Measure G, TOT in the Campgrounds

The Mendocino Coast lost 60,000 visitors this year with the closure of the Abalone Season.

With some of the pressures on sport fishing and higher taxes many are choosing to vacation elsewhere. We are a destination, not a pass through location so taxes are considered when traveling. Maybe not the first time but campgrounds are now charging as much as a motel. Will they return is the question.

If the Off Road Park on HWY 20 goes in we may recover from this abalone disaster. Meanwhile I don’t support this tax unless it were designated as Ted says, “ It ought to be allocated with priority given to cover the impact on law enforcement, fire, ambulance, roads, promotion and other expenses we incur from campground visitors.”

 The City of Fort Bragg is now using theirs as fun money for poorly strategized social media and video campaigns selling glass trash and a poorly designed trail as a reason to visit. The Coastal Trail violated every trail guideline in the book, and I have a copy of the book developed by CalTrans. to show how it’s 2 feet to narrow as cyclists terrorize walkers because there isn’t enough room to pass. The Aztec Sacrificial Stairs had to claim a victim before they did anything about it. They designated the most dangerous location on the coast, Soldiers Point, as the Abalone Dive Access point while making it ticketable to use the safe access points, where divers have dove for decades. All of these poor designs were discussed before implementing with Marie Jones yet she insisted on moving forward with these stupid acts in the City’s rush to create a tourist destination. Taxes add to the visitors experience.

Meanwhile the city blows a quarter million dollars a year on salaries for the Noyo Center, a dubious project at best. Funny how someone can take a job overseeing a project that kills a Blue Whale and spin that into a big salary profiting from the skeleton of that whale. Meanwhile we are saddled by a joke of a science program.