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One unhappy business owner

Dear Editor:I seem to be one of many long term residents who are totally confused by the City Council’s refusal to commit four lanes into town from Buttermilk Ski Area.Why are you planning to 1) eliminate parking on Main Street for a bus lane which 2) will terminate at the Hickory House and continue to block all exits from 3:30-5:30 p.m.? I wrote you back in August to suggest a two-lane bridge over Castle Creek from the roundabout so that all traffic can enter the city over a new bridge rather than converge into one lane from Buttermilk. You seem to ignore my suggestions.Do those of you on the City Council never exit Aspen during rush hour when it is bumper-to-bumper to get out of town? Do those of you on the City Council never enter Aspen in the morning? I can’t believe there is no thought to four lanes into town from Buttermilk, plus five traffic lights to literally slow up traffic to a halt.As for me, I take west Smuggler out of town and under the Castle Creek Bridge to avoid the bumper to bumper crush on Main Street, but now that road is more and more busy, with a head-on collision one day in February, not slippery roads, just ignorance.Oh my God, but will you ever consider four lanes into town? We have had referendums, votes and more referendums, each of which has advocated four lanes into town, yet City Council refuses to collaborate. Why?Helen and City Council, back to the bike/viaduct on Cemetery Lane to the Slaughterhouse Bridge; why was that built, when the money it cost could have indeed created an underpass or two or three? I really don’t understand our city government, and the front page of The Aspen Times mentioning the bus lanes down Main Street, only to stop at the Hickory House, seems to be the poorest resolution yet. And now I read that you wish to charge $1 per hour parking all over town eliminating the two-hour free parking outside the city core. Oh my God. I don’t think you are constructive.For your information, I have been in business at the Crystal Palace for 50 years, the single owner operated business in Aspen. I think a lot of people listen to me in Aspen, and I receive only the shaking of heads and comments that the City Council does not listen to people. I can tell you are against this 50-year Aspen restaurant owner. But I am truly shaking in my steps as I try to understand our government and our mayor. I do not understand the City Council, making parking more difficult, yet raising the height restrictions to accommodate third floor penthouses (as on the Mother Lode next door) and the Snowflake/Limelite across the street.Helen and City Council, I have written enough. I am not a happy restaurant owner and operator at this stage in Aspen.Mead MetcalfAspen