In case you weren’t paying enough attention, the City of Aspen’s politically motivated “boycott” against the Aspen Times ended on October 5, 2022. This is the date the Times and this newspaper both led the guest column for Aspen City Manager Sara Ott. , “Replacing the Castle Creek Bridge takes commitment, money and patience.”
OK, it wasn’t a real “boycott”. Yes, Council Members John Doyle and Skippy Mesirow along with Mayor Torre (a voting majority of Aspen’s elected leaders) joined 15 other elected Upper Valley leaders to sign a letter to the President and CEO of Ogden Newspapers, Bob Nutting, last June, threatening to pull advertisements and notices while refusing interviews with the Aspen Times. But no, the Aspen City Council did not have the courage to follow up on this threat with official boycott action.
If you recall, the Times fueled this letter by firing Andrew Travers, its new editor, whose tenure, which was only a few days old, was truncated because he thought the paper’s new owners were serious about subject of journalism when they offered him the job. Instead, following his go-ahead, now Aspen Daily News columnist Roger Marolt, criticizing the $76.2 million sale of Gorsuch Haus last March to Miami’s OKO Group, they have canned.
So we were all there three weeks ago today reading an op-ed by the council-appointed envoy on third rail policy issues across the valley, City Manager Sara Ott, a photo professional color and all. Ott’s article told us people down the valley to be patient about the time and money it takes to complete such a monumental transportation project as the Castle Creek Bridge.
In my overly emotional state, the phrase that immediately came to mind was “Gee, thanks Captain Obvious!”
Do you remember Captain Obvious? He’s that bearded character from TV commercials who wears the flashy red military blazer and naval-style officer’s cap while peddling rooms for Hotels.com. Its comedic advertising angle being that those in need of a hotel room should obviously use the website to book their reservations. In fact, it’s so obvious that you don’t really need Captain Obvious to tell you.
So much for the political correctness of a boycott threat in the face of the council’s desire to frame its position at the Aspen entrance without the responsibility of signing it itself. Just let the city manager speak authoritatively to the masses crammed into the valley the daunting difficulties of providing a rational transportation system in and out of Aspen. Who better to communicate the political realities of these challenges than their most appointed leader?
Ott’s politically tinged remarks deftly skirted the more obvious issue of the Castle Creek Bridge’s limited capacity of one lane of traffic in each direction. In doing so, and without noting long-discussed alternatives that would widen the entrance to four lanes, it tacitly set the stage to replace the current bridge with another two-lane facility intentionally under-designed for current traffic demand and out of sync with the existing four-lane capacity of the highway on each side.
We, the lower valley commuters, waited patiently for commitments from elected city leaders and state money (after all, the bridge is part of a national highway), to finally allow the completion of a reasonable improvement to the entrance to Aspen in general and the bridge in particular.
In other words, the message of advice delivered by Ott was so obvious that we really didn’t need her to tell us.
What might such a “reasonable improvement” look like? Obviously a four lane solution allowing the vehicle capacity of the entrance to match both that of Highway 82 west of the Castle Creek Bridge and Aspen’s Main Street east. ‘is, two vehicle lanes in each direction, would be one scenario.
Is such a four-way alignment possible through S-curves, you ask? The city will tell you no. I have never been entirely convinced of this conclusion, although even if it is possible, it would not be optimal. And the alternative of realigning the entrance, or at least its access routes, through the sacred Marolt Open space has long been the city’s bulwark against political support for such an improvement.
Silver? Time? Commitment? How much money and time is wasted every day as workers wait in traffic to get in and out of Aspen? Meanwhile, where is Aspen’s commitment to its environmental goals as idling vehicles pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere of America’s self-proclaimed leading climate policy community?
Be serious. That building an improved and expanded Aspen Entrance, which necessarily includes a new Castle Creek Bridge, will take political courage, not a media missive from Captain Obvious. But when Aspen’s elected leaders do not even sign their names and entrust their chief administrator with the task of drafting such a conference, it is clear that political courage remains preciously scarce. In council-run forms of government like Aspen’s, these editorials report to the mayor as the elected political head of the city.
On the other hand, there may be a missed opportunity in the city’s approach to dealing with issues that require more political courage than it can muster. The next time the Aspen board calls on a director to deliver a politically charged message via the press, perhaps they can better use this full-color photo and adorn it with a bright red Captain Obvious blazer.
It would be a shame, but appropriate.
Contact Paul at pmenter98388@gmail.com.
