Letter: Welcome to Construction Junction

An architect’s dream is a carpenter’s nightmare.

Listen — it will be a sad day when they tear down the Skiers Chalet. First you see one of those white signs reading “Public notice,” and then, “Boom, beep, beep, beep, crash, boom.” You look up and, pow, half the building is gone. Bulldozers and backhoes are bringing it down.

I think of all the fun times that were had in that building. You can feel the vibe just looking at it. This would be a much better ski museum than that thing at the parking garage in Vail — or a youth hostel so teenagers could see how it used to be. Imagine all the apres ski.

First that slanted outhouse was gone, then the single chairs, and soon those big spruce trees. Sadness overcomes me. Is this not the town where I first heard the words “buildout” and “moratorium”?

I’ve got an idea for the Pan and Fork: modular houses for working families. It’s so nice to be able to see the river in Basalt.

Endless building is like endless war. Quality of life goes down around any job site. More big, empty houses.

Make a law that you can’t have the utilities on for more than a month with no one there. That way, anyone who’s not a criminal could have a caretaker job.

Their first mistake when our little town went from Ute City to Aspen was when they called it a city.

Paul Rossi

Aspen