Wednesday — February 11, 2004

Take Ketchum
to the dentist

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Resort consultant Ford Frick said of Ketchum last week, "Ketchum is a smile with some missing teeth all the way through it."

We couldn’t agree more.

Though Ketchum is the valley’s primary commercial center, the very people who profess to love it are neglecting it.

In "protecting" it, city officials have verged on gross neglect of the valley’s economy.

Instead of making the simple capital investments that would put out the welcome mat to visitors over the past ten years, Ketchum chose to feather the nests of city employees with too-expensive medical benefits. With a couple of notable exceptions, the city starved downtown basics: sidewalks, lighting, public restrooms, signs and better downtown transportation.

Visitors and residents still share roadways ankle deep in slush with SUVs that could crush them like bugs. They stumble and slip from building to car in streets lighted only when there’s a moon out.

When necessity calls, just two central restrooms are open to serve thousands of visitors. Drivers looking for a public parking lot on a first trip to Ketchum face poor or nonexistent signs.

These are just some of the missing teeth.

Instead of filling the gaps and fixing the rot, some people want to embalm the town and freeze it in time. They have succeeded in convincing the city to shrink the size of commercial buildings by 25 percent and complain constantly about too much marketing and too much traffic.

Now, the city is going to rewrite its sign ordinance. Why? Because businesses that try to look alive instead of dead violate it. Lights, flags, sandwich boards, banners, printed awnings, sidewalk sales and sidewalk dining—have all crept into Ketchum, some in violation of regulations designed to squash exuberance.

Frick warned against excessive restraint. He said once Aspen trumpeted its "messy vitality," until it woke up to find that it had regulated itself into somnolence.

Ketchum shouldn’t make the same mistake.

Instead of tightening the reins on signs, it should make sign regulation easier by legalizing what works. It doesn’t have to open the town to garish flashing neon. It does have to listen to business owners who are good at what they do.

The city should take the money it will save on health insurance in the coming year and take the town to the dentist. By filling in the gaps, its smile can welcome people and reflect the joy of its place in the mountains.

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.