Do-overs anyone? Apple Z

On a Macintosh computer there is a command called Apple Z. It lets you undo the most recent thing you’ve done on the computer. Screw up a presentation point? Apple Z. Delete everything by accident? Apple Z. It’s sort of like time travel. I would guess there are some situations in the valley of late where the principals would love to hit Apple Z. How about a do-over?

* Spending $15 million for land that borders a grave yard and has a controversial dump underneath a big part of it… You don’t think the Foothills developers wish they could hit Apple Z?
I have to say, in my next real estate deal, I want Mr. Trampe (the former owner of the Foothills land) representing me. Selling a chunk of land for eight figures with a huge and potentially toxic dump on one side and a sensitive community cemetery on the other was pure genius (and probably involved some fortuitous timing and luck). No Apple Z there.
Going to the actual location of the proposed Foothills annexation last week was enlightening. Standing on the site of the old dump, I found it surprising how big it really is. If the town opens up that can of worms, there will be huge ramifications, most of them bad. Test the water and soils and let’s really see the situation, but tread carefully on the old dump. Leaving it alone might honestly be the best choice.
Overall, the Crested Butte Town Council should seriously consider allowing some homes where they make sense on the Foothills proposal and not based on the development “penciling out” for the proponents. Things would work better for everyone if the entry cost had been $1 million instead of $15 million, but that’s not the town’s concern. There are still some good elements to the development plan (primarily open space the developers are proposing to bring to the table). But a lot of the early, promising ideas have disappeared. The actual building of affordable housing and the idea of creating a new model for “sustainability,” for example, have vanished. Do something interesting like put a solar farm on the dumpsite, allow a fair amount of houses where it logically extends the town, and move it along. Of course not one member of the general public spoke in favor of the latest proposal Monday night so…
Being put through the grinder of representative government has seemed pulverizing for the proponents. They were searching for Apple Z all night long Monday.

* Crested Butte Planning Commissioner Dan Escalante might want a do-over. He stated at the Foothills public hearing Monday that he had been listening to a lot of pro-annexation people on the street and was uncomfortable closing the public hearing because he felt that voice needed to be heard. Now, I don’t agree with the quasi-judicial way the town set up the annexation process. It’s too restrictive for legislators who, in my opinion, should solicit public comment. But it’s been stated close to a kazillion times by the town attorney that the board members cannot talk, listen, discuss and certainly not base any decision on so-called “’ex-parte communication” from anyone outside of official annexation meetings. Escalante sure seems to have gone off the ex-parte reservation and that might just take him out of the final decision. I don’t know for sure, but I bet an Apple Z is in order.

* Gray-watergate? You don’t think Alan Bernholtz would like a do-over. If the Irwin Backcountry Guide mountain manager, ski area face-guy and Crested Butte mayor could hit Apple Z, he probably would. He says he wasn’t aware of the graywater system that drew county violations at an Irwin ski area building last week but I bet he wishes he had been. Having helped write the watershed ordinance for the town and then being a manager for a company tagged with violating the ordinance is a tad, uhh, uncomfortable… whether it was on purpose or not.
Managers are supposed to know what’s going on, at least peripherally, in every aspect of the operation. It slaps me up the side of the head regularly as well and I’ve learned that it’s not always fair. The whole gray-watergate situation might be much ado about nothing… but it shouldn’t have happened.

* CBMR maybe doesn’t even know it needs an Apple Z, but it could use a do-over. The company’s communication with the general Crested Butte public is, by all accounts, abysmal. Everywhere I go, people are shaking their heads about the ski area. CBMR seems to have no concern with the idea of talking with the community. Little if any effort is spent to explain what they are doing and how the community might be impacted or how it could help. In this town, that will come back to haunt. The Friends of Snodgrass have a presentation lined up for all the Crested Butte Town Council candidates. I might be wrong, but I’ll bet CBMR management couldn’t name five out of the nine people running for council and that’s worthy of a do-over. It must be tough to be in ski area management (see above). Apple Z.

* The Land Trust board, both present and past. Never mind. Apple Z.

* Nationally—Barack Obama should look at Apple Z on his Oval Office computer. If President Obama thinks he is going to win a war in Afghanistan by sending more and more combat troops into that quagmire, he hasn’t read much history. Obama is smarter than me so maybe he has some sort of secret plan we don’t know about. But from everything I’ve read, that Afghani culture is a culture that loves to fight foreigners and is very good at it… ask the Russians, the Brits and any other empire-building type who ventured in there. Can you say Vietnam?
The time to go there and go there big was after 9-11… 2001. Keep pursuing Al Qaeda with special forces and drones and every other smart weapon we possess, but sending in more troops to help a government that sure looks like it stole the recent election is arrogant folly and will waste lives, time and credibility. Consider a new motto: Fight smarter, not dumber. Apple Z.

All of us would probably like to have the luxury of Apple Z in our life once in a while. But instead, we all get to take a breath, evaluate the situations (and there is no shortage of situations at the moment), learn from our mistakes… and deal. ‘Tis an honor to live in “interesting” times.