Mick Ireland's Kickoff Speech

February 25th, 2007 at 08:48am Mick Ireland 305

Today begins my campaign for Mayor of Aspen, a campaign that I hope will help Aspen reclaim our legacy as a community that lives by the values that have made this town world renowned as a great place to live, work and visit.

I came here 28 years ago with little more than a stack of yet-to-be-paid student loans and a pair of ski boots that did not fit. I found a permanent home and a supportive community from my very first days washing dishes and driving a bus through my thirteen years of service as a county commissioner.

This community is blessed with great prosperity and talented people from all walks of life who are willing to dedicate themselves to a better future if we are strong enough to lay out a positive and clear vision. Over the last 50 years, Aspen has taken the lead in developing arts and culture, growth management, affordable housing and the state's second largest transit system.

For better or worse, we command a small part of the World Stage. We can choose to allow others to stereotype us as self-centered and short-sighted, as some have, or we can set an example of personal and community responsibility for protecting the environment and building an economy that respects the environment.

As residents and elected officials of Aspen, we have an ethical duty to ensure that our decisions are grounded in our love of the natural environment and a sense that local community character matters. The hard reality is that there are some strong market forces at work in the community and the nation that are inconsistent with a lasting environmental and local community ethic.

We can and should, as we have for fifty years, prove that a community can be both prosperous and protective of its natural and social environments.

We can solve our traffic woes in a way that gives bus riders a competitive advantage and yet provides autos reasonable commuting times.

We can direct ongoing development pressure to create a downtown that serves the people who call Aspen their home and also appeals to a diverse range of visitors. We can have a downtown core that is populated by many of its workers and a retail sector that is more than another Rodeo Drive.

We can make our affordable housing into an environmental showcase with retrofits and new solar designs that reverse the power meter and shrink the carbon footprints. Our affordable housing can keep neighborhoods alive and reduce long distance commutes.

Our construction workforce can collaborate with others and the City to protect neighborhoods from excessive traffic.

We can effect change by encouraging local investment in responsible residential and commercial projects.

Finally, we can ask each other to model our shared love of the natural environment in countless ways, large and small, that will make this a better place to live.

As a community, we are strong enough to make hard choices and smart enough to find creative solutions. The time to work together and with the rest of the valley to protect the environment and the integrity of our social fabric is now.

Entry Filed under: Politics, Aspen, Pitkin County, Race For Mayor 2007