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Show SEPTEMBER 1995 MOAB: INVASION OF THE BLUE PEOPLE & OTHER ALIENS By Jim Stiles town Editor of the Canyon Country Zephyr in Moab, Utah he first time I ever saw lycra-clad mountain bikers peddling the streets of downtown Moab, I thought they were naked blue people. At long last, I thought, the alien invasion for has the begun; I had extraterrestrials been to waiting take me away from all this for years. Now it was really happening. I approached the nearest Blue Being to welcome him to our planet and he replied, “Like, where’s the gnarliest bike trail in Moab, dude?” This was not the invasion I had in mind. In the last ten years Moab has been transformed from a witheringon-the-vine ex-uranium boomtown to the Mountain Bike Capital the World. In 1985, a fifth of homes in Moab stood empty and sale at rock-bottom prices. Much our Main Street business of the for of district looked like a ghost town. But while many Moabites were openly speculating whether our little town might literally blow away with the next desert sand storm, the new sport of mountain biking seemed to find a home of its own in the naked slickrock of southeast Utah. Since then, Moab has been hyped by the Utah Travel Council, tour companies, and every travel writer in America. They did their jobs very well. Moab became the mountain bikers’ Mecca. And thousands, make that millions of them came to experience the ultimate tourists/mountain bikers Saw an opportunity. They had come to ride their bicycles, but with $100,000 homes selling for a fraction of their value, many could not believe the Opportunity they had _ Moab — after the invasion. stumbled upon. Often, smug California customers arrived at a real estate office with grins on same question: their faces “What and can we it all. And there’s more on the way. Here in Moab, we like to say, “You can never have too many fast food the steal joints.” less than a decade later, what I call a pork-belly-housing-boom has quadrupled the price of a home in Grand County and Main Street com- Yeah, right. any of the new businesses are Mier by out-of-town investors, who are here for the money, who have no desire to live here, and who have no real interest in mercial the today?” Those days are long gone. property is at a Now, premium. Vacant lots and old buildings have been replaced by fast food restaurants and motels. Five years ago, someone with a hankering for a Big Mac (if that’s possible) had to drive a hundred miles to Grand a town, itself. For marketplace and little for else. As Grand ulation many product, center, result, composed nesses and workers Junction, Colorado to satisfy that craving. Today, we can choose from a variety of nationally franchised restaurants — McDonald’s to Wendy’s, from JB’s to Dairy Queen — we have to earn who incomes. came here who For is Moab of to have a busi- are here those of life, change has been startling shockingly swift. Just about three years us the and ago, passionate about their town. At one point, citizens locked horns with an arrogant and unresponsive county commission by forcing a referendum to actually change our form of government. By a 2-to-1 margin, the voters tossed out the old three-person commission and replaced it with a seven-person county council. he new governing body moved quickly to stop a boondoggle highway project and to shut down a toxic waste pit actually purchased by the ousted county commission. The county council tried to put some limits and restraints on our uncontrolled housing boom through a new subdivision ordinance. They questioned the need for Utah’s transient room tax in Grand County, because twothirds of the revenues could only be used for more promotion. (‘How much more promotion can _ this county withstand?” asked one council member.) And they called for the development™ef a comprehensive Master Plan to deal with future growth. But from the start, the new council was met with stiff and angry opposition. Not only did many of the old-timers resent the efforts of the council to restrain growth (“This is my property, by golly, and I can do what I want with it!”), many of Moab’s new arrivals were equally disenchanted. They had come here to get rich and they sure didn’t want anything or anyone to get in the way of their goal. ride. County, Moab their feels less and less like a community and more and more like a pop- Something else happened along the way. When tourism began to look like a viable way of surviving in opportunistic Moabites found themselves long on ingenuity and short on cash. Local banks hesitated to risk their assets on borrowers with great ideas but meager collateral. With all those empty homes and a town ripe for tourist exploitation, the wealthy out-of- them, a Grand County residents still seemed Six months after the election, petitions circulated Grand County for the recall of six council members. They all survived the recall vote, Moab, circa but three of the seven had Continued on page 9 1948. PA’ Es ar eet iS ia % . weak |
