from a has-been resort with extremely polarized politics to an example of green, high-tech resort living with a (mostly) consensus driven citizenry. The key of course is to get consensus on how we view our future before any entity will consider the massive investments needed to bring us into the 21st century.
I’ve outlined my ideas for the Loop Road and hole often enough on this site and won’t take up space doing so again. I will however say that simply slowing down traffic, combining driveways and coordinating the signals to avoid all the needless, polluting, noisy, irritating stop-n-go driving won’t address the dilapidated buildings, anemic TOT and our sputtering economy. To do this we need to ‘clean house’ of the old, shabby, non-producing lodging properties….some of which house our population of drug addicts.
In my opinion, the best way to improve both transportation and building infrastructure is to create a large, walkable, bikeable, transit served core area by splitting east-west thru lanes of Hwy. 50 and redeveloping the hole as a center for green lodging, recreation, education, entertainment and conventions. The transit portion of that plan would be largely funded by Federal transportation grants (something even a futuristic skyway would likely not qualify for), and in the process eliminate the old and dilapidated buildings. The funding for the hole area would have to come from public/private partnerships that could see an ROI once the community COMMITTS to a plan and has funding for the transportation upgrades we so desperately need to attract more and repeat visitors
I agree ljames : How many nodes we will maintain will be the real politiocal challenge as will somehow avoiding what seems to be where we are headed – total domination by Vail – who my crystal ball says will eventually have the Embassy Suites propoerty and the convention center site. All they need is the a new City Council behind them!
Well said Tom. The bottom line, we can only become an entertainment and event destination with a loop road. Not having a loop road keeps us at this economy, which is a much smaller economy than when the casinos were roaring. There is no night life, no music festivals, no real arts festivals, and there cannot be. Not unless we have a loop road.
Here is a huge tourist town with a state hwy running through it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leavenworth,_Washington
“The bottom line, we can only become an entertainment and event destination with a loop road. Not having a loop road keeps us at this economy, which is a much smaller economy than when the casinos were roaring. There is no night life, no music festivals, no real arts festivals, and there cannot be. Not unless we have a loop road.”
am I missing something? if there is some obvious connection, I missed it?
Also has there been consensus that “entertainment and events” is what will make Tahoe more economically viable? This approach seems to use the same general strategy that got us over-relied on gaming – gaming could take place anywhere or elsewhere, and now it does. How about an emphasis on what is truly unique about Tahoe? It seems like we have totally forgotten that what Tahoe offers that is truly unique is not man-made, and it’s already here. But it does require getting out of your car. Maybe a loop road will offer some opportunities that outweigh the negative impacts, but I think there are a lot of things that should be on the plate first. Otherwise it seems we are just aiming for a loop road so we can have folks endlessly circle past our dilapidated infrastructure?
There seems to be a lot of things that need changing before demand suggests re-aligning the highway. It’s rather ironic, I think at this point traffic congestion would actually be a good thing – at least it would suggest visitation is strong. I think the folks that feel traffic through stateline is an issue havent driven through it much since the late 80s!?
Took a road trip through Tahoe City yesterday. Even though the linear nature of the town and highway through it feels somewhat tight and constricted, we barely saw a single garish sign along the commercial strip. They were all fairly subtle and mostly well designed, but still readable. Contrast that with the garish, oversized, brightly lit motel monstrosities on much of Lake Tahoe Boulevard.
There have been some signage improvements in SLT, but still minor and hardly noticeable over the past few years. That is still the first order of business in starting to improve the aesthetics here.
In addition, Tahoe City had well placed trees lining the sidewalks, with Fall colors in bold evidence. That is nicely done along the front of the Marriott in South Lake, but missing in many other areas.
Start small while working on the vision.
A 55 MPH speed limit in front of city hall is one of a kind.
Carson City has a major highway going through it’s core:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_City,_Nevada
There are so many cities with highways going through them, more than ones that bypass them; which are usually only done when you want to keep your speed up and bypass a town, maybe that’s what they want? people to fly by Stateline, and come to South Lake Tahoe? lol
Some of the local residence do not want to live in a town that is a major tourist destination. We like the way it is a little laid back and quiet. If we wanted that we would move to Vegas. The only people who want a bigger Tahoe with the hustle and noise are the merchants. You dont know what you have till its gone. I like it just the way it is every attempt to make it into some thing that it is not ends up a disaster.
Care,
Thanks for the link to Leavenworth, WA. I just spent an half an hour reading about it and following links to their Chamber, Map Quest, etc. Someday I would like to go there for their Oktoberfest. Interesting that you would choose it as a comparison to Hwy 50 through SLT, (never mind Carson City). Here is where that comparison falls short:
* Hwy. 2 through Leavenworth is a 2 lane hwy…not 4 (or5) like ours.
*All those photographs of the quaint Bavarian style architecture that defines the towns’ character are not on Hwy. 2 but on Front St. which is adjacent to Hwy 2.
* 95%+of the business addresses listed are on Front or Commercial streets.
* Their population is less than 2000 and the entire town is 1/2 square mile.
Perhaps even more interesting is this little bit about the towns’ history:
“A small timber community, it became the headquarters of the Great North Railroad in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in the 1920s, greatly affecting Leavenworth’s economy.The city struggled until 1962, when the Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) Committee was formed to transform the city into a mock Bavarian village to revitalize its economy. Owen and Pauline Watson, owners of a business on Front Street, formed the committee after visiting Solvang, California in 1958 and thought it was an excellent idea for Leavenworth.”
Does that scenario sound familiar? The towns’ main economic driver is relocated (think Indian Casinos), the town suffers for 40 years (can we afford to wait that long?) and ultimately realized it needs to reinvent itself (inspired by Solvang..the example in this article).
So it took a major effort to organize, form a plan, find consensus and create an inviting, transit served town center that is located OFF THE MAIN HWY.
I rest my case..
Interesting that Leavenworth researched and got the idea from Solvang!