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THE BIG THREE
Many citizens are running for offices in Lake Geneva, as we describe in another article as you read further into this pre-election edition of the Geneva Shore Report. However, the real issues being campaigned upon often get lost in the election process and cycle itself. Personalities have come to mean more than ever as social media, television, and cell phone technology have turned almost every avenue of life, and every genre of social participation into some version of entertainment.
The news is no longer really the news. It’s broadcast from everywhere and the loudest, most raucous, and often inaccurate voices seem to rise to the top of any group of those paying attention. There are three main issues that can get lost in the campaign process, simply because their applications, although vital and potentially rewarding or painful, apply to almost everyone living in or around the community are deeply affected, seem to get lost in all the hustle and bustle of making elections entertaining instead of substantive.
The big three, as the Geneva Shore Report has determined them to be, are the issues coming at the citizenry which will require some pretty deep study, thought, research, and then decision-making on the part of either returning leadership members who win the coming election or the new people replacing them. Those three issues, some ongoing and some lying just up ahead are;
- The problem of how to deal with short-term rentals so that the city is compensated for allowing them and the intended support services from the community that they require, the communities are damaged by their presence as little as possible and the people who spend the money to build them are allowed to make money from their investment.
- The Hillmoor development looms on the horizon. The decisions necessary to proceed with the recovery and improvement of that wilding stretch of property on the city’s east side must be made, relatively quickly.
- The third big issue facing the current or coming leadership is concerning the redevelopment of the downtown by the state and county (with the city’s approval and participation) of the main thoroughfare that runs east and west from one side of the city to the other (called Main Street or Highway 50).
The current leadership has done nothing at all about handling the problem of managing the short-term rental development or taking care of even knowing how many short-term rentals there are. They’ve kicked that can down the road. No decisions whatever have been made concerning the development of the Hillmoor property by the current administration. There’s been talk and the formation of many committees and subcommittees, but nothing decided.
Finally, the coming redevelopment of Main Street and the potential and profound change that will come to the business community up and down Main Street, with almost equal dislocation to the ‘feeder’ streets of Cook, Broad, and Center, has not really been discussed in detail at all.
Will the people running for office, hoping to replace this rather stagnant, although well-meaning, existent leadership prevail and bring new blood, new ideas, and real definitive decisions to the city table? That question remains unanswered and probably must remain unanswered until the public makes its decision about them and these three issues on the 2nd of April.
Voting has never been more important in the City of Lake Geneva’s local scene.
