David E. Steiner

Retired USAF, Teacher, Dad, Grandfather, Curmudgeon

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Commuting

 

Commuting is an ugly word.

I had a friend in New York who used to commute 30 miles each way to work and I laughed at his folly. Then my wife commuted 30 miles to Longmont for a year and I quit laughing.

For most commuters, the word just means traveling daily between two points, usually at some distance. On our treacherous roads it generally means taking your life in your hands. An acquaintance of mine was going down the South St. Vrain a few years ago and met a 20-year-old woman, drunk, coming up the canyon in his lane. He was in the hospital for weeks.

Many people up here commute and they all tell pretty much the same story: it’s hard on cars, tires and insurance rates, but it’s the price you pay to live up here.

I bring all this up because I teach down below on occasion, so I commute, too.

Few of us who live up here are fortunate enough to live close enough to our work to walk to it. Commuting is a fact of life for many of us and it’s hooked right into some of the problems now making headlines. Recently we saw a projection that says our little settlement will increase by 400% between now and the turn of the century. One wag said that meant we’d be up to over 100 folks!

One of the elements of life up here is that more people want to live here than the year-round jobs will support. So we have doctors and lawyers and teachers and many more who commute because we don’t have the permanent population base to support them here.

Now we are in the midst of a decision process involving roads, water, telephones, the church and many other issues that will decide whether this area will expand or will remain pretty much as it has for the past 70 years. And it’s more than just whether we should straighten out the curves at St. Malo and the Aspen Lodge or how big and ugly the addition to the church will be. The underlying issue is whether we are going to remain an unincorporated village, with not even a year-round grocery store, or whether we will indeed expand by 400% in the next ten years, become an incorporated village, with a mayor, expanded city limits and all that goes with it, including more jobs, more people, and less commuting.

There are many options. We could recycle the town into a replica of itself in 1910, with false fronts and a “Your Name in Headlines” shop. We could concentrate on retirement, and specialize in townhomes and more and bigger churches. Both scenarios would make some people happy.

The real trick is to make everyone happy and that isn’t going to happen in our little community if past experience is any guide at all. Still, if you ask the commuters as they set off once again down the canyon, praying they won’t run into another deer, I expect they’ll tell you they look forward to a time when they can make a living right here in Allenspark.

 

 

Columns

© 1985 – 2003, David E. Steiner

Allenspark Wind Columns:

Introduction

Why Allenspark?

Going Riding [August, 1985]

Electricity

Used Cars

Peace and Quiet [1986]

Liberals & Conservatives

Going to the Movies

The Screened Porch

The Beginning of The Season

The Weather

The Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The End of The Season

The Gift of Time

The Beavers

Addresses [1987]

Hiking

Watching the Trees Grow

Postal Rates

Changes in Estes Park

Square Dancing at the Pow Wow

Back to the Hilltop Guild Bazaar

The Solstices

Bird Feeders

Elevators

The Estes Park Hardware Store [1988]

Visitors

Limousine Service

A Memorial Service

A Hummingbird

Garbage

A Hiking Trip

The Estes Park Public Library

Wild Life

Riparian Rights [1989]

Weather

Fences

Commuting

Mountain Friendliness

A Motorcycle Trip

Satellite Television

“Weaving Mountain Memories”

Hotel Rates in the Old Days

The Price of Propane [1990]

The Front Range Almanac

June

Modes of Transportation

Miller Moths

My 50th Column

Modern Conveniences

Rock Climbing

On the Death of Otto Walter, Postmaster

Otto’s Memorial Service

A Big Owl Pot-Luck Dinner

A Whine About Telephone Service [1991]

After the Persian Gulf War

Some Changes in the WIND

The Trip to the Mountains

The Mountains in the Summer

Visitors

Of Dogs, Music, and Children

Muhlenburg County

To My Grandson

The Sale of Longs Peak Inn

World War II  [1992]

Murphy’s Law and the Computer

The South St. Vrain Canyon

“Whiteout”

The Hazards of Volunteering

Crime in Our Valley

Infestations

On the Death of Charles Eagle Plume

Can We All Get Along?

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Lost Horizon [1993]

Walking

Rumors About a Visit by the Pope

Progress?

More About Fences

Woodpeckers

The Visit of Pope John Paul II

Forest Fires

The New Sewage System

The Snow Pool

The Good Old Days [1994]

The WIND’s 20th Anniversary

The Bunce School

The Shooting Gallery

The Estes Park Museum

Our Government

U.S. West Takes a Hit

The Year of the Hummingbirds

A New “Yield” Sign

Growth in Allenspark

Private Telephones?

The Salvation Army

Creation Science [1995]

Devolutionizing Big Government

Risks

Airports

Fort D.A. Russell

Domestic Terrorism

Old and New

Barney Graves

Life in the Wilderness

What’s In a Name?

Arthur C. Clarke

 

The Estes Park Trail-Gazette Columns:

July 1983

Carpentry

Estes Cone

Johnny Grant

Observations in Estes Park

The Bath House

Waving

The Sutherland’s Ice House

How Old is Charles Eagle Plume?

Dogs

Christmas Trees

Tree Murder

Mountain Driving

Garbage

Mail Boxes

More About Mail Boxes

“Are you related to ....?”

Spring

An Accident

The Wild Cat

A July Reunion

A Visit to Baldpate Inn

Opening Cabins

Summer

The Times, They Have Changed

Death and Transfiguration

The Population Explosion

The March of Time

Faith-Based Social Services

Looking for Pitch

Recent Writings I

Recent Writings II

Recent Writings III

Recent Writings IV

Recent Writings V

Recent Writings VI

 

 

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