| OCR Text |
Show Tourist season trade-offs Right now, a lot of Parkites are taking deep breaths and letting out big sighs of relief because the holiday tourists that have cluttered this town for some three weeks now have gone home to New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, or wherever it is they come from. There are a number of times during the year when this town becomes a hedonists' Mecca, attracting fun-loving pilgrims from all across the country, and the world, for that matter. Parkites are well accustomed to this and for the most part take it all in stride. But the holiday onslaught is enough to make even the most stalwart resort town resident question his values. By Christmas Day many locals were heard to be growling through their teeth. It seems that many of us just couldn't handle the 25-minute drive from Main Street to the Alpha Beta. We were tired of those rude drivers with out-of-state plates and the lack of parking in the entire Snyderville Basin. Locals who were lucky enough to make it all the way to the grocery store and actually find a place to park were more than a little disgruntled by what they found inside. Whole shelves were barren. The check-out lines were enormous. The usual drudgery of shopping had become a survivalists' nightmare. Why live in a small town anyway? The restaurants were even worse than the impossible lift lines. But the waitresses somehow smiled through it all, because they knew when the night was over they would be taking home $100 in tips. And the restaurant owners were beaming with joy at the pandemonium because, after all, business is great. That, of course, is the bottom line. Business is great. While some of the local residents bemoaned the holiday season tourist deluge, others took a "love it or leave it" attitude, at-titude, depending, usually, on their position in the community. com-munity. Most of the citizens of Park City are tied to the tourist industry. in-dustry. Almost all of us depend, in one way or another, on tourist dollars for a living. So when the streets swell with out-of-towners and skiing becomes simply impossible, we grin and bear it. We know that for six or eight weeks out of the year we may be inconvenienced incon-venienced a bit by the touring hordes but it's worth it because for the other 44 or so weeks of the year we can live in paradise. The problem with this rationale, however, is that every year that sacrifice becomes a little bigger as Park City becomes more popular. Every year the crowds are larger and they stay here a little longer. And every year more quaint houses are replaced by massive condo projects. Park City is still a very pleasant place to live, for the most part. But the question arises: Can it be for long? Is there a place where we can draw a line and say, "We won't sacrifice any more of our aesthetic values." Or is this town, as many claim, a runaway train of development and tourism that is on a one-way plunge toward all those things we dislike about the overcrowded holiday season? liiven the history of this country, growth is inevitable. The questions surrounding that growth, however, must be addressed by every resident if we, collectively, want Park City to remain a pleasant place to live. -CKS |
