Everyone agrees that Highway 75 in Blaine County is currently terrible. Various decisions over time have led up to the extreme disrepair today, but now we can clearly see that something on a big scale must be done very soon. Patching some potholes here and there is not going to be enough of a fix. It is going to be inconvenient and expensive, and we might have to pay for it ourselves directly rather than waiting for the Idaho Transportation Department’s schedule.
Similarly to our road situation, Blaine County has made many other decisions over time that are going to catch up with us in a big way unless we change our direction. Many of us moved here for the skiing. I know I did, right out of college, as it was the best damned ski mountain in North America. This was a seasonal ski town with no summer business. Businesses made all their profits for the year over the two weeks at Christmas and one week over Presidents’ Day spring break. Some people still believe that skiing tourism will continue to drive our economy. Well, there are two data points we cannot ignore; one, we won’t be able to count on winters in the future, and two, there is $10 billion worth of real estate owned in this county.
$10 billion worth of real estate owned tells us that many people here are not making their living in the ski industry, but in the selling of, building on, investing in, and maintaining that real estate, and that many people live here for reasons other than skiing: it’s a safe place to raise a family; people want an early active, retirement in healthy air; the deserts are too hot in the summer for all the retired boomers who have moved there. But if the new climate abnormal makes it not so attractive to live here, with smoky summers and evacuations, folks will move to somewhere else.
Through taxes, we as a community underwrite marketing of ourselves as a ski destination and subsidize air travel here. Great snow year we had this last winter, but within eight to 10 years we probably will not be able to ski to the bottom of the mountain as snow levels rise to higher elevations with the changing new abnormal. Can’t make snow if it is too warm. If there is no snow and there are smoke-filled Augusts and constant fire evacuations, I don’t care if the airfare is free, and the magazine ads are glossy, people won’t want to be here.
