By DAVE FOXSomeone needs to correct mischaracterizations of the County tourism plan made by council candidate Brady Burke. I volunteer.
I volunteer to do that, having spent more than two years on that plan, working with one of the most conscientious planning groups (20-plus citizen volunteers) I’ve been a part in 39 years here in Los Alamos and in my 20 prior years as a marketing exec before moving here.
I also volunteer to correct what’s flat wrong, having founded an enduring business in Los Alamos, based on what are flat-out real-world realities. Don’t give me that other stuff. Please.
#1 So, I’ll start where it matters most. By no means does the plan spend “lots of taxpayer dollars”. I’d never have agreed to it otherwise. Neither would the other 20-plus citizen planners.
#2 It’s a plan that takes advantage of what’s already built.*
Get real! — no way it’s a “build it and they will come” plan.
*Fuller Lodge, Bath Tub Row, the Bradbury museum, PEEC, Pajarito Mountain,
and it’s gateway-proximity to the three national parks Bandelier,
Manhattan Project National Historic Park, Valles Caldera
#3 One of the Cardinal Precepts of the plan is to enhance the community itself.
i.e. create enough economic diversity for creation of new jobs and new businesses that serve us all.
Want more restaurants? Hungry tourists provide the incentive to create them.
Want more shopping places, days and hours? Tourist provide that incentive (definitely it would be so at CB FOX.)
#4 Want a larger tax base instead of larger taxes. Tourism and the new diversity it creates is key to that.
The Tourism plan was worked on for nearly two years by 20-plus citizens none of whom were office-holders. The plan was discussed during that period in open meetings of 200-plus citizens. Critical note: 70 percent of those attending those meetings actually voted that a new plan should be more active in nature and execution than the program then under review had been.
The plan, online, is as plain as the nose on any candidate’s face to read and understand.
If ‘twas read, ‘twas translated inaccurately for voters.
