Letter: Best use of the building

During most of my 44 years as an Aspen resident, I have been an active visitor to the building known as City Hall. I have trod up the stairs to what was the City Council Chambers on the west-side second floor and either sweltered in the spring and summer heat or shivered in the frigid air of the open windows in winter. The council members sat at the front of the room on a dais, they sat at a rectangular table, they moved downstairs to a long room with limited depth, and all the while, they remodeled this and fixed that. Most recently, they settled in the basement (the old “cop shop”), and there they be. All the while, the rest of the city offices and officers moved their cubicles hither and yon trying find a place to work in a building that was certainly not designed to be an office building.

Today we have a unique opportunity to fix a long-standing problem and to correct an even longer-standing misuse of the facility.

By voting for the community-use option, we will be able to consolidate our city offices into one efficient, well-designed building that will be “made to order” while allowing us to restore one of our few remaining iconic buildings to its historical place as a community center. This is a positive step into the future of our city, not a box to be filled with something in the wrong place or a huge, view-blocking box filled with something else. Let’s vote for returning the Armory to its original use as the community center.

Vote for “Community Use” on ballot question 2B.

Richie Cohen

Aspen