Taos: Dribs and Drabs of This and That For Locals Only
“Taos is a State of Mind…” Tricia Hurst (“There’s no money in it,” Flavio)
What I love most about Taos right now are the rainy days and misty mornings. If one can’t see one’s own shadow, one can drift through the day without confronting the alter ego. Are we metaphysical beings or just products of our own fanciful metaphors when we speak? Quien sabe?
Town of Taos
Upon my return from an annual summer vacation, a visit to the Cal-Neva border, the scene of my youthful adventures at Lake Tahoe, I was shanghaied into attending a marketing meeting of sorts: there was no quorum and only Councilor Hahn showed up from the town; the mayor drifted in and shook hands before leaving, while the manager hurried in and out as if pursued by the furies. Those who showed discussed the new Atlas (Shrugged) marketing group from Denver and the anecdotal results of the recent Solar Fest.
Apparently the Denver-based marketing group will visit and analyze the community, take testimony and try to find out how to sell the pot-holed town and desultory motel rooms to visitors, rooms by the way, which create an increasing number of complaints. We have a history of sullen responses in the customer service sector of the community and now, according to what I hear, unclean sheets and inconsistent plumbing have created a cacophony of more complaints. The new marketers have persuaded the committees and councilors that they might have some ideas about “economic development.”
Given that we live at the end of the trail, so to speak, in our beautiful but fitful isolation, I dare say we need some stimulating conversation about the future of commerce.
The most positive aspect of the conversation concerned the examples given by those present about the need for flexibility in marketing: a multi-dimensional approach to the traditional and aging baby boomer base, visitors who are interested more or less in cultural sites and sounds as well as the geographical beauty but who are no longer interested in “buying” stuff can still be reached via traditional media. At the same time, the marketers acknowledge that the “millennials,” who have passed the boomers in terms of numbers can be reached via the Internet and Apps. Furthermore, the newer younger visitor and traditional visitor want an appropriate “experience,” whether it is cultural or recreational, musical or while drinking craft beer and dinning on exquisite morsels between text messages or when free from grandchildren.
Taos offers a low-key alternative to the hype of more competitive tourist centers, a kind of serene liberation from the tension created by status seekers but still needs to follow up in the wake of its exemplary B&Bs and better restaurants (2 or 3?), which offer exquisite and friendly service. Our visitors no longer find the slacker culture or hostile locals charming. Ironically, Smith’s, a grocery store, is setting the pace today and other merchants have followed and found out that a friendly and efficient staff sells more stuff.
Still retail sales to tourists continue to generally decline and local government has found no real antidote for the loss in revenue generated by GRT. It’s a conundrum like Solar Fest, which drew enough ticket buyers to look busy, and folks say it was a pleasant event, but according to the scuttlebutt, the producers lost substantial amounts of money. A recent story in The Taos News focused on the lack of “rooms” in Town, only 1000 or so to rent and some of those hardly habitable. Once we used to count “pillows,” like there were 5,000 pillows available during the height of the ski season. Perhaps we need more “pop-up” campsites to satisfy festivalgoers and mobile visitors. Bring your tent to Taos.
El Mitote
Our favorite debt-driven coop is achieving new heights of success, according to an audit report. The KCEC electric side has managed to borrow some $80 million and owes another $20 million for its Broadband adventure, which was supposed to be completed on June 30 but according to sources, will have to borrow another $6 million to finish the job someday. Similarly, the Coop will soon be asking for rate increases to subsidize the debt and operations later in the fall. We hear the Propane division finally broke even after 15 years. Broad Band might take another 15 years or so to complete, so prospects are rosy. Indeed the “renewables” program (green energy) has successfully cannibalized the bottom line of the Coop even as revenues dived, due to the closure of Chevron Mining’s Moly operation. The CEO and Trustees have the consumers and themselves right where they want them in this deep paradoxical state of mind, wherein debt counts as profit on the balance sheet.
Taos County, may be the last allegedly solvent entity in the community but is toying with the idea of continuing its relationship with the crooks from Quorum management (parasites and Medicare fraudsters) and the hopeless Taos Health Systems board, status seekers, whose management of the historic HCH has gone from bad to worse, according to testimony at public meetings and in a variety of documents during the last year. Though the Commissioners ought to do an “RFP” and look for a nearby New Mexico operator, they’ve got friends on the board, I guess and can’t quite avoid the issue of “comradeship.” Where’s the procurement code spirit when you need it?
Similarly, the Commissioners have friends, comrades on the EPWSD board and couldn’t bear the thought of turning down requests for water rights transfers by John Painter, who never knew a contract he couldn’t renegotiate with a little white-out, or the former Abeyta guru Palemon, who never knew a parciante as smart as he was until the parciantes threw him out. So commissioners allowed water to be transferred from northern Taos County water sheds to El Prado and El Salto down here in the valley to satisfy the local lust for water and the money that entails improving private and public property with taxpayer funds but “selectively.”
But when Santa Fe comes to collect the water rights it bought more than 15 years ago from Top of the World, suddenly the shoe is on the other foot. As a matter of law generally, you can’t expect the county’s “Public Welfare” criteria to stand up under scrutiny in court when you play fast and loose with your local buddies and try to screw the outsiders, as is the customary practice locally, though frowned on by the goose and gander courts.
Even as commissioners consider taxes for health care to support HCH and allow selective water transfers, and though hypocrisy makes for good politics, good will tends to go the way of water flowing down the Rio Grande. I’m just saying…
Later this month, the Commissioners will hold a meeting in the Historic County Courthouse to discuss their plans and ask the public for their ideas about its vision of a “cultural institution on the Plaza.” Should the alleys be opened up and a restaurant or whatever established in what has become a steady stop for tourists, who like old jails and frescoes? No doubt the Townies will come up with some divisive ideas and add to the drama on the Plaza.
If we could bottle and sell “dramatic conflict,” we’d be wealthy Taosenos.