Marilyn Marks in comment # 2 takes a look at the affordable housing situation in Aspen. Marks comments,"I can’t speak for all the critics of the present problems, but I look at this as a serious business problem.
And yes, it is in economic terms. Without a very solid and efficient housing program, our resort economy becomes even more fragile.Affordable housing programs (note the plural) are crucial to making Aspen work. Given that we cannot ever expect to meet the unlimited demand, we must make our affordable housing dollars stretch to house the most people."
Judging by the length of Aspen Post blogger Reckless G’s latest comment, she’s just getting warmed up. “When the myths are stripped away and the true history of Israel/Palestine is laid bare by indisputable facts, the agenda of Israel becomes perfectly clear; to take all of Palestine for themselves and never allow a Palestinian state to be created. Unfortunately for the Palestinian people and for those like me trying to get the truth out, those myths remain stubbornly entrenched in the American, especially Jewish American, psyche.”
"It didn't take the parade at Basalt River Days Saturday for me to finally come to the conclusion that Basalt is flat-out better than Aspen," writes Post blogger Michael Conniff. "Nor was it the infamous piece in The New York Times about our little town, nor any of the local coverage (including my own) about Willits and/or the nature of the ongoing boom. I had come to my conclusion months ago, around about the time that I had lost my stomach for what was going down in Aspen. Every time I would glean the fear of the future and the bile for visitors and second-homers, I would remember my promise never ever to live in a resort town again."
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Some of you may be old enough to remember a TV show from early 60s called “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” It was a relatively early attempt at a sit-com and it proved to be a smash hit for a couple of years. Dobie had a friend Named Maynard G. Krebs (played by Bob Denver) who was a “hippie.” Actually, in those days they called them beatniks, but the point of all this is that Maynard’s favorite movie, always playing at the Bijou, was “The Monster that Devoured Cleveland.”
The question that I ask, rhetorically, is whether we have a “Monster that’s devouring Aspen?” Let’s take a look! First of all, I am going to fill you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as a “Monster Home.” Like beauty, the size and appearance of a home is relative to the needs and eyes of the beholder. The term Monster Home, like Palestinian, is made up by those with a particular political agenda.
In fact, if you ask most Aspenites what is the ideal size of a home, they will usually respond that “it’s just a bit bigger than the one they live in.” A waiter in a studio wishes he had a one bedroom. An architect in a one bedroom wishes she had a two bedroom. A lawyer with a family would love to have an extra bathroom. Parents from Chicago yearn for a media room for their children. Grandparents from Kansas want a home large enough to for their children and grandchildren. Finally, the truly fortunate in this town hope to have a home large enough to serve as a family compound. Aspen has become a retreat for families. Ironically, when the Burlingame affordable housing complex was designed, our own politicians suggested that we increase the size of the typical units because “larger homes are more livable for families.” This is pure genius at work! In fact, that’s why we pay these guys the big bucks.
Our politicians, who are tighter with F.A.R. (floor area ratio) than the rusted lug nuts on a 54 Chevy, are entirely correct when they say that 5750 square feet is large enough for a family. However, most of Aspen’s homes are not just for Ozzie and Harriet and their two kids David and Ricky. More often than not, Aspen home owners are trying to squeeze in Ozzie, Harriet, David, Ricky, Uncle Tanoose and Aunt Bee, Grandpa Jed Clampett, the Brady Bunch grandkids, two nannies and Sky King with his co-pilot, who ferry the family back and forth from Los Angeles. 5750 Doesn’t work for a family compound!
Why should we care about these extended families? In simple to understand terms, the children and grandchildren, who can no longer afford to come to Aspen on their own, represent Aspen’s “seed corn” for the next generation. If Aspen continues to evolve into a place where folks only come to retire, how are young people going to learn about our wonderful town? Moreover, along with affordable housing, these family compounds provide a vibrant venue for the continued infusion of young blood. We don’t want Aspen to become a geriatric village.
By now we have all heard that Monster Homes are wasting energy like an open fire-pit on the mall. Ooooops….bad example! Anyway, since Monster Homes are in conflict with the Canary Initiative, we should ban them, right? Not so fast! Many of the newer homes in town are being constructed with solar and geothermal energy, beefed-up insulation, and greener building principles. These are not your grandfather’s monster homes.
When I travel, I sometimes ask people from other states innocent sounding questions. “Would you like to live in a town with large, spacious homes?” The answer is almost always a resounding “you-betcha!” My follow-up question is “how about living in a town with Monster Homes? Their response is usually a wrinkling of the nose and a shaking of the head. Of course, it’s the same question both times but with a change in the all-important “spin.”
What does all this mean? I have no bleeping idea, except of course that I wish my house had one extra room for my treadmill. If it did, Maynard G. Krebs would say “that’s cool, daddio.”
December 25th, 2007
BASALT, COLORADO--It didn't take the parade at Basalt River Days Saturday for me to finally come to the conclusion that Basalt is flat-out better than Aspen. Nor was it the infamous piece in The New York Times about our little town, nor any of the local coverage (including my own) about Willits and/or the nature of the ongoing boom.
I had come to my conclusion months ago, around about the time that I had lost my stomach for what was going down in Aspen. Every time I would glean the fear of the future and the bile for visitors and second-homers, I would remember my promise never ever to live in a resort town again.
Continue Reading August 19th, 2007
Maybe we should all be ashamed of ourselves: the locals with the illusion they rule the roost, and the visiting rich who act as if they rule the world. There is plenty of blame to go around, and like the entrance to Aspen, things are likely to get much worse. I try to be relentlessly optimistic about things but I see no solution here. The locals make Aspen possible for the rich, and the rich make Aspen possible for the locals. No wonder they hate each other.
Continue Reading August 9th, 2007
Aspen's Culinary Critic Goes To The Market Looking For Love
And Ends Up With Lettuce
While the hungry hoards mobbed the infamous Tent and attended the smorgasbord of seminars at this Weekend’s Food and Wine Festival, I opted out Saturday, preferring a long leisurely stroll through one of Aspen’s premier culinary venues, the Saturday Farmer’s Market. This was the first of the season – and what a way to welcome summer. National supermarket chains, superstores and uber-grocers have ripped us away from the land with cold cavernous constructs that have no sense of season, place, or time. While they may very well offer advantages of convenience and pricing power, the true market elements they lack are essentially priceless: community, connectivity, and cultural context. They are way-stations in which one loads up and leaves.
That is not the origin purpose of a market.
The local outdoor market serves up a sweetly sublime mix of dazzling visuals, vibrant people, gorgeous produce, and artisanal works. It is a place to linger and mingle, gossip and chat. Going to The Market is a timeless tradition practiced, perfected, nurtured, and revered in Europe. For far too long going to the market in America has meant metal carts, packaged foods, and bar code scanners.
Continue Reading June 16th, 2007
I’ve always enjoyed playing jokes on others. When I was younger I would constantly torment siblings and friends. Like the time I woke up my little sister one Saturday around midnight and told her she needed to get dressed quickly or she would be late for school. When she walked into the living room wearing her school jumper and saw me watching Saturday Night Live she burst into tears. The poor thing was in Kindergarten.
Continue Reading May 18th, 2007
Bring out the good china Baby because we are having leftovers again! Pick some flowers and bring out the cloth napkins while you’re at it, sweetie. No kidding, leftovers mean l-o-v-e around my house. If I worked so hard on dinner last night, why do I have to work hard again tonight? So maybe, leftovers mean I love me! It’s all about making up some lost time to your wonderful Self. I felt like belly dancing tonight and I couldn’t think about food. I discovered those round balls you sit on make a great prop for shoulder shimmy’s and I get the feeling those cloth napkins are going to double as a veil later on when I dance this old Lamb & Barley soup to the dinner table.
It’s good to let loose on the Dinner obligation now and then. Quickly it can turn into one of those little, “really big” things that stand in the way of serenity and peace (sex) in Coupledom. You’ve got to watch out for that brothers and sisters on the path to marital bliss. What’s it going to be, quality time over warmed up spaghetti or a loaded “ somebody else better load that dishwasher, cause I just scrambled to put a nice dinner on the table” gun? Gourmet food is great don’t get me wrong. But hey, if it was so great last night it’s going to be even better tonight. I always make extra when I go all out.
Continue Reading April 12th, 2007
Mayoral candidate Tim Semrau has proposed increasing the appreciation rates for existing affordable housing unit owners by 66 percent and then using $3-$5 million of housing taxes each year to buy their units back down to an affordable price when resold.
That's a proposal to spend $30-$50 million dollars over the next 10 years, for zero gain in actual units built or additional people housed! This proposal is seriously flawed from a policy perspective.
Continue Reading March 19th, 2007
Something small stuck with me after someone had something to say the other day about Missouri Heights. They said that people who live in Missouri Heights at night still turn their house lights down to a minimum so as to see the stars above in all their brilliance.
God, I hope that's true.
Can it be true that a small outpost of people in the United States of America in the 21st Century would care so much as a group about the natural world that they would adjust their habits just to see the beauty of nature?
Continue Reading March 18th, 2007
This week Aspen Post ran a blog on Tim Semrau’s proposal to increase the annual appreciation cap on affordable housing from 3 to 5 percent.
“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of affordable housing?” I thought. “Might as well call it unaffordable housing.” As a renter paying ridiculous sums for meager accommodations, I anxiously await the opportunity to make 3 percent on my money. What will allow me to do so is the fact that many of the units in the system are still affordable.
Continue Reading March 16th, 2007
The issue of affordable housing for me is personal. I live in affordable housing, and have for most of my time in Aspen. So does my sister, Molly, and her family. For all of us, the housing program has made the difference between punching the clock as temporary workers and being real, permanent members of the community. For the kids, it's meant that they will graduate from high school in the same district where they started kindergarten, with the same friends. They are children with a hometown.
I work for affordable housing because it is part of the glue that keeps our intact.
Continue Reading March 16th, 2007
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