steamboat---AKA affordable housing for Aspen workers

 I was watching my daughter's team play Steamboat and hanging out with some of the 'boat parents and they used that line in response to my bitching about Aspen costs.  They are not wrong.

Speaking of which I grabbed some take out for my boy from Meat and Cheese the other night---they have doubled prices in the past 2.5 years.  Wow.  Begging customers to keep them afloat during Covid they have repaid our loyalty with eye watering prices.  I obviously haven't eaten there in years and now don't plan to.  It was one of my favorite restaurants but not its not good value anymore.  Another fav, Ale house at Aspen highlands (a bar where you order your food from the bar, they give you a number to put on your table, and someone from the kitchen drops the food in front of you) has added and 18% server tip, a 5% tip for the kitchen and I believe a 10% charge for worker housing.  So the burger that lists for $23 actually costs $30.59 (plus taxes).  Basically its a $33 burger of eh quality in a bar with no real service.  Or you can spend $23 (total) for a BLT panini at the T-Bar in Steamboat and have $10 left over to buy $4 16 oz PBR cans.  GO STEAMBOAT

signs that Aspen is broken

 1.  getting emails (day of) that a school bus isn't running ---not sure how you handle getting your kids to school when the bus doesn't run.  How often does this happen?  A couple of times a week.

2. Getting emails from the school letting you know that the cafeteria won't be open due to short staff.  How often?  A couple of times a month.

3.  Whole foods produce guy---me "you got fresh dill?"  him "haven't had it in 6 months and don't expect to get it"

4.  But wait that ain't all---we haven't had Oyster sauce in months, and many of our shelves even in basics like cereal are empty

5.  Rational locals suggesting that a train is the answer to getting people in and out of town---I asked where the train station would be in Aspen and they mentioned something like underground---yea as if

6.  Still arguing over expanding the runway---still.  like years after agreeing to do this there is still some who believe the secret to making Aspen perfect again revolves around not making the runway safer and continuing as a commercial airport.

7.  very senior ski co employees living in .....affordable housing.  If they had similar jobs at real companies they would be making $1-7M.  I don't know what they are making running large business units for Ski Co but I do know they are living in affordable housing.

8.  Kids pulling down $30-80 an hour or more (in some case much more, my son knows a server at the nell who got tipped $1k for a coffee) 

9.  crappy 1969 built apts asking $5k a square foot (no garage, 25 year old bathrooms, and $43k in HOA fees.  hey its only $5m

10.  A beautiful day of skiing yesterday with no one on the hill