OPINIONS and EDITORIALS
This page is for sharing the viewpoints of other persons who are interested in Mariposa and the surrounding region. They may or may not be members of MERG and their views are not necessarily endorsed by the MERG directors. We welcome submissions of information for this page; input may be made to webmaster@merg-mariposa.org.
The following letter was submitted by Lou Aceto of Oakhurst and was recently published in the Mariposa Gazette.
Seems I spoke too soon as to where Supervisor-elect Dianne Fritz stands on the Yosemite busing issue. She has publicly stated she wants to discuss privatizing YARTS-which consensus believes would end YARTS; no more tax dollars provided by Representative George Radanovich and the National Park Service (NPS). Without YARTS, the NPS would have to implement its own bus system to eliminate all private vehicle day visitor access-the bus system that exists in the Yosemite Valley Plan (YVP).
Ms. Fritz was recently quoted in the Oakland Tribune (12/5/04): "Who wants to picnic where there are 100 cars?" Has Ms. Fritz read the YVP? It shows the primary picnic area will be within the Camp 6 parking complex-a parking lot with space for 550 cars!! That complex will also include the 22-bay transit center, docking point for the never-ending chain of diesel buses. So as she buys lunch from the concessionaire to "cut down on the stuff you have to carry" on the bus, she'll have the opportunity to inhale diesel fumes with her sandwich.
In the same article, Ms. Fritz admits the NPS is limiting her vehicle access and attempts to justify such limits by using NPS rhetoric saying, "But I also appreciate why they're doing it. I appreciate they're trying to protect the beauty of the Park. And if you've got it covered in cars, it's not such a beautiful experience." Ms. Fritz, are 500+ daily roundtrip buses (one arriving every 1.4 minutes at the transit center during peak season), plus tour buses and YARTS a more "beautiful experience"? Buses, after all, are just bigger cars-only dirtier, smellier, noisier, more glare, and more visually intrusive, and certainly more damaging to the environment. Ms. Fritz, is beauty defined by the NPS as spending 94 cents of every YVP dollar on commercial development? Perhaps beauty is the logging of thousands of trees to make way for widening Southside Drive to accommodate all those buses or to create room for expanded lodging and housing footprints? Or maybe the NPS idea of beauty is the desecration of the Yosemite Falls area so the Yosemite Fund elite can have a "better view" than what Mother Nature had in mind-not to mention the bathroom that looks like a mini-lodge and the abominable bus stop that appears to be nothing more than a monument to the Fund and its architect?
Some questions for Ms. Fritz as apparently since her election she is now a spokesperson on Yosemite and the YVP. Are you aware that a well-managed private vehicle access program is environmentally, socially, and economically superior to any bus scheme? Did Ms. Fritz campaign on this side of the Yosemite access issue? Did she campaign on removing blue collar affordable campground access? Does she have any conflicts of interest since Happy Burger sells YARTS tickets? Do other supervisors agree with her on limiting private vehicle and camping access? Will the Oakland Tribune story be reprinted in the Mariposa Gazette so locals can read what is being trumpeted outside our area?
It is interesting how once elected, a person's 'perception of reality' changes!!
Lou Aceto, Oakhurst (559-683-4987)