{"id":536,"date":"2022-05-15T14:38:11","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T21:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=536"},"modified":"2022-05-15T17:46:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T00:46:36","slug":"supervisor-candidate-wants-to-end-tourist-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/05\/15\/supervisor-candidate-wants-to-end-tourist-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Supervisor Candidate Wants to End “Tourist Economy”"},"content":{"rendered":"
[Jeffrey Spencer, Candidate El Dorado County District 5 supervisor]<\/pre>\n
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (May 15, 2022) \u2014 The powers in charge over the last 10 years have promoted only tourism. They have spent millions of our tax dollars on marketing. The Chamber, the history of Council members, TRPA and LTVA all bought into the tourist economy. They just budgeted more than $600 thousand of TOT for marketing instead of our crumbling roads! And now they are telling you these leaders are going to solve this problem – that they created!<\/p>\n
Our economy is not supporting the many demands for services. Low wages and a lack of tax revenue from diverse sources is bankrupting the County. Many supposed proponents for local business claim we need more; more tourism to make money. We need better, not more. What we have is more trash, more traffic, more overcrowding and more deplorable visitor behavior.<\/p>\n
In 2004 the TRPA voted to allow vacation rentals without making them obtain Tourist Accommodation Unit (TAU) permits that are required by all others in the lodging industry. TAUs do not apply to the VHR industry, thereby allowing many more accommodations. Thousands more people come to Tahoe beyond the artificial limiting threshold of TAUs. The impacts are evident.<\/p>\n
According to TTD, more than 50 million vehicle trips are made into, out of, and within the Basin annually. The environment is suffering from too many people impacting the area. Traffic is destroying our roads faster than we can repair them. When the exodus of traffic can take eight hours to clear, it is a direct indicator our infrastructure, and thus the environment, are beyond capacity. The amount of traffic being experienced is a result of too many people in the area. Having thousands of vehicles idling in traffic is not meeting environmental thresholds set by local and regional agencies. The trash being left behind impacts our sensitive environment \u2013 the very thing that attracts the tourists. From cigarette butts to dirty diapers, all being tossed on our beaches and roadways, they eventually make their way to the beauty of the lake.<\/p>\n
The governmental agencies and business proponents in the Lake Tahoe basin seem to have ignored the obvious impacts of traffic, overtourism and the inherent dangers of overcrowding, all in the name of the economy. Tourism\u2019s potential benefits are clear. Our local economy has depended primarily on tourism for the past 10 years. However, the mistake is to think that it can only bring good. The local Chambers of Commerce, like many others, focuses almost exclusively on growth, with little or no concern for the impacts. A \u201csuccessful\u201d year in tourism is generally considered to be one in which numbers have increased substantially. It has crossed a threshold: tourism now demonstrably creates more problems than benefits.<\/p>\n
There is a finite capacity of the Tahoe basin. Measures include knowing that and keeping the capacity in limits, yet we regularly exceed that capacity. Tahoe is much like a cereal bowl. If you don\u2019t stop pouring in more milk, you make a huge mess!<\/p>\n
Do you really think the people in charge over the last 10+ years have the ability, much less the will, to now find a solution?<\/p>\n
What would I do? At a minimum we need at least a 5-year moratorium on TOT spending for marketing. That money needs to go to roads and other impact mitigation. We need to work with all the basin partners to establish a capacity limit and how to manage that capacity. TRPA needs to adhere to its charter in limiting crowding through TAU permits. And we need a strong evacuation plan that saves lives by sending tourists home before the mandatory order to evacuate our residents.<\/p>\n
— From Website —<\/h4>\n
“34 years experience in managing growth in urban communities … He is a nationally recognized expert in urban planning”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What would I do? At a minimum we need at least a 5-year moratorium on TOT spending for marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":538,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions\/538"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}