Squamish choked to death by climbing ropes and bike chains?

[squamish climber]

According to a letter writer to the Squamish Chief paper, the town's industry is nearly dead and environmentalists and outdoor rec enthusiasts have turned the place into a low-wage resort town. Reading this letter it seems Squamish's transition to the "outdoor rec capital" is still having a polarizing effect.

The writer says:

Squamish is dying a slow death, being choked by mountain ropes and bike chains. Anytime any big industry in the last few years has tried to set up and create jobs, the environmentalists came out of the woods and convinced the city council to shut it down. What are we left with now? Bankrupt hotel. Bankrupt golf course. Countless small businesses shutting down, minimum-wage service jobs. Failing infrastructure. Rising taxes. Every ruralist’s dream place to live. We have 70-plus per cent of the community commuting to jobs in Whistler and the city — great promotion for a “green” community, I think. “Come live in Squamish and drive 1 hour to your job.

I'd be interested in what people think about this. Is Squamish headed in the in right direction?

[coastal_climber]

That fact that its spread out so far (squamish south and garibaldi area) can't help...

[BK]

He's got a point about the idiocy of commuting but this situation is typical. As far as an Industrial base goes, If MacBlo , Interfor etc hadn't creamed the valley and shipped raw logs at a completely unsustainable rate in the glory days there might be more action there. If The goddamn Libs hadn't sold out BC Rail there would still be a Maintenance yard going and there could still be a slim hope of an intelligent move to rail commuting. There should be a bluecollar base of industry in every community but blaming the latte sucking enviro yuppies is just a sad diversion from the truth. They let those jobs slip through their fingers while they pissed away their paycheques in the chieftan and voted Mulroony and Campbell because they sang a tune they liked.

hey, are you trying to turn this into Supertopo?

[coastal_climber]

oh god. politics.