What are reasons for hope?
--Rents may fall.
--The fledgling Tahoe City Downtown Association may become a productive force.
--Eyesore buildings may collapse, or be condemned and carted away.
--The Sierra Sun may become a plus when it displaces the World in the next month or so.
--The North Tahoe Business Association may make a dent at cleaning up blight on the north side of the highway, as it has begun to do on the south side.
--The West Shore Association may morph into something more than a booster for XC at Sugar Pine.
--The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association board may fill the leadership void on the North Shore and, over time, unify our "provinces" scattered along the north and west shoreline and north up the Truckee gorge.
--The trickle of new, full-time residents may supply fresh blood (and thinking) to the area's extra-long list of nonprofits and junior tax districts that currently try to take the place of a comprehensive, local government--such as Truckee has had since 1993 when it incorporated into the Town of Truckee.

Rents
The signs are everywhere:space for rent. And dark windows in numerous buildings tell stories of dreams unfulfilled. But the economic law of supply and demand applies, even at 6,200 feet. Soon, perhaps, property owners, too, will feel the pinch, and $/square foot rent rates could dip. When that happens, chances improve that newcomers--professional, personal, and business services, for example--will start to arrive on the T.C. scene. They will bring new capital, and no serious upgrade is possible without private dollars. Public money has already done much of what it can do in Tahoe City.


Tahoe City Downtown Association
Last summer the TCDA had Friday Night parties around town, a Farmers' Market, and, with the help of the TCPUD, produced a series of Concerts on the Commons. It was a successful program to re-orient locals to the downtown and the redeveloped waterfront. In the fall the group received a significant boost in funding from Placer County to carry the effort forward into a second year. But, from the looks of it, the TCDA seems to have fallen off the radar screen since then. The scuttlebutt is that it has been searching for an Executive Director and that fewer people are involved in 2006 than in 2005, although the music and market are slated to happen again this summer.

Eyesore Buildings
The public waterside of the North Shore has become a thing of beauty in T.C. as well as Kings Beach. Millions of dollars were spent to construct walkways, parking, and amenities that are striking in their good taste. They form a pleasing threshold, visually and physically, to Lake Tahoe itself. Meanwhile, the uphill side of the highway needs much work in multiple places. This is no mystery. Only recently a complete redevelopment "plan" was published by Placer County, after years of struggle and debate. Redevelopment dollars are available, and action could be forthcoming if the necessary leadership emerges.


The Sierra Sun
Given the absence of a local TV Channel or radio-news station and soon the Tahoe World, the new Sun has a golden opportunity to be a cohesive, media voice across the fragmented Tahoe-Truckee community, which has a long-ingrained habit of provincialism. It is true that once our provinces were isolated from one another. Truckee did logs and railroading; Tahoe did tourists and real estate; Kings Beach folks didn't cotton much to Tahoe City folks or the West Shore society set...and vice-versa in all cases. A state line between California and Nevada and a county line just south of Truckee separating Nevada and Placer Counties compounds all this historical, human clustering. But these days, to be divided is to be conquered by external interests.

North Tahoe Business Association
The NTBA (Crystal Bay to Carnelian Bay) seems active, organized, and quite deliberate. Its recent business survey was professionally done. One surprise finding was that a high percentage of business people (38%, including the two rapidly upgrading casinos in Crystal Bay) see their primary customers as our full-time local residents, rather than as visitors, which flies squarely in the face of conventional wisdom. Such "facts" may help the North Shore, including Tahoe City, re-orient itself to keep in tune with the changing demographics.

West Shore Association
Ron Parsons (Granlibakken President) and others are trying gamely to resuscitate the WSA; the latest idea, following the lead of Tahoe City, Kings Beach, and Tahoe Vista, is to possibly try to get redevelopment money for the West Shore. Many, however, do not see it as a blighted area. Either way, a showing of life, if not vitality, on Tahoe City's southern flank can only be a boost for the town.

North Lake Tahoe Resort Association
The NLTRA was established in part to give locals more say over how money from Auburn (Placer County) is spent here. A decent-size portion of the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collected from here by the county comes back via the NLTRA. The NLTRA board, although not elected by voters, per se, is designed to be representative of the North Shore, including Squaw, Alpine, and Northstar, which are the largest, local resorts. The NLTRA is the closest thing the North Shore has to a collective, cooperative, funded effort to revitalize the area in the face of well-managed competition from both near (Truckee) and far (Reno, Vail, Park City, etc.).

A former restaurant owner from Tahoe City made this observation to TTNN: "Truckee's got the energy. People can stroll downtown and window-shop. Then they can choose between several good restaurants, all within walking distance."


New Residents
The demographics of Tahoe City (and Truckee) are shifting and the pace will accelerate as more of the 75 million baby boomers heading into retirement seek to be a part of life at 6,200 feet. Many will come for fun or escape; some will stay because they come to love the place and wish to contribute to its longevity and vitality. They will be welcome.