Maybe Ketchum needs a shrink. It’s deeply conflicted. It’s going
around in circles, ignoring important facts and ducking its responsibilities. Maybe a
little couch time would help.
Item: The city has engaged its own engineers to help the Idaho
Transportation Department figure out what to do about all the traffic on Highway 75.
It’s looking for alternatives to a new highway that could be half the width of a
football field.
Conflict: The city housing administrator, jointly funded with Blaine
County, has quit. City Council member Chris Potters is making noises about making the
position a county position. The housing problem is county-wide and needs county
leadership, she says.
Hello? The reason all those cars need a place to park in downtown Ketchum
is because their owners are at work. They have no other way to get to work than to commute
from their affordable housing in areas as far away as Shoshone and Fairfield. If they
lived in Ketchum or Sun Valley, they could walk or take a bus.
Item: The Ketchum City Council reduced developable densities in the
downtown by half. The move is a double whammy for housing. It makes building housing for
the average person financially impossible. Even a sharp pencil can’t overcome that.
Conflict: For the second time, the Ketchum City Council has funded summer
outdoor entertainment downtown after hours to try to perk up the place and give visitors
something to see besides each other.
Hello? The liveliest downtowns in the world are the ones where there is a
lot to do. Lively downtowns are home to both businesses and people. Healthy businesses
offer great shopping and entertainment, and people who live there support them.
Ketchum’s downtown is quiet at night because long-term working
residents have been priced out. Music alone will not renew the community.
Traffic, parking, housing and a dull downtown are all related, but all are
not equal. No affordable housing in Ketchum and Sun Valley means more traffic on the
highway, more demand for downtown parking and leaner off-seasons for businesses.
Ignoring the facts won’t change them. Shoving responsibility for
housing onto the county won’t either.
Ketchum should continue to fund the housing administrator’s position
and begin a housing construction program within the city itself.
It doesn’t take a shrink to know that Ketchum leaders could resolve
the city’s conflicts by facing the facts and shouldering the responsibilities only
they can carry.
