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A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

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Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#21

Post by lumost »

atourgates wrote: post #16
iamthepieman wrote: post #5

I live and ski in this area[0]. Have season's passes to Burke Mountain and even met Stenger and Quiros back when they were running the ski areas. On the slopes, at my coworking space, and around the campfire in the Summer, the topic of how to make this little pocket of Northeast Vermont more economically viable is a topic that comes up often. I'm starting to form an opinion that we shouldn't try to compete, at any le…

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

Jay peak is more of a six hour drive. SLC would be a 3-4 hour flight. You can get from downtown Boston to the airport in 10 minutes.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#22

Post by ryandrake »

jhfdbkofdchk wrote: post #15
ryandrake wrote: post #7

> The whole program, it turned out, lent itself to dishonesty. Faraway investors were desperate to get to the U.S., and didn’t keep close track of where their money was going. The lawyers and brokers got large transaction fees and had little incentive to point out potential wrongdoing. “Everybody was making millions of dollars, but very few people wanted to speak the truth about the riskiness of these investments,” G…

I'm not going to argue with your central point that we spend too much time scrutinizing small dollar awards. The PPP program was ridiculous. I had a very difficult time helping two legit non-profits (one a nursery school, one a food pantry) get a fraction of the money they were entitled to under the PPP program, while less scrupulous people got far more. In the EB-5 real-estate investment program, the government does…

You’re right of course. In this case it’s not the government’s money, but they are still in a sense holding the funnel, guiding its direction, and promising (falsely) to regulate the flow. This stink attracts the same sort of fraudulent flies as other money funnels.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#24

Post by ghaff »

meandthewallaby wrote: post #20
atourgates wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

I'm a fellow Kingdom resident -- there are plenty of ski hills between here and Boston. The ones closer get more play. Stowe is a bigger resort, and it gets more play. Less so between here and Montreal, but there's ski hills north of Montreal that are closer. A place like Littleton, just beyond Cannon Mountain, _is_ brimming with customers every long weekend. Jay (and Burke, which is _really_ a locals' mountain) are…

In spite of doing a reasonable bit of downhill skiing at one point out of the Boston area, I have never been to Jay and have only been to Burke because a Dartmouth professor I knew was I think on the board and his son had gone to Burke Mountain Academy.

Stowe was about my journey limit for a weekend and I was in a ski condo after graduation from grad school around Killington for 5 years or so. (Combination of New Yorkers and people in the Boston area.) Jay and Burke were always pretty much out of my range.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#25

Post by ghaff »

lumost wrote: post #21
atourgates wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

Jay peak is more of a six hour drive. SLC would be a 3-4 hour flight. You can get from downtown Boston to the airport in 10 minutes.

Yeah but the total travel time is still longer, especially if you don't live in the core urban area. That said, latterly I mostly gave up on weekend New England trips and went to generally Utah for a week.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#26

Post by boringg »

atourgates wrote: post #16
iamthepieman wrote: post #5

I live and ski in this area[0]. Have season's passes to Burke Mountain and even met Stenger and Quiros back when they were running the ski areas. On the slopes, at my coworking space, and around the campfire in the Summer, the topic of how to make this little pocket of Northeast Vermont more economically viable is a topic that comes up often. I'm starting to form an opinion that we shouldn't try to compete, at any le…

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

I don't know .. go look at Mont Tremblant its completely overrun with people.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#27

Post by ghaff »

atourgates wrote: post #16
iamthepieman wrote: post #5

I live and ski in this area[0]. Have season's passes to Burke Mountain and even met Stenger and Quiros back when they were running the ski areas. On the slopes, at my coworking space, and around the campfire in the Summer, the topic of how to make this little pocket of Northeast Vermont more economically viable is a topic that comes up often. I'm starting to form an opinion that we shouldn't try to compete, at any le…

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

>It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend.

They at least used to be. Probably still are but those are basically the mountains near route 93 in NH. NYC was more inclined to hit Vt. peaks like Stratton and Killington. (Stowe too but longer drive.)

There's more overhead with hopping on a plane but, as I wrote elsewhere, I tended to switch from weekends/long weekends in New England to weeks out West where the snow was (usually) a lot better. And SLC is unusually easy to get to the mountains from.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#28

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

crbaker3 wrote: post #6

EB-5 is an interesting investment. You pay the highest commission for the lowest return.

In NYCs Hudson Yards they literally let foreign multimillionaires build their own pied-a-terres with an EB-5 discount. To achieve this they invented a phony blighted neighborhood that gerrymandered part of Harlem with midtown joined by a strip of central park.

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#29

Post by citizenpaul »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

> The whole program, it turned out, lent itself to dishonesty. Faraway investors were desperate to get to the U.S., and didn’t keep close track of where their money was going. The lawyers and brokers got large transaction fees and had little incentive to point out potential wrongdoing. “Everybody was making millions of dollars, but very few people wanted to speak the truth about the riskiness of these investments,” G…

>The government never seems to learn though

What makes you think that? It takes two to tango. Jon approve all these questionable requests/grants/loans say its too hard to manage, then since the watchers dont want to punish the watchers when they have you resign in "shame" there will be a cush CEO job with a ridiculous salary at a company you have no qualifications for.

Wont people ask questions about how someone incompetent got to such a position.........................

Re: A rural ski slope caught up in an international scam

#30

Post by mp05 »

atourgates wrote: post #16
iamthepieman wrote: post #5

I live and ski in this area[0]. Have season's passes to Burke Mountain and even met Stenger and Quiros back when they were running the ski areas. On the slopes, at my coworking space, and around the campfire in the Summer, the topic of how to make this little pocket of Northeast Vermont more economically viable is a topic that comes up often. I'm starting to form an opinion that we shouldn't try to compete, at any le…

One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East. I understand some of the issues. The mountains are smaller and the snow isn't nearly as consistent. But still. It seems like a ski resort 3.5 hours from Boston should be absolutely brimming with customers every long weekend. On the other hand, I sat in a hot tub with…

> One of the things I have trouble understanding is why "rural mountain towns near large population centers" are exploding in the West, but not the East.

The skiing sucks? Never skied out east, but I understand it's basically ice skating. But that's hearsay.

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