As the debate continues over the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, I find that most of the community feedback coming through the Letters to the Editor are expressing frustration that the pulse of the locals is not being fingered by the decision-makers.
This is nothing new and certainly not unique to Pitkin County. By the time the public feedback machine really gets going, most projects are way down the road and the public meetings have either already happened or they are a mere formality with the foregone conclusion already mostly decided. How many meetings have we seen where overwhelming public opposition is underwhelmingly dismissed? Many, many. If it came to a vote, what would locals want?
The airport is another Entrance to Aspen, and like the highway we are bumping up against limits and contradictions that make a happy solution impossible. Upgrade the facility? Yes. Expand to allow bigger commercial jets or land more and bigger private jets? Let's hear from the well-informed voters on the ground in Pitkin County.
The Canary Initiative is flopping on the sideline like a windsock in a sandstorm. In a 2005 Ccty of Aspen document titled, “The Canary Initiative, A Proposal for the Creation of the Aspen Global Warming Alliance,” it asks, “What options do we have for adaptation or mitigation of climate changes in our region? If we do nothing, what will we tell our children and grandchildren in the future if the phenomenon destroys our current way of life?”
Great question from nearly two decades ago. Expanding jet traffic goes against facing the climate emergency as we are facing the hottest planet on record.
When I see these questions debated it always makes me wonder, what would Hunter S. Thompson think? This new airport ballyhoo has me missing the doctor and his passionate, righteous anger. In 1995, proposed airport improvements included lengthening and strengthening the runway to accommodate Boeing 737 commercial jets. Proponents argued that accommodating the 737 into Sardy Field would allow a lot more choices for carriers serving Aspen. It was tied to a property tax increase to pay for the expansion.
In October 1995, I was working full time at the Aspen Daily News. Thompson would phone in regularly, and I got to know him. When he got fired up about the airport, he asked me to help organize a voter registration rally to stop the airport improvement project.
The first of these rallies was held at the Paragon on the Hyman Avenue Mall. The rally was one of the first public events involving Thompson for a long time, and turnout was enthusiastic. Former Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis and former Aspen Mayor John Bennett flanked Thompson at the table.
“We will beat them like gongs, sending them running like stupid rats across the frozen tundra. We don’t have the power; we don’t have the money. But we do have the ballot, by God,” he said. “We’re here for a public beating, and for a change it isn’t us.”
People cheered and jeered. In retrospect, I don’t think many in the audience were as wound up about the airport as Hunter. They wanted to see him go off. I still have a cassette tape of that rally somewhere in my archives.
Proponents of the airport proposal cried foul. Hunter and his Woody Creek Caucus were in the flight path of planes landing in Aspen, and they didn’t want bigger, louder jets coming in overhead. This was bald-faced NIMBYism thinly veiled behind discussions of safety and the soul of Aspen.
By 1995, the soul of Aspen had changed a lot. Some, like the good doctor, were clinging to the old ways and vibe of a cloistered resort for hippies, beatniks, musicians, writers and reclusive Texas millionaires. The times were changing as international and national tycoons replaced the Texans and stores became boutiques, not stores. Voters rejected the ballot measure by a two-to-one margin.
Like four-laning Highway 82 into Aspen, the debate goes ’round and ’round. In 2015, we were looking at a major overhaul at the airport that could involve moving the runway 80 feet to the west and widening it by 150 feet. Officials said that this would accommodate the future of commercial aviation with jets sporting wider and wider wingspans. Sound familiar? Opponents said that this is about accommodating big private aircraft and the people who fly in them.
In September 2015, Pitkin County commissioners approved the plan, despite a pretty vigorous opposition, but no ballot measure for voters to have their say.
Hunter S. Thompson didn’t pull any punches in 1995.
“This is our time to say ‘no’ to their pig planes. They’ll be more respectful once we slap them around a bit,” he said at the voter registration rally.
I better go back and check the tape. Hunter was not always easy to understand. He may have actually said “big” instead of “pig” … but I doubt it.