Flow, letter to the editor

What good is more if it's not better?  It's not about growth, it's about the neighborhood.

Everyone wants to use the word "growth" and "economic development" as if they were synonymous. Let's get one thing straight- they're not. You can grow yourself into poverty just as easily - we have ghost towns all over the West to remind us of that. In fact we had a little dip 2008-9 which proved it beyond all doubt. The faster you grow the faster and bigger the fail. This is why I wish I heard the phrase "managed growth" more frequently, heck, I'd settle for just hearing it once at any City Council meeting in the Valley.

So what makes for "managed growth"? This is growth which takes into account quality of life. You don't separate out where you sleep from where you work from where you shop from where you eat or drink a coffee with a crowd. You make neighborhoods which have all the things people need within walking distance. You make these neighborhoods small enough for people to know one another, to see each other every day, to become a community. Small communities can live inside larger ones but without the sense of "neighborhood"  we lose connection with the big picture. It's linear, our family, our block, our city, our region, our State, our Country, our Continent, our World flows like water- from a droplet to the ocean merging into a sense of responsibility and belonging.

More simply, if you don't plan for a cohesive neighborhood with the butcher the baker and the candlestick maker you get a lot of disconnected people who don't give a damn about who is living next door.

The "tree farm" is a poster child for the disconnected life.

Atlantic Article thanks to Marina Rainer

The imitation of failure, letter to the editor, updated

This is in response to the plans for development of the former Pan and Fork trailer park site.

Dear Basalt, when one culture imitates another it imitates the worst parts of that culture.

Condos???? You want Condos instead of a clear shot at the river and grass under your feet? Don't you already have a crystal clear example of what 50 year old Condo development looks like? Is that the future you want? Have. You.  Lost. Your. Mind??????

Aspen Journalism Condo/Hotel study

If I voted in Basalt I'd push for a Performing Arts Center. 

Stratford upon Avon 

(take a look at a plan of Stratford- it's analogous to Basalt in many ways)

If I voted in Basalt I'd be canvasing local architects (Harry Teague comes glaringly to mind) who understand both the topography and the community (I mean did anybody even ask???).

Center for the Arts Jackson Wyoming, Harry Teague architect

If I voted in Basalt I wouldn't rest until the wetlands which were torn out with the trailers were replaced.

Rock Bottom Ranch wetlands

If I voted in Basalt I'd be thinking of all sorts of ways that those folks in their oh so urbane loft apartments at Willits could spend a quaint evening sipping chilled cucumber water on the green by the river- because there sure ain't nothin' happening at Willits when the stores shut their doors.

Come on Basalt don't do an Aspen- do better than Aspen- make a destination community not a second home community.

Simon Pearce Mill Restaurant and Glass factory

Updated: here is a perfect example of how a museum can revitalize a community and become a destination point: Crystal Bridges which now hosts 600,000+ visitors a year

Split the Baby, letter to the editor

We need to start again.

There are 3 candidates left for the Wheeler Executive Director job. 

There are good reasons for searching outside your residential box. 1. You're looking for a rainmaker- someone who can bring more money into the organization because you've already tapped the nearest veins dry. 2. You're looking for someone who is connected to a wider Performing Arts Community and can bring in fresh talent.  3. You're looking for someone who can see your establishment with a fresh eye and take it on a new more dynamic path. The 3 remaining candidates don't hit any of these points. 

I am disappointed, and somewhat incredulous, that of the 80 applications HR boiled it down to these three; but lest we forget HR is familiar with searching for government management, not performing arts management. Each metier has it's own special zeitgeist and having  professional in HR who understands the performing arts is asking far too much. An Artistic Director who would make it past HR…. Joe Papp?  Zelda Fichhandler? Beverly Sills? John Crosby? Errrr…. No. "Creatives" don't make it past HR.

Which brings me to the point. Searching for a single person who has both the talent to wrangle a Performing Arts venue and navigate local governance is hopeless. Government run and owned theaters are a European phenomenon not an American one. The best USA born and bred Performing Arts Management professional is a wizard with budgets and fundraising - they need to answer to their Board and keep the patrons happy with a steady flow of talent and magic -  they are passionate- they may have bouts inspiration bordering on madness, but they do not sweat. What they do not need to do is  swim the murky waters of City Bureaucracy and City Council. There is nothing which can crush passion faster than bureaucracy. Finding someone who can manage both Artists and Politicians  is highly unlikely. At the salary offered… well…. it would take a bolt of lightning… dancing on a pin … during an eclipse… illuminating a flock of flying pigs… oinking in time to Les Miserables.

If we're committed to searching inside the USA, split the baby in two. Search for an Artistic Director who manages the smooth running of a theatre which accommodates tours and local non-profits. Search for an Executive Director who manages the interface with local government.  Search for two different people.

We might also take a long hard look closer to home… there may be people who could bring a fresh eye and fresh talent who just don't want to deal with City Hall (shocking as that is).  Give an Performance Arts Management professional  a bureaucrat who can take the burden of City politics off their shoulders and they may actually consider applying for the job. We have some impressive and passionate talent in this valley- they all know City Hall- and they're not idiots.

Updated April 3rd- Gena Buhler from Vail has been named Executive Director of the Wheeler. Best of luck Ms. Buhler.

Aspen Public Radio town hall meeting, letter to the editor- updated- updated again

"Interpretation" if you take nothing else away from Wednesday's "Keep Aspen, Aspen" Aspen Public Radio town hall meeting keep that one word in mind "interpretation". Let's just pick one example…there were several.. but let's just do one. Current City Council member Ann Mullins said that there had been no variances granted for the Molly Gibson. Former Mayor and would be Councilman again Mick Ireland came back with chapter and verse how the Molly Gibson had been granted a variance with it's FAR. Councilwoman Mullins replied that the Molly Gibson straddled two zones- one residential and one lodging and that the code was up to interpretation depending on which zone you chose.  

If you've read even a small portion of the 524 page code… wait…let's do one better…  here you go:

 "Permitted uses are those land uses which are consistent with other land uses in the same zone district in which they are located and which have been designated as permitted uses for the applicable zone district in Chapter 26.710."  bit like wading through treacle in cement overshoes isn't it?

But what do you do when the proposed project straddles more than one zone?

Well, let's toddle off to 26.710 .022  paragraph B. subsection a. "The use shall be developed by… applying the more restrictive of each requirement." Okay  sounds definitive …but…wait a moment… subsection b. says "The only exception shall be when the area… designated with the ..higher density constitutes more than 75% of the entire land area of the parcel."

Okay- time to take a field trip to the Molly Gibson with a theodolite. 

Ye gads I want more of this don't you?  Errr…didn't I elect someone else to do all of this? How much am I paying for City Government again? Remind me? Oh yeah,  one.  hundred.  million.  dollars.

Follow up: Mick Ireland replied on Facebook citing variance requests in the Molly Gibson, I asked Mick to leave a comment or for permission to copy and paste his response here and have not received an answer yet.  If you're a zoning junkie- please go to Facebook and look up Mick's response. 

Here- posted with permission is Mick's response: "A review of the public record contradicts the claim that variances were not involved in recent approvals. With the exception of the Sky Hotel, which withdrew requests for variances, both the Molly Gibson and Base1 Lodge requested and were granted variances on final approval as was the Hotel Aspen.

In fact, three projects (Hotel Aspen, Molly Gibson and Base 1) received a total of 20 variances including five that are significant and which referendum One seeks to limit, The documented variances are summarized in a table attached hereto and as follows:

Hotel Aspen: The original proposal was for four free market units and lodging. Both the lodging and free market homes were in excess of allowed floor area, cumulative floor area and unit size. The final approval was for three free market homes with one of them reduced in height. The final approval included 36,350 square feet, total, 8,050 above floor area allowable and 1,300 feet more than allowed under Special Review. Neither of staff’s recommendations for bringing the project into compliance were followed. The maximum unit size without TDRs is 2,000 sf by code - this approval grants a variance allowing the units to be much larger than 2,000 sf - up to 3,500 - and allows the three FM units to exceed code to exceed the code by one unit and a total of 4,400 feet of floor area.

Mayor Skadron voted No on this project and asked, “How much does this exceed code?” He concluded, “It exceeds what code allows, it does exceed what code allows.”

Molly Gibson: The proposal requested 12 variances, of which only three are the concern of Referendum One. The project sought 26,959 sf of lodging space, 4,959 or 20% more than the zone district allows even with special review.

The free market component request was for 8,000 square feet, almost double the allowed 4,080 in R-6 zoning according to the staff memo (Exhibit A - PD - Project review Pg 4).

Both of these variances were granted.

Base 1. The applicant asked for $39,733 in fee waivers, calculation of the affordable housing requirement under the Lodge Preservation zone district at a lower rate and complete waiver of the 25.3 parking spaces required under the code.

The affordable housing requirement was either 2.19 or .99 units by staff calculation. Staff recommended using a “LP Overlay” calculation to lower the requirement to a single unit. This was a waiver since the property is not zoned LP Overlay though it could have been. Applicant agreed to pay at the lower rate.

Parking was reduced by council variance from 25.3 to 15 spaces."

Here's Mayor Skadron's reply on Aspen Public Radio:
http://aspenpublicradio.org/post/aspen-development-variances-or-no-variances

I keep going back to the first time I heard "Zoning Junkie" it was only last week in a talk by Jeffrey Brown (hopefully this will go online soon). He was talking about "The Boston Miracle" reclaiming neighborhoods from drug violence. His point was he wasn't a "Zoning Junkie"- all he cared about was listening to people so everyone could live in a safe neighborhood. Amen to that. 

The proposed Wheeler Opera House Annex-updated

This is in response to an article in the Aspen Daily News about a proposed Wheeler Opera House Annex

Well I'm disappointed. I can't hide that. I'm very disappointed. The proposal may be "shovel ready" but the main purpose seems to be more office space instead of supporting our Performing Arts Community or any Community for that matter.

I've outlined the continuing Performing Arts Center follies in a previous post  and I'll stand by that. I firmly believe Aspen can become a Performing Arts powerhouse but not by adding more office cubicles. It's a quick way to spend the $28 million in the Wheeler RETT fund so that no-one else poaches it but it does little else.

Some problems:

1. We already have a "black box" theatre.

2. Most "black boxes" get one set of seating which rarely gets changed for the simple reason that changing stadium seating needs a lot of time and labor and that costs money- more money than the average small theatre has to spend on labor. The other consideration is that an swiss army knife concept to theatrical production needs storage. You need storage for all those other configurations. The rule of thumb is 3x the storage space as the performance space.

3. Putting a theatre in the basement means a lot of public stairs and an ADA entrance. Once you've done that you've cut into your precious seating to the point of insolvency.

4. For pities sake if you want people to know you have a theatre in the basement you don't make them walk through offices to get there. This is prime box office store front space not prime copier machine space.

5. This does not offer any community gathering space - something which you will be bulldozing when those ready shovels start digging in the pocket park next to the Wheeler. At very least  you need to replace the park you're demolishing.

Here are plans of a proposal which will work.

1. This plan gives more wing space to the backstage at the Wheeler. The new lift gives easy access to the 3rd story and additional storage effectively doubles the wing space for performance scenic elements.  Refurbishment of the Wheeler backstage should include modernizing the arbors, audio and lighting.

2. A second smaller performance space gives  single performer touring shows and cutting edge experimental production a venue with the same coveted central Aspen location. This will free up the larger Wheeler stage for bigger touring shows and for longer running local productions. The increased variety of performance arts in a central location will reinforce the Aspen core value of diversity.

3. Using the Annex Theatre roof as a public garden increases the social networking value of the Wheeler complex. This also allows the view from Wagner Park to remain consistent with greenery masking the stage right wing addition. Sight lines are shown on "Plate #3 Wheeler Annex Patio".

4. The new Annex provides "pocket shops" for basic production needs. This is not sufficient for productions to be built in Aspen;  but it is sufficient to provide repair and maintenance on site for incoming tours. Backstage support facilities on site and in town allow for educational opportunities in the theatre arts. This supports a variety of interests in our younger citizens and cultivates a new generation of performing arts enthusiasts. 

5. This is a preliminary proposal and is only intended as a starting point for discussion.  Consultants who contributed include Glen Boyette (34 year production supervisor for AOL Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting), Isabel Rubio (award winning wardrobe manager and costume designer) and Allan Trumpler (Art Director on numerous Feature Films, Scenic Artist for Broadway and senior instructor of Film, Theatre and Video production for the University of Colorado Denver). Their expertise gives a fresh viewpoint which emphasizes basic functionality. It is highly recommended that Wheeler staff members and all the Performing Arts organizations in Aspen comment on this proposal to determine if it speaks to their specific needs.

Caveats:

No architects or engineers were consulted for this proposal. The design addresses production issues alone. Should the City decide to proceed with this design structural and code issues will certainly effect many of the items in the proposal. However, the 5 goals mentioned above should remain the ultimate goals. First, a more functional Opera house capable of hosting larger and more modern productions. Second, an additional smaller space which serves the double duty of allowing for a more intimate theatrical experience and freeing the Wheeler Main Stage for larger productions. Third, incorporating a public green space for both artists and audience where they can meet, converse and dream. Fourth, supporting Performing Arts education in our local community. Fifth, inviting everyone into the conversation. The Performing Arts are a collaborative process. That is our strength and it is to that strength we should play.

Update:
I paced the lot and it's 40' so here is the same idea with another 10' of width. This also highlights the inherit problem with the "black box" concept- you need to store all the different seating/staging somewhere…

All comments welcome.