Tuesday, November 11, 2008

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?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The new little neighborhood of affordable housing in Aspen is terrific. It provides adequate sized housing for many low income families and individuals. The residents of this neighborhood are a mix between families with working parents, and low income individuals. Although there are several individuals in the neighborhood who live alone, it's only a small number. There is not enough space in the town of Aspen for a nice typical suburban neighborhood however. The neighborhood has close proximity to the town of Aspen, many jobs, schools, and restaurants. The best part of this neighborhood is the affordable living. Although few places in Aspen are actually affordable, with the wages of many Aspen jobs, these houses are affordable for low income families and individuals. The success of this new neighborhood comes through the mixture of the cost of houses and the mixture of residents. With able bodied persons in the housing, and no retired people, jobs are filled. These jobs range throughout many different categories in the town that help it run, and also help increase productivity of Aspen. Also, in this neighborhood, there will be no retirees. Although retired persons also may need affordable housing, if they are not working in Aspen, they have less necessity to live in Aspen. With the mandate of only working peoples living in the new housing, it will be easier for these people to access their places of work.
-Chelsey H.

Anonymous said...

Ten years from now i will be in search of new housing to move back to aspen having been at college. in my search i find a new complex that is affordable and with great location. other things i like about it are the other families that will be moving in. i, too, will also be wanting to start a family and raise my kids here. i like the idea of living in affordable housing but as time goes on and i would like to get into the free market, my biggest concern is not being able to. if there were a way i would like to keep affordable housing available to everyone but also make it a good investment. that's how it would be in an ideal world, if anything was possible.

Anonymous said...

ten years from now i will be moving back to aspen having been at college. in my search for housing i find a new complex with great location and affordability. another thing i like about the new complex is the other families moving in. i, too, will want to start a family and raise my kids here. i know it will be expensive but, it is worth it to have my kids grow up in such a great place. my only concern would be, will affordable housing be a good investment? the point of affordable housing is to keep it that way but, once you get it, i feel that it would be hard to get into the free market after. in an ideal world, affordable housing would be a good investment (meaning going up in value as the free market does) but somehow staying affordable for all.

Anonymous said...

Ten years from now. The city of Aspen has just built an amazing housing complex for me and my young family to get our start in the Aspen area. At this point I will be 28 and probably right out of grad school someplace. I will probably still have school loans to pay off, but this new affordable housing complex and I will have mad it work. My neighbors is this complex are very similar to me and my young family. People from mid 20's to late 30's or early 40's. People that need a place to start growing financial roots through the Aspen area.

Transportation is easy, as there is a bus that comes every 15 minutes to the front of the complex. There is an affordable supermarket just across the way from the complex as well as a few pretty nice, yet affordable, restaurants.

Anonymous said...

I think that what the neighborhoods within city limits are experiencing is massive price and size remodels for a more upper class family. I had lived on Cemetary Lane from about 1997 - 2006 and have seen precisely this type of growth. With such limited space and Aspen's largest sector of growth will aid the free-market in out competing the employee housing district. This strecthing of the market with high-end homes on one side and affordable housing on the other there will be conflict yet to come. I would like to see that while there may not be any place to construct employee housing units within city limits, they are provided ample opportunity to live somewhat up-valley. Also I would like to see some disincentives for 2nd home owners like taxes on electricity bills and costs which are incurred even when there is nobody home. I think it would be interesting to see multiple parties bidding for a time slot in a shared 2nd home. This would allow for more people and growth to enter the area yet limit the number of individual homes built.

Anonymous said...

The new affordable housing complex is very convenient. It is close to Aspen and accessible by all forms of transportation, including the bus. Most of the people living in this complex have jobs in Aspen and can easily get to these jobs without sitting through hours of traffic at 7 in the morning. The neighborhood is safe and friendly; everyone knows each other. It consists of a mix of families, single parents, and those who live alone. Many of these people have low income jobs but can afford living in this complex. There are more spacious houses for bigger families and smaller ones for those who live alone or with one other person. There is a daycare for parents to leave their toddlers at while they go to work, creating more jobs and convenience for parents. There is also a bus to take kids to the Aspen schools. I have been living in Aspen for a few years now and every year I have to move because my family rents since affordable housing in Aspen is impossible to find and living down valley is inconvenient. The new complex is the perfect solution for us.

Unknown said...

In 10 years from now i would like to see a community of affordable housing for people and families working in the Aspen area. My ideal would be a large diversity of people, some working for the city and others working in private businesses. My hope is that the complex, like they do now, will fit in with the surroundings. If its on a mountain, have the houses be made of wood and camouflaged into the mountain. My wish is that in 10 years, the city of Aspen will be able to accommodate the hard working individuals without becoming over populated and over built.

Anonymous said...

Ten years from now, a new affordable housing complex has just been completely finished. There is enough room for kids to play outside, and there is a community park where everyones children plays after school and on the weekends. The people here mostly consist of working families who have worked in Aspen many years, but could never afford to actually live there. The homes range from houses, town houses and duplexes that are large enough for the size of the family living there, but also reasonable because of the need to fit many houses in the complex. The houses add to the overall look of the community. The reason why this housing complex is so successful because local investments are made and the locals taxes are being used somewhat to help the people who live here.