Park City used to be a beautiful place. In plain sight, driven hypocritically by those profiting on development, we continue to destroy it, herded like buffalo off a cliff, greased using “compromise” and slight of hand while ignoring the residents.
Park City was oversold and over built years ago. Now the county is complicit with greedy dreams. History is repeating itself. We have become an expensive, congested, deteriorating urban landscape pounded by high volumes of vehicles that destroys our air quality and calm mountain environment.
We have driven out the wildlife, forced our property taxes through the roof, stole all the water, made everything unaffordable and full speed ahead we go, all while masquerading as a high-quality small mountain town. Well, at least we are according to the Chamber/Bureau.
The past is blurry at best for new arrivals all excited to be here. The blank stare approvals of elected officials continue while what is left of public input, General Plan-focused, increasingly seems to be ignored as is usual.
The Main Street Destruction Plan is a good example, if you haven’t noticed. This business as usual narrative and typical willful ignorance dooms high mountain communities like ours. It was admitted to by a recent meeting of long- involved citizens discussing the rapid negative changes coming to Western mountain resort communities.
It ended with long faces and zero real answers for anything. The mountain lifestyle Park City used to enjoy is dead, long gone. We’ve been sold out by the greed-heads who employ a strategy that outwits concerned and involved residents, achieved using constant deflection and compromise by hiring more consultants, organizing endless “stakeholder” group get-togethers, paying for flawed studies and of course the backup legislative route if all else fails.
We are becoming Disneyland for the most part, rubbing out most all of our cool mountain culture that was real over the past 20 years specifically. Today our government, unable to morally resist, doubles down while completely ignoring the residents’ concerns and even reality itself.
Our weakened quality of life has been breached by the greed-heads using the “public process” to create today what is an increasing, speeding mass of cars, Trucks, SUVs, construction vehicles, hotel shuttles, vans, buses, RVs, touring rigs, Lyfts, Ubers, gas and electric motorbikes and more — most emitting deadly toxins into our once-clean air.
Meanwhile, Olympic dreams are twisting reality in order to force compliance for even more destruction, advocating for strings-attached chopper money to help put the lid on the coffin.
Continuing to ignore and deflect important community input and concern means you are holding hands with the enemy. This strategy breaks our mountain community down to exploit what little good is left. It’s really sad to witness this over and over again, but it seems there is nothing we can do to stop it. Business as usual. Too much, man: the crystal has cracked. Sign the referendum; 1981-2025 PC rip.
Peter Marth
Old Town