PAYING THE BILL

Aspen Gets What it Wants, But Loses What it Needs

By David Frey, 10-23-06

Aspen's retail woes are getting some attention from the Denver Post. It's a town where Gucci isn't going out of business, but both a bookstore and a movie theater are looking to Town Hall for help to stay open.

But the Post points out that Aspen isn't alone in its problems. Similar issues face other high-dollar resort towns, like Vail, where residents poined up $75,000 to keep a bookstore open after a rent increase threatened to shut it down.

"It is probably more extreme here, but it is not at all just an Aspen phenomenon," Pitkin County Commissioner Mick Ireland told the Post. Writer Nancy Lofholm says Ireland used words like "empty," "ghostly" and "Japanese horror-film set" to describe resort downtowns he's talked to about the threats of losing not just their commercial bases, but their souls.

"A bookstore that makes $100,000 a year can't compete for space with a realty office that clears $4 million," Lofholm writes. "A drugstore can't sell enough toothpaste and razor blades to keep out a boutique that charges $20,000 per designer coat.

"The problem of 'wants-based' businesses crowding out 'needs-based' enterprises has also popped up in Sun Valley, Idaho; Vail; Santa Fe; Monterey, Calif.; and even Venice, Italy. That translates to an abundance of glam furs and hand-stitched pumps. But try to find gym shorts or a lawn rake."

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.