I think I made a mistake with this one, a little letter to the editor, often the most troublesome part of the paper. But let me lay out what I was thinking — yes, I was thinking — when I made the call on deadline, as usual, to run it.
Nothing to do with the content itself, though I knew it would irk city leaders. Of course it would. They had worked so hard for affordable housing opportunities that complaints from people they had worked so hard to help would hit a nerve, the ungrateful wretches.
Residents at King’s Crown, uniquely afforded a near ski-in, ski-out opportunity, knowing this, were afraid to publicly step out with their names. Listening to some of the reaction to their letter, I can understand why.
The issue is tiny to the wider public, if hugely important to the letter writers. It’s about how the city gave residents permits to park their second cars on the street for four years before ending the privilege last summer, creating daily-life problems for them.
They were not particularly polite about it in their letter, and loaded up words rhetorically as people who feel weak and unheard often do. This seems to be an era for hyperbole generally, which will get worse and worse this presidential election year.
That, naturally, triggered officials and also other King’s Crown residents who didn’t wish to be associated with the letter writers.
And therein lies my possible mistake.
It’s a simple call with individual writers. We don’t do anonymous, at least not knowingly. Hard stop there. Have the courage to be accountable for your words, especially if you are going to call others out on a public issue, large or small.
But we do often enough let groups write under their group name. A union, a homeowners association, a wildlife advocacy group, a staff of a middle school the other day.
I extended that line of thought to a more ad hoc collection of residents.
I say I might have made a mistake, but I’m not feeling a ton of regret, either, I must admit. It was a close call.
The rules about the permit were in the paperwork, the leaders pointed out. Yet the residents were able to get their parking permits for quite some time, years. The gall of people who live next door to the base of Park City Mountain has merited the loudest rebuttal, along with anger at them calling the bus system dysfunctional, one of those opinions in the eye of the beholder.
Anyway, there is an issue here at some level, one that has little to do with the happy fortunes of location or whether the bus system is great, awful or somewhere in between.
Perhaps mischievous influences on my decision-making included an opportunity to give voice to those who believe they are powerless and so they seldom speak up. I don’t mind authorities being annoyed on occasion, no doubt my own personality flaw. Also, no one other than a few residents of a condo village are affected. This moment will pass even faster than most.
But I soon had qualms about stretching occasional group authorship to an informal collection of people. I heard from another resident who most definitely does not share the groupthink in this case and protested at being lumped in by implication.
That was a good, fair point. I wasn’t so moved by assertions that people with a great deal should just shut up if they know what’s good for them, or that a rule was in their paperwork and shame on them for not looking closely enough.
I had stretched our own practice and made up a collective name to let them speak in the letter. I can, if belatedly, see how other residents who don’t share their views might feel lumped in with a group that doesn’t exist in any formal way.
I can only hope that the tug of just enough space for one more letter and oh, here it is … I hope that little bit of urgency didn’t add to impetus to fill the vacuum. I mean, I could have put in an editorial cartoon, a filler ad, something there.
I placed this letter, and while I think the discussion that followed was worthwhile, I’m not so sure about allowing the authorship. Well, actually I am sure. But who wants to admit making mistakes? No one I’ve seen in a public role.
Don Rogers is the editor and publisher of The Park Record. He can be reached at [email protected] or (970) 376-0745.