CAN TAHOE BE SAVED?
Degnan, James
ntion that, once to a more hureporter Megan an "intriguing shared equally ehavior of the t human issues tes took toward i a conversation replaced reso:oncerned dele—and passed— :...
...And this—again, shades of lunacy—is precisely what happened...
...and, more important, that these new casinos would result in the addition of 8000 new permanent residents in the South Lake Tahoe area, residents for whom there was no housing...
...Among other arguments advanced by opponents of the casinos was that the casinos would greatly increase automobile traffic (by over 12,000 vehicles per day) on the already terribly overcrowded Highway 50...
...and air pollution, already greatly exceeding federal standards, will increase by 50 percent, making Tahoe air—air Mark Twain once called the "breath of angels"—worse than the worst Los Angeles air...
...From the South Lake Tahoe Airport to downtown, to the Strip, the road is virtually a corridor of ugly buildings, a corridor walled by McDonalds, Sambos and Dennys...
...a corridor of towering neonbedizened casino hotels and of 24 hour a day wedding chapels advertising in garish blue neon, "Witnesses Available...
...that this traffic would substantially increase air pollution...
...At least three of the Nevada delegates are complete tools of the local interests, which, in one word, means gamCommonweal: 13 Wing," explained the TRPA member-critic...
...In, for instance, the first four years of its existence, TRPA allowed more development than had taken place in the ten previous years...
...Gambling to them is sacred...
...CAN TAHOE BE SAVED...
...The federal government," a spokesman for the League to Save Lake Tahoe points out, "already owns two-thirds of the land in the Tahoe Basin, and, through land swaps, outright purchase and exercise of the right of eminent domain, the government could make of Tahoe a National Recreation Area...
...So the Board, by its very composition, is prevented from doing the thing it was established to do: protect the national and regional interests at Lake Tahoe...
...traffic will increase in peak months from an already unthinkable 55,000 vehicles per day to (by conservative estimate) 80,000...
...In addition to approving the casinos mentioned above, the TRPA has since approved two more high rise casinos, and it's likely that the Agency will approve seven more in addition to these...
...The four casinos will bring in 12,000 new casino employees, employees for whom there is no housing...
...a corridor of sleazy motels, of Taco Bells and plywood condos and countless little real estate offices—doll house chalets harboring salesmen chewing toothpicks and wearing needle-sharp cowboy boots...
...three members will vote for the casinos...
...To reject the casinos the Board of the TRPA needed (as it still needs) not simply a majority of its ten voting members, but a majority of each of the five member delegations from California and Nevada...
...and the casinos will be approved...
...Among other developments, it approved 8000 new dwelling units, in contrast to 4000 approved in the preceding ten years...
...A prime example of the lunacy of the Tahoe scene is the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency...
...Why does it seem so insane...
...The answer, of course, lies in the realization that behind that wall of ugliness, behind those Taco Bells and Jim Bobs, those high rising casino hotels, that pall of brown smog, lies—almost invisible, sealed off from view, non-existent as far as the Strip is concerned—the most beautiful lake in the world...
...One drives through Reno or Las Vegas and one expects the ugliness...
...It seemed to me that the arguments of the casino opponents had won the day...
...ound in rain...
...When the four approved casinos are completed (soon), already horrendous problems of overcrowding, traffic congestion and air pollution will be compounded...
...But there is a special quality to the ugliness of Highway SO, (as there is to the ugliness of the town of South Lake Tahoe), a kind of lunacy that distinguishes it from other gambling town roads...
...Why then, on Highway 50, in South Lake Tahoe, is the uglinsss so abhorrent...
...they're as likely to vote against casinos as Jim Eastland is to vote against cotton subsidies for Mississippi...
...But they were xperienced disne their needs, This is a far whom she sat, siveness and a jlems of family I the words of II see what we slim tip iter...
...and, worse, it approved the construction of no fewer than six new casinos, most of them giant high risers...
...Furthermore, Tahoe protectionists point out, the federal government, using a plan of land swaps and tax incentives (the Sierra Club's Plan 2000 is a good example) could, in 25 years or so, purchase the real estate of the present casino owners, phase out gambling entirely at Tahoe, and restore Tahoe to something resembling its pristine beauty...
...Disgusted with the TRPA, those dedicated to protecting Lake Tahoe are calling for federal intervention, for the creation at Lake Tahoe of a National Recreation Area...
...the permanent population of South Lake Tahoe (now 29,000) will increase by 24,000 (12,000 non-casino employees will be needed to provide services for the 12,000 new casino employees...
...There are, the protectionists remind us, hundreds of thousands of barren acres in Nevada where new casinos can be built, e.g., in places like Elko and Winnemucca...
...People will gamble anywhere...
...years ago on an agreement between California and Nevada (Lake Tahoe is split by the border of these two states) to represent the regional and national interests at Tahoe, founded to prevent local developers and speculators from destroying the fragile environment of the Lake Basin by further destructive developments— above all, by casino developments—the Agency, in Alice in Wonderland fashion, has been dominated by the very people it was set up to dominate: by local developers, speculators and casino champions...
...In summer, the corridor is one long snake of a traffic jam, of cars moving (when they can move) at 1 m.p.h., of snuff-colored smog and bulldozer dust clouds...
...There's no hope for Tahoe unless it becomes something like a National Park, something it should have been for a long time...
...I first became aware of the loony nature of the TRPA a couple of years ago when I attended a meeting at which the Agency approved two new casinos—the 7-story, 960-room Hotel Oliver and the 10-story, 560 room Tahoe Palace (both now in the building stage...
...JAMES DEGNAN Creeping blight in Nevada Like all roads leading to and through the gambling towns of Nevada, Highway 50 leading to and through South Lake Tahoe is ugly and vulgar...
...a, ictus, trust her...
...ntion that, once to a more hureporter Megan an "intriguing shared equally ehavior of the t human issues tes took toward i a conversation replaced reso:oncerned dele—and passed— : dhadvantaged older women, nd in poverty...
...What other term does justice to the unreality of an atmosphere in which hundreds of thousands of people go about their business, scuttling back and forth from one casino to another, indifferent to or utterly blind to the fact that the world's most beautiful lake—a lake 22 miles long, 12 miles wide, and over 1600 feet deep, an alpine lake of spectacular clarity, a lake Mark Twain described as "the fairest picture the whole world affords"—is literally sealed off from view or access by a wall of concrete and neon and ticky tack...
...Oh no," he wearily corrected me, "what will happen is that when we take a vote, seven members of the Board will vote against the casinos...
...Why must we insanely destroy the world's most beautiful lake and its fragile, unique environment so that people—people who will never even see the lake, people who might as well be underground—can come to Tahoe to gamble...
...To say that the South Lake Tahoe situation approaches insanity is not, I think, to commit hyperbole...
...ten new traffic lanes will have to be added to the California side of Highway 50...
...Founded six James degnan leaches in the English Department at the University of Santa Clara in California...
...Since that meeting the actions of the TRPA have become even loonier...
...there will be a need for 8430 new houses, most of which cannot be built because only 2900 sewer lines are available...
...and, at a betweensessions lunch, I said as much to one of the TRPA Board members, a strong opponent of the casino interests...
Vol. 105 • January 1978 • No. 1
