San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
South Lake Tahoe, adventurer’s mecca.
Can South Lake outgrow its reputation as a gambler’s paradise?
On a midsummer Friday afternoon in South Lake Tahoe, traffic crawled along Highway 50 toward the casinos, where a steady stream of tourists arrived to try their luck at the blackjack table or catch the night’s entertainment — the Steve Miller Band and Peter Frampton were in town.
Meanwhile, a mile away, filmmaker and photographer Corey Rich fired up a gas grill on the patio in front of his office on Ski Run Boulevard. Dogs wandered around the office, and a few pedestrians meandered up the sidewalk out front, on their way to the farmers’ market. Rich’s friend, professional climber and writer Chris McNamara, tapped a keg of locally brewed pilsner. Soon, about 30 of their friends, colleagues and neighbors would be mingling, enjoying the warm Tahoe evening.
“This street is awesome,” said McNamara. “It’s one of the only streets, maybe in the world, that connects an amazing lake to a mountain. We believe that you can have a really affordable spot on a really cool street and be a part of a new, cool transformation.”
Ski Run, a 1½-mile stretch that runs from Lake Tahoe to the base of Heavenly Ski Resort, is the locals’ downtown. Tucked underneath tall pines lining the street are casual restaurants, an array of businesses — vintage clothing, ski supplies, a day spa, lodges — and a smattering of small homes. But there are also a lot of vacant buildings and empty lots on this street. Many of the ski shops are open only half the year,
when the chair lifts are spinning.
Rich and McNamara want to change that.
With a beer in one hand, McNamara rolled out a zoning map for Ski Run Boulevard across the office pingpong table. It showed a mix of colored squares lining the street — red ones indicating vacant lots. Several once were a motel that thrived in former, snowier days but was later torn down. “Our goal is to find people to fill in the red squares,” McNamara said.
South Lake Tahoe has long been positioned as a mountain cousin to Las Vegas and Reno. Bordered by Heavenly to the south and the lake to the north, the town’s length is sliced by a five-lane east-west highway, threading chains of strip malls and blighted motels until it hits the Nevada border and the requisite cluster of casinos. But this town is also a launchpad to some of California’s premier outdoor recreation. World-class skiing, mountain biking, hiking and rock climbing are just minutes away — not to mention the lake itself. And compared with other lakefront communities around Tahoe, it’s relatively affordable, with a median home value of $434,000.
By championing South Lake as a paradise for professionals who want a mountain lifestyle, a living wage and affordable real estate, McNamara and Rich aim to help the town shed its reputation as a gambling destination for an economy and culture that is more harmonious with its natural environment.
“It feels like this is the moment where we can create this downtown atmosphere,” Rich says. “Our goal is to find a couple more businesses or investors that see the opportunity on Ski Run. We’re building the momentum, and it’ll take just a few more key players to step in.”
A prolific Yosemite rock climber and the author of 10 climbing guidebooks, McNamara is also the founder and editor in chief of Outdoor Gear Lab, a website that reviews everything from hiking shoes to mountain bikes. He grew up in Marin County, and had always seen Tahoe as a place to vacation, not to live.
But he visited frequently, usually staying with Rich, who moved to South Lake Tahoe 15 years ago. “Chris probably spent a hundred days a year on my couch,” Rich says. Eventually, McNamara’s perspective flipped. Disillusioned by the Bay Area’s increasingly high cost of living and eyeing Tahoe’s proximity to major airports and cities, McNamara realized it was a perfect place to run his business. He moved here in 2014.
“South Lake became this amazing opportunity,” McNamara says. “Not only could I hire great people who have an amazing lifestyle, I could pay them a living wage where they could actually buy a house. It got me reinvigorated on the area.” Two years ago, McNamara and Rich pooled their resources to buy an office that would house their growing companies. They found a 1,500-square-foot space at
“South Lake became this amazing opportunity. Not only could I hire great people who have an amazing lifestyle, I could pay them a living wage where they could actually buy a house.” Chris McNamara, founder and editor in chief of Outdoor Gear Lab
1111 Ski Run — formerly a computer repair store — and overhauled it completely. Today, the modern office for Rich’s production company, Novus Select, has two beer taps and a separate 800square-foot cabin for equipment storage and video editing. (McNamara rents another office down the street for Outdoor Gear Lab.)
“I’m reminded, almost on a weekly basis, that (moving to South Lake Tahoe) was the right decision,” Rich says. In 2016, McNamara and Rich articulated their vision for transforming Ski Run into the cultural hub of South Lake Tahoe in a manifesto they published online and distributed among the community.
“Why not work to change Lake Tahoe into the most vibrant mountain community in the U.S.?” McNamara wrote. “Why not become recognized as the Outdoor Capital of the World?”
The pair outlined three goals: First, establish more hiking and biking trails and moderate rock-climbing routes, and host community events like farmers’ markets. Second, draw business interest to Ski Run Boulevard and “raise the architectural bar” of the street to bring more higher-wage, yearround jobs. Third, build a single-track bike trail around Lake Tahoe.
“Rather than a road map, this document is a compass, an effort to enhance a shared vision that moves this community in the same direction,” McNamara wrote.
The response has been positive. “It helped spark this enthusiasm and energy for Ski Run,” Rich says. Community meetings and barbecues to discuss Rich’s and McNamara’s vision were well attended. They raised money for a local nonprofit to build trails. They started a speaker series, hosting luminaries in the outdoor world like adventure photographer Chris Burkard and pro climbers Emily Harrington and Adrian Ballinger. However, McNamara and Rich are honest when they say they are not developers or city planners. They have not submitted any development proposals to the South Lake Tahoe Planning Department that would turn Ski Run into the vibrant main street they’ve dreamed up. Anything that does get submitted would go through a public comment period and be thoroughly vetted.
Still, the synergy they have built is welcomed by city officials, said Hilary Roverud, the deputy director of development services at the city Planning Department.
“It’s great that they’re moving forward in a grassroots way,” said Roverud. “Often city planning comes from the local agency. We do outreach and get people’s opinions and develop the vision. But in their case, they’re doing that on their own, and that’s a big advantage for them.”
Over the past two years, McNamara has also been working with the Tahoe Area Mountain Bike Association and the U.S. Forest Service to expand hiking and biking trails. Recently, he’s been an advocate for local mountain bikers, meeting with the Forest Service to build a new trail to cover the last 15 miles in a 130-mile mountain-bike route that would circumnavigate Lake Tahoe. He says wants to create a new experience that would reinforce South Lake Tahoe as a worldwide mecca for outdoor sports and recreation.
“I think it’s a good metaphor that represents what I hope Tahoe is,” McNamara says. “It’s not the bachelorparty capital in the mountains, not the aging casino capital, but this true kind of outdoor capital with worldclass experiences across the spectrum.”
Back at Ski Run Boulevard, at the intersection with Highway 50, more construction has been under way — a project that surprised McNamara and Rich, in a good way. In May 2017, as they were in the middle of remodeling their office, the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission approved a new Whole Foods on a site that was an old, shuttered motel. Slated for completion this year, the development also comes with a stream restoration project, supporting the regional efforts to restore and preserve Lake Tahoe’s clarity.
“It’s replacing something that was tired and had passed its age with something that is new and has a bunch of environmental benefits,” says Scott Fair, a commercial real estate agent who grew up in South Lake Tahoe and moved back to the area after working in industrial real estate in San Francisco. “We’re finally getting released from the casino economy and moving toward something more centered on the lake and the mountains and the life that comes with it.”
Julie Brown writes about skiing and the outdoors from her home in Reno. Email: travel@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @imjuliebrown