“Paepcke’s experiment in idiosyncratic enlightened capitalism proved to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of tourism in the 20th-century West, a bridge between a more elitist past and a future of mass culture.”
Category: Social justice
Posted inIn search of community
Post-war rise of skiing and culture creates both opportunity and rift
“Some of the objections for Aspen having a celebration each year are the lack of housing, the shortage of dining space for more than ordinary crowds, disrupting the free and easy life of some few Aspenites, and generally cluttering up the streets and shops with extra people, some of them with money to spend.”
Posted inIn search of community
During Aspen’s Quiet Years, a challenged but cohesive community takes hold
“The lights of Aspen began to dim and softly flicker for almost 50 years. Still, the lights never went out. These were the years between prospecting and prosperity, … Aspen’s only future lay in its past. All of its dreams were trapped in its memories of yesterday.”
Posted inIn search of community
Aspen’s embattled community first experienced by the Utes, then came the silver crash
Aspen’s community has proved resilient despite dramatic changes that have long inflamed a cathartic sense of loss. Aspenites are contentious about change because change alters the experience that first gave them a rich sense of place. A first love of Aspen leaves a deep emotional imprint.
Posted inIn search of community
Holiday potlucks and food pantries nourish scents of community
“This dinner was for lifties, ski instructors and service workers who have come into Aspen from Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Peru and other faraway places,” said chapel minister Nicholas Vesey, who led a raucous caroling session after a turkey dinner with all the fixings. “We wanted to give them a good Christmas.”
Posted inIn search of community
Regionalism evolves as a uniting force from Aspen to Parachute
This community is contiguous but divided, homogenous but diverse, connected yet fractured. This community is complex and often at odds with itself over its past, its present and especially its future. It contains microcommunities delineated by overlaps and separations, yet strongly influenced socioeconomically by Aspen and Snowmass.
Posted inSocial justice
More than two-thirds of Aspen’s occupied homes are deed-restricted
Among the 3,278 full-time occupied units in Aspen, 70% are deed-restricted as of July, for a total of 2,303. This represents about 39% of the city’s total units. Aspen has the highest number of deed-restricted units out of the 43 communities surveyed and the second-highest proportion of deed-restricted units after the 1,266 deed-restricted units in Breckenridge accounting for 73% of that community’s full-time households.
Posted inLocal Public Data
With 99% of cases finalized, Pitkin County property values increase 72% with reappraisal
Pitkin County commissioners, sitting as the Board of Equalization on Wednesday, approved the updated property valuations after more than 4,700 protests were filed in the spring. The cumulative value of all Pitkin County properties reached $74 billion before the hearing process was conducted throughout the summer. This was up from $42 billion in 2022. After the hearings, the cumulative value is down to $72.4 billion (an average of $4 million per property).
Posted inSocial justice
PitCo aims to increase childhood vaccination as Colorado immunization rates drop
Pitkin County schools tend to have high rates of compliance. Aspen School District’s three public schools have compliance rates between 98.7% and 99.8%, compared with a statewide average of 91.9% of students in the K-12 age group.
Posted inSocial justice
Organizing mobile-home owners as investors gobble up parks
What Sullivan and his neighbors worry about — corporate ownership takeover, creeping unaffordability, the potential for the park to be displaced by redevelopment — is happening at an accelerating rate, both in the Roaring Fork Valley and across Colorado, prompting stronger policy prescriptions from elected officials and community leaders.