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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - Mountain resort towns are famously self-preoccupied, worried about the good life dissipating into some form of purgatory.
This anguished fretting is clearly evident in Steamboat Springs, which is girding for major changes. Massive amounts of money are to be invested in base area redevelopment. The old main street, Lincoln Avenue, is also changing rapidly.
That this was going to someday happen was clear enough 10 and even 20 years ago. At some point, baby boomers were going to have lots of money, and they would want to spend it in places away from cities but with good restaurants, bike paths and all the other amenities.
The New York Times, in a front-page story on Monday, examined a corollary shift, that of the so-called lone eagles settling into mountain resort towns of the West. It used Steamboat as its focal point.
Also on Monday, Steamboat hosted a session about the dynamics of growth in resort communities. Among those speaking was Terry Minger, who was Vail's second town manager, from 1968 to 1979.
Minger told the Steamboat Pilot & Today that he is not offended by fears in Steamboat that it will become like Vail. There are fair criticisms of the growth of Vail, and that both Aspen and Vail failed to address community housing and transportation soon enough.
But he said that as Steamboat grows, it is crucial that the community articulate its desires. Too often, he said, communities get stuck on seeing what they don't want to be, without articulating what they want to be.
He sees a fine future for Steamboat. "This hand-wringing is a healthy sign," said Minger, who also had a hand in developing Whistler and now is involved in development of a major project in Canmore.
But he doesn't detect the same level of zeal in Vail, and that worries him. Vail, he explained, has too large a proportion of the population who don't stay long, or don't vote because they are only temporary residents. "You erode your democracy a little bit," Minger said. "I worry about Vail."
Minger said Steamboat will fail only if it lets growth run rampant or tries to shut off growth entirely.
Also speaking at the session was Harry Frampton, managing principal in Beaver Creek-based East West Partners, and who is involved with development in several mountain resort areas, including Vail, Park City, and Truckee-Tahoe, plus Breckenridge and, for a brief time, Steamboat Springs.
Vail kicks up heels with dance festival
VAIL - Vail's International Dance Festival wrapped up recently, and again there was broad acclaim. The dance troupe was a new one called Morphose, which connoisseurs of dance likened to something of a dream team - if one that seems not to have practiced together.
Since its founding in 1962, Vail has been better known for its brawn than its brains. Aspen, in contrast, had its feet anchored firmly both in high-brow culture and skiing since its post World War II reinvention as a resort.
Yet without diminishing the cultural offerings of Aspen-Snowmass, which even now remains more intellectual and cutting edge, Vail now holds its own Š and, as in the case of the summer dance and classical-music festival, then some.
This transition has occurred during the last 20 years. First, a partial canopy at Ford Amphitheater was replaced, one of several multi-million-dollar improvements in the key summer venue. Despite the occasional bleat from nearby Interstate 70, some fine-arts critics have called it possibly the best outdoor performing venue in Colorado.
Somewhat separately, an effort in the 1980s yielded a music festival called Bravo! Colorado. The festival stumbled a bit, but fairly quickly got legs under it Š including the philanthropy of wealthy patrons. The festival has grown steady and now includes residencies by the nation's most renowned orchestras, including the New York, Rochester, Dallas and Philadelphia philharmonics and the National Repertory Orchestra.
Aspen also has a music festival draws among the best musical students in the land - students who may well aspire to these orchestras that perform in Vail.
Vail's dance festival has also grown. A giant step, if somewhat a false one, occurred in the 1990s when it drew the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Those knowledgeable about ballet wrinkled their noses, because these were the students of the Bolshoi, which is not even considered the best ballet company in Russia. Nonetheless, with that well-known name in the marquee, patrons arrived in droves. The festival has built upon those successes and now, according to knowledgeable sources, is quite possibly the best dance festival in the world.
What does it take to assemble such cultural offerings? Lots of hotels willing to devote many rooms to the effort. Plus, the festivals require the ability to tap the wealth of second-home owners and wealthy retirees. Partly because of that benevolence, more or less average-income residents of the Vail area can attend, if not necessarily with front-row seats.
Vail or Aspen? Aspen has more politicians, scientists and authors. But Vail during summer holds it own.
Whistler doubts enough skiers for a new resort
SQUAMISH, B. C. - Whistler's municipal government has gone on the record opposing a proposed resort called Garibaldi at Squamish. Located about 37 miles west of Whistler, Squamish is not quite halfway to Vancouver.
Garibaldi plans two golf courses and enough skiing infrastructure to accommodate 15,000 skiers at one time. As well, the resort plans call for 5,700 housing units.
A letter from Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed calls it a real estate grab under the auspices of a resort development. The letter also cited concerns about climate change making the resort untenable.
The core criticism is that Garibaldi will steal customers from Whistler and other existing resorts in British Columbia. The letter asks for evidence the new resort could get new customers.
Mike Esler, the president of Garibaldi, told Pique Newsmagazine that the resort believes it can harvest new skiers, especially as the provincial government invests in tourism infrastructure as part of its goal of doubling tourism by 2015.
"Clustering of resorts, he says, "creates an environment where competing ski resorts have to re-invest back in their development. It attracts more skiers to the area because they've got more choices, so usually everybody benefits from competition," he said.
"But can I say unequivocally that we won't be biting into Whistler's market share? I don't know."
Work begins on hydrogen buses for 2010 Olympics
WHISTLER, B.C. - When the world's sporting press arrives at Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the reporters and photographers may well ride on buses powered with hydrogen fuel cells. A contract to build 20 of the low-floor buses at more than $2 million each - more than four times that of regular diesel buses Š has been awarded to a firm in Winnipeg.
This will be the largest hydrogen-powered bus fleet in the world. Making it possible is a hydrogen fueling station. A hydrogen-carrying pipeline has been built from Vancouver.
The provincial government, following the lead of California, has been pushing hydrogen as the fuel of the future, explains Pique Newsmagazine. Proponents note that hydrogen fuel cells are twice as efficient as internal combustion engines and produce no smog-creating emissions from tailpipes.
But detractors take issue with the claim that hydrogen produces no greenhouse gas emissions. The simple fact is that hydrogen fuel currently is created from other energy sources, such as by burning natural gas. This is similar to corn-based ethanol, which needs large amounts of fossil fuels for the production of corn.
This potential duplicity was mentioned in a letter by Inge Flanagan published in Pique. If a local community is spared the toxic fumes, they are instead "produced in some rural location but are still going into this one, small planet's atmosphere."
He added tartly: "If Whistler is what Green looks like, I want to be able to stick my head between my knees and kiss my ass good-bye ..."
Noon storm produces 218 lighting strikes
KETCHUM, Idaho - The Wood River Valley had quite a lighting storm recently, with 218 lightning strikes within a 15-minute span just before noon. The bolts caused several small fires, such as one that covered 15 acres of sagebrush and grass. No structures were consumed by the fires, nor were there any injuries reported, although the pyrotechnic display was described by the Idaho Mountain Express as a "dangerous spectacle."
Stand your ground with black bears, activist says
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - Bear activists are condemning the killing of a 660-pound bear shot by police. Police had been summoned to a house at about 5:30 a.m. by a family, which had taken refuge in a bedroom.
Once a cop arrived, he opened the garage door to provide an escape route for the bear. However, when the police sergeant looked through the dining room window, the bear growled and charged. The cop shot the bear with a shotgun. The wounded bear was later found under the deck of a nearby home. The Tahoe Daily Tribune explains that police rousted the bear from the hiding place, and then shot it.
"That officer obviously completely overreacted to the situation - he should have stepped out of the way and let (the bear) go by ... (the bear) was scared, that's all," said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Lake Tahoe-based BEAR League.
She also says the family never should have locked itself in a bedroom. "The thing that gets me is the family was too afraid to approach the bear Š they were scared, so they hid in the bedroom... That's why this bear was needlessly shot, because the family was too afraid to yell at the bear to 'get out' and stand their territory."
A police commander, Steve Kelly, told the Daily Tribune that it's possible the officer blocked the bear's escape route. "But I don't expect in those close quarters for (the officer) to take a moment and think about what the bear was doing, if it wanted to hug him or what."
He added: "When you've got a VW Bug with fur coming at you, your heart's going to beat a bit faster. And really, all (the cop) had was a heartbeat to make a decision."
City and country mice quarrel in Invermere
INVERMERE, B.C. - Feathers seem to be ruffled in the resort area of Invermere, where the local newspaper, the Valley Echo, has had a lively exchange of letters. At issue seems to be whether people from Calgary, the booming oil-based metropolis east of the Continental Divide in Alberta, produce good or bad when they visit Invermere and other resort towns in the Columbia River Valley.
"Your story blamed Albertans for tearing up the wilderness with their ATVs but then went on to say they didn't know who owned these vehicles because they weren't licensed," complained Eileen Diemeret, who splits time between Calgary and the western slope hamlet of Edgewater.
People from Calgary and Alberta were not solely to blame for melting the glaciers, causing housing prices to skyrocket, and degrading the environment, she said.
"This is not Alberta's or any other province's 'playground,'" responded a full-time local, Venessa Kelly.
She said the "beef is with the part-time residents who come here thinking they own the whole town. They come in tour shops and restaurants, let their children be unruly, and then are rude to the staff. After which, they slap their money down, expecting to buy our respect," she says.
Too, there's some sort of quarrel about population. "In such a crowded world we all need to get along with our neighbors," writes the part-timer from Calgary. "The last I heard we all had the freedom to live, play and pray wherever we chose in Canada."
Responded the local, "You choose to live in a crowded city; we choose to live in a small, quiet town."
This anguished fretting is clearly evident in Steamboat Springs, which is girding for major changes. Massive amounts of money are to be invested in base area redevelopment. The old main street, Lincoln Avenue, is also changing rapidly.
That this was going to someday happen was clear enough 10 and even 20 years ago. At some point, baby boomers were going to have lots of money, and they would want to spend it in places away from cities but with good restaurants, bike paths and all the other amenities.
The New York Times, in a front-page story on Monday, examined a corollary shift, that of the so-called lone eagles settling into mountain resort towns of the West. It used Steamboat as its focal point.
Also on Monday, Steamboat hosted a session about the dynamics of growth in resort communities. Among those speaking was Terry Minger, who was Vail's second town manager, from 1968 to 1979.
Minger told the Steamboat Pilot & Today that he is not offended by fears in Steamboat that it will become like Vail. There are fair criticisms of the growth of Vail, and that both Aspen and Vail failed to address community housing and transportation soon enough.
But he said that as Steamboat grows, it is crucial that the community articulate its desires. Too often, he said, communities get stuck on seeing what they don't want to be, without articulating what they want to be.
He sees a fine future for Steamboat. "This hand-wringing is a healthy sign," said Minger, who also had a hand in developing Whistler and now is involved in development of a major project in Canmore.
But he doesn't detect the same level of zeal in Vail, and that worries him. Vail, he explained, has too large a proportion of the population who don't stay long, or don't vote because they are only temporary residents. "You erode your democracy a little bit," Minger said. "I worry about Vail."
Minger said Steamboat will fail only if it lets growth run rampant or tries to shut off growth entirely.
Also speaking at the session was Harry Frampton, managing principal in Beaver Creek-based East West Partners, and who is involved with development in several mountain resort areas, including Vail, Park City, and Truckee-Tahoe, plus Breckenridge and, for a brief time, Steamboat Springs.
Vail kicks up heels with dance festival
VAIL - Vail's International Dance Festival wrapped up recently, and again there was broad acclaim. The dance troupe was a new one called Morphose, which connoisseurs of dance likened to something of a dream team - if one that seems not to have practiced together.
Since its founding in 1962, Vail has been better known for its brawn than its brains. Aspen, in contrast, had its feet anchored firmly both in high-brow culture and skiing since its post World War II reinvention as a resort.
Yet without diminishing the cultural offerings of Aspen-Snowmass, which even now remains more intellectual and cutting edge, Vail now holds its own Š and, as in the case of the summer dance and classical-music festival, then some.
This transition has occurred during the last 20 years. First, a partial canopy at Ford Amphitheater was replaced, one of several multi-million-dollar improvements in the key summer venue. Despite the occasional bleat from nearby Interstate 70, some fine-arts critics have called it possibly the best outdoor performing venue in Colorado.
Somewhat separately, an effort in the 1980s yielded a music festival called Bravo! Colorado. The festival stumbled a bit, but fairly quickly got legs under it Š including the philanthropy of wealthy patrons. The festival has grown steady and now includes residencies by the nation's most renowned orchestras, including the New York, Rochester, Dallas and Philadelphia philharmonics and the National Repertory Orchestra.
Aspen also has a music festival draws among the best musical students in the land - students who may well aspire to these orchestras that perform in Vail.
Vail's dance festival has also grown. A giant step, if somewhat a false one, occurred in the 1990s when it drew the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. Those knowledgeable about ballet wrinkled their noses, because these were the students of the Bolshoi, which is not even considered the best ballet company in Russia. Nonetheless, with that well-known name in the marquee, patrons arrived in droves. The festival has built upon those successes and now, according to knowledgeable sources, is quite possibly the best dance festival in the world.
What does it take to assemble such cultural offerings? Lots of hotels willing to devote many rooms to the effort. Plus, the festivals require the ability to tap the wealth of second-home owners and wealthy retirees. Partly because of that benevolence, more or less average-income residents of the Vail area can attend, if not necessarily with front-row seats.
Vail or Aspen? Aspen has more politicians, scientists and authors. But Vail during summer holds it own.
Whistler doubts enough skiers for a new resort
SQUAMISH, B. C. - Whistler's municipal government has gone on the record opposing a proposed resort called Garibaldi at Squamish. Located about 37 miles west of Whistler, Squamish is not quite halfway to Vancouver.
Garibaldi plans two golf courses and enough skiing infrastructure to accommodate 15,000 skiers at one time. As well, the resort plans call for 5,700 housing units.
A letter from Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed calls it a real estate grab under the auspices of a resort development. The letter also cited concerns about climate change making the resort untenable.
The core criticism is that Garibaldi will steal customers from Whistler and other existing resorts in British Columbia. The letter asks for evidence the new resort could get new customers.
Mike Esler, the president of Garibaldi, told Pique Newsmagazine that the resort believes it can harvest new skiers, especially as the provincial government invests in tourism infrastructure as part of its goal of doubling tourism by 2015.
"Clustering of resorts, he says, "creates an environment where competing ski resorts have to re-invest back in their development. It attracts more skiers to the area because they've got more choices, so usually everybody benefits from competition," he said.
"But can I say unequivocally that we won't be biting into Whistler's market share? I don't know."
Work begins on hydrogen buses for 2010 Olympics
WHISTLER, B.C. - When the world's sporting press arrives at Whistler for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the reporters and photographers may well ride on buses powered with hydrogen fuel cells. A contract to build 20 of the low-floor buses at more than $2 million each - more than four times that of regular diesel buses Š has been awarded to a firm in Winnipeg.
This will be the largest hydrogen-powered bus fleet in the world. Making it possible is a hydrogen fueling station. A hydrogen-carrying pipeline has been built from Vancouver.
The provincial government, following the lead of California, has been pushing hydrogen as the fuel of the future, explains Pique Newsmagazine. Proponents note that hydrogen fuel cells are twice as efficient as internal combustion engines and produce no smog-creating emissions from tailpipes.
But detractors take issue with the claim that hydrogen produces no greenhouse gas emissions. The simple fact is that hydrogen fuel currently is created from other energy sources, such as by burning natural gas. This is similar to corn-based ethanol, which needs large amounts of fossil fuels for the production of corn.
This potential duplicity was mentioned in a letter by Inge Flanagan published in Pique. If a local community is spared the toxic fumes, they are instead "produced in some rural location but are still going into this one, small planet's atmosphere."
He added tartly: "If Whistler is what Green looks like, I want to be able to stick my head between my knees and kiss my ass good-bye ..."
Noon storm produces 218 lighting strikes
KETCHUM, Idaho - The Wood River Valley had quite a lighting storm recently, with 218 lightning strikes within a 15-minute span just before noon. The bolts caused several small fires, such as one that covered 15 acres of sagebrush and grass. No structures were consumed by the fires, nor were there any injuries reported, although the pyrotechnic display was described by the Idaho Mountain Express as a "dangerous spectacle."
Stand your ground with black bears, activist says
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. - Bear activists are condemning the killing of a 660-pound bear shot by police. Police had been summoned to a house at about 5:30 a.m. by a family, which had taken refuge in a bedroom.
Once a cop arrived, he opened the garage door to provide an escape route for the bear. However, when the police sergeant looked through the dining room window, the bear growled and charged. The cop shot the bear with a shotgun. The wounded bear was later found under the deck of a nearby home. The Tahoe Daily Tribune explains that police rousted the bear from the hiding place, and then shot it.
"That officer obviously completely overreacted to the situation - he should have stepped out of the way and let (the bear) go by ... (the bear) was scared, that's all," said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Lake Tahoe-based BEAR League.
She also says the family never should have locked itself in a bedroom. "The thing that gets me is the family was too afraid to approach the bear Š they were scared, so they hid in the bedroom... That's why this bear was needlessly shot, because the family was too afraid to yell at the bear to 'get out' and stand their territory."
A police commander, Steve Kelly, told the Daily Tribune that it's possible the officer blocked the bear's escape route. "But I don't expect in those close quarters for (the officer) to take a moment and think about what the bear was doing, if it wanted to hug him or what."
He added: "When you've got a VW Bug with fur coming at you, your heart's going to beat a bit faster. And really, all (the cop) had was a heartbeat to make a decision."
City and country mice quarrel in Invermere
INVERMERE, B.C. - Feathers seem to be ruffled in the resort area of Invermere, where the local newspaper, the Valley Echo, has had a lively exchange of letters. At issue seems to be whether people from Calgary, the booming oil-based metropolis east of the Continental Divide in Alberta, produce good or bad when they visit Invermere and other resort towns in the Columbia River Valley.
"Your story blamed Albertans for tearing up the wilderness with their ATVs but then went on to say they didn't know who owned these vehicles because they weren't licensed," complained Eileen Diemeret, who splits time between Calgary and the western slope hamlet of Edgewater.
People from Calgary and Alberta were not solely to blame for melting the glaciers, causing housing prices to skyrocket, and degrading the environment, she said.
"This is not Alberta's or any other province's 'playground,'" responded a full-time local, Venessa Kelly.
She said the "beef is with the part-time residents who come here thinking they own the whole town. They come in tour shops and restaurants, let their children be unruly, and then are rude to the staff. After which, they slap their money down, expecting to buy our respect," she says.
Too, there's some sort of quarrel about population. "In such a crowded world we all need to get along with our neighbors," writes the part-timer from Calgary. "The last I heard we all had the freedom to live, play and pray wherever we chose in Canada."
Responded the local, "You choose to live in a crowded city; we choose to live in a small, quiet town."
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