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Vote Kaltenbach for supervisor

To the editor:

I am proud to support Gary Kaltenbach for North Elba town supervisor for one reason: Alone among the candidates, Gary is committed to taking the strongest possible measures to tackle the short-term rental crisis.

You know it, and I know it: The explosion of short-term rentals over the past decade has decimated both the number of moderately priced apartments that are available for long-term tenants as well as residential neighborhoods once populated by middle-class families.

Gary is committed to using every available tool to stop and reverse the conversion of our community’s available housing into e-hotels.

It is no coincidence that our community has more short-term rentals than ever before, yet the Lake Placid Central School’s kindergarten enrollment for 2019-2020 is the smallest in living memory. Young families cannot move to our community because there is no housing.

There are many potential solutions to the problem, but other communities have already adopted the most effective option: In areas zoned “residential,” short-term rentals should be prohibited in buildings in which the owner does not reside. This option would preserve actual Adirondack hospitality and allow local residents to provide lodging, while deterring real estate speculation and profiteering by absentee landlords who live far away and use loopholes in our zoning codes to run multiple e-commerce operations in residential neighborhoods.

Gary is a candidate with no ties to the real estate industry or the hotel business. Crucially, he was not a member of the past town boards that passively allowed the short-term rental problem to fester and mushroom until it became a crisis.

Gary is a political independent and a graduate of Lake Placid High School, and his campaign is anchored by a simple promise: He will use the strongest-possible legal and political tools to preserve and strengthen our communities.

Of course, in addition to Lake Placid, the town of North Elba also includes Ray Brook and part of Saranac Lake. Readers outside of the “Olympic Village” may wonder why they should support a candidate who promises to confront a problem plaguing nearby Lake Placid.

To those readers I offer a simple response: You’re next.

Do not make the same mistake as Lake Placid and steadfastly decline to address this issue.

We as a community should not be interested in watered-down half-measures, vague promises, or compromises meant to merely mollify. Our solution to this crisis cannot be to throw more taxpayer money at housing projects. We should certainly not tolerate town leadership whose only solution is conducting further studies to learn more about a problem that is as plain as day.

On Election Day, vote for the continued existence of our neighborhoods. Vote for the revitalization of our local workforce. Vote for the preservation of our schools.

Vote for a future in which Lake Placid, Ray Brook, and Saranac Lake are places where normal people can afford to live, and work, and raise children.

Vote for Gary Kaltenbach.

Bryan Liam Kennelly

Lake Placid

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