The never-ending commute

Dear Editor:

I’m writing to follow up on Gary Goldstein’s letter to the editor (“Let’s fix the real issues,” Feb. 10, The Aspen Times) in regards to Aspen’s entrance.

Solving the real problem would be making housing affordable to people like myself who work and play in Aspen. It’s never going to happen. Taking the bus is impractical too! The people that espouse the benefits of RFTA obviously have never taken the bus before (ever see a plumber take the bus?). You should try it with tools and skis and see how well that works out. Let’s be honest with ourselves for once: We are all still commuting.

Unfortunately, our elected officials in Aspen are in denial that this is what it takes to make our town function and that things are only going to get worse as downvalley (where is that?) gets more and more expensive! Soon everyone is going to be commuting from Rifle, New Castle, and Silt to make the Aspen fairyland function.

Fixing Highway 82 into Aspen is the only solution, especially the S-curves and the poorly conceived single-lane mergers and stop light system into Aspen. Too bad it does not appeal to the fantasy environmental image that Aspen is working so hard on creating!

Sometimes reality sucks. Get over it; we are all still going to commute in and out of Aspen every day. Fix the S-curves for the working schleps like myself!

Jim Henderson

Basalt