I have read with interest various letters to The Park Record arguing quite passionately that those who earn their livings in Park City deserve to live in Park City. Well-intentioned aspirations, indeed, but largely unrealistic.
Quick research indicates that the average, one-way, daily commute time in the United States is 27.6 minutes, with New York City at the high end of the 100 cities surveyed at 34.7 minutes, and Great Falls, Montana, the shortest at 15.3 minutes. It is axiomatic that employment opportunities are clustered around major metropolitan centers, regional towns and tourist destinations such as our terrific little mountain town. And unfortunately, yes, those with greater economic means represent the portion of workers who generally can live closer to their jobs, if they so choose.
I was raised in the suburbs outside of New York City, and saw my father and most of our neighbors doing 60- to 90-minute one-way commutes to their jobs. My summer jobs in college required me to do likewise. Later in my career, we lived in the Washington, D.C., area, where some people commuted from West Virginia or from Pennsylvania.
A brief economic lesson: Supply and demand are such that if people need to travel farther for their work, employers usually will need to bump up the wages paid to attract talent. Check with employees at the Park City Smith’s, Home Depot and Starbucks, and you likely will find that they are being paid somewhat more than their counterparts in the valley (and in a few cases, with gas travel allowances being paid) — as should be the case.
Like others here in Park City, I agree that it would be desirable if there were more workforce and affordable housing to ease the travel on those people who commute from Salt Lake, Kamas, Heber City, or wherever. However, there are approximately 11,000 people who commute to Park City (ignoring seasonal workers in the winter). Contrast that to our local population of approximately 9,000.
Reality check: It is simply infeasible to house all the “Park City commuters” in the limited confines of our mountain town. Personally, I would suggest that priority should go to workers such as teachers, police, firemen and those working in the local hospital — but I suspect that too is unrealistic.
A last point: A writer of a recent letter suggested that our housing situation is driving racial inequity and perhaps even racial intolerance. Please, spare us the canned talking point. I find that Park City is the most welcoming town in which I have ever lived and would bet that most residents would quickly agree. Our church parish probably has a over a 30% Hispanic population, and clearly everyone is welcome and treated equally. I find the same to be true simply walking down the streets of Park City.
Park City faces many housing challenges, and we should continue to work hard to solve as many as possible. However, we are not at all unique in that a good portion of our workforce will always have to commute to their jobs here.
Larry Alleva
Park City