As I walk through one of the world’s greatest winter resorts, I see a natural beauty that is rivaled only by the power glitz generated by the town of Aspen. I duck in and out of the shops, past the Victorian beauty of the Hotel Jerome and on up to the Aspen Skiing Company’s pride and joy, the Silver Queen Gondola.
Looking back toward the mansions of Red Mountain, I can’t help but wonder where the normal people live. Are the residents and transient locals being driven out of a town that has long been famous for its local flavor? How will these towns support a labor force when the average worker cannot make ends meet? Have many of our resorts become so exclusive that no one but the super rich can afford to live there?
Welcome to the town of Aspen, Colorado, folks. Middle class, service workers and ski bums need not apply.
Aspen is a microcosm of many of the nation’s burgeoning labor woes. Although a far cry from middle america, the town is experiencing problems that are not far ahead for many of the nation’s resort towns and cities. Despite the media attention generated by the controversial fur ban and proposed hotel, the major issue is simple and, until recently, largely ignored. Resorts such as Aspen can no longer continue headlong growth in limited, high-end real estate segments without consideration for additional support of residential housing. This unchecked growth eats up mid-priced, affordable housing, which the majority of the local and seasonal labor force depends upon. The concern is no longer to generate growth, but rather to control the types of growth.
Housing Anyone?
The statistics are staggering. Over 35 percent of the applicants at last year’s Aspen job fair were without or were unsure of their housing. Rental prices are nearly off the board: it is not unusual to pay $850 per month for studios or over $2,000 for a small two-bedroom apartment. Transient housing is becoming scarce as landlords require 10- to 12-month leases. Roommates are a way of life and overcrowding is a constant problem. Aspen is a wonderful town to live and work in, but to ask an individual to contribute more than 50 percent of his or her income for shelter is too demanding for most. In a recent New York Times magazine article, an employee was quoted saying he was leaving Aspen for Beverly Hills: “It’s just gotten too expensive here.”
I have heard many visitors comment on the “easy life as an Aspen resident.” What easy life? Ask your average local that question today and you may not get the answer you expected. “Sure I’d rather be here than anywhere else but at what cost?” says a second-year lift operator.
Living in a town that cannot even support its seasonal and long-term residents is a strong indication of problems in paradise. The days of the dishwasher with the Ph.D. and the Ivy League ski bum are over. It may be easier to make it on Wall Street than to find an affordable place to live in ski town, USA.
Competition for Labor Heats Up
While it was once considered common policy to offer a season ski pass as an employment incentive, now most employers must include a pass coupled with affordable housing and health benefits to attract employees. Paying minimum wage is virtually unheard of as employers are forced to increase wage rates in conjunction with the cost of living. It is rare to find any job for under $8 an hour. There is always a desperate need for service positions such as maids, cooks and bus persons. Unfortunately, the people who typify these positions are exactly the types who cannot afford to live within this resort town.
The larger businesses in Aspen are beginning to devote time and money to solving housing/hiring problems. Many of the older condominium complexes are being bought up to provide housing for employees. The Hotel Jerome owns two of these in-town complexes. “It’s the same situation every year,” says Nancy Nichols, the director of personnel for the Jerome. “Our employee housing remains full all year round with a waiting list.”
With over 100 restaurants and 200 shops and boutiques, there is no lack of work, only space. The competition is heating up to locate and reserve as many beds as possible each year before the snow flies. Unfortunately, this leaves many of the smaller businesses out in the cold. The competition is fierce. It is almost impossible for independent businesses to supply employee housing or pay the wages employees need in order to pay their own. What was once a labor pool has become a labor puddle.
The Crisis Moves “Downvalley”
Phil Byrne, housing manager for the Aspen Skiing Company, knows his company is not immune. He spent most of the fall locating and inspecting potential units for the Ski Company’s employees. Byrne has virtually given up on in-town units. The crunch has forced him to search further down the Roaring Fork Valley, as far away as the town of Glenwood Springs, a 40-minute commute under the best conditions. There are, however, additional costs as labor is moved further down the valley. The Aspen Skiing Company must provide bus service to and from the mountains in order to fill positions. Always under fire as the largest employer in Aspen (with over 2,000 personnel at peak season), the Ski Company is struggling to fill positions and please the public.
As more and more employees are forced out of Aspen, the problems multiply. The highway into town, now known notoriously as “killer 82,” is a constant source of accidents and traffic snarls that makes the rather ordinary Glenwood Springs-Aspen commute a nightmare, not to mention the environmental concerns over wildlife and pollution.
As a result of the exodus of people out of town and down valley, the housing crisis has extended beyond the confines of the “kingdom” of Aspen. Down valley, in the towns of Carbondale, Rifle, Basalt and Glenwood, real estate is booming. New housing starts in Carbondale went up some 200 percent in 1987. In 1988 housing starts increased by 53 percent in Basalt and the population rose over 50 percent in the past two years.
Aspen A Generic Resort?
Generic status may be just around the corner for Aspen without its colorful local flavor. Residents for generations may find a serious decline in the quality of community programs that have taken years to establish.
It’s not just Aspen’s “minimum wage” employees who are suffering, the arts and music players and their directors, who make up the core of the town’s summer events, are also finding it hard to subsist. In fact, the last director of the art museum was forced to leave, due in part to the rising housing prices.
The schools and hospitals are finding it nearly impossible to maintain enough staff to provide the level of service expected of them. In a recent report on the housing crisis, it was found that 48 percent of Aspen’s public school staff was unsatisfied with the current housing situation. The president of the school board, June Seigle, has reported problems in finding and retaining quality administrators because “their living standards don’t fit a motel room.”
Discontent is also spreading throughout the ranks in many of the public sectors. The local government offices are finding it harder and harder to maintain full time trained staff. Volunteer positions are being thinned by the high cost of living. Although many would enjoy the opportunity to contribute, holding three or more jobs does not lend time to anything that does not help to make ends meet.
The “Kingdom” of Aspen
Many Aspen locals see the problem as a case of class conflict, an unusual situation for a town that has long been accustomed to cowboys and celebrities crowding the same bar stool. In the eyes of some residents, it is the shortsightedness of Aspen’s “second homers” and their developers that created the crisis. Ironically, it often seems problems go unnoticed by the parties who have contributed most to the crisis.
Development of short-term condominiums and second homes has eaten up space that had long supported the local base in town. According to the Aspen Board of Realtors, the price of the average single family home has increased from $323,437 in 1979 to $1,123,065 in 1989 (the average home price in the United States in 1988 was a “lowly” $117,775). These prices create such a barrier that it stagnates residential movement into permanent homes.
Obviously the blame cannot be placed on the residents, their own options are being narrowed by the loss in the available units. New arrivals find this lack of movement has made housing, not only scarce, but far too expensive and are forced to move away. Some locals have even violated the deed restrictions on housing, which require units to be leased long-term, not rented short-term to wealthy vacationers. By renting bedrooms or entire units to tourists, the employees can resubsidize their already subsidized housing.
These problems are not unique to Aspen. The same symptoms can be recognized nationwide. Big cities have long felt the pressure, now valuable real estate is being gobbled up by foreign and domestic investors alike.
Investors also have been the catalyst for skyrocketing costs in a number of resort areas. Hawaii is a classic example. Real estate prices in the islands escalate 5 percent to 15 percent annually, which creates enormous property tax burdens on those who refuse to sell out.
Dealing with the Crisis
The situation does not seem to be improving in any of the ski resort towns and will probably take a turn for the worse before it gets better. Unfortunately, it appears the impending crisis will have to hit the big businesses and investors in the pocket before changes are made.
Despite the mindless development in Aspen, we cannot place total blame on the second-homers and developers. Apathy and waffling in the town councils and local governments has stalled movements to help the town’s most important asset, labor. Even the locals may incur some of the blame after beginning an effort to recall four out of five of last year’s elected town council members. Residents may wish to consider what they and their elected officials were doing over the past 10 years when acre after acre and complex after complex were being swallowed up.
The damage in Aspen may already have been done, however. Town Councilman Steve Crocket claims that even if they stopped granting building permits today, building would continue for up to another two-and-a-half years.
The Aspen housing crisis is a puzzle not easily solved. Everyone likes to point fingers and argue, but what is needed are tangible results. A concerted effort by local government and business, developers and investors could remedy the situation more quickly than many think.
Recent legislation enacted a policy requiring the larger businesses and hotels to provide employee housing based on the size of their operations. The Aspen-Pitkin Housing Authority estimates indicate that 60 percent of the needed housing should come from the local government and the remaining 40 percent from the free market. Government housing needs to be targeted to supply units for the businesses that cannot afford to build their own, subsidized in part by the businesses themselves.
The housing crisis does not make as good media print as proposed fur bans, but fur or no fur, Ritz or no Ritz, without business, it is not going to matter. Would the last employee left please turn out the lights?
Mr. Linzinmeir is a student in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. He spent six months in Aspen managing the restaurant and bar at the Hotel Jerome.
