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Show Park Record Thursday, January 7, 1988 Page A9 The horizon gazer he can see for Myles and miles by IlfclDI WEST Record staff writer When Myles Rademan roared onto the scene at city hall very nearly one year ago, he created quite a stir. The position had been vacant for months, but the city had finally final-ly hired a new planning director. He would oversee zoning... yawn, he would be in charge of... snooze, permit processing in short he would direct the city's far from brisk post-boom development. But Rademan had ideas of his own. He realized Park City needed need-ed a "sense of things happening" in its downtown. Bustling shoppers, shop-pers, hoardes of strolling apres skiers stopping to chat or buy a meal or a drink, the psychology only a crowd can create that was what Main Street needed. He dug up money, he corralled staff, he charmed decisionmakers, decision-makers, and he began to renovate downtown. Parks and plazas sprang from once vacant lots, a green and welcoming entryway appeared where days before there had only been dirt and rocks. Weeds were pulled, flowers planted, and Main Street began to look as Rademan envisioned it-desirable. it-desirable. It is only Step A in a series of steps, but all are geared to improve im-prove what is already here. More tourism and a multi-dimensional economic base they are not new ideas, but Rademan insists on putting them into action. He rocks almost continuously back and forth in his easy chair as he speaks. It is a chair covered with a patterned and colorful blanket which softens an otherwise other-wise stark city office. The white walls are smattered with pictures of Park City and Crested Butte, Colorado, where Rademan worked work-ed 15 years before coming here. A funky flamingo clock a gift from his wife of 20 years, Changing Chang-ing Hands store owner, Joy Barrett Bar-rett sits on the window sill. The touches reflect his individualism, in-dividualism, his refusal to become an "efficient, but not effective" ef-fective" bureaucrat. The constant motion, too, is telling. Rademan's dark eyes flash and he smiles often as he talks. The man simply has too much energy and enthusiasm en-thusiasm to sit still. With characteristic insight, he tries to set the stage, provide peppective on the forces, which molded him. It started in Perm- '' sylvania, his birthplace. "Growing up in Philadelphiathere's certainly a sense of history," he begins. "If -you grow up here, you probably go and spend time at the Temple, but growing up in Philadelphia you go every year to Independence In-dependence Hall and Ben Franklin's house. That's why I have all these wise sayings," he laughs, "because I had to read all the sayings of Ben Franklin." Rademan points to things like a strong civic betterment movement move-ment and the egalitarian heritage of the city as influential. He stayed in Philadelphia all through college, and finished in 1966 with a degree in history and political science. He entered law school, mostly because a friend told him "anyone who can speak as fast as you should go to law school," at the prestigious New York University. Univer-sity. He characterizes the school as one full of "massive over-achievers," over-achievers," and notes many of the students already had terminology ter-minology down by the time they reached law school. "The first . thing I heard was a torte, and I thought it was a dessert," he says with a smile, adding "I was just happy to live in the Village." It was a time of conflict, and the conflict evinced itself in symbols sym-bols Rademan noted and clearly remembers. "Here was the law school which is sort of staid the prep school for Wall Street... The whole image there is polished brass and heavy paneling. Everyone was in three-piece suits. But the law school faces right on Washington Square in the Village. "You have to understand the tension and dichotomy," he says, eyes sparkling. "Here were all these punks carrying attache cases, in three-piece suits discussing discuss-ing legal precedent. You'd walk right out the front door and be in the middle of a circus that went on 24 hours a day. "By the end of the first semester, many of us had beards and were wearing dungarees." Perhaps not surprisingly, the effect of Greenwich Village, of anti-war demonstrations, "the circus," cir-cus," and even his adventuresome adven-turesome wife, Joy, whom he met and married in New York, kept Rademan from making the automatic trip from law school to Wall St. He took what he had learned from school and from the bustle of Washington Square, and moved west to work on the federal "War on Poverty." The move was provoked by a professor from the University of Colorado charming enough to cap- ' T' '- :': III j0u I It iff; I Il ' . i ill v - I u i H VV f .-..' r V If k V I "It's important to sit at a lot of tables." -Myles Rademan City planning director Myles Rademan seeks adventure, a sense of community and" experiences he can learn from. ture Rademan and a few of his classmates "looking for meaning in our lives." Colorado, with its mountains to hike and rivers to fish was "the American Dream," he says. It wasn't something he did without a little trepidation, though. Admitting his view of the country was "the Hudson River, and west of it, China" he felt preparation should include the proper clothes. He stopped in a New York sporting goods store to pick up a few things, and was soon the owner of hundreds of dollars worth of expensive, but warm, clothing. "I was outfitted for a major expedition," he laughs. Denver had an unusually warm winter that year, and Rademan never wore any of his new wardrobe. war-drobe. "Every time I opened the closet, my stupidity stared me in the face." He worked nearly two years in Denver as one of five neighborhood planners in a Chicano community. Though he was a government employee, his experience was pro-community and not pro-government. In fact, as it dawned on him it was the local zoning blocking his own effort ef-fort to improve the neighborhood, he became an anti-bureaucrat of sorts. But instead of using Village-esque Village-esque demonstrations or riots to make his point, Rademan learned to work within the system. He analyzed it, found and exploited its weak spots. "We called it jujit-su jujit-su planning," he says. He took the city to court, lost, but learned the system, politics and what a community com-munity could accomplish as an integrated in-tegrated unit along the way. Innovation, risk-taking, effectiveness effec-tiveness all were encouraged and appreciated in his Denver position. "I learned much more from the Chicano community than it learned from me," he says. The federal grant money eventually even-tually ran out in 1972. But, by the IPairik City Prof Me iltw time it did, Joy had discovered Crested Butte and decided to' move there. At one point, Rademan was taken aside by the brand-new Crested Butte mayor, in charge of an all-new city council. coun-cil. "He said, 'I don't know what we're doing here. Do you know?' I said, 'oh, sure'." Rademan laughs that "at least I was smart enough to know I didn't know much." He joined up with an engineer and an architect, ar-chitect, and between them, the trio managed the city for the next 15 years in one way or the other. "They called us 'words, numbers and pictures,' he says. The engineer crunched figures, the architect ar-chitect drew plans and blueprints, and Myles did the talking. Though he admits he has always "had the gift of gab," Rademan's eloquence had little effect on the populace of Crested Butte. The town was filled with "old-timers," "old-timers," he says. It was a small Colorado backwater occupied by descendents of Europeans brought straight over to work the mines. Many had never been outside out-side of the immediate area, and most had no need for the likes of Rademan. "Planning wasn't what one could call an accepted social past-time," past-time," he jokes. "I would talk about things like open space, green belts, malls.. .it didn't go over too well." The experience, one of "hard knocks" according to Myles, "was very character forming." The town was small about 600 to 700 people, and there was no denying the people he planned for were also the people he lived with. It made the importance of "living by your word," and being "fair in your dealings" absolute. Go to the slopes in a SUBARU, JustyGL4WD NEW 1st TIME BUYER FINANCING . No Credit Necessary- JT'S EASY!' SALES PARTS - SERVICE OUR REPUTATION RIDES WITH YOU! Larry H. Miller Subaru 5680 South State Street Murray, Utah 84123 (801)262-2661 When a giant mining company came to town in 1977 and informed inform-ed the city council it had located a streak of the metal molydebenum in the mountain right next to the city, Rademan learned a few more important lessons. The company, AMAX, planned to "collapse" the mountain, bring in trucks, heavy machinery, three crew a day in the process of pulling pull-ing the metal out. The impact would be enormous. The city council told Myles, the community communi-ty development director, to do whatever he could to stop them. For five years with a 15-month break to teach and travel as a Fulbright Scholar Rademan and others mustered every possible soldier to fight the project, including the national press. Eventually, it was a slack economy which toppled the plan, but Myles emerged from the experience ex-perience an eloquent, articulate and respected leader capable of seeing and arguing both sides of an issue. His abilities were recognized recently with the award of a Kellogg Fellowship, a prize bestowed on 40 Americans annually an-nually for outstanding leadership. Rademan devotes 25 percent of his time to working on a special project in conjunction with the fellowship. It, perhaps better than anything else, speaks of the exceptional ex-ceptional ability Rademan has to lend perspective to integrate his life experiences. "What I was most interested in is New Age thinking," he says. Not in any flaky cosmic sense, but as a down-to-earth question on whether "these new age ways of thinking are influencing organizations organiza-tions in our country, or whether it was strictly fringe." He notes the "world is changing dramatically." The photo of the earth from space brought it home visually that the planet was an anomoly an alive blue-green ball suspended in otherwise vast blackness. All countries were linked in their responsibility for its health. The stock market crash in October, Oc-tober, too, made nations understand unders-tand they are financially connected, con-nected, says Rademan. The realizations are "paradigm shifts," he notes, and they are reinforced for Rademan on a local level by the power he has seen in the way a community can work together. In typical balanced style, Rademan cannot say whether the changes are positive or negative. "If change is inevitable, it is how you see change that is important," impor-tant," he says. But in his own case, the shift to a more integrated, more feminine, more internal and less external world suits him. He calls himself "Buddhist" because his own search for happiness is not an external or material one. "It is a great gift to be alive," he says. "Every day I am meeting people and feeling their life force." When Myles links that life force with a project or person, his strength and enthusiasm propel it forcefully along its chosen path. In the meantime he saps from it whatever he can learn, whatever he can add to his expansive picture pic-ture of the world. . His gift, he says, is a "consistent "consis-tent sense of exuberance," which might overwhelm another into workaholicism. But Myles has worked for balance all his life, and his family wife Joy and four-year-old son Bryce are important, im-portant, too. "I don't want to ever be so busy I can't go home and see my little boy grow up," he reflects. The exuberance is under control, con-trol, molded over the years into a useful tool for "getting things done," for learning, for putting together a puzzle with limits which stretch further than those most of us will allow. Planners are meant to be "horizon gazers," he says. Like a community, like the business world, like new age thinkers, Rademan's strength is his diversity. diversi-ty. He travels, he exposes himself to new jobs, new situations, new people as he feels he needs the experience. ex-perience. "It's important," he says, "to sit at a lot of tables." Though he says anyone can get perspective, anyone can ponder trends and seek the horizon, Rademan's searching has made him one of the best. He doesn't dwell on it, or even mention it for that matter. It's just clear after watching and listening for a while. A MEMBER OF THE SEARS FINANCIAL NETWORK Never settle for less than the best. II 1 LLJ L2" 1 IV PARK MEADOWS Beautiful 3 bedroom house on 1 acre site zoned for horses. Views and location make this property very appealing. Many extras. 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 3,420 sq. ft. 1880 Lucky John Dr. $160,000. Bernadette Clahane 649-4400. CLASSIC COUNTRY Lap pool, 2 master suites, 4985 sq. ft , located on cul-de-sac, backed by acres of meadow, 25' vaulted ceilings in living room, over 12 acre, marble entry, formal dining, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bath. 1418 W. Willow Lane $260,000. Carol Agle 649-4400 LAKESIDE AT DEER VALLEY Fabulous views of Deer Valley Ski Resort. Best location in project. Charming decor, pool, 2 hot tubs, saunas in common area. Walk to resort. Must seel 1791 Lakeside $185,000. Susie Petrone LIFT LINE CONDOS Located one block from Park City Resort, luxury living with spacious rooms, decks, jetted tubs, fireplace in living room and master bedroom. Possible owner financing. Lift Line Condos. Prices from $ 1 30,000-$ 1 38,000. Bonnie Peretti 649-4400 PARK CITY OFFICE TEAMWORK SELLS LISTING Julie McKay with Kathy Morris and the house that sold with teamwork. 1 1 649-4400 "r ,-'CT At a recent training session, Julie McKay asked for help on an unsold listing. She prepared a sheet for each agent to make specific suggestions regarding price, enhancing exterior and interior, to keep, rearrange or move furniture and how to best spend $1000.00 on improvements. After the "team approach", the seller believed the agent, made pertinent changes and the house sold within one week. Good work Julie McKay! 1750 Park Avenue 649-4400 |