“Above all, try something!”

Franklin Roosevelt to his New Deal cabinet

That seems to be the standard Snowmass resident response to the Town's collective poor judgment regarding Base Village. Somehow it seemed easier to approve an overblown and speculative development rather than to do the hard work of upgrading a too-long neglected lodging base, tired retail stores and dated infrastructure. New inventory was no substitute for asset maintenance.

I don't buy whining that Skico rigged the Base Village election. Election judges tell me the long-term local vote was evenly split when the bus full of beered-up temporary Snowmass citizens rolled in from(then) Hizzonner's Tavern an hour before the polls closed. It appears they were sober enough to vote as their employers instructed. Hizzonner is to be commended for providing a designated driver.

The established residents had the numbers to defeat the measure. They chose not to do so. I was a full-time Snowmass Village resident at the time. I recall that a lot of Base Village support was based on buy-in to developer fear tactics, greed and laziness.

Lest I offend everyone in town, my hat is off to the singular individuals and businesses who are taking whatever small steps they can to keep moving forward after local folly and an exploding housing bubble collided on Fanny Hill. The low-tech community skating rink is a great idea. Bootstrap entrepreneurs offering some level of refreshment in shuttered Base Village retail space are rightly featured on the front page of the newspaper.

You sturdy “life goes on” folks know who you are. Snowmass is depending on you.

I hope your forward examples can nudge others out of denial and nostalgia. This savior-seeking business plan is getting old. It's an historic resort pattern with consistently disappointing results. Snowmass Village, you are in full ownership of your current situation. In search of your savior, start at the mirror.

The nice gentleman with whom I share this page has suggested that the developer should be shaking in his boots because the Snowmass Village Town Council will eventually kick his butt. If history is any indicator, the only butt council will kick is that of dissenting planning employees and ethical town managers. The Town and even current council carry some hefty baggage from the whole development scenario. The reason most embezzlers are not prosecuted is because the entities they stole from can't stand the scrutiny of discovery under oath. I will be astounded if the Town is clean enough to kick whatever is left of the developer's butt.

My bus driving buddy on the opposite page appears to believe that the bankruptcy of Intrawest or any others in the development chain will somehow punish the guilty. You think? During a dinner table discussion, my family was talking about how corporations are regarded as legally equivalent to humans. “Yeah,” came a voice from the kitchen, “except when they get in trouble. Humans suffer. Corporations just dissolve.”

I cannot imagine that any of the developers are losing a minute of sleep over their aborted Snowmass Village venture. They are undoubtedly on to better things, leaving the remains to the attorneys. The humans who are suffering are in Snowmass Village.

Then there are those who demand that “they” come back and finish what “they” started. Why in the world would you ever invite “them” back to town?

Even the most outwardly optimistic Snowmass enthusiasts are personally groping for a viable alternative livelihood if “they” don't finish what “they” started and the economy does not come around “like it should.” Problem is, there's a shortage of viable alternatives these days. What if this is the new normal, as good as it gets?

So try something. Constant recrimination about past decisions is paralyzing and useless. You don't have a merchants' association? Throw a mixer and form one. Have enough faith in each other to break the Snowmass code of silence and share information. United you stand…

Hire enough people that the Town office phones are always answered by humans. Sounds like a good use of the marketing tax if you really must continue to burden your guests with an additional 2.4 percent in a down economy. How about a marketing tax holiday?

A friend made the creative suggestion of using the openings in the parking skeleton to frame international flags. Sounds good to me.

Waiting for rescue by the Skico or a resort real estate rebound only delays Snowmass' self-reckoning. Even if past choices have not served well, it is still true that the worst thing anyone can do is piss, moan, whine, and do nothing.