Mountains Into Molehills
The recent uproar created when the Ulster County Legislature’s Chairman David Donaldson held a press conference calling for a boycott of neighboring Greene County’s two major ski areas and any summer activities they might be running should be seen as the very definition of that proverbial term, “a tempest in a teapot.” It’s one thing to urge support for a local treasure such as the state-owned Belleayre Ski Center, another altogether to urge civilian unrest to protest a near-unanimous state legislative decision to set up a study commission.
We hate to say this, but Donaldson’s protests had all the disingenuous character of the John Sweeney-led GOP protests against the 2000 Presidential Election Florida recount. And worse… at a time when everyone is speaking to the need for regional efforts to better all our lots in the area, it was blatantly counterproductive to the level of seeming downright selfish.
And to think, the chairman even left for a vacation in Ireland after making local mountains into his molehills.
Of course, there’s a level on which Donaldson can’t be blamed… by holding his press conference without any significant support from his fellow legislators, he compounded the stupidity of taking on the entirety of state government when the county needs it most by appearing naïve and malleable. After all, his talking points vis a vis Belleayre had been all but fed him by that sterling entity’s biggest supporter, Joe Kelly of the Coalition to Save Belleayre, who had earlier all but called him a wimp in a much-disseminated press release calling for Donaldson to act as he did.
Kelly, who should be lauded for his saving of the state-owned ski center from the chopping block in the 1980s, and his championing of its growth more recently, shifted his support stance significantly when he began to put as much support behind the proposed Belleayre Resort project as the ski center it was seeking to profit, and profit from. His recent efforts on behalf of the public entity has entailed indemnification of anyone and anything not supporting the complex public-private tie-ins put forth by former Governor Eliot Spitzer last autumn. The new party line, that Belleayre and the surrounding region will not survive without the saving grace of the new resort, seems as disingenuous to us as Donaldson’s recent press conference, or Kelly’s call for it.
The ski center growth the former governor called for was great news, but announced before recent economic downturns or the opportunity for the state’s new Office on Climate Change to start reviewing the future of New York’s ski industry and key infrastructure demands. Moreover, it came before the new governor stepped in to fill out the term of the disgraced Spitzer. Paterson, everyone we know in Albany is saying, is carefully reviewing everything his predecessor did in office, including all appointments and deals.
When both houses of the state legislature recently passed a resolution calling for the creation of a blue ribbon commission to look into charges of unfair competition from the state’s dozens of private ski areas, study support included the voices of some of Belleayre’s biggest allies, including the new Senate Majority Leader, Dean Skelos. As our own Sen. John Bonacic said, What’s been called for is a study that Belleayre should get fine grades under.
So what’s the beef? Why scream about such things and risk alienating all of Albany in the process?
We suspect the disingenuousness Kelly has charged the state and Greene County ski areas with is wider-based than he lets on. It seems that what people are really asking for when they are asking Paterson to veto his legislature’s near-unanimous decision to study private-public competition, and deals, is for Paterson to back what Spitzer did regarding Belleayre. Which means there’s a good chance he may not.
So where does that leave all of us, in the meantime?
Looking for straight talk, as they say, and changes we can believe in.
First, we feel that the state of the economy and climate change are serious enough considerations to warrant inclusion in the Blue Ribbon studies of competition that have been called for… which we understand they are part of. Second, we believe that state support for Belleayre will not be diminished by such study, but strengthened. After all, we’ve always wanted the state resource to be ready for all scenarios the changes coming might bring us. And we know, from talks with Albany officials, that the place remains special to those holding our futures in their hands. Third, we sense that looking into private/public partnerships may be part and parcel of a larger re-evaluation of the many fault lines in our free market system that have showed weakness and caused key economic and societal problems of late.
Most importantly, we believe that more than one town or county versus another, our best future lies in our ability to rise above selfish differences and realize how interconnected all our Upstate, let alone globally modern lives, really are.
In other words, we feel we are all owed apologies for all the disingenuous talk of late. We need to do much better.
PS