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Show TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT... By Jim Stiles THE RICH WEASEL FACTOR IN THE ‘NEW WEST’ John Hendricks is the CEO of people. Specifically they fund a businesses and environmental Consequently, they’re often asked and end up dictating policy to of cable television’s Discovery Channel. He says he has passionately loved the West since he was a kid. Hendricks’ father once told him that the most beautiful place on earth was a seldom-visited redrock paradise called Gateway, Colorado and so John Hendricks bought it---lock, stock, and barrel. John Hendricks is rich. dependent on the money to disagree. But more prolifically, Rich Weasels of All Kinds pump millions and millions of dollars into the economies of rural communities across the West, providing jobs to thousands of struggling Westerners who are trying to find any way they can to live here. These are the carpenters and plumbers who build those second and third homes (in varying degrees of opulence), and the servers who work at the four star restaurants whose owners could not survive without the additional injection of money. The Rich Weasel Factor creates jobs in the real estate and recreation industries, and even (heavy sigh) contributes to the revenues of small independently-owned and _ operated newspapers in the form of advertising. In short, the Rich Weasel His attorneys made offers to local landowners that were hard to resist and by last year, he had accumulated more than 6000 acres of property, some of which he intends to put into conservation easements. Now, with the kids off to college, Hendricks is building himself a little cottage where he can survey his holdings. At last report the Hendricks home will have just enough space for John and his wife to feel cozy---about 27,000 square feet. That’s no misprint. Twenty-seven thousand square feet. Be it ever so ostentatious, there’s no place like home. The John Hendricks Castle is just the most grandiose (that I’ve heard of) acquisition in a frenzy of western land buying by America’s wealthy and elite in the last decade-—rich weasels, as I love to call them. They seem to be everywhere and, for the life Factor permeates every aspect of life in the rural West today. The most pure-minded idealist can rarely escape unscathed and unsoiled. of me, I can’t figure out where all these people are finding all Some of you might think I’m being a bit cynical and hyperbolic--and you’re right, to an extent. I know there are that money. But we Westerners see it constantly--extravagant, million dollar, second or third homes, perched on the brink of some mesa rim or canyon, staring down at us little people. A couple of SUVs in the driveway. Lots of L.L. Bean flashing about. The question is: How bad is the Rich Weasel Factor and is there anything we can do about it? wealthy people out there sincerely trying to put their riches to good use. worthwhile, pedicurists money, buy Twenty-five years ago, it was still possible in many parts of the intermountain West for an average middle-class American to put together a loan from the bank, borrow from the folks, and with more blood and sweat than most people would ever be willing to sacrifice, make a modest go of ranching. In 1972, a friend of mine bought some choice agricultural land near here for $60,000. When, in 1990, the family sold that same property for just under a million dollars, most realtors thought the price was a steal. Today, the same land would probably fetch triple that amount. Clearly, in the 21st Century, hard work and a crazy dream will get a would-be rancher nowhere. So where does that leave us? At the mercy of the Rich Weasel Factor. As a result, the lives of. millions of us middle-class Westerners have become complicated and conflicted, for more reasons than we’re ready to admit. — Most Westerners, even environmentalists, dread the thought A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man. e.e.cummings 1944 Warner and AOL asa classic example). They love to "hang out" with us commoners and will even claim to prefer our company. They'll donate donate doesn’t make large contributions to environmental groups and their recyclable aluminum to charity. In fact, they’ll as much as they possibly can, as long as their contribution diminish the extravagant and opulent lifestyles that they’ve grown accustomed to. Our worst nightmare, on the other hand, is the Malevolent Rich Weasel, who is generally a Republican, would rather light his cigars with a twenty-dollar bill than give it anyone, keeps his charities to a minimum, in the grand tradition of my favorite Republican Veep candidate/oil tycoon, Dick Cheney, and makes a point of tossing his aluminum cans into the trash. He has little interest in conservation easements or donating lands to the Nature Conservancy and usually sees open space as a place to make even more money. In a perverted sort of way, I admire the Malevolents for their in-your-face honesty, but such admiration is ultimately counterproductive. No...what we have here is a very limited set of options. So we throw ourselves at the mercy of the Benevolents who spread their bucks around and endear themselves to all sorts But for godsake, if you want to do something don’t do it by creating a demand for organic in the rural West. If you're going to spend your land. Buy.as much as you can afford to spend, and then give it to some organization like the Nature Conservancy. That would be a legacy to be proud of, not some ridiclous 27,000 - square foot mansion with an elevator. The West is being transformed. Small towns and quiet valleys that hadn’t changed in a century are growing out of their once comfortable clothes. Most of us have become the teeming support population--the workers— for the relatively few. But we rush here anyway, searching for opportunity, searching for a place we once dreamed of, knowing that our arrival only contributes to its demise. So the contradiction haunts us. The Rich Weasel Factor allows many of us to live more comfortably and securely. It funds environmental groups and it broadens the economic and political base of communities and painfully conservative. of morphed dude ranches and alfalfa fields covered with faux Santa Fe condos. Yet the sale of these agricultural properties seems inevitable. With skyrocketing land. prices and a plummeting cattle price, how long can the Tom Bookers of this world survive? All we can hope for is a buyer with a shred of a conscience...a Benevolent Rich Weasel. What is a Benevolent Rich Weasel? Hopefully someone who feels guilty enough about his wealth to want to spread it around some. They are most often Democrats and they usually try to dress and act as if they aren’t very wealthy at all. They like to wear Levis and disdain ties (Check out those CEO guys at Time- plethora of good causes and hip groups across the country. to serve on Boards of Directors the staff, who are often too . And yet that resources, and all most liberating compromised and that were once pathetically poor same Factor has diminished the West, its of us who live here. Coming out West was the experience of my life. Now we all feel we all know it. Speaking of the Devil... CLOUDROCK, OUR LATEST TOXIC THREAT Elsewhere in this issue, you'll find a story about the battle waged by Grand County citizens in 1988 to stop a toxic waste incinerator from being built near Cisco. If there was ever an example of "power by the people," this was it. The construction of the incinerator was a foregone conclusion for everyone except the citizens. And they rose up and killed the proposal in its tracks, “ Thirteen years later and this is a different county in a different world. Moab has changed dramatically--blown up, it looks like to some of us—and a lot of the change has been painful to watch. But everything that has happened until now is prologue. Another kind of toxic threat now faces this community; to me, it is the greatest threat to our way of life since CoWest tried to come here with its incinerator plant. I’m talking about Cloudrock Desert Lodge, the proposed resort development community that would ultimately build, according to news reports, three hotels, restaurants, spas, shops, equestrian facilities and 70 luxury homes, spread along the rim of Johnson’s Up on Top. The State Institutional Land Trust Administration (SITLA) has rented the land to the Moab Mesa Land Company and given these guys two years to come up with the funding. Moab Mesa’s marketing angle is to promote a "luxury-in-themidst-of-wilderness" development. There are probably about six current Grand County residents who could afford to buy into it. The developers will tell potential buyers that they plan to keep |