I'm posting some old letters to the editor. This is so I can remember what I wrote, and to keep myself honest. I'm posting them in the order I wrote them so this goes back a couple of years.
The more things change….
This is from the Summer of 2013
What follows is an opinion.
Oh goodie we have another issue for people to act like one year olds spoon banging their bowls of pap. The parking garage under Wagner Park is sure to bring out the entire Aspen Circus. Goodie. Give me the bears.
The buses used to stop at the corner of Mill and Hyman (x from the Wheeler) Ruby Park is better than that- but it's still a less than pleasant atmosphere in prime real estate. Bottom line the problem of easy and immediate access the the heart of Aspen *and* keeping a restful quiet resort atmosphere is a difficult one. Ruby Park has not solved that problem. The Rio Grande city parking has not solved that problem. There may be an opportunity to correct that in the current process of redesigning and re- engineering the Rio Grande lot.
1. Digging in Aspen is always a risky proposition. Who knows, you might actually find hot water under Wagner. More likely you'll find a great archeological dig from the remains of the Clarendon Hotel or just a bunch of mine tunnels making an underground structure an engineering nightmare. You can ask the Melvilles how much trouble they had with their underground parking dig.
2. Parking Garages do not have to be NYC Port Authority concrete hell holes.
You can make a parking garage which is a pleasant experience *and* a retailers paradise. Other cities have done this with foresight and a lot of cash- but it's paid for itself in very short order. I will keep pointing to the huge success of underground parking at the Louvre which made museum entrance fees the single largest slice of the French GNP. It wasn't the pyramid which did that it was the combination of access, parking and splitting the Louvre ticket into 3 tickets (bloody brilliant).
You can make a parking garage which is a pleasant experience *and* a retailers paradise. Other cities have done this with foresight and a lot of cash- but it's paid for itself in very short order. I will keep pointing to the huge success of underground parking at the Louvre which made museum entrance fees the single largest slice of the French GNP. It wasn't the pyramid which did that it was the combination of access, parking and splitting the Louvre ticket into 3 tickets (bloody brilliant).
3. Applying the theory of "service at the point of need" the only way to make Ruby Park better is to make it a Park and reroute the buses to the Rio Grande lot. Skier buses could still stop directly at the Gondola to take skiers to the other mountains. Yes, you would have to make a pull out for the buses but there would be fewer skiers crossing the road and it's possible the traffic flow on Durant would ease.
4. What determines how many cars use a parking structure is the vehicular entrance. Spiraling around Monarch and Durant to an underground entrance at Wagner will not improve the traffic on Durant or in the core. The only way to do this and use Wagner would be to dig an entrance from Main street. I will win the lottery before that happens…. and to do that I have to buy a ticket.
5. What determines how people experience a parking structure is the pedestrian exit. I would *love* an exit from a parking structure right onto the mall (see above lottery quote) failing that we can make the exit from the Rio Grande so much better than it is. Just getting to the other side of Main would be a huge improvement. Retail and informational opportunities as great or greater than those at an airport should be included.
6. Everybody thinks I'm joking when I mention underground bicycle parking- have you looked at the mall lately? It's a forest of bike racks. (granted, these may help the bears access the crab apples - or not) The Japanese robotic underground bike parking structures are *cool*.
The experience of seeing Aspen for the first time can be crafted so that those visitors who arrive feel they've reached a place where the noise and bustle of a large city has slid away. Notice I didn't say where that all the modern conveniences were gone- just the stress. That's our "product" natural beauty and a kick ass service community. The benefit of this is that we, who live here, get to enjoy that "product" year round- so it's a win win.
I sincerely believe the way to achieve this is to explore future thinking solutions like using power from hybrid/electric cars in parking structures to power the Aspen grid and reach that 100% renewable goal, like underground bicycle parking (seriously- check it out on youtube it's a kick), investigate the train again- but this time include a carrier car for trucks and vans so that deliveries can come off of 82 and onto the rails until they reach Aspen- and please make a hook up to the Ski train from Denver- if that could get skiers all the way to Aspen- Oh my.
Crazy optimistic out of the box thinking? Isn't that what we're good at here in Aspen?
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