Getting folks to think things over is what folks writing about things hope to do.
I sure do, with the articles I’ve been writing. I had the same goal, writing PR messaging, when I was in the PR business.
Reading Bill Hudson’s “Pennies From Heaven” editorial series, I’ve been thinking over what’s happening out your way, with your community’s land use development codes (LUDCs), and all. And that gets me thinking about what’s happening out my way in the San Francisco Bay Area. And then I’m thinking… Heaven help us! We may be going down similar paths. Or the same collision course with an iceberg, the doomed ship featured in Part Eight of Mr. Hudson’s editorial series — the Titanic — was on.
For communities out here, we have our share of comprehensive plans, along the lines of your “Town of Pagosa Springs 2018 Comprehensive Plan.” Without having plowed through all our plans, I’m getting the uncomfortable feeling we may wind up shoulder-to-shoulder with you, on what was thought to be an unsinkable ship, back in 1912.
To give you an idea what I mean, there’s a proposal pending in one of our local communities to level an entire block, where small restaurants and shops are now doing business, to make way for a big, modern building. New hotels will be going up, shortly, in some communities near us, and there was news about new hotels, north of us, in the wine country, with room rates that will set visitors back several thousand dollars a day.
Apartment rental rates that, during the pandemic, dropped some, in some communities, are going up again. And while proposals aimed at increasing the minimum wage are being discussed and are being implemented in various places, the cost of living is going up, as well.
I’ve also been thinking over words, in your community’s Comprehensive Plan, describing Pagosa Springs as “refreshingly authentic”… with a “cultivated community heritage.” And when Mr. Hudson was wondering about “Who writes this stuff, anyway,” I started wondering the same about who writes similar-sounding stuff, out here.
Seems like a lot of people stringing words together about property development, LUDCs, and such are on the same page, shall we say? So to speak?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.