Out of the Box

News Spotting
By Lois Laine

Bashing New Residents Is a Big No-No
Alright, first let's get something straight. Syd and Nancee Suave are anything but trust fund babies. In fact, Baby, they might well fund your trust account, as active members of the community--they pay their way. They aren't any different than any of the thousands of residents that make up the Town of Mammoth Lakes. They're called citizens, residents, tax payers, or maybe even your employers. So, it does pay to be nice to newbies, even if you don't swing with them, they probably have contributed a few $20s to the local economy, and that makes them viable human beings by most definitions. Okay, so you haven't met up with them yet. Maybe you don't hang in their circles, or maybe you do. When people who haven't been properly introduced to each other start talkin' smack about them, that's usually called being "prejudice." Do we have some prejudice people in our midst. Probably. But in this global economy, unless you really know of what you speak, it's usually a more educated approach to get to know individuals first, before you launch into them.

Legislation for the Eastside
Congressman Buck McKeon and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer have been busy these days launching a new piece of legislation designed to protect the White Mountains (in Inyo and Mono Counties) and the San Gabriel mountains in the Los Angeles region. The new bill introduced last week includes designating 430,671 acres of wilderness in Mono and Inyo Counties, plus it establishes more than 45 miles of the Owens River Headwaters and Amargosa River as Wild and Scenic Rivers. For the LA area, the bill designates about 42,000 acres of additional wilderness and includes about seven miles of Piru Creek as a Wild and Scenic River. As for the White Mountains, the second largest unprotected "roadless" region in the lower 48 states, the bill will help protect the ancient Bristlecone Forest (where the world's oldest living trees reside). The Amargosa River section that will possibly be protected is the portion that is flowing into Death Valley. Boxer is on record as saying, "We will continue to work together to make sure that this natural legacy can be left to our grandchildren and their grandchildren." For those of you following this long and winding wilderness designation road, Boxer has tried several times to designate hundreds of thousands of acres in the Sierra and now the White Mountains. However, her previous attempts at this bill have failed for a number of reasons. First, the sheer size of her former wilderness bill designations made it intangible to manage all of the areas designated. Second, her opponents, namely road-using enthusiasts, have maintained that many of the areas her bill calls "roadless," are in fact regions that have historic routes being used by many recreation enthusiasts. Stay tuned, as once again, this bill will probably be scrutinized and researched for its validity.

Home, Home For Sale-When Will It Be Sold?
Depending on whom you solicit for a response, April and May have been not so great for home sales--AGAIN. The National Association of Home Builders say, "the momentum is still downward." However, April showed a bit of a bump upward in home sales. But our home sales are still down 42 percent from last year this time, so that isn't a good figure to be quoting. And, the home builders also revealed, many of them had to actually pay the buyers' closing costs and pitch incentives just to get people to look at their stock. The word "glut" comes to mind when we see news like home sales near a 17-year low. Plus, sellers and builders are lowering the prices of homes out there, and the return to "affordibilty" is killing the housing market. Hopefully, you aren't one of the many people "upside down" with their mortgage(s), where your home is now worth less compared to the mortgage you are holding....

The Dreaded "R" Word
Along with gas prices that exceed $5 a gallon and poor housing figures comes the dreaded "R" word--Recession. Warren Buffet, the globe's biggest investor, has said it. Allen Greenspan, the used-to-be Federal Reserve Chairman, has said it, and now it appears the rest of the country might as well start coughing up that "R" word hairball. To really understand whether our country is in a true recession, experts say we need to experience more months of painful declines. The National Bureau of Economic Research says we probably will have to suffer a couple of months of being economically anemic. I guess we'll officially start talking about our country's lack of confidence in itself when we see people that resemble characters from the "Grapes of Wrath"....

Airport Commission on a Mission
Where should you be tomorrow if you want the latest in information about Mammoth's airport? You should gather up your things--notepad and pen--and head to the Town and County Conference Room (above Giovanni's) at 5 p.m. The May 28 meeting is an opportunity for "those in the know" to learn something new about how the Mammoth airport is progressing. I've been following this story since the 1990s, when Mono County sold that property to the Town of Mammoth Lakes. There have been more Environmental Impacts Reports and Statements done on that strip of land than Carter has little pink pills. The sheer weight of all of the EIRs and EISs combined would make a nice anchor for an oil tanker.... Yep, and after all is said and done, the Town's leaders are still trying to get regular flights into the mountain airport. However, today, the former business plan section of the airport's destiny lies locked up in a lawsuit, and airport improvements will begin this summer--blocking the runway for other uses, such as emergency air support in the event of a fire. Someday, maybe, we'll be meeting visitors who arrive in bigger planes at the airport facility, but I'm not sure I could hold my breath that long.

We Get to Play Another Week on the Mountain!
We love it when Mother Nature hands us an ace. In this case, another week of skiing and riding on Mammoth Mountain. Just when we thought the juice had run out of the snow clouds, along comes a big batch of freshies to remind us--we love to play in the snow in the spring. So, if you put your gear away last week, drag it out. With two to five feet of base, MMSA is going to run Broadway Express, Facelift, and Chair 23 from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., until JUNE 1. We say thank you to the big snow gods for their generosity!