By G.D. Maxwell
Mr. Mike Vance
c/o Muni Hall
Whistler (we’re part of the Olympics too) B.C.
Dear Mike:
Heard you’re headed back to Whistler to breathe life into the limp body of Tiny Town’s sustainability plan. ‘Bout time. I was beginning to think sustainability was the new finance portfolio, another Ichabod Crane so to speak.
Having steered the town of Mammoth through their contentious redevelopment process and cleaned up all those blighted areas with a minimum loss of life, you’re just the guy for the job, Mike. Who better than Whistler’s former director of planning to direct the planning, eh?
And is it ever in need of direction. Ever herd kittens, Mike? Or snakes? Or sacred cows?
While I think it’s important you have a chance to objectively assess the state of things, sustainabilitywise, for yourself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer you some unwanted advice. Especially since I’m sure everyone else who has either an opinion or a vested interest has already told you what a swell guy you are and how, certainly, you’ll steer things in the ‘right’ directions.
They – I’m never entirely sure who ‘they’ are but everybody, including me, seems to quote them a lot – say economics is the dismal science. Having slept through more than my share of economics classes, I’d have to say they’re wrong. Dismal, yes; science, at least as much as astrology. Let’s face it, Mike, if economics were a science things like the Laffler Curve and trickle-down theory would never have made it past even the most modest peer review.
But there are a few gems of wisdom to be mined from the dismal morass and one of the brightest is the concept of Sunk Cost. I’m sure you’re right on top of sunk cost but I’m equally sure someone else who slept through economics and who’s read this far is just busting a gut to find out what it’s all about.
Sunk cost works more in the airy-fairy realm of human psychology and emotion than economics but once it was tied to both dollars and sense, the economists claimed it for themselves. Distilled to its essence, it says this: Standing on its own, the fact you’ve just poured a couple of million bucks down a black hole isn’t good enough reason to pour a couple more million bucks down the same black hole.
It seems so simple, doesn’t it? But like all battles fought in the human psyche, it’s fraught with peril for those who ignore it. A good example we’re all familiar with took place under the reign of Clark the Untrustworthy, former premier of all British Columbians. Clarkie bet his political future on the fast ferries. Oh, there were lots of warning signs along the way, signs that said, "HEY STUPID, THIS PROJECT’S WAY OUT OF CONTROL!" But did Glen listen? No he did not. The fact he was finally brought down because he dealt from the bottom of the deck, so to speak, is irrelevant. The dough he shoveled down the fast ferry black hole would’ve done him in all by itself.
Throwing good money after bad – shorthand for sunk cost – is the economic equivalent of living a sham marriage for the kids. No one comes out ahead in the long run.
There are those – close relatives to the ‘they’ referred to earlier – who say Whistler’s sustainability project, the one you’re about to inherit, is a similar albeit much smaller fast ferry black hole. I’m not sure although I suspect the project’s kind of like a date who shows up with so much baggage you can’t get it all in your car.
I do fear it has so many tentacles and so much complexity it risks becoming like one of those show trials crown prosecutors have been losing so dramatically all across the country. You know the ones, lots of gang members, new multimillion dollar courthouses, tight security and a case so convoluted, so complicated, so long in preparation the judge dismisses it before it ever sees the light of day.
So my first bit of unwanted advice, Mike, is to be wary of throwing good money after bad. If, after you’ve really sunk your teeth into the sustainability Hydra you find it as unfathomable as ‘they’ do, be like Hercules, dude, slay the damn thing before it wants to move into town like an unruly house pet.
Second bit of advice, KISS it. Buzzwords and complexity being the bread and butter of consultants, just remember this: if you don’t keep it simple, it ain’t going to be used. There’s nothing sadder than dust-covered planning documents. Having been a planner myself, I know of whence I speak and I suspect you do too. How many great and wonderful planning documents do you have first-hand knowledge of that wound up on progressively higher, unreachable shelves?
Which leads us to advice three: This dog’s got to hunt. The goal of this exercise isn’t a report or a whizbang computer model or, God help us, more consultants who can afford to send their kids to private schools. The goal is a living, breathing, healthy resort community. When you’re weighing the direction this things moving in, it would be, as Martha might say, a very good thing if you kept the emphasis on ‘community’ first and ‘resort’ a close second.
While I’m doling out gratuitous advice, Mike, just a couple more things. It seems pretty clear that a wide range of affordable housing options is one of the key elements of any sustainability plan for this town. There were a couple of good ideas that got knocked around during the last municipal election but since it was Dave Kirk doing most of the knocking, I suspect they haven’t gotten knocked much further.
One was getting some baseline idea of how many rental suites we have in Whistler, you know the ones, people used to build them into their houses and rent them out to people before they came to the realization they needed all 3,500 square feet for themselves and their toys. It’s still a good idea because it dovetails into knowing how many suites we’re losing as people knock down old cabins and replace them with DUHs – dark unoccupied homes.
Both of these initiatives lead to the grand prize, a coherent policy on teardowns that just might lead to those suites being replaced. We really need to have a good town discussion about preserving existing neighbourhoods and what responsibilities homeowners have to maintain the social fabric of Whistler. Sounds like something a guy with the title of general manager of community initiatives might take the initiative on, eh?
Finally, pay attention to the idea of building housing on the golf course. Not only is it a masterstroke, it’ll drive your new boss nuts whenever you mention it.
