Letter to the Editor: We Choose a Voice For Locals

It's a great thing to call for unity. It sounds good and feels good. But for far too long hollow calls for "working together" have become excuses for bulldozing over the needs of the people who live and work here in favor of the needs of the developers, resorts and casinos.

I chose the locals.

I choose to give a voice to those who are marginalized.

And if this seems like I’m causing trouble, then it is, as John Lewis called it, good trouble.

I've made friends here, made my home here, and made my life here. The people I ski with, climb with, and work with have been ignored by a local government that does not put local needs at its center, but instead, prioritizes the needs of those with the money to push their interests.

We can see it in the actions of a city that quietly expanded the tourist core into Bijou, ignoring its own statements about the need for economic diversification.

We can see it in the relentless efforts by the Chamber of Commerce, in an act of structural racism, to demolish the mostly minority neighborhood of Rocky Point to build a highway bypass to the Nevada Casinos and Convention Center. And in the failure of our city to clearly say "no".

We can see it in the trashing of our beaches and trails this summer, by a city more interested in the tax revenue from vacation rentals, then the environment we live in.

We can see it in the lack of a sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program here in South Lake Tahoe, where victims must be shipped all the way to Reno for forensic examinations.

We can see it in the recent efforts to take lock-off apartments and auxiliary dwelling unit housing away from locals and into the AirBnB market through new "shared rental" regulations, as an end-run around Measure T.

We can see it, perhaps more clearly than anywhere else, in the city's effort to hike sales taxes on locals. In it's $100K contract with FM3 research, the city studied the option to raise $20M, nearly 4 times as much as the sales tax hike, by taxing vacant second homes instead. It was an option to raise more money, and not hurt the locals. The city chose to tax the locals first. This is also the choice of the Chamber of Commerce.

I'm calling for change.

We can fund our fire department as the first priority of general funds, and not hold it as a hostage for a sales tax increase.

We can say "no" to any plan that would demolish what little affordable housing we have and evict residents from a mostly minority neighborhood for a Casino highway bypass.

We can fund a SANE program so sexual assault victims can receive proper and complete care here, in our community.

We can diversify our economy away from a singular sole focus on tourism, evening out some of the boom and bust tourist cycle, and taking the edge off the worst impacts of over-tourism.

We can begin the work for community-owned high-speed internet. Work that has been completely cast aside by the time and effort taken on new cell towers.

We can work towards basin entry fees that encourage tourist carpooling, and reduce traffic, while keeping basin entry free for locals.

Putting locals at the center of local government is about representing people who have had no voice in our city. Speaking truths that the moneyed interests don’t want to hear, and don’t want spoken, only feels like division when they’re used to putting themselves first, and locals last.

We can choose a voice for locals.

- Scott Robbins
Candidate for City Council