Pagosa Springs is a small town, big on taste. Visitors will find a wide selection of cuisine to suit any appetite…
— from the ‘Dining’ Section on VisitPagosaSprings.com, December 30, 2018
We know a few things about Pagosa Springs. Or at least, we think we know a few things.
We think we know there are about 13,300 people living here in Archuleta County, according to the federal Census Bureau. We think we have about 4,100 wage earners here, earning an average wage of $680 a week (again based on federal government numbers.) $680 a week is one of the lowest average wages in all of Colorado’s 62 counties — just slightly more than half the average weekly wage for the overall state of Colorado ($1,133.)
Only nine Colorado counties had a lower average wage in 2017.
And that’s the average wage here. By definition, half of our wage earners are making less.
We know that the largest industry in the community — comprising about 40 percent of our wage earners — is classified by the federal government as “Retail, Leisure and Hospitality”… and that the average wage for those workers is about $21,000 a year. That comes to about $404 per week. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a worker making $21,000 per year should not be paying more than about $510 a month for rent or mortgage, including utilities.
On page 21 of the 2017 Archuleta County Housing Needs Study (which you can download here) we are told that Archuleta County (including Pagosa Springs) had about 9,230 housing units in 2016. About 4,050 were classified as “vacant” in that study, which suggests that 44 percent of the homes in our community sit empty for a large part of the year… while the largest segment of our workforce struggles to find housing they can reasonably afford.
We think we know these things. If we are thinking at all.
We also think we know something about an “outdoor recreation economy,” and how to grow one.
Since 2006, we’ve spent millions of tax dollars encouraging people to come and enjoy outdoor recreation in Archuleta County. We know that the tax collection from the community’s Lodgers Taxes — which can be used only for the purpose of promoting tourism, and not for anything else — have increased from about $477,000 in 2010 to a projected $800,000 for 2019.
Pretty close to double?
Certain elected and appointed leaders have celebrated this steady increase in Lodgers Tax revenues as a sign of success — since it suggests a thriving and growing “outdoor recreation economy.” But the people who keep that economy running — the “Leisure and Hospitality” workers — have seen their average weekly wage increase by about 7 percent since 2010. (Archuleta County Housing Needs Study.)
Inflation during that same period totaled almost 15 percent. (Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Meanwhile, the cost of renting a home here in Archuleta County has basically doubled. Like the Lodgers Tax revenues.
You might ask: Who exactly is benefiting from our thriving and growing “outdoor recreation economy?” We can bet it’s not the workers who keep it functioning. For the wage earners in Archuleta County, the growth of a thriving outdoor recreation economy has generally been a financial disaster. But our elected and appointed leaders keep on doing what they’ve been doing for the past several decades:
Trying to help grow our outdoor recreation economy. Come and soak. Take a scenic drive. Taste our craft beers. Ski. Snowmobile. Bring the kids.
I began this article series on December 21 by discussing a group of graduate students who’d been tasked by the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, with instructing Pagosa Springs officials how we can become more successful at growing our “Outdoor Recreation Industry.” The students did not quote any of the figures I’ve shared with you in this installment, although the figures were easily accessible for anyone with even a dial-up internet connection. (I’m guessing that students at CU Boulder probably have high-speed broadband connections?)
In this world, you generally find what you’re looking for. If you are looking only to find better ways to grow an outdoor recreation industry, you will likely find nothing at all about how an outdoor recreation industry can wreck a community.
Back in the summer of 2017, Outside Magazine published a thoughtful article by reporter Tom Vanderbilt entitled, “Did Airbnb Kill the Mountain Town?”
Mr. Vanderbilt begins the article with this supposition:
Living the dream has never been easy in the West’s most beloved adventure hamlets, where homes are a fortune and good jobs are few. But the rise of online short-term rentals may be the tipping point that causes idyllic outposts like Crested Butte, Colorado, to lose their middle class altogether — and with it, their soul.
The article was focused on Crested Butte, but Mr. Vanderbilt could have been writing about most any mountain town anywhere in the West. He could have been talking about Ketchum, Idaho, for example. That was one of the mountain towns studied by the graduate students from CU, prior to their presentation here on December 18.
I guess the students didn’t notice any problems when they visited?
From Mr. Vanderbilt’s article:
In Bozeman, in Ketchum, in Jackson, in just about every destination or gateway town, one hears a similar murmur: not only are short-term rentals squeezing the last drops out of the housing supply, but more profoundly, they are threatening the very character that drew in locals — and tourists.
This is precisely the drama playing out in Crested Butte…
You can read the full article here.
I’ve researched and written about short-term rentals here in Archuleta County. (Ad nauseam, some might say.) And I’ve covered our housing crisis — something our local governments have spent very little time or money addressing.
I’ve written about low wage jobs, and about the “Now Hiring” signs all around town.
What do all these problems have in common?
Could it be… people believing that an ever-growing “Outdoor Recreation Industry” is actually a good thing?