We’ve all learned that the Friday following Thanksgiving is the day that retailers will go into the “Black.” That means that they expect to start making a profit for the first time this year. How so? It seems that it takes this long in the year to cover expenses such as rent, taxes, marketing, etc. It isn’t as though we all need more stuff, but it is a good thing that they survive the year just for these next 35 days or so. They add to the communities that they serve by paying taxes, hiring staff and more. Remember, businesses don’t need schools and many other community services, but they do pay a huge amount toward those services.
The difference that we see is that in Estes Park, for many businesses, there is never a “Black Friday.” That’s right; they never see a profit and over 20% of them close each year leaving holes in the downtown buildings, losing jobs and lowering the tax base. This says nothing of the great personal losses to the business owners.
The Town would have us believe that the business failure is because (these are quotes) the owners are stupid, don’t have enough capital, have no business plan and picked the wrong business to get into. Well, in part that might have some truth in it but if we look deeper we can see that we have a Town that has chosen to be the grand marketers for our community and have failed, time and time again, to bring people to the community. Grand Master Marketer Marsh has said time and time again that they are doing a great job. His evidence is that he advertises in the summer and we are filled with people. He doesn’t advertise in the off season because there is nobody here. What a genius. The Trustees and Butthead Baudek agree. What a shame.
We get what we are willing to tolerate. In this community we seem to tolerate failure and have no interest in change, even if it would benefit each of us.
Another example is EPURA. The Town wants to extend EPURA because as Baudek has said, “they are the planning arm of the Town.” What it really means is that they have stolen money from EPURA and put it into the Town general fund and want to continue to do so. In this Town it is fine to break the law, fine not to be accountable. Congratulations citizens. You have just exactly what you deserve. If EPURA was to do its job they would realize that failure in our downtown is blight and we need to address that. We don’t need more sidewalks leading nowhere. Extend EPURA? No way. Will it happen? Unfortunately it probably will. People in this Town simply go along to get along and they don’t expect success and don’t hold people accountable. What a shame.
