ASPEN — Aspen mayoral candidate Bonnie Behrend said Friday that one way to enliven the downtown commercial core is to encourage small businesses to use "collapsible tents in the alleyways," and to permit restaurants to set up tables on rooftops.

Behrend, a former national and local television personality, arrived a few minutes late, but ready to rumble, at a forum hosted by the Aspen Business Improvement League. She proposed the tents and rooftop eateries as a way to increase the vitality of Aspen's downtown shopping district.

Her ideas came up as part of a broad discussion among the candidates - including Behrend, Mick Ireland, Tim Semrau and Torre - and business representatives, intended to provide an idea of how the mayoral hopefuls view relations between government and business.

ABIL [pronounced like "able"] is a three-year old organization originally formed to propose a downtown business improvement district with the city's cooperation - but the City Council declined to participate. The business improvement district is now on a back burner, according to ABIL board member Bill Dinsmoor.

The format of the event permitted candidates to pose questions to ABIL members at the table, and to each other.

At one point, former council member Semrau accused former Pitkin County Commissioner Ireland of advocating a freeze on new development in the center of town, saying Ireland has called for 100 percent employee housing mitigation, as well as creation of a mechanism to encourage or require "affordable commercial" development.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's a freeze," Semrau said.

Ireland refuted Semrau's claims, saying, "I'm not anti-development, I'm not anti-growth." He said that as commissioner he had approved "millions of dollars" worth of growth in the county.

But, he said, he believes the city needs to rewrite its land use code in a way that protects locally-serving businesses so they do not disappear from Aspen's retail landscape.

All four candidates said they agreed with the city's decision to save the Isis Theater from being converted to some other use.

Semrau, however, was scathingly critical of the city's methods in buying the historic theater for $7 million, remodeling it for $1.2 million, then leasing it out to a group of partners who now are remodeling the building again to turn part of it into retail shops. Semrau argued that the city should have sought the involvement of wealthy locals, citing the purchase of Explore Booksellers by the Wyly family as an example.

Torre said he was hesitant about voting in favor of buying the Isis with taxpayer money, out of a vague discomfort concerning "government intervention in the marketplace." But he added that "here in Aspen ... market forces are very different" and the Isis deal was "a necessary evil" to prevent the loss of a vital community asset.

Ireland said all arts and cultural assets in Aspen are subsidized to one degree or another, and said of the Isis deal, "I think you had to do something."

Behrend called the deal "a very creative way to save the theater," but said she is not happy about the current remodel and conversion of part of the building to retail.

Behrend proposed creation of an "Aspen Small Business Administration" that could oversee the health and vitality of the business community.

Torre pointed to the City Council's record of measures aimed at helping businesses thrive, such as a prohibition of offices on the street level of buildings, as examples of the city's good intentions. But, he said, the city needs to do more to encourage affordable housing and commercial spaces in the core.

Semrau said the city needs to react more creatively to the conflicting needs of businesses and the community at large, declaring that vacant lots where cars can park and aging, decaying buildings "don't help vitality."

Although the ABIL moderator, Shirley Tipton, specifically declared the Entrance to Aspen off-limits, the talk did get around to traffic management on Highway 82.

All the candidates but Behrend suggested that one way to cut congestion in the morning would be to ban parents from dropping their kids off at the Aspen public schools campus on Maroon Creek Road, although Torre said such matters are up to the Aspen School Board and not to City Council.

Behrend, however, cautioned the others, "The Mommy 500 in the mornings is not something I would dink with if I were you." She suggested more frequent scheduling and smaller buses, a tollbooth at the entrance to town with a three-tiered payment structure for tourists, commuters and in-town residents, and a beefed-up police force to pay closer attention to traffic violations.

John Colson's e-mail address is jcolson@aspentimes.com