An un-Aspen City Hall

In a Monday Aspen Daily News article on the new City Hall, City Manager Sara Ott explains as a security benefit that all the staff offices are locked off. There will be just a small access window for the public to state their business until the gatekeeper deems it appropriate for them to enter.

That’s been the case with the new Pitkin County Clerk’s building. Is that what the people of Aspen want? We used to be able to interact easily with city staff in their old offices. It seems that staff, with the assistance of whomever planned this arrangement, has insulated itself.

I for one have been frustrated at being kept away and looking through glass at them in their nice new offices, where they are not very inclined to come out and talk, and less likely to allow a lowly member of the public coming for assistance to enter their safe havens. You wind up conducting a conversation with someone inside through the gatekeeper at the little access window. It’s very un-Aspen.

Gerald Grayson

Aspen