Warnings…

 Warning! — If you start to strangle the golden goose that is unique Crested Butte you start to see the sands shift in small ways. For example, it wasn’t my perceived Donald Derangement Syndrome or our coverage of high school sports that lost a subscriber but rather a more macro picture: “Kindly discontinue sending me the Crested Butte News. Cancel my subscription, please. Vail Associates has ruined the town and the ski area, despite all efforts of the longtime locals. The billionaires have descended on the valley and I no longer plan to visit – summer or winter. Sooooo sorry.”

We are sorry too. Thanks for subscribing when you did and we hope you return some day and seek out some of the still magnificent elements of this place. June has been pretty wonderful. I get that the valley is expanding in terms of development, population (both full-time residents and visitors) and money, transitioning from a funky, small town in a high mountain valley to more urban city in the mountains, but it’s still pretty nice. 

 

In that vein…Warning! — Now that he is no longer directing the Tourism and Prosperity Partnership, John Norton is back with his “Notions” column and his first one runs this week. Like the reasoning for the cancelled subscription, it is centered on a call for Vail Resorts — to sell CBMR. You can read it on page 13.

 

Warning! — The days will start to get slightly shorter sooner than we want — in about a week actually. The Summer Solstice occurs on Friday, June 20. We will experience close to a 15-hour day next weekend with the sun setting about 8:37 for a few days before the days begin to shrink. That’s not really a great thing, so now is the time to enjoy that 9 o’clock twilight which lingers probably about five hours longer than it did in December.

 

Warning! — Local traffic circles are still in the pipeline. The giant Whetstone project will still include a roundabout near Brush Creek Road. I asked about it this week and was told Gunnison County is still funding the design process while the Safe Streets and Roads For All grant funding is contracted with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The county public works department indicates this roundabout project is top priority and hopes to have a final draft contract this month. The county has targeted spring of 2026 for roundabout construction to begin. The Red Lady roundabout at the entrance to Crested Butte is also planned to begin construction next summer if anticipated funding holds up.

 

Warning! — Trump. Just Trump. Not everything about him but geeeeez — Donald is calling in the National Guard and even the marines to either arrest the state’s governor or dudes stocking shelves in Home Depot or the guy who took away that job you’ve always wanted picking lettuce under the blazing Imperial Valley sun, or anyone holding up the First Amendment to voice a stand against him?

My favorite Donald analogy is that Trump is like a dog that throws up on the couch and then eats it and takes credit for cleaning it up. It’s the TACO syndrome—bloviate, make a mess, chicken out and walk back the mess, and finally take loud credit for the mess not being as bad as it was a day earlier.

People on both sides of the political spectrum should understand your social media algorithm will dictate what scenes of L.A. you see and how mad you get. Foreign press accounts described the protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles as “largely peaceful” until Trump threw up on the couch and sent in the National Guard. And while tripping up the stairs of Air Force One, he probably forgot that with everyone having a video recorder in their pocket these days, you can’t seriously just make shit up and declare “insurrectionists” are out of control (that was January 6, 2021, BTW) when it isn’t unfolding that way…but he’ll keep stirring up the shit he started until it matches his reality. 

Donald’s words and actions kept throwing gas on a simmering fire and a couple days after the protests started, things escalated a bit. LAPD chief Jim McDonnell called the violence “disgusting” and said officers have been pelted with rocks, and shot at with commercial grade fireworks. Any violence erupting from any protest is the wrong thing. Violence (like January 6) is unacceptable, but McDonnel crucially notes that those engaging in violence were not among the people demonstrating against the immigration raids, but are “people who do this all the time.” 

So, in come the marines over what started with maybe 100 peaceful protestors. And now, “We’re going to have troops everywhere,” Donald promised — I mean threatened. 

 

Warning! — Another example of business genius that will trickle down to our community. The federal budget proposal worming its way through Congress would slash funding for national parks, monuments, historic sites, seashores and trails by nearly 25%, cutting more than $1.2 billion from the $4.8 billion Park Service budget. But national parks generate $55.6 billion in economic output, benefiting the U.S. economy far more than they cost. Tell me again how this is about shrinking the national debt.

Warning! — The reason local property magnate Mark Walter hasn’t been speed dialing me about his ultimate plans for CB might be that he was recently appointed to The Explorers Club’s Board of Trustees. That’s pretty cool actually. Walter and his family have a legit background in helping to protect imperiled species and protecting wild spaces. He has the means to make a difference. Congrats. Still Mark…if you ever want to take 10 minutes to chat so I can share your vision for this little slice of wild space, I’m still at 970-349-0500…

 

As we mentioned with that subscription cancellation, now is the time to be out and about before 10,000 of your best friends start sharing the trails. June provides some sweet opportunities before the summer madness begins. I like the slow ramp-up as workers come back, second homeowners trickle in and kids out from school start roaming the mall that is a quiet town surrounded by millions of acres of public land…plus the days are getting longer for another week. Don’t let this June opportunity slip by!

—Mark Reaman