My Page: Richard Martin

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'A Candidate Who Happens To Be Black'

Nov. 4's 85 days away, the dog days are upon us and, like a dog worrying at an old sore, the presidential campaign has suddenly come down to one tired and tiresome issue: race.

In Colorado this November, voters will decide on an anti-affirmative-action measure that would ban the use of race in college admissions, government hiring and contracting. The presence of that referendum on the same ballot as Barack Obama's historic candidacy, writes Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, on The Wall Street Journal's Web site, could generate "heated rhetoric" and "sharply divide the electorate along racial lines." [more]

2nd Congressional District Race

As of 10 p.m., with 27% of the precincts reporting, Internet entrepreneur Jared Polis holds a four-percentage-point lead over former state senate president Joan Fitz-Gerald for the 2nd congressional district seat. If that lead holds, it will be an upset, though not a huge one considering the cash that Polis has been able to pump into the race. [more]

Ride For Prizes

Seeking a way to encourage his own two boys to bicycle to school, software entrepreneur Rob Nagler three years ago created a system that would record the students' every ride, and award them a series of prizes based on the number of two-wheeled school trips.

Today that system – now powered by an ingenious sensor technology known as the "Freikometer" – is going nationwide, with a sponsorship from the leading U.S. bicycle maker Trek. [more]

Ride Rage

Abusing cyclists – it's all the rage! I found this out the other day, using one of the mid-block crosswalks that interrupt Canyon Blvd., in Boulder – the kind that have flashing yellow lights to alert motorists that yes, they have to stop for the unprotected person risking life and limb to cross the street in traffic.

"Get off that bike!" a blowsy bottle-blonde in an SUV shouted, so loudly that I stopped, startled, in mid-street. "You're not a pedestrian!" [more]

New West Enterprise

The quintessential ski town of Vail, Colo., today resembles more a cover story in Construction Today than Ski Magazine. Enormous cranes have dominated the skyline for years. Traffic and parking are a mess. Orange construction cones, equipment trailers and plastic mesh fencing are the dominant motifs. Almost everywhere you look there are city-block-sized rectilinear holes in the ground.

Vail is undergoing a "renaissance," as the Denver architecture firm 4240 puts it in the firm's promotional material, that will eventually involve a total of more than $2 billion in new construction and renovations.

Like many mountain resorts in the region, Vail is enjoying a cascade of new money as developers and affluent second-home buyers recognize that there aren't going to be more Vails, or Aspens, or Whistlers created in the new millennium.

At the same time, all the flashy new condos and private clubs and world renowned restaurants (not to mention the traffic snarls, the unsightly construction sites and the noise of trucks and jackhammers) are causing a debate about the future of Vail that ranges from parking issues to environmental concerns to a fundamental dilemma about the future of the town, as opposed to a ski mountain: What does Vail really want to be? Can it be both a world-class ski resort frequented by an international jet-set and wealthy part-time residents -- a high-end Disneyland -- and a place where average, middle-class professionals -- doctors and lawyers and maybe even a few writers and photographers -- can raise their families? [more]

The 'Megapolitan' West

It was surprising to see Govs. Bill Ritter and Jon Huntsman show up yesterday in downtown Denver. Usually it takes a natural disaster or a major fundraising opportunity to get two Western governors, of two separate parties, together in the same room. But Colorado's Ritter and Huntsman, of Utah, showed up at a press briefing at the offices of a big Denver law firm yesterday to mark the debut of … a new policy report.
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New Uranium Boom

Chip Ward, author of Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West, contributes a long essay on the new uranium boom in the West on TomDispatch (an invaluable left-leaning group blog that usually focuses on Iraq and U.S. military policy). It’s called “Radioactive Déjà Vu in the American West.” And while I have great respect for Ward and his work, he is so wrong in so many ways on this issue that it’s hard to keep track.
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This Land Is Their Land

I spent a couple of days this week wandering about the cranes – construction types, not winged ones – in Vail, which is undergoing a series of redevelopment projects that will total a couple of billion dollars when all finished. Among the projects going in is a mini-development of 13 chalets at the base of the mountain, each of which cost an average of $14 million – and all of which sold overnight, sight unseen.

Also coming soon to Vail, which already has a reputation as a playground for the super-rich, is a Ritz-Carlton styled after the grand residences of Europe. You and I won’t be able to stay in this Ritz – it’s all condos, each of which is priced in the multi-millions. [more]

Mythical Energy World

Talk of a “new boom” in oil shale production has been heard for more than two years now – but it’s not happening soon.

While they are opposed on most energy issues, Republican Sen. Wayne Allard and Democratic Rep. Mark Udall, both of Colorado, are opposed to a new plan to mine potentially rich shale deposits on the Western Slope. [more]

Summer Skiing

It’s June, the sun is shining, and … it’s time to go skiing.

“Record winter snowfall has left the top of the mountain covered in snow as the traditional summer operating season begins,” reports the Aspen Skiing Company. “With an average depth of more than three feet on upper slopes, the mountain will open with seven runs and about 45 acres of mostly intermediate terrain, served by the Ajax Express chairlift.”
[more]

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