Mountain Town Economics 2.0, w/ Jason Blevins, Part 1 (Ep.390)

7 comments on “Mountain Town Economics 2.0, w/ Jason Blevins, Part 1 (Ep.390)”

1. Tax second home and airbnb owners more. Clearly they can absorb it.
   Big kudos to the benevolent Steamboat billionaire… but clearly (again) we can’t rely on that, it’s not their natural tendency. And Blevins is right… the heir or heirs to the benevolent billionaire is unlikely to also be benevolent.

   • Hi, Scott – I certainly wasn’t suggesting that the model of the ‘benevolent billionaire’ was the best model for creating stability. What I was saying is that, if you look around, it sure seems like this is what is actually happening right now. And I’m grateful for those individuals investing in ski areas and mountain towns that actually care about these places. But to ensure a more stable situation, we need new models. Clearly.

2. And Jonathan, where does your proposal (the town employing patrollers) end? Chuck will start looking to unload lifties, cooks, capital investments, etc. He’ll hold the town hostage to keep bumping his margins, year after year.

3. It’s federal land. Why not have ski patrol fall up under national Park service? This would be similar to river rafting operations where you have private vendors are permitted to run commercial trips on rivers. But there are river Rangers to monitor safety include the cost of ski patrol in the permit/leasing agreement.

   • That’s an interesting proposal, John. But if the goal is creating a more sustainable — and stable — situation for the mountain towns these ski resorts are based in, given the defunding of national parks that we’ve seen, I wonder if this would actually create a more stable situation?

     That’s the #1 goal here: find the best solution to create a truly-more-stable situation for mountain towns and the many local businesses and residents that depend on ski areas being open. And that means giving visitors to those areas confidence (when they are looking to book their trips 10 or 12 months in advance) that the lifts will be spinning 10 or 12 months from then).

4. What about city or state employees? Similar to teachers, ski patrol could be paid by the city taxes they could be tenured and then could possibly receive state funded insurance and retirement. Possibly keeping patrollers in an area longer, and if the mountain deserves a certain specialty the pay would be justified. Not all teachers in all districts get paid the same. Just a thought?

5. I don’t know enough about the exact duties of the traditional north American ski patrol, but there is no such thing in Europe/the alps. moreover the major ski patrol duties (avy mitigation/SAR)is more spread here it seems. the avy mitigation in the alps mostly gets done by the lifties but just if some avy-paths are a danger for the ski areas infrastructure and pistes, and they have to do it by law, in some countries federal law in some state law….but not for freeriding-the mitigation there lies in every riders responsibility … outside of resorts boundaries there is no mitigation besides the measures that have to be conducted to prevent huge avys that are a threat to village, towns, roads, railroads, power lines etc. and is often provided by towns or avalanche committees that are partly subsidized by the state and the country. if the danger rises even higher, often the military helps out with Blackhawks to bomb the slabs or to support and supply cut off settlements with groceries, doctors etc…regular SAR missions in Germany were partly organized by the army (our mountain brigades) as far as air support but they lost the contract with the state a couple of years ago. on the ground SAR missions in the alps are almost entirely in the hands of volunteers of BERGRETTUNG/BERGWACHT etc. but they are professionally trained and closely work together with the professional air rescue operations that get also funded by the state/country but the Bergrettung earns no money (apart from donations) because it is a volunteer thing here, which is highly efficient. In big International mountain towns like Chamonix or Zermatt they got the PGHM (Peloton de Gendarmarie de Haute Montagne) or the AIR ZERMATT which are the best rescue teams on the planet, well funded, prestigious and proud, (pro climbers work there!) …no matter how deep the shit you find yourself in, they gonna get you outta there, by foot, by heel, by mule, by sleds, by dogs.. you name it!