Letter: We are a community 1st, we just live in a tourist town (Opinion)
Dear Editor:
I just saw an interesting sign on a house on Pioneer Trail.
BLM MATTERS
SILENCE=VIOLENCE
That may work up here but in the cities they should really have:
BLM MATTERS
VIOLENCE =COMPLIANCE
We never really had any divisive problems until people brought it up here. I applaud what the local BLM protesters have done.
They have shown the country how to have a peaceful gathering to get your thoughts and ideas across. We have always had problems but they were always about money and tourists. There was never any separation or segregation of anyone (unless you were a snowboarder) and if there was it was because you did not want to work.
We worked through the skier vs. snowboarder and we now all get along. You worked to ski and you skied to live. Only in the last few years have we become a big city with all the big city problems.
I understand we need to move forward but the more we try and bring the city to us the more we will become them. People came here to escape the city and play without worries or cares. It was a time to forget the world’s problems and just enjoy “America’s Playground” with everyone.
We were never divisive, we never hurt anyone, except ourselves with drinking, dancing and drugs. We had a great family community back then and it saddens me to see everything we built go the way of big cities. Quite a few of the people that helped build this community are leaving us all to soon. Either through moving on out of Tahoe or moving on up to Heaven.
If we continue to try and make us just another big city with cell towers, chain stores, motels and hotels in our neighborhoods and all the trappings of the big city, that is what we will become, another city that happens to be surrounded by mountains and a lake rather than a community surrounded by the most beautiful lake and mountains in the world.
I do not want to get rid of what we currently have, just limit the big cities encroachment in our neighborhoods. If you really want to get phone service at your house, get a landline. We have always had vacation rentals in Tahoe where families used to come up for a week at a time and enjoyed our area. They also did it without stuffing 20 people into a three bedroom house. Get the bachelor and bachelorette parties back at the clubs.
Yes, we need the tourists for the tax base but we also need the locals who have become residents to survive. Perhaps this is a time to reflect and get back to our core values and remember we are a community first, where everyone is equal, we just happen to live in a tourist town.
Kenny Curtzwiler, South Lake Tahoe
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