Cooney: Don’t quicken Aspen’s logjam

Building a straight shot into the quick-filling cul-de-sac of Aspen to accommodate access resentment by faraway service folks while sacrificing our green space to calm egress fears is a leveraged vote caused by a real-estate economy and gluttonous consumption.

Though we’ll never recreate our one-time moderately self-sufficient community, the 2000 dotcom bubble burst, the 2008 mortgage crash, and even the 2021-2022 Aspen development moratorium showed that a construction/consumption drop could reduce traffic significantly.

Currently, the unsustainable belief in endless replacement construction, short-term rentals, mansion flipping, and catering to whimsical opulence hold community hostage so that, largely speaking, people who don’t live here can make more money.

As the real-estate economy suctions in more gridlock traffic, goods and service prices will go up because fewer service people will want to suffer the worsening grind and expense when the down-valley economy can support them. At the same time, with Aspen chasing totally deluxe, landfill overload, and service demand are compounding exponentially.

Under this swelling pretense, extra lanes will only logjam town faster, while we pretend that importing everything we “need” makes a green community. The real traffic solution is less excessiveness as a financial, in-perpetuity concept.

That said, please support John Doyle for city council because he is not driven by personal gain and political ambition. He has the depth of historical experience and a sincere community conscience that we need at this critical juncture.

Tim Cooney

Aspen