Your Turn

Film award for Hasan
Ali Hasan’s film, “Rabia,” took home a best film award at the Breckenridge Film Festival last month. Congratulations, Ali!

Seeme Hasan, Beaver Creek

No to Eagle River Station
Wake up, Eagle!

Although I haven’t lived in Eagle a long time, I am shocked that there are not more residents screaming from the mountain tops about the Eagle River Station plan. Even if you consider a lot of “ifs,” the plan simply does not make sense for the Town of Eagle.

The “ifs” include: if the economy was good, if gas prices weren’t skyrocketing, if there was not direct competition in the region from Glenwood Springs, Gypsum, Avon, and Silverthorne, if there was employee housing, and if the people in the area had tons of disposable income.

But even with the best-case scenario of all of these items, the Town of Eagle should not approve this plan. The project creates a giant strip mall that MIGHT include employee housing and will not guarantee any financial windfall for the town. I am sure that everyone in Eagle agrees that there are issues that need to be addressed related to infrastructure and projected growth, but I also think that people live in Eagle for a reason. After living in Avon for a couple of years, my husband and I moved to Eagle because it was an actual town. The feeling in Eagle at the weekly summer concerts and various events is that the town is a community. Creating a strip mall on the outskirts of town would destroy this community feeling and drive the community-minded people away.

I’ve also heard several people say that those of us who are against the Eagle River Station plan are against development of any kind. This is not accurate as we are only opposed to development which is poorly planned and does not solve any of the real issues in Eagle. For example, the town is saying the development is for the long-term and not based on current conditions.

If that is true, why is a west interchange not a better solution than an east interchange which does nothing to alleviate any of the traffic issues we currently have and those future issues which will be created with any kind of growth? Another example could be the post office, grocery store, and daycare center proposed as a condition by Bill Gray.

The developers want this condition removed, but said they would make a reasonable effort to have this type of tenant. If Eagle is really such a viable market and retail attraction, why can’t Eagle demand what the town needs instead of acquiescing to what the developer needs to make money?

This project and the presentation of the information has so many glaring holes as stated above, that I can’t imagine how anyone with sense can argue that it is a good fit for Eagle.

For those of you who still think it is a good plan, I ask that you wake up and smell what they are shoveling … or come to a meeting and make the decision on the information presented instead of promises that are simply not reality in our wonderful mountain community.

Brandi Resa, Eagle

Great run for Rochester Philharmonic
Adios, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra!

After 19 glorious years, your Bravo! run is over. George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak and the Eastman School of Music, wanted “a large voice for his small town.”

He succeeded beyond his expectations. No orchestra puts more verve, more gusto, more joy in their work, more passion to please, than the Rochester Philharmonic.

You can read it on their faces and feel it in their sincere smiles, which will surely be missed. Happy trails and come back soon.

Barbara Jean and Paul Kuzniar, Vail

Preserve community in Eagle-Vail
As I’ve been reading about the recent development ideas for Eagle-Vail, so many questions pop into my head. Why are we thinking about building more when there is already so much construction that is being done poorly in this valley?

Should we really be considering all this development in this economy? Why aren’t we working harder to fix up what we have as opposed to build new? What is it that draws the people here, the ones who pay our wages? Why did you come here?

I’ve recently been shopping for a home, so I’ve been in numerous Eagle-Vail dwellings. There exists a “workforce housing,” if by that they mean unkempt, unloved, and undesirable: a two-hundred-square-foot apartment under the highway, nevermind the stains on the carpet and that smell: $1,200 a month please. Who wants to make a life there?

I’ve spent my entire adult life renting in ski towns, five years in Eagle-Vail. I know I have cared about where I lived, even if it was only for a year: not all renters are dirt-bags. And I’ve had landlords that in general have cared. Many people seem to look at real estate solely as an investment, big profit, as little as work as possible. They don’t care if the townhouse they rent out is trashed, because the guy he sells it to in two years (for a huge profit) won’t. That new owner is going to turn around and sure enough, find someone desperate enough in November to rent it. If the owners of a property don’t really care, why should a transient kid care who’s here for the winter?

Again, why did you come here?

I came for the outdoors, the beauty, the quiet. The tourists come here to “get away” Get away from what? I don’t think anyone wants the Vail Valley to become a place that we feel the need to get away from, too. I love it here. I worry the reasons I came here are disappearing.

I tend to support improvements, not always development. Let’s take better care of what we have, spruce up the apartment buildings and make them into places you’d be willing to take Mom. Property owners need to take accountability and make these homes theirs, even if they rent them. I think owner pride can encourage renters to follow suit, and if not, well, that’s what a security deposit is for. It may not always be fair, it may be more work, but now as a homeowner in the Vail Valley after years of renting, I feel it is my, and their, responsibility to the community as a whole.

Sure, we can build more in Eagle-Vail, but if done for the sake of development, i.e.. bigger always must be better, I think we lose some of the neighborhood feel. In a valley that is rapidly filling up with cookie-cutter “designed” communities, do we really need all this? I don’t need a new cafe built, why not make somewhere already existing in Eagle-Vail more desirable? It’s not as if Avon is hours away. Eagle-Vail is a neighborhood. Why can’t we focus on improving what we have, instead of trying to make it into its own entity. When we can’t seem to even take care of what we already have, why are we trying to do more?

I support real housing that real people would actually want to live in, not a storage shed to hide the undesirable workforce away from all the beautiful people. This is my home, not a development project.

Emily Towell, Eagle-Vail