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Brits praise Aspen; newsweek covers Aspen real estate

Brent Gardner-Smith
Aspen Times Staff Writer

British skiers recently got some encouragement to come to Aspen this winter. The London Sunday Times ran a ski travel piece on Oct. 6 by Sean Newsom that asked “Which resort?

“Well, check out the A list opposite and bear in mind a couple more specialised options: Telluride in Colorado for romantics, and Jackson Hole and Fernie for adrenaline addicts.

“Top of the list, however, is Aspen. For a mixed bag of Brits who want to ski hard at lots of different levels and don’t want every day to end in a disco, there is currently no better resort in the world.”



Makes you feel good deep down inside, don?t it?

And in the same travel section, the Times described Aspen as follows:




“The glory days of hell-raising, liberal hippiedom are long gone, but the fabulous skiing remains. Four separate mountains ? linked by an efficient, free bus service ? are packed with wide, immaculately groomed trails, as well as some tantalising off-piste.

“Best of all, hardly anyone goes there. Any drawbacks? You don’t need to be rich to ski Aspen, but it helps; eating out can be dull if you don’t have money to burn.”

That?s right, hardly anyone goes there. See? What doesn?t kill you, makes you stronger.

Locational news

Time magazine picked up on Aspen?s struggle with yoga, and now Newsweek has noticed the tussle over real estate sales offices in downtown Aspen.

In its Oct. 7 issue, the national news magazine noted in a piece by Paul Tolme that, “In recent years the Main Streets of resort towns in the Rockies have been invaded by real-estate offices.

“In Aspen, Colo., more than a dozen storefronts have been transformed into property-sales or time-share offices.

“This has prompted shopkeeper Barry Gordon to spearhead a drive to ban the offices from the ground floor of buildings in the town center. The proposal is being studied by Aspen officials ? and by the mayor of Park City, Utah, where 18 offices have opened in a three-block area of Old Town.

“‘It’s ruining the character of our downtown,’ says Gordon.”

But some would argue that the timeshare and real estate offices are perfectly in keeping with the character of our fair city.

“‘In many resort towns, real estate has replaced tourism and even skiing as the main driver in the economy,’ says Jonathan Staufer of Colorado Wild, an environmental group.”

Especially this one.

Disneyesque

Fortune magazine?s Oct. 14 issue has a long article by Marc Gunther about Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. The piece focuses on Eisner?s efforts to keep Disney?s financial outlook healthy.

It describes in detail how Disney?s board of directors, like the board of many other companies, is now getting scrutinized for potential conflicts of interest.

It also mentions that Disney “Director Robert A.M. Stern, a celebrated architect, may have an insurmountable problem because Disney has been one of his firm’s most important clients for years. He also designed Eisner’s Aspen home.”

Eisner?s home is actually far up the Snowmass Creek Valley, but the mention is more notable because Stern?s firm also designed the Aspen Highlands Village, which may or may not explain a lot about that project.

[Brent Gardner-Smith’s e-mail address is bgs@aspentimes.com]