tourists

Our home of beautiful South Lake Tahoe is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. With around 4.3 million visitors in 2011, as well as certain main events and holidays where our city's population doubles and even triples. With this nonstop tourism occurring throughout South Lake Tahoe, it only makes sense to have a “downtown” area, which is what the loop road will provide. Despite the concerns of how the loop road will hurt our community, there are a lot of long term social and environmental benefits involved in this project.

Location

Interior designer, Jessie Marchesseau, recently opened Revive Interior Design – a full-service interior design and home staging firm that serves communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Marchesseau, originally from Montana, has lived in the Lake Tahoe region for more than 15 years and has worked in local interior design and real estate industries for more than a decade. In addition to being a Tahoe local, Marchesseau has sold and designed homes in both California and Nevada, and understands the complexities of mountain and lake living.

With the massive traffic jam created by travelers trying to get out of South Lake Tahoe during the snowstorm January 31, several options have been discussed to prevent a repeat, especially with a large holiday crowd this weekend.

Winter has been welcomed back to the Lake Tahoe basin after a few years of drought and less-than-average snowfall, but a resurgence of winter brings with it not only more visitors to enjoy the snow, but poor traveling conditions for the driver.

With an estimated three million visitors to the Lake Tahoe Basin annually, there is a lot of vacation planning occurring, and the Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority has made it easier for those traveling to the South Shore.

Six months ago they launched "Explore Your Trip," a itinerary planning tool on their website that helps travelers plan their trip based on what they like to do, what their budget, what they like to each and many other categories.

The public has been on a long journey with the Tahoe Transportation District over the US50/South Shore Community Revitalization project, one that has followed twisted roads and endured roadblocks and detours.

Now it appears the project, also known as the Loop Road, is on the back straightaway, approaching the final turn and homestretch.

Affordable housing advocates say it would open up more housing and help reduce the city's skyrocketing housing prices.

Airbnb has spent more than $8 million and hired a top political operative to defeat a San Francisco initiative on the ballot Tuesday that could threaten the growth of one of the most valuable global technology companies.

Proposition F, which would limit short-term rentals, was brought by affordable housing advocates fed up with the city's housing stock being used as rentals for tourists while residents face skyrocketing rents and evictions.

As the camping season of 2015 draws to an end, Tahoe Valley Campground will celebrate over 40 years in business with a Tahoe Chamber ribbon cutting ceremony, barbecue and horseshoe tournament on October 22 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The community is invited to attend.

“We are very proud to celebrate another successful summer here at Tahoe Valley Campground,” Resort Manager Duane Jakob said. “We are so happy to be part of this community for the past 40 years and look forward to the future as the South Shore continues to be a world renowned destination.”

The tools are simple: A racket, a ball and a small net.
The rules are simple: Play singles or doubles on a 20 by 44 ft court. You use an underhand serve. Only serving team gets the points and the first team to 11 wins.
Who can play is simple: Everyone

The year was 1946. The President was Harry S. Truman, "It's a Wonderful Life" was in the theaters and a stamp cost three cents. It was also the year the Tahoe Trout Farm opened in South Lake Tahoe.

This business, located off of Lake Tahoe Blvd on Blue Lake Avenue, was the topic of the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission's meeting on August 13.

In an effort to "Clean Up Highway 50," the City's sign ordinance is meant to get rid of the blight and unattractive signage that visitors and locals see each day they travel the main artery through town.

With the three-day weekend starting for many on Friday, visitors started arriving in South Lake Tahoe early Thursday. If the amount of congestion on local roads and the crowds in the grocery stores are any indication, this is going to be a very busy holiday!

An estimated 50,000 to 55,000 people will be using South Lake Tahoe hotels, motels, campgrounds, timeshares and vacation home rentals. Another 50,000-70,000 will be enjoying the fireworks from the South Shore. This includes full time residents, part time residents and drive in day visitors.

Once again, an audience full of mainly Realtors and property managers filled the South Lake Tahoe City Council Chambers as the topic of Vacation Home Rentals (VHR) was on the agenda for discussion.

Renting a vacation home is being increasingly popular in South Lake Tahoe just as in other communities. Many tourists prefer to rent a VHR instead of a traditional motel or hotel room. There are many reasons from enjoying time with family to reunions and wedding parties.

South Lake Tahoe can create a sustainable economy if we focus on "active tourism." This was the message relayed by the panel of speakers at Wednesday's Tahoe Talk series at Lake Tahoe Community College.

If the 15 page spread about Lake Tahoe in the May edition of Bike magazine is any indication, people know about the activity/recreation based tourism awaiting them in Tahoe, and they're about to come.

Are we ready?,

Just about.

The majority of Tahoe locals and tourists lack knowledge of bear precaution, causing the growing presence of bears in South Lake Tahoe’s residential areas. In recent years, Lake Tahoe’s black bears have become problematic when outside their natural meadow and forest habitat. Because of human habits, bears have become attracted to local neighborhoods. Passing routines down to their cubs, bears remain dependent on the human food source left outside many residents’ homes.

“Hotel Showdown” squares off four different hotels against one another in a
winner-take-all competition. Representatives from the competing hotels spend the night at each other’s property, and with an exacting eye for detail, award points for every aspect of their experience. The highest-rated hotel wins a coveted $25,000.

The hour long episode featuring South Lake Tahoe’s 968 Park Hotel is titled ”Cat’s Out of the Bag with a Gun Show” and premieres Tuesday, January 27 at 9:00 p.m. PST.

The campaign posters on Measures M, N and O that have plastered the west slope for a few months have now made their way to South Lake Tahoe. But, what are they all about?

Growth, to put it in one word.

On one side you have people who want to have control of growth in the county and not let it go to Sacramento. On the other side there is a grass roots movement to keep all growth out of the county unless Cal Trans says its okay.

The seven candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were at Wednesday nights Candidate Forum at Lake Tahoe Golf Course. The Tahoe Chamber and Tahoe Daily Tribune hosted the evening which had Rabbi Evon Yakar moderating the questions and answers.

About 100 people showed up to listen to panel who were given questions prepared by the chamber's new political committee as well as those asked by the audience. The questions were asked of different candidates so not everyone was asked the same one.

What started off as a leisurely 90 minute cruise on the Tahoe Queen turned into quite the adventure for passengers on board Monday afternoon.

The boat was about 30 minutes into its Emerald Bay cruise when it became stuck on a sandbar. At about 3:30 p.m., South Lake Tahoe Fire Department received a call that the Tahoe Queen was stuck off the Regan Beach shore. It is not known at this time why emergency personnel weren't called to the scene until 90 minutes after the Tahoe Queen got stuck.

Dana Williams on Sustainability and small town politics at the Leadership Lake Tahoe Summit.

As mayor of Park City, Utah (home of the Sundance Film Festival and the 2002 winter Olympics) Dana Williams has faces many problems familiar to Lake Tahoe: how do you overcome the oppositional politics of a small town with a set political culture? How do you balance the need to accommodate huge numbers of tourists while keeping your locals happy? How do you make your town a world leader in sustainability when your state government fights you all the way?

Jenn Boyd of Weidinger PR hosts this wide-ranging panel discussion from the Elevate Your View: Leadership Lake Tahoe 2014 summit. The panel features Dana Williams, former mayor of Park City, UT; plus Carl Ribaudo of Strategic Marketing Group and Carol Chaplin of the Lake Tahoe Visitor's Authority's Tahoe South campaign.

PANEL DISCUSSION:
Jenn Boyd Introduction (0:35)
Dana Williams on transforming Park City (6:06)
Carol Chaplin on what Tahoe South is doing to promote itself (10:00)

Since March 3rd, trash pick up times in South Lake Tahoe have been moved to two hours later in an effort to reduce wildlife problems and clean up, according to South Tahoe Refuse, protect our unique environment.

While it's too early to tell if the later times will keep bears out of local trash, both Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care and the Bear League say they feel it will make a big difference.

The City of South Lake Tahoe is letting the voters decide the future of paid parking in the city limits during the next election on June 3, 2014. Voters will be able to either approve or repeal the city's paid parking ordinance.

During Tuesday night's City Council session, several options were voted on that address concerns the public had on paid parking. They will go into effect immediately, well ahead of the election.

With a lack of winter storms in Lake Tahoe and the usual snow that accompanies them, visitors are looking for things to enjoy during their visit.

The calm water and mild days have been perfect for fishing, whether its boat fishing on Lake Tahoe or ice fishing on the frozen lakes in the area.

I ran into a group of fisherman just ending their venture onto the lake with Tahoe Sport Fishing on Tuesday. The group of men were from Australia, South Africa, Los Angeles and Sacramento and by the looks of their smiles and their catch, they had a great time.

The State of the City address by the Mayor was upbeat, informative and a real pat myself on the back (if any of them actually could) and see all the positive things we have done to improve the city while sugarcoating on how we actually got to a balanced budget.