Wisdom from the Web

On the Vail Daily Web site, you can comment on each story or editorial you read there.Here, we publish excerpts of those comments:Re: Letters to the EditorJust a few points for Ms. Williams. Thank you for your well-written letter. The home owners no doubt respect independent parties’ opinions. However:1) The merchants association of Beaver Creek is dominated by Vail Resorts and Brian Nolan. Together they own most of the eating establishments in the village. Many merchants – who are afraid to go against VR – do not want the slide. There is no independence in the merchants association. We hear many merchants don’t even go to the meetings because Nolan and VR dominate the balloting on representatives and issues.2) Whoever the homeowners are who support the slide, they have not come out publicly with their support. Out of the 396 e-mails received by the BCPOA in June, 386 were against, 10 were for the slide. In total, 2,000 homeowners, directly and represented through their individual homeowners’ associations, voiced opposition to the slide. That doesn’t sound like the “overwhelmingly strong community support” VR claimed in the Rocky Mountain News exists.Furthermore, no one, other than VR’s paid attorneys and employees, spoke in favor of the slide at the Oct. 16 hearing in Eagle. Mr. Nolan was not present, nor was anyone else from the merchants association.3) The so-called “state-of-the-art” improvements in the slide design are unproven. Wildflowers will be planted, and will die if irrigation not provided. More water use. A green color? The Haymeadow is only green for a few weeks in the non-snow months and even then how can VR assure the colors will blend?4) The BC homeowners have also been enjoying an excellent working relationship with VR over the years. The 1994 PUD and the creation of the Haymeadow Conservation Easement (which VR unilaterally abrogated) is an example of that cooperation. Mr. Katz came to town, moved the company, cancelled the Alpino program, never met personally with constituents of his town and proceeded to tick off everyone. Unfortunately, Ms. Williams, even Commissioner Stone noted the absence of VR’s usual “good neighbor policy” in handling this issue. Have you counted how many VR execs and employees have left the company since Katz come onboard? The soul of the Vail Associates that created Beaver Creek over 25 years ago is dead and cold now.5) VR, like Intrawest and American Ski Corporation, is a real estate company, pure and simple. They only sing the praises of the community and happy little children when it serves them. The introduction of “Mountain Vision: The Making of Beaver Creek” is titled: “Way of Life.” The people fighting to keep the slide off the Haymeadow were sold a “way of life” by VR (VA at that time) and East West. They were given promises in exchange for their money for their homes. Now VR tells them “you don’t count. Move if you don’t like the noise.”6) Respectfully, I hardly think the slide is a “tremendous” guest and community benefit. There was absolutely no imagination or thought put into this decision. What a copycat idea given, according to Mr. Katz, there “many many slides in America and Europe.” What about an ecological forest – something not in the Rockies, but gaining ground as a popular attraction in forests and mountain communities around the world. Mr. Katz didn’t even consider options to the slide that would be compatible with Beaver Creek and benefit the community and the environment. Ecoforests are without a doubt a family entertainment that is a positive experience all members of the family can enjoy year-round. Just how many slide passes do you think the average guest can afford along with all the other inflated costs in the village? Mr. Nolan’s food doesn’t come cheap.7) VR’s “privately-owned” property was pledged as a conservation easement in 1994 in exchange for VR getting to sell and develop Strawberry Park. How would you feel if someone built a waterpark with slides and amusement rides in the middle of Edwards on private property?Thank you again for your thoughtful letter that closely reflects the position of Vail Resorts. Please, however, also consider the indisputable facts concerning just who Vail Resorts is now and what their end game is – pump up the resort’s revenue and then dump it. Syrah PerrenoudRe: Letters to the EditorI must have missed the part about aiming to weaken and harm Americans when I was going through the secular-progressive re-education camp. Let’s see, make the world less safe, harm America’s image throughout the globe, erode the Constitution and our civil rights, get us into a endless pit of a war by lying to the American people, pollute the environment, spend our way into an incredible deficit while cutting taxes for the rich, leave our ports unguarded, , leave millions of us without any health care, etc. Dang it, G-Dub already did all that! Oh well, I guess we secular-progressives will have to think up new ways to harm America. The Repubs beat us to it again! LiberaleliteRe: Another shot at home rule?Once again, dear public servants Menconi and Runyon, the people, your employers, voted no. Got that? No! What is so hard to understand about N and then O?Re: Haymakers over the HaymeadowThe leopard can’t change his spots. Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz speaks the truth in the upcoming week’s Newsweek. Here’s a tidbit. Compare this statement with the environmental statements found on the VR and Beaver Creek Resort Company Web sites. Conservation easements and wind power, anyone?NEWSWEEK: But it’s also marketing, too.KATZ: Let’s face it, we’re about guest service. If we can find ways to make the guest feel better about us, and not talk just about skiing, but how we protect the environment, that’s a great move for us. But we’re not an environmental company. We’re here to look for ways to develop.Re: D.R.: Press vs. politicosSorry, but I do not agree that any politician was or is the greatest enemy of the press. As is all too common, we are most often our own enemy. Looking at the press today, it reflects a mediocrity which is all to often as the norm. Filling pages with print or filling up time on broadcast with pictures and/or words does not, in my humble opinion, make an organization a news organization. That is something “the media” has to remember.If the overriding concern of those who own media outlets is to “make a buck,” they are not meeting their obligation in keeping the public informed and might do well to search for another way of doing so. It should be one that carries with it no duties or obligation to the public.If the public media is no longer respected, it may be because they have lost respect. It certainly is the case with this individual. In my case it is certainly the case. Perhaps it may be that I expect far more from public media than I have so far received.Re: Vail ranks lower for ‘bros’Let’s hope Vail doesn’t become more popular with the reckless snowboard crowd. I wish they would all move to Mammoth.Re: Metal as hellYou cant blame the downfall of metal on one band. If anything, metal was engulfed by the emo mainstream now infecting the music scene. It doesn’t take a haircut and a change of style in one band to kill an entire genre.How fickle do you think metallers are? Re: Letters to the EditorBob Fiske, what you’re failing to realize is that you should instead be asking the question, “What if those initial reports were true?” What if? Bob. Yes we have made some mistakes with this war and Vietnam, too, but have you ever stopped to consider the kind of mistakes that would have happened if we stayed idle and didn’t do anything about the assumptions if in fact they were to turn out to be correct? You like history. Take a look at Pearl Harbor and even the World Trade Towers. Wouldn’t have happened if we would have struck first. If you want to sit back and let them attack us first, go right ahead, but don’t drag the rest of us down with you.Vail Daily, Vail Colorado CO