Million-dollar housing subsidies?

This letter is in response to the June 15 Aspen Times article, “Basalt council, developer negotiate deal for housing for the ‘missing middle.’”

I don’t understand why people who can afford a $1 million home need a housing subsidy. Many people of lesser means have figured out how to make a life in the Roaring Fork Valley’s free market.

Could it require compromises? Sure. A person might have to rent instead of own, share a place with roommates, live in a trailer instead of an apartment, stay downvalley instead of upvalley, keep an apartment instead of a house, or a house on the golf course instead of a gentleman’s ranch. My friends and I always called that the mountain tax. People willing to do whatever it took to “live the dream” paid the tax.  Nobody is forcing anyone to live here. Perhaps I’m being a little tone deaf to the struggle many have, but $1 million? Gimme a break.

Jeff Stoerner
Basalt