Aspen mayoral candidates offer up their priorities

Editor’s note: Today is the fourth question in a series of five posed to the two Aspen mayoral candidates. Their answers (200-word limit) will be published each day through Friday. For more information on the 2021 Aspen municipal election, go to aspentimes.com/election.

Torre

I still believe in and am dedicated to doing the hard work that is ahead of us. My top priority is to improve the city of Aspen government.

We have a new focus on customer service and communication with and for the public as a guiding value and work ethic.

This is where it all begins, we work for you, all of you.

We are making organizational changes, improving communications, focusing our values and aligning decision-making.

By making these changes, we will be able to be more efficient, effective, and represent our community in the decisions that impact us all.

Housing and business opportunities for locals are two other top goals as we set our expectations for this year. Aspen’s affordable housing program needs improvement and progress in APCHA regulations, capital reserves and maintenance, developing new units, and addressing deed restriction sunsets. We must create a program that can provide opportunity for local housing of workforce, maintain stability for residents, and offer long term community building residents a chance for equity.

Locally owned, local-serving and local-sourced business and products need our support. Land use code changes, affordable commercial space, and removing barriers to startup businesses are a few of the initiatives I will pursue in this next term.

Lee Mulcahy

Halt the People’s Republic of Aspen’s secret “executive” sessions. Government behind closed doors is damaging to democracy. We’re the state joke: Moscow in the Mountains.

Partner with Aspen Skiing Co. and Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club to build an Olympic training center (like Steamboat) with ramps and a pool for freestyle aerial training at the schools and Aspen Highlands.

Bridle the bullies. To forgive is divine. Skico was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. However, it’s a monopoly and acts like one. As a labor activist, my goal as mayor would be to make working people as powerful as the corporation is.

Without strong unions, the imbalance of power between corporations and employees is so hopeless that it has produced a society where a tiny handful of super-rich billionaires get ever richer, even while wages stagnate for everyone else and labor rights are constantly eroded, making the American Dream of upward mobility a cruel joke. In other words, what Aspen is now.

Lastly, throw a giant fabulous retirement party in the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson for our City Attorney and Aspen housing’s private attorney (since the previous Ice Age) and thank them for their service.