Park City returning to normal

Park City's Main Street is quieter now as restaurants morph back into places to dine rather than posh celebrity lounges. Parking spaces are no longer a rare commodity and Paris Hilton sightings don't clog city sidewalks with eager fans.

The onslaught of more than 50,000 tourists to Park City for just 10 days last month in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival highlights the fine line city leaders walk between catering to tourists and appeasing permanent residents.

"When Sundance comes here, Sundance is the thing. They become the town for 10 days," said city public relations spokesman Myles Rademan. "Could you have Sundance once a month? I don't think so, you'd get kicked out of office."

When Sundance rolls into the resort town once a year, the face of Park City's Main Street transforms into Celebrity Central, with beefed up security personnel, jammed parking lots and an entire village at the Town Lift for festival VIPs. Many of Main Street's restaurants also opt for private parties, leaving resident regulars out in the cold.

The town's metamorphosis often leaves such residents feeling like foreigners in their own town, but recognizing that the city is dependent on tourism dollars.

With events such as Sundance pumping about $40 million into the Utah economy every year, Park City residents enjoy the benefits of high sales tax revenues. Those tourism dollars are currently helping to finance a new recreation complex and ice rink at Quinn's Junction that will be mainly used by residents.

"Most people like all the amenities that tourism brings, but you'd like to have that all without the traffic, congestion and noise," Rademan said.

More than half of Summit County's total employment is travel- or recreation-related, with roughly 6,000 such jobs in the area. Tourism infuses the county with more than $333 million annually. Those benefits lead most residents to embrace events such as Sundance, said Hilary Reiter at the Park City Chamber of Commerce.

"It pays their rent. It pays their mortgage," she said. "It's a good relationship we have with the visitors because so many people depend on them."

Park City resident Linda McReynolds said putting up with media and tourists converging on city streets is worth it to be part of the action, even though it means adjusting her schedule to avoid festival traffic.

"It's crazy and it's exciting and it's crowded," she said. "This is what we are; we're a tourist town and this comes with it."