The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Very well reasoned and said, Scott. My recollection is that City's Council promise to keep TC out of Emerald Park was discussed at a council meeting, in maybe '93-94 and there should be minutes of that meeting or meetings. It was definitely discussed at multiple Parks & Rec Commission meetings. I believe what Council said was there could be no use of Emerald Park for tc unless an alternate access route (other than Pamela Lane) to the park was developed. If use of Emerald Park is that critical to TC, let them come up with the million plus bucks needed to install a new RR crossing on the S. side of the hotel.

To those who wonder what the big deal is, there's a huge difference between 3 or 4 trains a day going through, that take maybe a minute each to pass, and the kind of traffic jam and gridlock that accompanies most TC events. How would the Pamela Lane critcs like to be trapped in or out of THEIR neighborhoods several times a week for 10 weeks in the summer ?? Not to mention the general compatibility of parade-volume traffic coming in and out of a residential neighborhood. And, yes, I did used to live on Pamela Lane- had no trouble adapting to the trains but still hate the TC gridlock, wherever I encounter it.

As to Scott's bigger picture, I agree completely that the StmBt economy has grown diverified and strong enough that, even without a property tax, the City does not need events on the scale of TC (i.e. 4 day invasions of hordes of SUVs for 2-3 months/summer) to continue providing the level of services and amenities that both old and new residents have come to expect. When ALL the costs of TC are factored in (including demand on City services), is the social disruption of an otherwise extremely enjoyable place to live really worth it? By the way, I do not believe this is a class warfare arguemnt; it's more a matter of scale. If 13,000 skiers a day all drove their SUV's to Howelson Hill twice a day, the gridlock would be just as annoying. And I'll repeat my observation that I've had friends and family who had the misfortune to come to town during big TC weeks who universally said “What the *&#! - never again”. I wonder how many of those folks, who are more than willing to spread some of their money around, are going elsewhere just because of TC?