City Talk Article for October 27, 2010

Authored By Councilor Dennis Rayner

A recent visitor from Hungary told me, I was very lucky to live in Sedona, because it was like being in paradise.  Since I always felt that way, I am amazed and saddened on how divided our city’s stakeholders respond on so many issues important and vital to us all.  Take for example the safety issues on SR 89A, the NSA designation for our national forest, or future development of Sedona.

The passionate and often vitriolic comments in my emails and the editorials I read in the local media are testimonials to this discontent.  Furthermore, residents who have lived in other small towns echo this same feeling of unusual discord. 

Certainly Sedona’s Vision Statement, which always makes me feel good, as I read it, would suggest we have a perfect town that reflects the needs and desires of our stakeholders.  So what is the problem?

As I personally see it, the biggest divide is between our residents, many of whom are retired, and our tourism-based business community who often do not see eye to eye on the importance of tourism and the quality of life we enjoy in Sedona. 

Clearly the tax revenue from tourism pays for our city’s expenses but also our human needs.  But we must also remember our unique environment, i.e. our red rocks, great weather, hiking trails, clean air, majestic dark skies, our art community, and our southwest heritage and small town character, attracts our tourists and our residents all of whom make for a thriving community. 

Our primary business in Sedona is tourism.  However, the product we sell to everyone is our magnificent and spiritually unique environment plus Sedona’s attractiveness as an art and culture destination.

Perhaps we haven’t dialoged sufficiently to discuss and understand our collective needs and community vision for Sedona.  We often tend to meet in separate stakeholders groups, which exacerbates, and polarizes our differences rather than unifying our common concerns.

The only solutions, I can suggest are greater mixed stakeholder participation in our Community Plan Update, Sedona’s commissions, and the quarterly Neighborhood Listening sessions that Sedona’s City Council and staff are holding.  I truly believe we can come to a consensus, a true meeting of the hearts and minds and put our differences aside, if we are sincerely interested in keeping Sedona the paradise it can and should be for us all. 

These are my personal views and opinions.