Opinion: Sedona voters to city's hotel workers: You can't sleep here

The chamber of commerce in Sedona can direct visitors seeking “spiritual and personal enrichment of the body and soul” to the location of the community’s five “most powerful vortex sites.”

These locations, the chamber says, are where “Earth’s energy is believed to be amplified and concentrated,” places “considered conduits for spiritual connection,” places that “offer a space for contemplation, self-discovery and spiritual experience.”

However, the good folks at the chamber cannot direct you to a place where the city’s hotel employees, maintence workers, restaurant staff, house cleaners and others can find a place to sleep.

Even in their cars.

Sedona leaders wanted a safe place for workers

I’m guessing that the upper crusters who luxuriate in the city’s spas and dine in its world-class restaurants do not spend much time (or any time) thinking about the lack of affordable housing for the men and women who labor daily to maintain the ethereal fantasy of Arizona’s spiritually aristocratic principality.

But the city council was forced to recognize the problem.

“There is no available housing in the Verde Valley, it’s totally limited,” Councilwoman Jessica Williamson said a while back.

Opinion:How confusion killed a worthy proposition

Earlier this year, the council put together a temporary program to permit local workers to park overnight at Western Gateway Cultural Park.

In describing the program on its website, the city said, “Affordable, long-term housing is an issue in Sedona. Some local employees struggle to find housing they can afford and sleep in their car. Each night is a challenge to find a place to park and sleep, and they end up in the national forest, local parks, city streets or parking lots.”

Voters resoundingly rejected Proposition 483

The council placed on this year’s ballot Proposition 483, which asked Sedona residents to decide whether to permit workers who can’t afford housing to stay overnight in a specific parking lot with showers, restrooms and supervision.

The proposal was overwhelmingly rejected.

In a statement, Lauren Browne, the city’s communications director, said, “We value and respect the democratic process, in that residents do not want the zone change that would have allowed the Safe Place to Park program to exist at that site.”

It was not made clear if or when another site will be located.

Weird, isn’t it?

All those readily identifiable “conduits for spiritual connection” in Sedona, yet there doesn’t seem to be a single vortex of dignity, generosity or humanity.

Reach Montini at [email protected].

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