HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Mar. 25, 2005 A raging battle of words grips Carmel-by-the-sea. Is this a storm in a cup of latte or will its outcome influence other cities and towns across the land? A raging battle? Yes, a battle that reflects on a citizenry's math skills and perspectives on social values, hospitality, personal responsibility, and strategies for business development. In Carmel-by-the-sea? inquires Jim, my parsimonious pal. Yes, that quaint little town on California's magnificent central coast made storybook beautiful by its visionary founder, Frank Devendorf, and the early 20th century Bohemian artists that he recruited to create his tree-lovely village-by-the-sea. Yes, the very same little, rich town that artists built, where as a visitor you got lost because you stepped out of the main drag's ambience--artfully designed for entrapping those tourists who are endowed with an easily turned-on, hard-to-restrain desire to spend--and wandered into tree-shaded streets with distinctive million-dollar cottages and nonexistent identifying numbers. Yes, the same Carmel-by-the-sea, which fought the California State Legislature for over 40 years and won on the issue of leaving houses in the town un-numbered, and thereby, according to some, enhanced community connectedness through the daily ritual of collecting mail at the village post office. Yes, the very same city where the occasional pedestrian saw you and crossed the street quickly, or disappeared, and when you did encounter a Carmelite willing to stop and provide directions to the bus stop--to take you back to a more navigable and affordable Monterey--you were surprised to learn that in this environmentally-conscious town very few residents used the public transit system. Yes, the town where the main function of the public buses, it seemed, was to transport in, and out, the young men and women who clean, wash, cook, and maintain the gardens of this one-time Bohemian retreat for artists. The battle is on in Carmel-by-the-Sea on what the locals call TOT. Like the town's un-numbered houses do not expect this acronym to be easily disassembled. TOT, I have surmised, after perusing on the web the pages of the excellent Carmel Pine Cone newspaper, translates into Transient Occupancy Tax. Those of you who, like my friend Jim, have concluded that this is a tax imposed by the good residents of Carmel-by-the-Sea to keep out the homeless transients that the counties of San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz may kindly channel southward with the help of 'Greyhound therapy, ' "Transient" in the TOT acronym stands for the aforementioned tourist whose desire to spend on nonessential items the town's merchants have liberated. Arrayed on one side of the TOT battle lines, are the Honorable Mayor Sue McCloud and the Honorable Council members Gerard Rose, Paula Hazdovac, Mike Cunningham, and Erik Bethel, who joined forces to make the following claim against the TOT (Measure A) in an ad in the March 18 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone (www.carmelpinecone.com) in preparation for the April 5 special election, when the town's electorate will vote on the issue: "MEASURE A IS NOT DEPENDABLE! Carmel needs to stimulate our economy by increasing lodging occupancy in our inns. Raising the lodging tax in the face of a 20% drop in occupancy over the last 7 years will hurt, not help. Visits to Carmel fluctuate with the price of gasoline, storms, highway congestion, natural disasters and economic down-turns. Carmel cannot afford to increase its reliance on this one source of revenues-it's not depend-able! That's one reason the City Council unanimously rejected this idea." Commenting on all such arguments against the TOT, one irate resident wrote to the Pine Cone that they are: "false, misleading or contrived to deceive the residents of Carmel." He, and several others over the last few weeks, were specially incensed over the claim that the tax increase was going to be 20% and not 2% (the 2%, I believe, was arrived at by subtracting 10% from 12%). To which the Pine Cone's editor, after practicing what seemed to be Zen-like patience, tried to put the math part of the dispute to rest by appending this "Editor's note" to the irate resident's letter in the newspaper's March 18 issue: "The endless bickering over what to call the size of the proposed TOT increase should be put to rest: Changing the tax on hotel bills from 10 to 12 percent is an increase of 20 percent in that tax." To which, Jim says with a wry smirk: "Told you, Michael-not seeing numbers on your town's houses eventually weakens your math synapses." A Carmelite who appeared to have no problem with her math synapses wrote in a letter to the Pine Cone that she had traveled across the country and didn't think the TOT "is a deterrent to any traveler, even the 15 percent tax in Anaheim. (Anaheim!) The basic room rate may deter travelers with limited means, but not the tax itself." She argued that if raising cable car fares in San Francisco from $3 to $5 won't stop tourists, "a $2 raise in the $10 tax on a $100 room in Carmel is not going to faze tourists who can afford the room rate in the first place." The Pine Cone for its part performed the fence-straddling trick, an art not unknown to small town newspapers, or to this columnist. Its March 4 editorial reaffirmed the newspaper's policy of not taking a position on most local issues, patiently clarified the pros and cons on the special election, and asked the question, which, as some might say, is "the meat and potatoes of the project": "Will increasing the hotel tax hurt the local economy?" The editorial answered: "The hotel owners, whose occupancy rates still haven't recovered from the recession at the beginning of this decade, are almost unanimous in their belief that it will. We defer to their judgment." Or in the words of one Pine Cone reader: Quaint only goes so far. Or Jim's: "Don't squeeze the tourist that lays the golden eggs, you might kill her." In this one-time artists' haven--where newly-arrived artists can't afford to live; where rich, non-fulltime residents own some of the homes; and where house-rich, cash-poor fulltime residents, who are on fixed incomes, own some homes--tourists contribute a fair share of the taxes, according to City Councilperson Mike Cunningham. Fair share in this equation adds up to $6 million of the poor-little-rich town's $11 million budget! According to data from 2000, of the 4,081 people in Carmel's 1.1 square miles, the median household income was $58,163, 54.7% had a bachelor's degree or higher, 24.2% had a graduate or professional degree, only 1.6% were unemployed, and the mean travel time to work was 20.5 minutes. The median house value was $675,300. (Source: City-data.com) Of the 4,081 population, 92.7% were White Non-Hispanic, 2.9% Hispanic, 1.3% were "Two or more races", 0.8% were Japanese Americans, 0.8% were American Indian, 0.5% were Filipino Americans, and .9% were other. (Source: City-data.com) Carmelites are not your average U. S. urban dwellers, not by a long shot. So, there you have it--the Carmel-by-the-Sea battle. Which way will the poor-little-rich town go? Make your guess and make sure to check out the Pine Cone on the web for the results of the April 5 special election. Will other cities follow the wisdom of well-educated Carmelites in their heaven-by-the-sea on California's magnificent Central Coast? Make a guess again. Meanwhile, here's the Chamber of Commerce's call to visitors": "Carmel Welcomes You! ". . . Within the village, visitors can relax, unwind and enjoy the peaceful, European ambience where they are free to stroll through winding streets and explore secluded alleyways, courtyards and arcades. Highlighted by over 90 art studios and galleries, numerous antique shops, hundreds of boutiques and small intimate cafes and restaurants, Carmel promises hours of discovery." Jim's last words: "Oh, to be in Carmel, now that April's around the corner!" Jim, who once stayed for a couple of days in Carmel, now only uses the bus, zips up his wallet, strolls down to Carmel's spectacular beach of white sand, and returns to Monterey before sundown. The Pacific Ocean washes out his tracks. ------------ About the author: Michael Chacko Daniels, a Californian, grew up in India. He is a writer, editor, community worker, and former clown. Visit him and his works at: http://IndiaWritingStation.squarespace.com Email: mchackod@pacbell.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
