Кандидат в совет округа Гранд рассуждает о будущем Моб и необходимости сохранить рост сообщества

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time ruminating about the state of things in Grand County. I guess that happens when you run for public office. The other day a question popped into my head: “If I could magically return Moab to 1994, the year I arrived, would I?” “Heck yes,” I thought. Nostalgia is a powerful force. And memories of Moab mingle with memories of my youth. Who doesn’t want to roll back that clock? But does my 58-year-old self really want to live in Moab from the mid-1990s? I’m not so sure. It’s a fun question to ponder. I recall people that are gone and places that have changed. Vignettes lit by the warm glow of memory. In the 1990s half as many people visited the area as today. We had 2,000 fewer residents. We also had 2,000 fewer traffic lights and hotels (check my math on that one). Moving around was easier, no matter the time of year. And quieter. Was this the Golden Age of Moab? Everyone has their own idea of when Moab was at its best. You can often predict it. If you were born here, it was likely sometime in your early childhood. If you moved here, it might have been when you realized this community is as inspired as the landscape. As part of my campaign, I’ve been introducing myself to anyone I don’t know in my neighborhood. I’ve met many people who’ve lived here much longer than me. One person shared a memory of when Highway 191 didn’t cross Mill Creek. No bridge. No semis blowing red lights down Main Street. Who wouldn’t want to see that again? But that “rural character” created challenges. The people who built Miller’s Plaza (now home to Village Market) couldn’t get a bank loan. The location was on the wrong side of Mill Creek. A flood would prevent both deliveries and shoppers. Now we have a bridge. We lost something, but we gained something too. A lot has changed since I arrived. We have incredible health care for a town our size. I don’t want to go back to the drab, cinder block walls of Allen Memorial Hospital. Our senior care has improved too. We built the Grand Center, Canyonlands Care Center, and MAPS Senior Living. People say you can judge a culture by how it treats its elders. We’ve made great strides, and we’ve begun planning for more. Could Moab be a destination for senior care? I love the idea of infrastructure that diversifies our economy while serving locals. We also have a high-caliber search and rescue program. Canyon country requires it. Our strategic plan suggests building a national search and rescue training center here. That sounds like the perfect marriage between a landscape and a community. We should explore it. We built an aquatic center, thanks in large part to Utah’s Community Impact Board. We built hundreds of miles of mountain bike trails. I want to love them, but I sure struggle to stay in my seat (and keep up with my friends). Thankfully not everyone shares my limitations. I don’t bike often. When I do, I’m always amazed at how many people are out there. Our restaurant scene is constantly evolving. We’ve lost a few places forever etched in the lore of Moab. But talented locals have created dining options than rival towns 10 times our size. Our housing options have exploded, especially when it comes to apartments. When I arrived I bet we had a few dozen one-room rentals. Now the number lies closer to a thousand. We have more houses for sale now than at any point in the last 30 years. Yet those houses remain financially out of reach for too many people. We need to continue helping them with programs like the Moab Area Community Land Trust. The future of our community depends on young people falling in love with this place and being able to stay. We offer more guided activities. While meeting neighbors I also learned we’re one of a few places on the planet with guided rope swings. People travel from all over the world to defy gravity in our canyons. Saying “there’s something for everyone” is no exaggeration. And we have more events. Events often mean crowds. Suddenly you can’t make a left turn off Main Street. But crowds also create a spirit. Events give our town a vitality that I would miss if they went away. At this point I should mention that my wife and I took a 13-year break from Moab. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, that time away altered my perspective of our town. I now lean toward appreciating what we have rather than lamenting what we don’t. If you want to give up the hustle and bustle for a quieter life, there are options nearby. Bluff. Castle Dale. Dolores. Naturita. All off the beaten path, close to deserts and mountains, and a pace more in keeping with 1990s Moab. I’ve been to all those towns recently. I don’t want to live in any of them. Moab’s Golden Age might be in the future, and I don’t want to miss it. Neal Herbert, a candidate for the Grand County Commission, writes from Moab.