To the community,

Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce thanks the Tahoe Regional Young Professionals for partnering on a great networking event this past Thursday.

Tahoe Chamber also thanks our gracious host Tahoe Beach Retreat for providing a beautiful venue for the evening in addition to delicious food and drinks. The event brought together approximately 100 young professionals and chamber members for a fun evening of relationship building.

Thank you to all who came out to support a great community event.

Shannon Earley, Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce

By Fran Clader

Traffic collisions are the No. 1 killer of teenagers in the United States, ending more young lives every day than cancer, homicide, and suicide combined. To bring awareness of the dangers facing young people when they drive, the California Highway Patrol will participate in National Teen Safe Driver Week, Oct. 18-24.

“Among all drivers, teenagers are at the greatest risk for a collision and are more prone to distraction than any other age demographic,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. “A national study from the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety has shown that teenagers are distracted almost a quarter of the time they are behind the wheel.”

In 2013, the California Department of Motor Vehicles reported that California had 864,974 licensed drivers aged 15-19. The CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System showed that more than 19,000 of them were involved in fatal or injury collisions. The teenage driver was at fault in 12,622, or 66 percent, of those collisions. This is a slight improvement from 2012, when more than 20,000 California drivers age 15-19 were involved in fatal or injury collisions, in which 13,424, or 67 percent, were at fault.

“Although national data shows a decline in the number of young drivers involved in vehicle crashes over recent years, they are still at greater risk than any other age group. The CHP will always be dedicated to promoting safe habits for California’s young drivers,” Farrow said.

The CHP has its own teen driver programs and works with the California Office of Traffic Safety and Impact Teen Drivers to educate young drivers about the dangers and responsibilities behind the wheel.

Impact Teen Drivers is a non-profit program focused on saving teen lives through education.

“Parents are the strongest influence on their teens’ driving attitudes and behaviors. By the time they drive, your children have been watching, listening, and learning from everything you have been doing behind the wheel for the past 15.5 years. As a parent, when you model safe driving behaviors, you could save your child’s life,” Kelly Browning, executive director of Impact Teen Drivers, said.

Every 15 Minutes is a two-day CHP program focusing on high school juniors and seniors. It challenges them to think about drinking, driving, personal safety, the responsibility of making mature decisions, and the impact their decisions have on family, friends, and others.

Another CHP program is Start Smart, a two-hour class for teen drivers and their parents/guardians. Start Smart educates teenagers and parents about the responsibilities they face and teaches them how to stay safe on the road. Classes are free and usually hosted at a local CHP office.

The mission of the California Highway Patrol is to provide the highest level of safety, service, and security to the people of California.

Fran Clader works for the California Highway Patrol.

To the community,

The mission of Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority is to market the South Shore of Lake Tahoe as a world-class, year-round resort destination. Their main focus is the well-being and economic development of the South Shore community. In addition to this major goal, the folks at LTVA also wanted to have an impact on the lives of those in the community who are in need of an act of kindness. So on Sept. 28, LTVA hosted an Adopt A Day of Nourishment at St. Theresa Church Grace Hall.

“We appreciate the opportunity to serve in our community and to be a part of something that matters,” wrote Mike Frye.

He and his fellow LTVA team members Ann Sutterfield, Georgette Hartley, Sue Baron and Joanne Lilly showed up at their Bread & Broth AAD sponsorship dinner ready to jump in and serve their community. This energetic group worked alongside the Bread & Broth volunteers for the three hours needed for the dinner’s setup, serving and cleanup. Hartley even stayed and mopped the kitchen floor.

Thank you to the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority for providing all of the funds needed to provide the 128 meals served and the caring members of their sponsor crew. They were a fun group and their smiles and kindness helped make each of our dinner guest’s day a little better. B&B commends LTVA for the great job they are doing to help the Lake Tahoe South Shore Community and their concern for those in need.

Carol Gerard, Bread & Broth

To the community,

John Runnels, Mile Wallace, three good people who shall remain nameless at this time, City Councilperson JoAnn Conner and now me, have, or have had, a target securely affixed to their back side.

I received an email that stated, “Angie harassed, abused and yelled at a city employee and must be banned- the employees need to be protected from her.”This is a lie. Never happened. Not even close, but it sounds suspiciously close to the lies being said and written about JoAnn Conner. Close as well to what has been reported about every other person walking around with that aforementioned “target”.

In my case, I never raised my voice, abused or harassed anybody at the city. I did however use a bad word while discussing the city’s new fee schedule, which raised the cost of a sign permit from $145 to a whopping $878. This is what was said, verbatim, “The city promised to readdress the permit fee in September, now you are saying that the city has decided to adopt the TRPA’s sign ordinance instead? Where did that come from? It would be a huge mistake to throw away our sign ordinance, please don’t do that, the businesses of South Lake Tahoe will be so ______ ( pseudonym for screwed).”

There you have it, one bad word, which I would apologize for, to the person I said it to, but I am banned from the city. Makes me wonder just how many ridiculous lies were generated to discredit JoAnn Conner?

I will not apologize for speaking the truth or speaking out for my customers. Nor should JoAnn Conner apologize for standing up on behalf of the small businesses in our community. She has done a lot of good work for us and, by the way, was voted into office fair and square because she does speaks up. Look, we know how she is going to vote and represent us, she is honest and forthcoming. She is also accessible, something extremely important in a councilperson. In fact, she’s the only council member that called me regarding the city’s new fee schedule, after my letter, after the press letter and after my call to the city attorney. Let me say this again, Councilperson JoAnn Conner read my letter, responded and listened — thank you JoAnn — when no one else did.

JoAnn Conner is an asset to this council and this community, and, I believe the wrong person is being censured.

Angela Olson, Meyers

To the community,

Hundreds of writers, creators and community members attended the inaugural WordWave literary festival at Valhalla Oct. 9-11. This event exceeded our expectations and confirmed that South Lake Tahoe is a great place for cultural events. From the Steampunk Ball with Garth Stein to the Pam Houston keynote and the one-act play competition performance, people were inspired. The Pam Shaw-Miller Maker’s Station was a hit, as were the offerings for students. Workshops attendees packed the Grand Hall and the Grand Lawn to hone their craft. It was an amazing weekend.

The support we received for this event was phenomenal. We’d like to thank our sponsors for their generosity: Valhalla Tahoe, Tahoe South, Soroptimist International of Tahoe Sierra, Rotary Club of South Lake Tahoe, Folio Books, Charter Advertising, Michael and Ronda Schaer, Len and Cyndy Carlson and the South Lake Tahoe Friends of the Library. And a special thanks goes to David Brock for his wonderful WordWave soirée.

We’d like to thank the following businesses for their donations: Blue Angel Cafe & Catering Company, Penguin Random House, Madrona Vineyards, Revolution Wines, Lakeside Beverages, Monk’s Cellar, Lakeside Casino, Farm Table, Tallac Cookie Company, Tacos Por Favor, Face in a Book, Lake Tahoe News, Rude Brothers Bagels, Beach Retreat & Lodge, Camp Richardson and last, but certainly not least, Lauren Lindley Photography, which made the Steampunk Ball much more than a party.

This event would not have happened without our volunteers, who donated their time and energy into pulling together a great festival, including Ginger Nicolay-Davis, Diana Evans and the cast, crew and directors of the winning one-act plays; Bruce Rettig, Suzanne Roberts, Lee and Margaret Vestal, Ronda Schaer, the staff and volunteers at Valhalla and a special thanks to Cyndy Brown-Carlson and Denise Haerr, without whom it would not have been possible.

Keep writing and making art – it matters that you do!

Kim Wyatt, Bona Fide Books
Jennifer Basye Sander, Write by the Lake

By Joe Mathews

Fresno is one of the poorest metro areas in the United States. So why do people keep moving there?

The short answer: Fresno is in California. And there is something very different about our state’s poor cities.

Joe Mathews

In other parts of America, people have abandoned cities labeled poor—because of high poverty rates and low rates of education among residents—in big numbers. Detroit’s population fell from 1 million in 1995 to 688,000 today. Cleveland’s population dropped from 500,000 in 1999 to less than 390,000 today. I cut my teeth as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun, and my main job was watching people flee; Charm City’s population, once more than 900,000, is down to 620,000 today.

But in California, our poor cities are magnets, drawing new people and maintaining strong population growth. Fresno, our poorest large city, had 392,000 people in 1995 and 520,000 now. Stockton and San Bernardino grew in population even as they slid into bankruptcy. The dynamic extends beyond cities to rural places; California’s poorest counties, Imperial and Tulare, have both doubled their populations since 1978.

This growth is particularly noteworthy given the slower gains in the state’s population in the past two decades. The conservative Manhattan Institute marveled that to examine various city populations, “one would never guess that it was San Bernardino and Stockton, not Akron and Cincinnati, that recently went bankrupt.”

The success of these underappreciated cities may surprise Californians, who hear constantly that the people leaving California are disproportionately poor. The two contrasting narratives around poverty—California as a place that the poor are fleeing, and California as a place with the highest percentage of poor people of any state in the country—may further confound. Is California attracting the poor, or repelling them?

The answer, of course, is both.

Poor people are leaving our expensive, crowded coastal counties in search of places where they can improve their standard of living. The basketcase known as Los Angeles County—with its perfect storm of high poverty, high housing prices, and lagging job growth—has become particularly adept at driving people away. While many people leave the state entirely, many head, at least at first, to our inland cities.

There they are joined by migrants, some of them doing seasonal labor on farms, and by Californians from smaller, rural communities. There are many reasons to stick it out in some part of California. Our universities are still good and our community colleges provide good value. If you’re poor, California offers services that are more generous than those of many other states. California’s poor cities also offer another amenity: warm weather. Research shows that warm January weather is among the most reliable predictors of urban growth.

The escape-valve role that these cities play hasn’t won them much respect. The leaders of this supposedly progressive state too often see poor people—and the places where they live—more as burdens than potential assets. Listen to Sacramento Democrats lament the 12 million people on MediCal as a budget burden, instead of celebrating this expansion of health coverage and doing more to provide timely, high-quality health care.

This is a very old fear in California: that we are being over-run by the poor. Hollywood famously sabotaged Upton Sinclair’s 1934 gubernatorial campaign with phony movie reel ads of “poor people” declaring they were heading to California if Sinclair won and established cash payments for the needy. We are overdue for an attitude shift, as median income is down in California from its 2007 peak.

We should start by treasuring our growing poor cities. Municipalities all over the country are all chasing the same narrow swath of creative college-educated hipsters with tech skills. Might it be more advantageous, in this age of American inequality, for a state to champion cities that attract poor people, and to figure out ways for those cities to do better by their residents?

In California, a focus on poor people and poor places feels like an imperative. Many of our wealthiest places are rapidly aging; these growing poor cities are almost all younger than the state average. And by measures of wellbeing, their poor residents are just as happy as their wealthier counterparts.

You may think it’s odd to focus efforts on attracting, retaining, and nurturing the less fortunate, but I can think of at least one nation that did pretty well by positioning itself as a mecca for the poor. Perhaps someone could erect copies of the Statue of Liberty along Highway 99 outside Fresno, alongside signs with the famous sonnet of Emma Lazarus, transported from New York Harbor to a new California context:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

Joe Mathews is California and innovation editor for Zócalo Public Square, for which he writes the Connecting California column.

To the community,

The chain saw is coming yet again to my neighborhood. The first time it was cleanup following the Angora Fire. Then it was fuel reduction by the fire department of assorted parcels and residences. Then it was fuel reduction by the USFS of national forest land. Some trees that had survived the fire did not survive the USFS. More recently the California Tahoe Conservancy cut trees on scattered lots they own. Now Liberty Utilities is unmercifully removing out what they call hazardous trees out of front yards that are cherished aspens and conifers.

Fallen Leaf Lake after work by the U.S. Forest Service. Photo/Liana Zambresky

It seems standards have changed. Trees that were tolerated in the past are not tolerated anymore. If a tree leans a little, it is cut. If it is damaged a little, that’s the end of it. If it is beautiful and healthy, but a little too close to the power line, it’s history. I know plenty of people who are damaged and lean a little, but they are tolerated. Do we have to be so unforgiving with trees?

I moved to Tahoe years ago because I was attracted to the ruggedness of the area, the deep forests, the diverse wildlife, the howling winters, the roaring mountain streams, the sparkling lakes and the magnificent, snowy mountains. I liked the bumpy, narrow roads and the closeness of the community.

It’s not the same anymore. Big money has moved in. The Tahoe area is feeling the heavy hand of man like never before. A walk in unspoiled woods can hardly be found. I used to walk several times each week in the meadows and woods at Fallen Leaf Lake. I would delight in seeing a pileated woodpecker, a western tanager or a bear with cubs. However, it breaks my heart to go there now and see the forest decimated by USFS thinning. I don’t want our forests ruined beyond recognition just because they might someday burn. Nor do I want the beauty of our neighborhoods diminished by excessive standards set by Liberty Utilities.

In the years that I have been here, there have been very few power outages. One was caused by a car driving into a power pole and breaking it. Another by a problem at a power station in Carson City. I can’t even recall one that was caused by a falling tree.

We have become a society that looks over its shoulder for every little thing that could go wrong. We have homeowners insurance because something might happen to our house. We have auto insurance because we might get into an accident. We have life insurance because we might die suddenly. We have health insurance because we might get sick. We have an umbrella policy because these other insurances might not be enough. We might get an earthquake. We might get a flood. A meteor might fall out of the sky…. We have become such a fearful society.

This fear, frenzied in my opinion, has led to uncompromising removal of trees at Tahoe. We need to get a grip on our attitudes, stand back and take a look at the big picture. Life is hazardous. There’s no question about it. We can’t cover every contingency. I recently flew to Minnesota. What really struck me on the flight is that once away from the Sierra, there were no more trees for thousands of miles. This helped me to see that Lake Tahoe trees are special. They are to be cherished and protected. There should be a place for good judgement. Rules should allow for flexibility and tolerance of special situations without the threat of a lawsuit. Our forests and urban trees need to be managed wisely with care. Once cut, a tree is gone. It takes 100 years to replace a 100 year old tree. What will the world be like by then?

Liana Zambresky, South Lake Tahoe

By Margot Mifflin, New York Times

My mother taught me many things, including, in the end, how to die.

Her death went well, I told the few friends who I knew would understand my meaning: She was not in pain, she was conscious until the day before she died, she was at home, my sister and I were with her. It was a peak experience, revelatory and meaningful — something I wouldn’t have traded for anything — except her life.

No one tells you how discreetly death can make its catch, or how languorously. It rolls in like a low wave: It’s moving, and it’s not; she’s there, afloat, and she’s not; it simultaneously sluices through her and tugs her in its tide for hours, until she’s silently dispelled by its force.

I understand, now, why death has so often been personified in art — it’s maddeningly anonymous. Sylvia Plath’s Death is two people: the one who never looks up, and the one who smiles and smokes. But her suitors are too sexy and menacing to represent the remote, impassive, mundane death I witnessed. Jacques Brel’s Death is a spinster, a princess and a witch — all impossible: the experience of death could never be so monumentally solitary with this crowd of enablers on the sidelines.

Read the whole story

By Dianne Feinstein

In 1997, Lake Tahoe hosted President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

The presidential forum they held may not sound like much — meetings with local leaders, grand speeches and the like. But in fact that visit transformed the future of Lake Tahoe.

Dianne Feinstein

The presidential forum signaled the end of decades of neglect and put the Tahoe basin on a path to recovery. Since, each year we’ve held a summit to bring together key local, state and federal stakeholders — and a great partnership has formed.

I can say, without a doubt, that the work is paying off. In fact, I left the 19th annual summit, hosted in August by Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, feeling more optimistic than ever about the future of Lake Tahoe.

In July 1997, we faced a steep climb. Conservation and restoration efforts were fragmented and uncoordinated, with a host of competing priorities. Now, nearly two decades later, the pieces of the puzzle are sliding into place.

More so than other years, I left the summit last month confident that we can save this magnificent lake.

The No. 1 source of my optimism is the exceptional team we have in place, a true public-private partnership that is thriving and seeing real results. The diverse set of stakeholders has coalesced over the decades into something very special, sophisticated and successful.

It’s a bi-state team that includes federal, state and local officials; businessmen and women; lake scientists; fire chiefs; Forest Service officials; planners; advocates and local residents.

The team includes countless individuals who have dedicated so much time and energy to keeping Tahoe Blue; people like: Govs. Jerry Brown and Brian Sandoval, who continue a great tradition of their predecessors — throughout the years governors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Gibbons and Kenny Guinn have all taken part; John Laird of the California Resources Agency and Leo Drozdoff of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; Patrick Wright, who leads the California Tahoe Conservancy; Joanne Marchetta of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency; Sudeep Chandra, who is an expert on invasive species at the UNR, and Geoff Schladow, of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center and is an expert on lake quality at the UC Davis — their expertise is critical to protect the lake; Amy Berry, who helps raise restoration funds from the private sector through the Tahoe Fund; supervisors from El Dorado and Placer counties in California and from Washoe and Douglas counties in Nevada; and so many gifted others.

In a time of budget cutbacks and lowered expectations, it’s important to realize just how much this bipartisan team has been able to achieve to help Lake Tahoe.

In 2000, I authored the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, which was cosponsored by my California and Nevada colleagues, Sens. Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid and Richard Bryan. This bill kicked off a 10-year cleanup effort, injecting $300 million in federal funds that eventually funded more than 600 environmental projects.

Since then, local, state and federal governments — with a lot of help from the private sector — have invested more than $1.8 billion into Lake Tahoe’s future. California has invested $693 million since the 1997 summit. Nevada has committed $118 million, plus an additional $300 million from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, which includes land sales. The federal government’s total is at $593.4 million. Local governments have put in $77.1 million. And the private sector has committed $328.3 million.

I can’t underscore enough the importance of the private sector in all this. Their efforts really show that a public-private partnership can work.

In fact, right before this year’s summit, I attended the Tahoe Fund dinner on the Nevada side of the lake, and the year before on the California side. And the Fund has raised more than $2.5 million over these two years.

This money has supported environmental improvement projects and others such as the Take Care initiative, which is helping to build a new culture of care taking in the region.

The $1.8 billion, which has been used wisely the on the ground, is responsible for a lengthy list of accomplishments.

Years ago, Lake Tahoe was so clear you could see more than 100 feet down. By 1997, however, runoff had reduced that famed clarity to just 64 feet. Today, thanks to a lot of hard work — as well as the drought, which has lowered the lake by 3 feet — we’ve increased water clarity to nearly 78 feet. The highways around the lake are being transformed so that grit and dirt, which would otherwise run into the lake, are being diverted into catch basins. To date, we’ve improved erosion control measures on more than 700 miles of roadway.

The team has improved more than 16,000 acres of wildlife habitat, including more than 1,000 acres of sensitive wetlands that filter polluted runoff before it enters the lake. Places like Upper Truckee River, Angora Creek, Trout Creek and Blackwood Creek have all benefitted from these projects.

We’ve added 2,770 feet of shoreline for public use, improving local quality of life and helping to transform the local economy, as seen in South Lake Tahoe and Commons Beach in Tahoe City.

We’ve created or improved 143 miles of bike and pedestrian routes. Projects like the Stateline to Stateline Bikeway are seeing thousands of users, and work continues to build a fully-developed trail system around Tahoe.

A comprehensive aquatic invasive species inspection system has been put in place to prevent species like the quagga mussel or Asian clam from entering and devastating the ecosystem.

And we’re protecting the Tahoe basin from the threat of wildfire by clearing land of the small trees and undergrowth that fuel fires. To date, we’ve cleared nearly 60,000 acres of land, nearly twice the area of San Francisco.

For all the great work the team has achieved, there’s still a lot more work to do.

This year, an additional bill — the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act of 2015 — is being carried by Sen. Heller, and Sens. Boxer, Reid and myself are cosponsors.

In order to build on all the work we’ve accomplished, we need to recommit the federal government to saving Lake Tahoe.

The threats facing the lake — erosion, invasive species, wildfires and climate change — are very real, and they aren’t going away anytime soon. We need to confront these challenges head-on and solidify our gains.

Our bill would authorize $415 million over 10 years, with the following primary goals: Further reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire; fund the environmental improvement program to complete additional environmental restoration projects; enhance the lake’s storm water management, critical to water clarity; and increase the number of watercraft inspections to combat invasive species.

Simply put, I can’t think of a natural wonder more deserving of protection for future generations than Lake Tahoe.

Next year, as he approaches his well-deserved retirement, Sen. Reid will host his last Tahoe Summit.

Like other years, he’ll take stock of the improved roadways, the watercraft inspection stations and all the new recreation options.

I believe we’ll also be able to show him the impressive strength of the public-private partnership we launched over 18 years ago. Alongside the lake, it’s a team that I know will endure.

Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is the senior senator for California. 

By Kelly Shanahan

Sometimes it takes an earthquake to wake you up. My personal earthquake jolted me on Nov. 14, 2013, when I was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. My carefully constructed world came crumbling down; I could no longer perform surgery, the core of my life as an ob-gyn; the plans for eventually retiring and traveling blew away like dust in the wind; and, most devastating, there loomed the real possibility I would not live to see my daughter, the light of my life, graduate from high school.

Kelly Shanahan

Metastatic breast cancer means that rogue cancer cells escape the breast and take up residence elsewhere in the body. There is no cure and less than a quarter of those diagnosed live five years. No one dies from early stage cancer, yet less than 7 percent of cancer research dollars is devoted to metastatic research. That 7 percent figure covers all types of advanced cancer. In October, everywhere you look there is pink, but little if any of those pink ribbon products do anything to actually find a cure for a disease that kills 40,000 American women and men every year — 108 wives, mothers, sisters, brothers, fathers, and, yes, doctors every single day.

I’ve never been average and I plan to beat the statistical average life expectancy after a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, because 32 months just isn’t long enough to accomplish everything I am meant to do. I haven’t finished my job as a mom or a wife. I am passionate about bringing attention to and increasing funding for metastatic breast cancer research.

The latter is why I’m writing this in LAX, on my way to Washington, D.C., to lie down in front of the Capitol to draw attention to metastatic breast cancer. MET-UP is an organization founded by fellow “lifers”, women (and men) like me who are living with metastatic breast cancer, knowing that unless more is done, we will die long before we should. Modeled on ACT UP, the activist movement born of the AIDs crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s, this group is designed to shake things up and demand action. Our first action is a “die-in” on Oct. 13, Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, the one day out of 31 devoted to the only breast cancer that actually kills.

I won’t just be lying on the Capitol lawn: I’ll also be meeting with Sen. Barbara Boxer’s staff to discuss what can be done to further research into metastatic cancers. Federal funding for cancer research has been cut, and even if further money cannot be obtained, redistribution of current cancer research dollars to metastatic research can make a huge difference. The SEER database, run by the National Cancer Institute, collects information on cancer diagnosis in the U.S., but SEER does not gather data on conversion from early stage to metastatic cancer. Without such basic information, it is impossible to accurately gauge the extent of metastatic disease or know whether current treatments improve life expectancy. Ideally, with more information and more research, one day there will be a cure for the only breast cancer that kills, metastatic breast cancer.

When the earthquake strikes, the survival instinct kicks in. You will claw your way out of the rubble to see the light of another day. You will kiss your family goodbye and fly 2,500 miles across the country to meet with others who have experienced the same upheaval in their lives. You will join hands and lie down to honor the 40,000 who have died every year over the past 30 years, a number that has not decreased despite all the awareness and the pink. You will do this in front of the Capitol, to demand action because those of us living with metastatic disease deserve more; we deserve the chance to see another sunrise, to cheer at a graduation, cry at a wedding, and maybe even hold a grandchild’s hand. On Oct. 13 be aware that we are, quite literally, dying for a cure.

Kelly Shanahan is a 21-year resident of South Lake Tahoe and the owner of Emerald Bay Center for Women’s Health. She has been living with metastatic breast cancer for nearly two years. A mom, a wife, an active member of our community, she continues to work part time as a gynecologist.