Letters and commentaries - Big Bear Private Home Issues Home
| Dear Michael: I am appalled, incensed and disappointed in you as an individual by your recent letter, obviously sent to all registered voters within the city of Big Bear Lake. Obviously, you as a now independent consultant, are being paid to write such a letter, without much thought for the real facts. While you were city manager, I was a supporter of yours. I thought that you worked through problems with fair and logical thinking and tried your best to help bring a positive close to each individual problem within our city, although THIS problem STILL has not been properly addressed and continues to plague this city. I now find you illogical, spouting outright lies and half truths. What a sad situation that you, a person with what I thought were high ethical values, to be taken in by the total unfairness of this issue. I too own property. Don't I have any rights? I know you worked hard to try to resolve issues that my property had with the city. I consider your letter outright inflammatory and real slap in the face to legitimate "real" businesses in this community. Have you honestly read and studied the proposed initiative measure? I think not. What fault can you find with any of the proposal? It appears that money talks and "bs" walks in your case. NOTHING in the proposed initiative even mentions GETTING RID of vacation rental housing. There is nothing farther from the truth. There is place in the community FOR ALL overnight lodging, no matter the type. You know that I have proposed this all along. The initiative proposes to RAISE the standards for these properties and "level" the playing field with OTHER commercial transient occupancy types of properties. Let's be real and face the fact that anyone that pays TOT is a business OR not one penny of tax would be due to the city. All SIMILAR and like businesses should be treated equal under the law. Remember my old saying that you have heard so much.... "what is good for the goose is good for the gander". I have heard people that own these vacation rentals say they are not a business..... yet they pay TOT. Answer my question? What else is it, if not a business? If theirs is not a business, then neither is mine. I have heard vacation rental owners say they cannot afford to keep their properties, if they cannot rent transient and that it is not "business" because they don't make any money. I have not made any money either, so I guess mine is NOT a business. I have heard it said that these owners need to have the income to "IMPROVE" their property for the betterment of Big Bear. What about the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I have spent to improve my property....SAVING one of the few truly historic properties from the bull dozer. I have jumped through ever hoop that the city has put in front of me and tried very hard to "comply". Maybe it is time to let the bull dozer go...subdivide and build more vacation rentals, apartments or condos on my property. With occupancy, no matter what I do, hanging around 30-35% (and this is true over the entire valley), I simply can't make it. I have lost money for the last 8-years, while continuing to pour hundreds of thousands of improvement dollars into this property. It is a good thing that I have another job, because neither Thomas nor myself have drawn one nickel of salary or income from this business. Like many of the other "commercial" properly licensed and approved facilities in this community, we are coming to end of the rope. With now reported over 17 lodges on the market, I can't even sell...and get out. No one in their right mind would buy a business that has NEVER made a profit, let alone one with very little chance of EVER making a profit. You have "picked" on Apples and VERY unfairly. Jim and Barbara are the only ones with "guts" enough to stand up and be counted. THEY ARE NOT ALONE ON THIS ISSUE. None of us want or ever have proposed that these "vacation rentals" be ELIMINATED, as you have stated. WE SIMPLY WOULD LIKE THEM CONTROLLED and regulated, JUST AS WE ARE CONTROLLED and further we want "teeth" in the city ordinances. We believe that this control will "separate the men from the boys" and make all of Big Bear stronger. We believe that this better control will make owning one of these properly licensed and approved facilities worth MORE money and not less. The good strong agencies and properties WILL survive and help give this community a higher standard of better quality. It will let the visiting guests know that Big Bear CARES about them, their safety and comfort. Do we want to be known as "Motel 6" or as a "Four Seasons"? We firmly believe that this proposed initiative will help "raise the bar" for Big Bear Lake and if properly implemented RAISE the collected TOT and city fees, along with maintaining high property values. Yes, there will be some that will not or cannot comply and they will go away... maybe even be sold, but the remaining ones will be better, SAFER, HIGHER QUALITY and better for the surrounding neighbors and their property values. It will also allow the city to "go after" unregistered and illegal properties with the right tools in hand. IT WILL ALLOW THE CITY to FILL THE COFFERS and get started fixing the streets, etc. Michael, I am truly ashamed of your support to DOWN GRADE this community. Big Bear COULD BE the premier resort in southern California, but this community obviously does not think HIGHLY of itself. IT HAS A REPUTATION OF BEING A CHEAP PLACE TO GO FOR A VACATION. You and others have said that THIS KIND OF LODGING is what the traveling public wants. This may be true, but DO WE WANT THEM? The people we don't want or need are the ones that DON'T want to spend money. If they want to overcrowd in unsafe conditions, paying minimal amounts of money per person, WE DON'T WANT THEM. They DON'T spend money at our restaurants, gift shops, etc. THEY CHEAP OUT. We need to UPSCALE, not DOWNSCALE. We WANT "vacation rentals" that are SAFE and not overcrowded with CHEAP "trashy" people in BIG BEAR LAKE. Let them go to Big Bear City or out into the county, until these folks in those areas "wise" up and set higher standards for their communities. Let's be the leader. This COULD be another "ASPEN" or "SUN VALLEY", but it will never be with YOUR type of thinking. After all, what are we, a "trailer trash" community? I guess you must think so, since you do not support FAIR "HIGHER" controlled standards for our city. What are your supporters thinking about....TODAY or the future? It appears greediness AND TODAY. A smart real estate agent AND "vacation rental" operator should think this through and understand that they NEED to support this initiative for THEIR long term success. Unfortunately, none of US has the resources to even mail a rebuttal letter to all the voters and impart the REAL truth about this issue. But, we are not giving up, because we have nothing to loose and everything to gain and what is right is right. We need YOUR SUPPORT, as the former city manager. Sincerely, Stanley R. Miller, Innkeeper Knickerbocker Mansion Country Inn 869 Knickerbocker Rd PO Box 1907 Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 |