I found it interesting a couple of weeks ago when the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors came out with this grand plan for economic development.
The real focus of the plan, to me, was the renewed interest in mining around the county. I can certainly understand that interest and I am a cheerleader for good, safe and environmentally sound mining.
I believe those companies now in the exploratory stages of reviving the “Gold Rush” are responsible companies and I applaud their efforts, and risks, in trying to find the gold they all say remains to this day.
There are also some other positive focuses, like agriculture, light manufacturing and more. All of it is relevant.
The problem I am having is with the process by the board.
I go back in time to 10 years ago when I just moved here. I was involved back then with an economic development plan that involved a lot of public meetings, input and more.
What resulted, I felt, was a good plan for local officials to pursue.
I am presuming that nearly decade old plan remains on a shelf with spiderwebs over its cover.
Here’s the other issue I have.
Tourism is the lifeblood of Mariposa County. Full stop.
Sure, it would be nice to diversify and if mining can be a part of that, good for us.
But the supervisors lack the vision necessary to deal with what obviously needs enhanced — our efforts in tourism. For too long, many have just sat back and waited for the cars to come on down Highway 140 and feed the beast that is Mariposa County.
Folks, those days are over.
There is a lot of competition for tourists these days; more so than in the past. Just look at the new hotels in Oakhurst. Even Merced and Fresno are wise enough to know they might be able to snag a piece of that tourism pie that may have come to Mariposa County in the past.
There is little question many fewer tourist buses are going through Mariposa. I can look out my window and see that happening. There’s also little question many fewer Canadians are visiting Yosemite, and the rest of America, given the political instability.
I guess it doesn’t help that were now in a trade war with one of our closest allies. Genius.
The same is true of tourism nationwide; people are finding alternatives to America. That means the tourism competition is fierce.
What county officials are missing is how they could help, given the fact some $25 million a year comes through their coffers in the form of a bed tax. It’s pretty simple: enhance the tourism industry.
If you really think about it, the tourism industry relies heavily on low-wage workers, from line cooks to housecleaning to maintenance. Where are these people living?
Most likely in group settings because there isn’t enough money for people to get their own places — if they can even find one.
The county has talked and talked about housing improvements, yet the so-called code compliance committee formed after the supervisors cowered down to mob rule has yet to produce any results.
So housing is first.
But there are so many other possible areas. If they would bother to remove the cobwebs from the previous study funded by taxpayers, they would find all kinds of ideas. Some of those were developing small businesses which cater to the larger tourism community.
Maybe a small place where local growers of vegetables could bring their goods and then those could be resold to local restaurants. It happens in many other places.
Another concept was for some light industrial firms that could make tourism related merchandise which could be sold at local stores.
That seems like a workable idea to me.
Apparently the spiders like it, too.
I personally know of a couple of tourism concepts which were given directly to the supervisors, who simply turned a deaf ear on anything new.
One was the idea of having carriage rides in downtown Mariposa during tourist season. Some attempts have been made at this and they seemed to be a success. Another was to have some sort of production, like a gunfight or something similar, in downtown Mariposa during the evening.
It was also suggested maybe a delegation should visit a place called Cody, Wyo., where both of the above have been resoundingly successful.
In Cody, they also do the “Cody Night Rodeo.” Each night during tourist season (which is much shorter there), farmhands from around the region come to the rodeo grounds to put on a show for the tourists who are bused out to the rodeo grounds after dining and shopping downtown.
The tourists don’t care about the caliber of the performances, they just want to see cowboys and cowgirls riding, roping and entertaining.
This, in turn, gives farmhands a second job every summer with decent pay while also boosting the local economy.
We have a rodeo grounds. We have farm and ranch hands. We have a downtown.
But no, that concept was greeted with disdain and laughter.
Another concept was forming a partnership with Yosemite and finding a way to care for wayward animals like bears and more, all the while inviting tourists to wander through this park.
It is one of the biggest success stories today in a town called Rexburg, Idaho, which is more than two hours from Yellowstone but draws visitors galore. Who have money. Again, laughter ensued and the spiders thrived.
Check it out yourself at yellowstonebearworld.com/
Another no-brainer, to me at least, is why we have failed miserably at getting a sports complex. I’m pretty sure it’s because the supervisors, over the years, have refused to work with the Mariposa County Unified School District to find some common ground.
I hear the “that’s where the property taxes go” argument constantly. Yes, the school district gets property tax money. But the county gets TOT money and a sports complex itself could be an economic driver.
Believe it or not, successful sports complexes also mean members of the community can utilize them, as well. In other words, the citizens of the county.
We have watched a major soccer program grow over the past few years. We have watched our successful high school sports programs over the years.
Yet our highly successful high school football team still has to kick away the debris from the demolition derby to play at the fairgrounds.
We need a stadium and adjoining sports complex. The county could help in this and it would benefit everyone. We certainly have the hotel capacity to host tournaments; we just don’t have the facilities. And we have millions coming in each year that could help make this a reality.
But apparently, we now have a new plan, I guess.
If I were a betting person, I’d guess that one, too, will end up with the spiders somewhere down the road.
The problem here folks is not the plan, it’s instituting such a plan and spending some of those millions of tourism dollars directly on economic development.
Help out the downtown business with some infrastructure, actually get some wayfinding signs instead of having years of endless meetings to make a decision; keep the area cleaned up and have actual decent trash containers instead of those things downtown.
Those are just some of the simplest of things this county has refused to do in promoting tourism — the funding that makes it thrive.
Instead, we get endless studies and meetings. Hell, the county can’t even get the proposal right for a visitor center.
It seems hopeless to me.
What will it take for people to actually wake up and understand that yes, we do need responsible mining, agriculture, light manufacturing and more, but that isn’t going to change the fact Yosemite National Park is in our backyard?
Why can’t those in charge see that? Or maybe they just don’t want to admit, unlike other towns around the country, that a national park is our lifeblood.
I guess our only hope is for the spiders to take over the world. Then, maybe we can comfortably watch a football game.
Greg Little is editor of the Mariposa Gazette and can be reached at greg@mariposagazette.
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