Gstaad Revisited

In my last post I mentioned we were in Gstaad Switzerland, my wife earned the trip with her company and a good time was had by all.

While there I got to learn a little about the pressures they face in Gstaad which are similar to ours. Gstaad is a picture postcard Swiss Alps town, known as a playground for the elite we were told. Yet we saw mountains devoid of snow, there was rain one of the days and I read that locals are facing mounting pressure for expansion, from pollution and the like.

It was interesting to read in an article that the owner of the Gstaad Palace, where we stayed, is on the forefront of these issues, often times squaring off with the tourism boards. He describes the double edge sword he feels they’re dealing with; the need to attract tourism dollars, competing with the need to keep the environment in the form those visitors expect and locals need. This environment includes the picturesque farms, cows walking on the side of the road and locals co-mingling with the elite from around the world.

These issues reminded me of those we face here, land preservation, keeping the local flavor and the co-mingling of all who live on Long Island.

Four thousand miles apart and facing parallel pressures; it’s what we read about every day, but somehow seeing it first hand brought me back to where I started when conceptualizing canvas. The world is changing so fast how to do manage the change before it spirals out of control. How can we get people thinking about these issues before every piece of open land on Long Island is gone and before the mountains of Gstaad are filled with strip malls, cheesy hotels and water parks?

I hope at some point during the run for President these are topics that are discussed by the candidates. Yeah I know, right now it’s the economy stupid…but if we don’t starting addressing the bigger issues at some point the economy won’t matter.

Tom Pellicane – Publisher, canvas Magazine