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Thanks for visiting the blog for the Community Vision for the Aspen Area. Please remember to leave your name when you are posting comments. Thanks, and enjoy the blog!

Welcome

Welcome to the City of Aspen and Pitkin County blog for the update to the Aspen Area Community Plan. This blog is intended to give you an opportunity to provide feedback on the issues and ideas that are part of the updated Community Plan. The posts are based on the topics that will be in the updated plan, and you are able to leave comments regarding each of our posts.

All the comments will be part of the citizen input record, and will help inform the questions and conversation at our large group meetings in 2009. Sorry, but anonymous posts are not accepted.

To leave a comment, simply click on the "comment" link at the bottom of the post and type in your comment. You will be asked to identify yourself. If you have a google account you can use that to leave a comment, otherwise pick the "Name/URL" option and just leave your name.

Thanks, and enjoy the blog!

Sustaining the Aspen Idea

Imagine it is 2018. You have been the Grand Poobah of Arts & Culture for 10 years. Walk me through the arts and cultural life of Aspen. Have you built on the legacy of the Aspen Idea? Why? Is this important to tourists or locals or both? Why?

Sustaining the Aspen Idea

Have you been concerned about catering to different groups i.e. young, old, tourist, local, ethnic groups? If not, why not? If so, why? How?

Environmental Quality

Imagine it is 10 years from today. You have been Prime Minister of the Environment for 10 years. What have you accomplished? What partners have you worked with to achieve your goals? Have you tried to make Aspen a national or international model? Has that worked? What are you most proud of?

Aspen Airport Business Center

Imagine it is 2018. You have been in charge of everything that happens in the Aspen Airport Business Center for 10 years. What is the “identity” of this neighborhood today? Is it a satellite of Aspen or more like a small town? Why?

Aspen Airport Business Center

Describe the “identity” of the Aspen Airport Business Center neighborhood today, stretching from Burlingame and Buttermilk to the North 40. Does it feel like a satellite of Aspen, made up of businesses and institutional uses that just didn’t fit in the City of Aspen, or does it feel more like a small town with all the services a small town should have?

Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Trails

Imagine it is 2020. You have been the Parks, Recreation Open Space and Trails Czar for 10 years. You are floating high above town in a transparent bubble, taking some friends on a tour to brag about your accomplishments. What do you show them? What are you most proud of?

Historic Preservation

Imagine it is 2022, the 75th Anniversary of the Aspen Idea. You are hired to design and run a tour using a solar-powered cart. Where do you go and what buildings do you show to help teach tourists about the Aspen Idea, the post-WWWII era and the beginning of the ski resort?

Historic Preservation

Imagine that several old friends are coming to Aspen for the first time and you’re going to bring them on a tour. Where do you go? What buildings do you show them to give them a sense of Aspen’s identity?

Managing Growth

Imagine it is 2018. You have been the Grand Poobah of Growth Management, with complete control of approving land use applications and handing out building permits in the Aspen area. What has been your biggest accomplishment? Have you set a tough limit on the number of building permits issued, to make sure construction impacts don’t denigrate the quality of life? Have you allowed the free market to do what it wants? Or somewhere in the middle?

Managing Growth

Imagine it is 10 years from today. You have been in charge of managing growth in the Aspen for 10 years. You have decided how much new residential growth, how much new commercial growth, how much new lodging, how much affordable housing, what new essential public facilities have been built. What has happened under your tenure? Assuming there has been at least some growth, what kind of growth have you emphasized? Why?

Economy

Imagine it is 10 years from now. You have been the Airline Czar for service into Aspen. What have you accomplished? What are you most proud of?

Economy

Imagine it is 2018. You have been the Prime Minister of Lodging, with complete control of what you want to build or redevelop. Walk us through the lodging stock in Aspen. What do you see? What different types of lodging do we have? What kinds of people does it cater to?

Economy

Imagine it is 10 years from today. You have been in charge of downtown Aspen for 10 years. You have done whatever you wanted, regardless of the landlords, the City or anyone else. Walk me through your new downtown Aspen. What do you see? Describe the buildings, the stores that are here, the parks, the people, the feeling. What has changed? What hasn’t changed? What are you most proud of?

Transportation

Imagine it is 2018. You have been the Grand Poobah of Transportation for 10 years. What have you accomplished? What is different about getting into and out of Aspen today? What does the downtown feel like in terms of vehicles and traffic? What are you most proud of with regard to the transportation program?

Transportation

Imagine it is 10 years from today. There have been great strides in the valley’s transit system. What does it look like? Is it buses or a rail system? Either way, assume you use the system regularly: Describe the experience of using this service. What has improved?

Housing

Imagine it is 10 years from today. A new affordable housing complex has just been completed somewhere in the Aspen area. You think it’s terrific. We don’t need to know exactly where it is or how big it is, but walk us through this new little neighborhood. What is the mix of people who live there? How does it relate to the neighborhood around it? What makes it successful?

Housing

Imagine it is 2018. You have been the Housing Czar for 10 years. What have you accomplished? What is different about the program today? What is the mix of people i.e. young, old, worker, retiree, ethnicity? What are you most proud of with regard to the housing program?