Editor:
Talk about the little engine that shouldn’t. Telling cheap law-breaking tourists what to do should be obvious.
Riv. Co. Ordinance 10.12.010 — “Driving on private land — Owner’s permission required,” explicitly states, “No person shall drive a motor vehicle on lands belonging to or occupied by another without having in his or her immediate possession and, upon request of a peace officer, displaying written permission from the owner of such lands …” It says nothing about the owner needing to be present.
When piled with parking over the white line, blocked driveways, trespassing in our yards and littering on a state highway or county roads, I expect enforcement with the taxes and outrageous DMV fees I already pay.
Telling these folk to go to the county or state parks at property-owner expense as a courtesy is an insult. They were filled with scofflaws not paying the entrance fees. Marking properties and proper enforcement is the appropriate politically incorrect answer.
Don’t ask me as a parcel owner to finance tourism guidance infrastructure. Business and the county should do that with tourism transient occupancy taxes already levied.
As for WNKI as a communications tool advocating this position, I am profoundly disappointed with Reitz, Tell, Layton and Foster as they appear to be considering re-beginning the slippery slope to unlawful broadcast content. But what can you expect from folk who masquerade as homeowner advocates hiding behind another interest?
WNKI should have been connected decades ago to the federal/state/county emergency alert system, National Weather Service severe weather alerts, Caltrans/CHP road hazard/closure alerts, Riverside County Office of Emergency Services/Riverside County incident hazard reports, and the federal Inciweb, to mean something to me as an information-alert platform, not as a misguided, failed and defunct tourism propaganda device unwittingly funded by homeowners.
Wake up, Idyllwild. The central business district expects you to fund the bill/consequences of its tourism customers and subsequent indiscretions.
Jeff Smith
Pine Cove
