Fear, we can work with fear

“We can work with fear.” say the Underwoods in House of Cards.  Lest you think that is only a Brexit or a Trumpian problem I ask you to look closer to home.

 We have our very own Boris Johnsons.  How different is “Keep Aspen Aspen” from Make Aspen Great Again”? Fear has had unfettered success so far. Referendum 1 passed- albeit in a split election- the Powerplant has been squashed - sorry tabled indefinitely- and now the paranoia patrol have set their sights on City Hall. Government is too big!  Don’t let “them"- those evil politicians and City staff gather in one building- they will plot against “us” the public. Should the council not bend to the will of the Boris Brigade then there is always the threat of referendum. Add to this a Mayor who is on the eve of an election and those vocal “no” votes may be too big a temptation to resist.

So what’s the argument against City Hall on Galena Plaza?

“The building is too big” It’s still just a drawing and if you think it is too big then redraw the silly thing -design something which works instead of just saying “no I hate it”.

“Government is too big” Do you realize that consolidating City government in one building actually reduces the size of government? Think of it like a merger- there will be redundancies.

“It costs too much.” Sorry- wrong again- keeping City Government where it is and spreading the other departments around town will actually cost $10 million dollars more. Ten Million- hey- I can buy a house for that in Aspen!

“I want City Hall in the Center of town.” Get a map. City Hall will move- literally- across the street. If you’ve been walking around Aspen trying to find where the County offices have relocated during their own game of musical chairs you might appreciate consolidating government in one spot.  (I swear finding the County Clerk was like “button button who’s got the button?”).

“I don’t want another big building downtown!” Yeah saying “no” is easy and solutions are hard. We said no to the Art Museum on Galena Plaza and got the box on Hyman instead. How’s that “no to everything” been workin’ for ya?

The arguments  for the new City Hall? First, ask anyone who works in the current City Hall. I dare you- ask a worker bee- and they will tell you what a “joy” that building is. Then remember how you felt when you walked into the last Council meeting. Did it feel like a welcoming comfortable place where we could gather and calmly voice our mutual concerns? No?  Architecture does matter. (Grrrrrrrrr…Given…biting tongue)

I could go on and on about designing a functional building for a specific purpose and how much less it would cost in time and money

 but what good is logic when trying to counter the politics of fear?  

Powering up... or down... letter to the editor

 The Power Plant presentation April 6 wouldn’t hold up in “Shark Tank”.

First let me say I think the Power Plant has targeted the right demographic. We have great programs for our kids up to age 18 and then we throw them out of paradise. Multi-generational we are not.

Despite Mr. Cook’s assertion that transparency is paramount it appears the Power Plant has no business plan or at least not one which they wish to share with the public.

Their primary for profit partner, Aspen Brewing Co., appears to have a low profit potential- a conclusion from Duncan Clauss' remarks at the presentation that ABC’s profit margin is low. If the ABC cannot generate 80-100% of the first year’s expenses including the costs for the incubator space then they are not the right partner for the job. The City would wind up propping up an established low profit business as well as the unspecified starter businesses in their proposal. To put it more simply why have a “for profit” partner if they are not covering the expenses?

When pressed by Angie Callen the presenters changed their assertion that the Power Plant was a

“non-profit”(charity) 

to a “not for profit” (hobby). 

What if they don’t get their liquor license? What if they are unable to fill the start up desks?  If the reverse happens where do the “extra" revenues go? How much revenue do they have to generate to sustain the concept and where will this come from? Right now the sustainability - according to the Power Plant- depends on what the City would charge for rent. If they haven’t provided numbers to the City of what it takes to achieve sustainability then they haven’t run the numbers. In a hobby you don’t have to run the numbers in a business- you do- you run the numbers again and again until you find a working model and work towards that goal.

Add to this that the Power Plant is no longer offering to foot the bill for $700K of renovation ... remind me what the advantages are again?

Finally, when David Houggy asked about benchmarks it was revealed that there has been no discussion of oversight- either from the City or within the Consortium.

This should have been an easy presentation with answers at the ready for predictable questions. Instead what we got was a fluffy cloud of “what we need in Aspen…” a cursory nod to a "vocal minority" and a reaffirmation how much everybody loves living here.

Yep, I love living here too.

 I also have pretty solid experience of what it takes to stay here.  

I haven’t heard anything from the Power Plant which leads me to believe they can sustain themselves, much less offer sustainability to other start ups.





Get your heads out of the clouds boys. Do better next time.

IRL, letter to the editor

What's the value of IRL? For those of you who are not internet addicted that stands for "in real life".

At the heart of it that is the question before two of our local Roaring Fork Valley Governments. Both Aspen and Basalt have citizens who are asking for a Community Center. There is a coalition in Aspen proposing an Armory Building renaissance back to it's Community Hall roots and there is a groundswell bubbling up in Basalt calling for a Community Center Clearshot to the river.

The economics for the Aspen proposal are irrefutable. The Armory Community Center is the clear winner but Aspen being Aspen there will surely be roadblocks to common sense. The economics for Basalt are less clear. The tantalizing prospect of a cash in hand condo sales tax can easily blind even the most far sighted civil servant.  I never thought I'd hear the words "dog park" used in a derogatory manner in the progressive halls of the Basalt City Hall but hey, as mom used to say, "All you have to do is live long enough…."

But let's think about this a bit longer and look at what these two proposals have in common and what each of these groups is trying to tell their representatives.

"Socialization" is such a soulless word for such a soulful activity; but that's what is at the heart of both these proposals. The community is asking for a place to commune. The neighborhood wants a place to be neighborly. We want to heal our hearts with shared laughter. That in itself is priceless but this it not  all "touchy feely" there is also a huge potential for  economic benefit (the boring explanation).

 

Yampa River Botanic Park

One of my favorite TV shows was "Connections" which showed that serendipity has driven more innovation and success than just about anything else.

 

Connections

 A similar  theme can be found in Walter Isaacson's "Innovators" which diagrams connections between teams of scientists. Yo Yo Ma gave the clarion cry for "STEAM" not  "STEM" at Aspen Ideas.

Collaboration, interconnectedness, diversity these are the touchstones of a healthy community and a vibrant economy. You want to revitalize a community? Let the artists frolic and see who comes to watch….Feynman played the bongos after all...

 

The Feynman Physics lectures

Sometimes we think that Aspen is only a ski town or Basalt is only for fly fishermen but look at our locals and you will find artists, scientists, engineers, farmers, cowgirl poets and philosopher kings. Six degrees of separation? Ha! Not here.  Not in the Roaring Fork Valley.  We just don't connect with each other much.

We just don't get the opportunity to flow gently into conversation and let the extraordinary juxtaposition of thought and possibility  merge into something concrete, into something you can touch, into  reality.

In both cases- the Armory and the River Park- these citizen driven initiatives are asking for a place where we- the people who live here- can meet and socialize in real life. The time for compartmentalization and cubicles is over.

Words of Wilderness- Peter McBride and Vital Films

People don't move here for the condos.

Tarantella d'Aspen

"Opportunity" normally when I hear that word and it's connected to anything in Aspen I start looking for snake oil and a word which is normally paired with "shinola". 

This time it's real. This time it is actually an opportunity to do something for the community instead of something to the community. 

This bas-relief of "Kairos" god of opportunity was once at the Palazzo Medici in Florence, but now has been lost. 

I've groused for years about how we've stripped the heart out of town by moving our essential services outside the City Limits. We moved the public schools out of town, we moved the hospital out of town, we put our Rec center a bus ride away,  we've  isolated our human services from the humans they serve.  At what point do we decide to stay inside the City limits? Why when government would have to relocate of course….. and there's the opportunity… not to compound the problem but to sneak some of the humanity back inside the S curves. 

Give a resounding *yes* to the Galena Plaza option for City Government and set the Armory free. 

The Armory has always been a lousy City Hall building. It's a warren of depressing isolated little offices filled with fluorescent lit hell. The City Council meeting room is configured for confrontation either coming through the doors into the lions pit or sitting behind the desk waiting for the predators to  arrive. The City Hall option offered for the Armory places a lot of bandaids over open wounds but it certainly does nothing to heal them. There is no flow. There is no grace. There is no joy.

Say  *yes* to the Galena Plaza option. First, it costs us less money. $9 million dollars less money. Second it means no down time during renovation. Third we use the real estate we already own instead of feeding free market landlords. The potential sales tax increases from converting our current government rentals to retail/lodging hasn't been figured into this but I'm betting it could make that $9 million in savings jump a bit higher.  Finally and this is the really important lightens my heart gets my toes tapping perks up my pointy ears and raises both eyebrows reason … it sets the Armory free. 

A Community Hall located in the community? A place where we might be able to sneak some of those essential services which have been exiled to the bus routes back into the walkable zone?  Science Center,  Performing Arts hub, TV studio, medical clinic, ACRA out of the garage, soda fountain, Folklorico, Tarantella,  basketball,  banquets, roller derby, bingo, bowling, what's your wish list?

Here's the kicker, it costs us nothing. What's the hitch you say? Well, it's a big one. We have to stop fighting each other, we have to poke a hole in the smothering shrink wrap of divisiveness long enough stick our noses out into fresh air and smell the potential.  

Let me tell you, we used to dance in this town. We used to dance a lot. We could dance again.  Bring back HIldur and her accordion and let's all dance a polka till we drop or they kick us out the door , set the Armory free.

Let my people dance.

Pressure cooks

In response to Lorenzo's editorial:

"At its heart, Aspen is a tourist town, a ski resort. The focus should be on short-term visits… Recently...there has been a paradigm shift from renting to selling Aspen — as in permanently. …  Personally I’m a little more comfortable with renting Aspen — when you’re done with it, I want it back."

Yep, at it's inflated squeaky balloon 2008 level there was a realtor in every other downtown building.  By the  2009 we'd lost over 40 of those downtown businesses realtor and retailer alike.  It's even simpler than penthouses vs hotel rooms… it's putting all your eggs in one basket and those of us with Depression era parents  know all about the wisdom of putting all your eggs in one basket. Don't. Just don't.

Yep, I'd rather have tourists for 6 months high service industry pressure followed by 6 months of glorious I can turkey bowl down Durant off season than 2 weeks of second homeowner cyclone followed by 50 weeks of  dark dusty silence. 

Oh but there is soooo much construction now and everybody wants to tear down and build something new and it's sooooo tempting just to try and monkey wrench it all. Monkey Wrenching is nothing new.  Fritz chained himself to the tree in front of the Miner's Building construction site.  For years we've waved our zoning code stick in the face of the great big development elephant.  How is that stick waving strategy working for the "no development" contingent? The Miner's Building went up, the Ritz (Saint Regis) went up, the Art Museum went up. 

Now we're going to spend $20K on a public vote on Base 1. Heaven forbid we should spend that time and money on developing a community with more diversity or on fixing the draconian code- but that's different letter.

Saying "NO" to development now only means bigger and badder development next time. That's our track record. 

FYI Lorenzo, AirBNB- not so bad. Of course you can't advertise there if you're in affordable housing so the chances of it being "affordable" lodging in Aspen is nil.

Spinning into butter, letter to the editor

You'd be hard pressed to fit the width of a butter knife between the views of  the two runoff candidates for City Council.

How to choose? I am left with the issues which  we have consistently ignored for decades.  The issues of enabling entrepreneurial creativity for our young adults,  the issue of the Performing Arts Center  event horizon which has remained frozen in time for 36 years, the issue of caring for our aging population, the issue of  our collapsing infrastructure which threatens the very heart of our FIS history,  these are the issues I see as orphans which have been smothered by a surfeit of polemic and paucity of  will.  

A brewery passes for entrepreneurial encouragement. 

The Performing Arts Center is mentioned only when the RETT pot of gold looks fat enough to pilfer.  

If  half the seniors who voted in the last election needed assisted living how would they fit into the 15 apartments at  Whitcomb Terrace? 

Lift 1A, Lift 1A, Lift 1A….. ?

Aspen proves that money does not solve everything.  We need a focused leadership, a forward thinking leadership, a leadership which can break beyond the vicious circle of reactive legislation….

Sandro Bonticelli, Chart of Hell

 …. to proactive governance.  The fact that we are facing the same problems of 10-20-30-40 years ago makes past strategies suspect. What new strategies do our two candidates have to offer which could get us out of our rut and move us forward?  

Flammarion 

Voter card count, letter to the editor

If we are putting the future of development in the hands of the Aspen voters it doesn't hurt to do a little research on how those hands have directed government power and government money in the past. 

I spent a little time going through the voting records of the City of Aspen. I highly recommend thumbing through these ledgers. It's instructive. These are all referendum votes not charter amendments except for the last example. 

Public referendum on the Ritz Carlton (aka St. Regis) in 1990, 1561 for development 1059 against-  arguably it was Mr. Hadid's marketing campaign which helped this pass by a healthy  502 votes.

Forbes: "Buy High, Sell Higher"

Purchasing the Mother Lode (click for "before" image), 762 against 596 for - it lost by 166 votes.

"after"

In 1979 street repair, 646 for and 604 against - passing by only 42 votes which must rank as the highest percentage of pro-pothole votes in history.

1978 MIT Aspen interactive movie map

I thought the closest vote in living memory was the Red Brick School Arts Center 526 yes and 523 no- passing by 3 votes.

That may have been the closest referendum vote but the narrowest margin was a charter amendment to increase the Mayor's salary in 1980 from $600 to $800 a month that was 884 to 883 - passing by one vote.

Think Referendum 1 will stop development? Would a $100,000 marketing campaign be worth a couple of $5million dollar free market add ons?  When the odds are this close and the stakes this high a public vote is an acceptable risk. 

No on Referendum 1, please.

DaDa at City Hall, letter to the editor

Aspen is a town where one vote can make a difference, or at very least  get you into a runoff, so I take my responsibility as a voter seriously. After all, City Council is spending $100 million dollars a year on my behalf so the choices offered had better be more appealing than giving me back my share of that $100 mill along with my food sales tax refund (FYI that would be about a $15.5 K per resident refund). 

City Council is basically a management and oversight position.  Management with vision is a balancing act between practicality and risk.  

Why is our code book thick enough to inflict blunt force trauma? Why does our zoning map look like an order of spotted dick without custard? Why are building heights like a giant plinko board , 42 feet, no 28 feet, no 50 feet where will the height restriction bounce next?  What's the ratio of messy vitality to floor area? Which file cabinet has the wind power contract?  If a parking meter fails in a forest do we only lose half the money?  Why did  one of our planners when asked if we could change the zoning  respond  "I'd rather wake up a bear"?

There is a certain DaDaist quality to City Council meetings. I wouldn't  be surprised to see a melting clock and a man with a rhinoceros head ringing a 2am gong.   

Rhinoceros by Ionesco

When we have  3 hours of public comment on a murphy bed for the cemetery we have a government entrenched in the Surreal. Our surfeit of cash has allowed us to duck out of reality.

That's what I'd like on City Council, a Realist. Convince me that you can take the helm on our 15 department bureaucratic juggernaut. For instance they could put all 15  department heads without a 80% approval rating from their staff on 3 month probationary notice …. but hey- that's a management technique… no politician wants to purge the bureaucracy…. they'd rather wake up a bear.

Ken Kreibel's bearcam