Talk to any local with a telescope and they'll tell you that the night sky around here isn't what it used to be.
The resort has grown hugely in the past 11-plus years that I've lived here, with new hotels, neighbourhoods and amenities all shooting photons into the night sky. You can still see more of the galaxy from Whistler than you can from Vancouver or Seattle, but the Milky Way is getting faint and far fewer stars are visible to the naked eye.
That light pollution is a direct consequence of growth (not to mention the lack of bylaws and planning to preserve this once spectacular interstellar resource) and in the scheme of things it's hard to measure what the true impact is. Certainly something beautiful and intangible is lost, but it's equally possible that something tangible is being lost as well.
I always imagined what it would be like coming to Whistler from a city and looking up, seeing the stars for maybe the first time in your life. That's an experience we've never explicitly sold in any specific way but no doubt it has (or had?) a value. Maybe it was one of the reasons that people came back to the resort year after year, or bought homes here. Maybe it sold a few extra night tours. Maybe it was the little detail that put Whistler over the top for somebody scouting out the resort before booking a conference. Who knows?
But if our night sky does have a value, and I believe it does, then it can safely be said that value has diminished over time.
The reason I bring up stars is that I believe the same can be said for other Whistler experiences; some of the things we've become famous for have also diminished by the simple fact that we've grown. The winter powder skiing experience, for example. The summer beach experience. The village dining/pub/club experience (to the point where you can face a two-hour wait for a table some nights).
And now Whistler is at a crossroads once again. We have an abundance of homes and hotel rooms, and more beds to fill than ever - too many beds if we're to be honest, but they have to be filled all the same in order to keep the resort and its growing population gainfully employed and paying down mortgages on all those new homes. It's a Catch-22 situation: we need more and more people to come here for the experience, but the more people that come here the less that experience is worth.
Take Chuck. (I don't know his real name, I only knew him for seven minutes on a chairlift one day last winter and I'm calling him Chuck.) Chuck was relocated to Whistler last year from Vernon, where he was a regular at Silver Star. He loved Whistler Blackcomb's terrain, but was dismayed by how fast powder disappeared, the long lift lines, the crowded lodges at lunch time. "The runs are longer but I used to get 15 or 20 runs a day at Silver Star," he told me. "Here? What is it, 1:30? I started at 8:30 this morning, and I think I've done all of six runs."
To be fair it was a holiday Saturday and a powder day to boot, but he made a good point.
The question is, what can we do about it? Little Whistler got big, well past city-big at this point, and we're going to get a little bigger before we reach build-out. None of us planned to move to a city, but we're living in one all the same. And while it's nice to pretend that we're still a small town, the reality is that we're a massive resort with a small town's-worth of things to do. A lot of the experiences on which this resort is based stayed the same size, and aren't big enough for the number of beds we need to fill.
We need to grow, again. I'm not talking about adding more homes and beds exactly - the successful Whistler Blackcomb IPO shattered once and for all the ski industry myth that resorts don't make any money without a real estate component (as do the enduring examples of Mt. Baker and Mt. Hood, and all three Lower Mainland ski areas).
Maybe, just to fill the beds we already have, Whistler needs another local ski hill/mountain in the valley. No doubt environmentalists would take issue with that, but I'm all for concentrating development.
We need an outdoor ice rink, something that has been quite successful at other mountain resorts in the province.
We need more to do in the village - indoor, rainy day things for families, indoor late night things (e.g. pool hall, casino or Alpenrock Mark II) for locals and visitors, and more capacity (read: bar and restaurant seats) so our winter guests aren't wandering around for hours looking for somewhere to sit. We need buskers to give our village life and character. We need to get rid of that ridiculous anti-nudity bylaw that prevents new strip clubs from opening, but also prevents events like the once-famous wine raves.
And what happened to our retail strategy? I see more empty storefronts than ever. Meanwhile, the shopping experience here has a number of significant and glaring gaps that can't be filled by more coffee shops or t-shirt stores.
To be fair, there are also a number of exciting things that are happening that have expanded the resort experience. For example, Whistler Olympic Park and the Whistler Sliding Centre add something to the big picture.
Summer has been Whistler's biggest area of growth recently and the opportunities for continued growth are significant. Mountain biking is a resource that is paying off and growing. Our parks are getting bigger and better, and with some trail upgrades and backcountry cabins we can offer an alpine experience to rival anything in Europe. Our golf courses are awesome, once that industry recovers. The cultural side of things can definitely get bigger, and the medals plaza creates a lot of new opportunities for outdoor entertainment, but we still have a long way to go.
Or rather, a long way to "grow." (Do I sound like a consultant yet?)
Fact is, staying small is not an option anymore. We're huge. And reflecting on what Whistler used to be will not bring our stars back.
The question is: how do we grow in ways that compliment tourism and improve the experience for our guests? The Town of Whistler was great while it lasted. How do we make the City of Whistler even better?
