I have been following the Brown Ranch annexation discussion with great interest. It seems a microcosm of what is happening in society at large today. And, in my view, a large part of what is happening is an incredible surge of pure greed.

Greed has always been one of the difficult sides of human personality, but in the past 25 years or so, it has moved from individuals to institutions in a way that I think is new and exceptionally troubling. I don’t want to get into the “why” of greed here. I do want to focus on why I think it is so difficult for low to moderate income workers and families to afford to live in Steamboat. It’s greed.

The logical way to resolve the low-income housing issue is to make the housing that exists more affordable and increase wages at the lower end of the scale. New York City addressed this problem decades ago with a massive rent control program that still exists. California has instituted a higher minimum wage than anywhere else in the country.

As a community, we’re going to need to decide when enough money is enough.

We will certainly need additional housing as more and more people want to live in Steamboat. This is not a unique situation. It’s also true that any necessary expansion can only go in a limited number of geographical directions. But the housing issue will not “go away” until we decide that everyone we need to help us all thrive in this incredible spot, from waitstaff to ski patrol to doctors, should be able to live here. The question is what to do.

How about a $25 per hour minimum wage? How about some form of rent control? It’s one thing to charge absurdly high rental prices to temporary lodgers, but should people who live here be a source of excessive income for wealthy property owners? Would raising the minimum wage raise prices on goods and services? Sure, but how about price controls for locals?

We can do this. And my suggestions above may be very far from the mark in terms of addressing the issues. But my larger point is that we need to consider all possibilities. Brown Ranch was, in some ways, the “easy way out.” If we want to continue to enjoy the amazing benefits of where we live, we may have to make some sacrifices. It may require a radical change of perspective.

At the very least, we need to start thinking outside of the box.

Howard Bashinski
Oak Creek