<\/p>\n
When Moab Mayor Dave Sakrison entered local politics in the mid-1980s, the uranium industry was in steep decline. Mining had been the town\u2019s primary employer, but the local uranium mill had filed for bankruptcy, and people were leaving town.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a pretty economically depressed era,\u201d Mayor Dave, as he\u2019s known around town, said recently. Someone had posted signs at both ends of town: Last person out, turn out the lights. \u201cYou could\u2019ve shot a cannon off down Main Street,\u201d he said, \u201cand you wouldn\u2019t have hit too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakrison, who had been selling mining supplies, got into the video business, back when people still rented videotapes. He later bought what became Dave\u2019s Corner Market, where he can often be found, making coffee and talking with the locals.<\/p>\n
After 16 years as mayor, Sakrison will be replaced in January by Emily Niehaus, the founder of affordable housing nonprofit Community Rebuilds. Over more than three decades, Sakrison has both witnessed and actively contributed to making Moab the place it has become: a much visited, heavily Instagrammed destination whose popularity continues to grow with dizzying speed. When he first ran for city council, tourism \u2014 as a means to boost Moab\u2019s economy after the mining downturn \u2014 was a key part of his campaign. \u201cWe live between two national parks,\u201d he reasoned, in a scenic red rock area unique in all the world. \u201cThe obvious choice was, well, let\u2019s try to promote tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
It worked. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very successful in bringing people to our community,\u201d Sakrison said, his phrasing deliberately neutral and also a major understatement. In 1985, nearby Arches National Park saw fewer than 400,000 visitors. In 2016, that number topped 1.5 million. In total, it\u2019s estimated that more than two million tourists now visit the town each year. A former director of the Moab Area Travel Council once described it as \u201cDisneyland on dirt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakrison spoke candidly about the costs of Moab\u2019s tourism success. Reliance on a service economy means mostly low-wage jobs. Affordable housing is a huge and growing problem. AirBnB dealt an unforeseeable blow, and slick condo developments are popping up for overnight rentals only. A lot of the new housing is, as Sakrison put it, \u201cnot affordable for the average person who wants to work in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
On any given weekend, the influx of visitors easily doubles or triples the town\u2019s population of about 5,000. That\u2019s strained the town\u2019s services, from water and sewer infrastructure to police and fire departments. Hordes of adventure-bound ATVs rumble along Main Street, making so much noise that the town launched a \u201cthrottle down in town\u201d campaign last year.<\/p>\n
But Moab is not just a tourist destination. \u201cThis is a community first and foremost,\u201d said Sakrison. Quality of life for residents motivated projects like the Mill Creek Parkway, a recreational path wending through downtown, and the Moab Recreation and Aquatics Center, which opened in 2011. Moab has always been \u201ca Main Street kind of community,\u201d noted Sakrison, with commercial development hewing closely to Route 191, the only major artery. Not so anymore: Moab never tightened up its zoning, and now, in what Sakrison lamentingly called the \u201cgeneral commercialization of the community,\u201d development has crept into neighborhoods. It\u2019s slid down the highway strip far past downtown.<\/p>\n
Since the days of Edward Abbey, Moab\u2019s increasing tourist traffic has produced curmudgeons: people who fall in love with Moab at a moment in time, who uneasily watch the throngs roll in and wax bitter and elegiac about how it used to be. But Mayor Dave is a different specimen: He has always been less concerned about the place Moab was than the place it is becoming. These days, Sakrison is somewhat contrite about what\u2019s happened to his town. \u201cThere are things I wish we would\u2019ve done a heck of a lot differently than we did,\u201d he said. Recalling the way that he and others in Moab actively promoted tourism after uranium went bust, he warned, \u201cYou gotta be careful what you wish for.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Utah\u2019s controversial Bears Ears National Monument garnering considerable attention, other southern Utah towns may look to Moab as an example \u2014 or a cautionary tale. The mayor of Blanding, a city with the motto \u201cBase Camp to Adventure,\u201d is a friend of Sakrison\u2019s, and they often discuss that topic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I could write the book on becoming a tourist community,\u201d Sakrison quipped. His advice comes down to planning, both in terms of zoning and simply thinking things through: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take a well-balanced approach to what you want to be,\u201d he said. He feels Moab lost sight of that. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done an adequate job of trying to expand or diversify the economy in any real substantial way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When we spoke recently, Sakrison called back a few minutes after we\u2019d hung up. \u201cLet\u2019s not forget the good things,\u201d he said gently. He mentioned some of the benefits of tourism: the relative economic stability, the 60-year-old wastewater treatment plant finally getting redone along with other key infrastructure projects. \u201cWe\u2019re replacing pipes now, we\u2019re repaving streets,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re employing more people.\u201d He\u2019s also set his sights on a possible Utah State University satellite campus that\u2019s been discussed for years, a project he will continue working on when he\u2019s no longer mayor.<\/p>\n
But what Sakrison is most proud of is the relationship Moab residents have with the land. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to do things that enhance or maintain the beautiful place we live in,\u201d he told me. The county-sponsored Trail Mix committee works with land management agencies to develop and maintain trails for mountain bikers, hikers and equestrians. Sakrison mentioned efforts by local groups like the motorcyclist-led nonprofit Ride With Respect to educate people about staying on trails to protect fragile desert lands. \u201cWe\u2019re very sensitive to the environment,\u201d Sakrison said, \u201cand we want our visitors to enjoy and respect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakrison plans to remain engaged after his time as mayor ends, though he\u2019s not yet sure how. He\u2019s been advised, he told me with a laugh, to \u201clearn how to say no.\u201d But he cares deeply about Moab \u2014 and not in the way that visitors, who come craving red rock views or an adrenaline rush, do. \u201cI love the people who live here,\u201d he said, with clear sincerity. \u201cI really want to see the best for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was first published on hcn.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" final term ends, Moab mayor weighs the cost of decades of transformation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13,700],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-moab"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102563"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}