Maybe we ought to ask our downvalley friends what they think about the entrance to Aspen. I don’t mean all of them, of course — just the ones working up here, keeping the town running and providing most everything that makes mountain life special. Oh, and maybe their spouses and kids who watch them leave early every morning on the big commute and wait anxiously for their return every evening, pushing worry to the back of their minds.
I suppose, too, it might be nice if we listen to our old friends who lived here forever before retiring down there. It seems right to make them still feel welcome. It’s a heartwarming thing in these tumultuous times to rally around the unifying cry that we are but one community here in the Roaring Fork Valley.
It makes us feel good. It makes us feel strong. It is empowering in its optimism.
I’m just wondering where the talk stops and the living it starts. Are we only one community when Aspenites take their cars to the dealerships in Glenwood for warranty work or need to stock up on household essentials at Target? Or, is this a two-way street? Our workers travel Highway 82 every working day of their lives, and not in a reverse commute. It is not easy.
It is not always safe. It steals gobs of precious time from life’s savings account. The big issue with the entrance to Aspen is where to place the new Castle Creek Bridge before the old one collapses.
The “straight shot” option would reroute a very short section of Highway 82 through Ma.