An open letter to Parking Ambassador and all-around trial balloon floater Christy Crosser

Christy Crosser, who is tied like an umbilical cord to the town, has given her opinion. Bow down, everyone, and worship at the altar of your overlord.

Ms. Crosser has just informed the town that she sat in the audience during the recent study session. Bully for her. So did I. This gives us, apparently, a bulletproof pulpit to say or make up whatever we want to in support of whichever side we are on. I will grant that she is the parking ambassador, and that she is in direct contact with more people about parking than I am. I would hope that were the case, or why is she being paid to be a parking ambassador? I happened to sit close to her in the audience, within viewing distance, and noted the she was always shaking her head in pleasure when someone she supported spoke on the topic of road construction and the impact or lack of impact on businesses, and shaking her head in disdain when something she disagreed with was presented. This is obviously her right, but it makes me wonder if she is really approaching the question of impact on downtown businesses in an impartial fashion, or in a very biased fashion. To wit: (1) We need to compare with other communities to see if their sales tax in January-March 2024 is also down, and down by an equivalent amount. I don't disagree, but I think this should be done scientifically and logically, rather than just dismissively or in a cherry picking fashion to support your side. How far out should we go in this comparison - Canada? Australia? italy? Obviously, this seems silly, as it does to compare Estes Park with Kansas or Nebraska when it comes to sales tax or the amount of ongoing road construction. How many towns in Kansas and Nebraska have six-month economies where the majority of the year's income must be made? Is road construction on I-80 near Brule, Nebraska in any way comparable to the entire downtown being at a standstill in Estes Park? Even if we had unlimited data from Grand Junction, be it sales tax, percent of downtown glaciated by road construction, Grand Junction is without question different in almost every way from Estes Park, and unless you account for these differences, the comparison is meaningless, because there are too many other variables in the equation. It would be like comparing percent of the population with high blood pressure helped by 20 minutes of walking per day in Alaska versus those benefited in Sub-Saharan Africa. It would be a waste of time without accounting for weight, diet, availability of other treatments, age, etc., and would be dismissed as such immediately by any judge or panel of experts. That attempt, sort of (as far as sales tax from another Colorado community) produced one village close by and one data point. So again, essentially useless. (2) Christy has talked to some businesses that are doing well. Great. I'm sure after we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there were some Japanese individuals in the area who didn't suffer immediate injury or later radiation-induced cancer, and we could have interviewed them and said "I've determined this was a nothingburger". The actual reality-based data showed, however, that these bombs had a significant impact, and to argue otherwise would have been dismissed, then or now, as whistling past the graveyard. Besides opening up the books, which the Chamber attempted to do for a small group of businesses, we only have the broader data of the town-wide and category-classified sales tax, which both Christy and Frank callously attempted to dismiss, and will continue to dismiss as "lacking in context". (It would be like saying since all 20-year-old males don't die when they turn 21, and all 80-year-old males don't die when they turn 81, there is no difference between 20 year old males and 80 year old males - in other words, it is just a distraction, and an ass-covering attempt when they decide not to do anything beyond pay lip service and run a few advertisements that pretend to benefit the downtown businesses, or solve all their problems.) No surprise, as they are both incredibly pro-Loop and will dismiss every complaint and concern and piece of data and anything short of the earth swallowing up all the construction equipment as a sign from God that the Loop wasn't a gift from heaven. (3) We need to just provide talking points and think positive. Fine, wonderful. I'm sure Christy or Frank or Kirby would have been saying the same during the Holocaust, or when Pol Pot exterminated all of the academics/educated individuals in Cambodia. "Think of all the job creation for our newly-arrived residents!" "Think of how wonderful it will be to go to the doctor and being able to tell him or her what to do for this pus-filled wound on my foot, rather than the opposite!" You are not an expert in economics or business administration, Christy. I'm not either. But I don't deign to pretend I am, or interpret the rising stock market or rising precious metals futures as a sign that EVERYONE is doing better. If you would have waited a little longer at the meeting instead of marching out triumphant after the study session, you would have heard how many people need food assistance in town, or assistance paying for child care. These individuals, i trust, are acknowledged by you as deserving of help. But the business owners all need to get a good soaking, and just grow up and deal with these construction impacts? I get that you think these are not comparable to people losing their livelihoods without being part of the decision-making process, but how grating is it to your ears to hear these comparisons and think they are similar? So you might have some sympathy for those who bristle when you claim "This is going on everywhere" or "We just need to get through this". Kirby, for example, had a golden opportunity to talk with a business owner in her neighborhood who was suffering last summer because of construction, and she passed. Putting your head in the sand and saying "Everything is wonderful" is not helpful to those who know otherwise. I would be happy to provide you with a growing list of people who are NOT doing better, and will likely lose their livelihood if construction continues as current through September. Your look callous and unsympathetic when you just wish these truths away. Again, you have the same sales tax data as the rest of us (well, you have March and we don't, but that is part of the benefit of having a weak paper of record and an administration that thinks they should have access to data prior to the stakeholders, so it can be massaged and talking points devised). Trustees who are not business owners, plus Christy - You are officially not allowed to make silly comments or make excuses related to businesses who tell you they were hurt by construction last year and this year until you (1) open a business or (2) come up and talk to a business owner who isn't your best friend. That's the new rule. You don't get to tell businesses their concerns aren't valid, or be dismissive, until you make the effort to see the other side. and stop walking around with rose-colored glasses every waking hour. Have some compassion. Suggesting that we should walk around wearing traffic cones is as offensive to those who are down 50% or worse since last year as suggesting people who were impacted by a tornado should carry a portable wind turbine to blow back their hair and look like a fashion model. Get serious. You are behaving in an incredibly offensive manner. This isn't a court case to win or lose. These are people's lives. Either deal with it now, with real solutions, not band-aids, or deal with it down the road, as more Estes Park citizens require more food, housing, and childcare assistance.