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.

Dicey

Let's face it, if you made a reality TV show out of the politics in Aspen it could get better ratings than Survivor. Our last City Council/ Mayoral election is a perfect example. We had 11 people running for 3 openings. Three of these 11 already had seats on the Council but were vying for the center seat of Mayor. The cast of characters* was equally "Survivoresque" (*couldn't find the mayoral "squirm night" grassroots episode- I'll link it later if I find it)

Once the smoke cleared we had two new Council members and a "tie" for Mayor. It wasn't an exact "tie" but close enough to call for a run off. The winner of the run off was a sitting Council member which meant that the remainder of his 2 year term would be filled by an appointee.

Spin the wheel again.... 9 candidates for the vacant seat.... which resulted in a deadlock between two "finalists" with a 2 to 2 vote on the newly elected City Council.

Does your head hurt yet? It could have been settled by a throw of the dice (no really, I'm not kidding) but at the 11th hour one vote flipped-  and there was no dice throw (much to the dismay of our local press who were ready to photograph every angle of that toss).

Why all the fuss for a town of 6000 you may ask? It's simple, that "small" town has a yearly budget tickling the edges of $100 million. Yep, I said $100 million. Now, there's a high stakes crap shoot for ya...

Last night was the first meeting of the full "new" 5 member Aspen City Council. I attended for the "public comment" segment where anyone can come forward and talk for 3 minutes about things which are not on the agenda. I was the last one to speak in the "comment" section. I gave them all a present.  I gave everybody a copy of happy
which is a great documentary on what makes people happy.

 The happy documentary goes deeper than our stereotypical ideas of happiness into what really makes people feel good. When Roko Belic (the director) was presenting this at Mountain Film at the Wheeler one of the questions from the audience was "If you had to name just one thing which makes us happy what would it be?" Roko's answer was instant, "Community."

That's why I gave the Council a copy of the dvd I believe that  "the happiness quotient" should be the major driver behind all decisions made by them.

I also gave them  a finger puzzle...

 

The more you pull away from each other - the more trapped you are.