Originally published in TRPA Newsletter: https://www.tahoeliving.org/engagement-approach

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) recognizes that affordable housing is vital for the health of our environment and communities.

Many who live and work in the Lake Tahoe Basin are affected by the housing crisis, particularly workers who must commute in from neighboring areas and those who experience sub-standard housing conditions.

To address this, TRPA has embarked on a multiyear project to update the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan, making housing more accessible while maintaining and improving environmental protections. The Cultivating Community, Conserving the Basin project promotes equity and climate resilience through improved growth management and meaningful community engagement. Together, we can ensure that everyone in Lake Tahoe has access to affordable, sustainable housing in thriving communities and a healthy environment.

By engaging in regionwide conversations around

Regional Plan policies, you can bring forward important changes in the Tahoe Basin to support your family, your community, and our region’s future. Throughout 2024 and 2025, there will be opportunities to weigh in on updates to the growth management system.

We hope to see you soon at a neighborhood meeting, community event, TRPA meeting, or to hear from you through other opportunities.

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Originally Published in Moonshine Ink, 03/07,2025, Staff Writers

SOS Outreach, a nonprofit focused on outdoor-based mentorship, has partnered with Northstar California to introduce teenagers to career paths within the ski industry. This experience represents an element of SOS Outreach’s multi-year curriculum designed to foster a sense of belonging and personal growth in kids and teenagers through skiing and snowboarding, mentorship, community service, social-emotional learning workshops, and career development. Industry Day, an event for middle and high school students in their fourth year of SOS’ Mentor Program, offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at ski resort operations and management. 

In preparation for Industry Day, youth collaborate with their peers and mentors to formulate thoughtful questions for resort leaders. They will tour departments such as snowmaking, ski patrol, lift operations, and food and beverage, learning firsthand about these critical roles and what skills are necessary to succeed. 

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Photo: https://sosoutreach.org/programs/career-development/

Originally Published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 03/06/2025, Written by Maria Palma KUNR Public Radio

A bill in the Nevada Legislature would limit the speed of watercraft on Lake Tahoe near the shoreline.

Senate Bill 106 makes it a misdemeanor to operate a vessel within a 600 foot no-wake zone. It would also limit speeds to 5 nautical miles.

Sponsored by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), it’s designed to increase public safety.

It is also intended to align Nevada state law with TRPA’s updated shoreline regulations, to ensure consistency for the public and law enforcement, said TRPA executive director Julie Regan.

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Back when I was in high school, I was sure Canada was one humongous hockey rink, our east coast was one humongous museum, and Old England was one humongous mausoleum… Had they awarded a diploma for certainty I would have graduated cum laude.

But now I’m older, and not as certain about things. In truth, the only thing I am sure about anymore is that we Americans are getting better at throwing bricks than laying them. We seem to have lost sight of the fact that the vestige of governing is kindness, and we should do ourselves a great service by placing kindness at the front of every political and diplomatic debate. In a country where we can be anything, let’s be kind, dammit! 

Eventually, we have to come to our senses. In the old sweet days of yore, legislation was an art of compromise. In Ripley’s Believe It or Not, we are still sentient beings with connected souls, and yet in these turbid times, no country, no individual, can afford to be complacent or idle.

Nevada is different from the other 49 states. We attract gamblers and geologists mainly, and jackass rabbits. We don’t take nearly as many anti-depressants as they do in last year’s happiest place, Finland. Here, divorce is an industry, and gambling an institution. We trust everyone, but cut the cards. Yes, in the Great State of Nevada we can still do pretty much whatever we want to do, ‘long as nobody gets hurt, and we don’t frighten the horses. Oh, and as the late great David Toll might like to remind us, “Las Vegas is Mother Earth’s erogenous zone.” A doll at a Vegas gift shop can bring a hundred dollars. Yes, a john will buy it for his date, and that date will return it the next morning for cash. We call it the Vegas bank…

Meanwhile, globalization, AI, Mother Nature and migration are cooking on all four burners with only sous-chefs in the kitchen. Theodore Roosevelt warned us of the dangers of having “a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.”

Personally, I’ve been a columnist for 45 years now, an impressionist of Mark Twain for 36, an ass for fifty, and am certain of only two things; one, the perfect union of gin and vermouth is a great and sudden glory, and two, we have no permanent enemies, except weapons of mass destruction.

Some say the sweet spot for a long life is 7,000 steps a day, and I would add with deep and abiding affection, that walking to our magnificent Lake of the Sky provides a daily sense of wonder that offers a foretaste of heaven. Reflection, nature, music, good conversation, and civility, are some of the world’s most reliable cures for heartburn at this tenuous moment in time. For the sake of us all, we are here for each other…

Audio: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Fhv4PrH1UuwlhbnTT23zO

Originally published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 02/25/2025, Submitted

Every second Tuesday of 2025, the entrepreneurial spirit of Lake Tahoe comes alive as Tahoe Inc., a cornerstone initiative of the Tahoe Prosperity Center’s Prosperity Playbook, brings together innovators, dreamers, and business leaders from both sides of the California-Nevada state line.

These dynamic, free monthly roundtables rotate through the Basin’s vibrant communities – Tahoe City, Truckee, Incline Village, South Lake Tahoe, and Zephyr Cove – creating a unique ecosystem of mountain-town innovation.

“These roundtables are where mountain innovation meets practical solutions,” says Derrick Martin of the Tahoe Prosperity Center. “From tech startups to outdoor industry pioneers, our diverse community comes together to tackle real challenges and create breakthrough opportunities. One month you might be learning from a sustainable tourism expert, the next from a 3D visualization artist – it’s this diversity of perspective that makes magic happen.”

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