"Aspen will continue to be a dysfunctional town with plenty of dysfunctional people," writes Bonnie in comment #1. "Unfortunately, too many of them are politicians...."
Post Time News resigned Monday from working with Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR) because of this story--a story FAIR killed because of unrelenting pressure from good governance advocate Marilyn Marks. It's a story Post Time News says it's proud to publish because it's fair, accurate, and balanced, with plenty of positive things to say about Marks, who nonetheless threatened to unleash the hounds of hell if she could not control the story. What's the big deal: "The harshest critic of both Aspen City Council and City of Aspen staff now admits there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by anyone in the Burlingame Ranch affordable housing brouhaha."
Read the story and judge for yourself.
Only the Aspen Daily News, with its long history of glorious distortion, could assign a reporter with a clear conflict-of-interest--and then blame the victim of their unethical tabloid practices. "Post Time News," writes Aspen Daily News Editor Troy Hooper, "does not gather news. It pukes twisted lies and rumors without bothering to substantiate the subject matter. Your lame attack on Curtis today/last night was full of errors and bold-faced lies. So to extend the argument of my initial premise: I don’t view Post Time News as competition [sic] either." Wow. It doesn't get any clearer than that, does it? If ever there were a question about the disdain journalists hold for bloggers, Hooper cleared it up.
The Burlingame affordable housing mess got messier this week when the City of Aspen issued a press release saying two internal inquiries, by a consulting firm and a Certified Public Accountants, exonerated Aspen City Council and City officials--an assertion the City had to retract the very next day in a clarifying press release with corrections.
The discrepancy is significant because both the Aspen Daily News and the Aspen Times ran stories based on the incorrect conclusions put forth in the press release. The Daily News headline read: "Burlingame Probe Clears City of Aspen." The Times reported "Audits Clear City In Burlingame Error."
An eclectic mix from the Con Man: Robert Thurman, author of "Why The Dali Lama Matters," the father of actress Uma Thurman; then a rant on City officials blaming him for a rumor; and finally a visit from Aspen Olympian snowboarder Chris Klug, with news of his foundation to promote organ donation.
The City of Aspen has identified yours truly as the source of the half-a-billion dollar Burlingame "rumor." In a story by the always power-friendly Carolyn Sackariasan, she spells my name right on the front page in a lead story and gets everything else wrong. Nor did she bother to even try to contact me to set the record straight.
Never would she let the facts get in the way of a good story if that story advances the Burlingate coverup.
First the Aspen City Council, knowingly or not, published a brochure wih gargantuan errors that helped convince unsuspecting voters to vote for the Burlingate affordable housing project.
Then Mayor Mick Ireland and Aspen City Council--for reasons no Kremlinologist could ever fathom--fought tooth and nail to squelch any investigation, most recently the suggestion of an independent prosecutor.
Now it gets personal. In a newspaper advertising campaign paid for with taxpayer dollars, the City is misquoting something I said so as to present further misinformation about Burlingate, so as to pass the infamous $75 million bond in November. Without the bond to paper over their mistakes, Burlingate Phases II and III could fade into memory. No wonder they continue to mislead the public.
The Con Man is apoplectic that the Aspen City Council is misquoting him in its misinformation campaign in support of the Burlingate bond fiasco. Then: Obama's new war platform, political correctness, and the infamous Barack-Michelle New Yorker cover.
Thank you to everyone that came out last night (Monday) in support of the Aspen Club. At 11:15pm last night the Aspen City Council voted 4-1 in favor of the conceptual approval of the Aspen Club Living project. We really appreciate everyone sticking around until 9pm for public comment and to have their chance to speak to the City Council about the project.
Michael Fox and the project team will now begin the process of creating the final version of the project to go back to P&Z then back to City Council for final approval. This will take some time as there are numerous engineering reports that need to be completed before final approval can be given.
We all would like to thank City Council, P&Z, Jessica and the planning department. A lot of hard work went into this process and a lot more is still to come.
“Good math skills” was Andrew Kole’s campaign platform claim during his 2005 City Council bid. Back then, who knew how badly the City needed math (actually arithmetic) skills?
I read with interest in local papers last week about the city’s efforts to “take responsibility” for the debacle now commonly referred to as Burling-gate. Not surprisingly it didn’t take long for the usual suspects, namely City Manager Steve Barwick and Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland, to go from offensive to defensive.
Speaking before Directors of the Aspen Chamber Resort Association last week, Barwick continued to offer the same weak explanations and excuses and basically admitted the massive debacle was the result of too many people, making too many decisions, over too much time, about a project none were properly qualified to understand or oversee. When both were recent guests of KNFO-FM radio host Michael Conniff on Con Games last week, Ireland was asked if he cared to expand on his recent assertion (conspiracy theory) that he is the subject of an illegal “smear campaign” by unknown operatives. He refused to do so or provide any specifics or retract his accusation. Meanwhile, Councilman Jack Johnson continues to behave like a five year-old saying he “can’t apologize” to Marilyn Marks after publicly chastising her in council chambers after she paid a local camera crew to record a recent work session at her expense (after telling the council she intended to do so and numerous request to have the council tape itself for the public good). Perhaps Johnson needs a hug from one of his teddy bears?
We are all the future of The Aspen Club & Spa and we are all the future of Aspen.
That’s because as we look beyond tourism, real estate and construction, we look toward a future of sustainability and healthy living — an opportunity to combine local vitality with economic survival.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to get a sense of this Aspen institution known as The Aspen Club & Spa.
The Con Man goes from Aspen Mayor Mick Ireland, to the false god of flip-flopping, to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow individual ownership of handguns.
