YOUR AD HERE »

Out of touch

Dear Editor:

In reference to the article, “Aspen offers free downtown parking for two Saturdays,” featured in the Friday, Dec. 12, issue of The Aspen Times: Seriously, does free parking offer any advantage to anyone who can afford to shop in Aspen?

Can you imagine any one of Aspen’s wealthy consumers deciding to make that Rolex or Louis Vuitton purchase on Saturday now that they get free parking? I can just picture it: “Hey honey, let’s go buy that new fur coat for $50,000 or that $140,000 Frank Muller wrist watch, now that we can park our Bentley for free.”



Additionally, Aspen’s parking situation is already so slogged and congested, it would be amazing just to find parking, at any price! Why not make an effort to solve the parking problem in Aspen instead?

Finally, I think Aspen seriously needs to explore some incentives that allow mid-priced stores versus the top-end shopping venues that offer nothing else besides bad coffee and luxury shopping. This is going to be a tough recession, and the most lonely and desolate place on Earth is going to be most of the aforementioned luxury goods shops in town.




Aspen’s greedy and misguided experiment, appealing only to the rich and famous, is finally going to backfire, and I’m hoping that there’s a big lesson to be learned for all the rapacious landlords and City Council members who supported this fiasco. Someone in Aspen is seriously out of touch.

Scott Courts

Aspen and Denver