Cat McQueen, who joined the throngs of Coloradans who lost their jobs in the pandemic, has a droll sense of humor when sharing what it’s been like to look for a job at age 63. There’s the you-have-an-impressive-resume-but-we-went-with-someone-else response. “If you have impressive qualifications, what other qualifications do they seek,” wonders McQueen, who lost her […]
Northwest Colorado Council of Governments
Posted inHousing, News, Outsider
A flurry of policy experiments in Colorado serves as “regional laboratory” for regulating, limiting short-term rentals
Winter Park and Breckenridge are offering big incentives to homeowners who convert their short-term rental properties to housing for locals. A program called “Short-Term Fix” offers homeowners up to $20,000 for converting their Winter Park vacation homes to housing for locals. The Town of Breckenridge and Summit County last week unveiled a similar program. The […]
Posted inHousing, News
How bad is the housing crunch in Colorado’s high country? Just look at census vacancy data.
By most accounts, the housing market in Colorado mountain communities has never been tighter. People have flocked to mountain towns during coronavirus, even as many resorts shut down. Seasonal workers are being forced to move to different communities because they can’t afford rent, causing labor shortages for local businesses. And yet, several high country communities […]
Posted inBusiness, Housing, News
Survey of Colorado’s high-country residents a “wake-up call” on the devastating implications of the affordable housing crisis
A first-of-its-kind survey of thousands of Colorado mountain town residents has delivered the clearest look at the impact of the pandemic on housing, rentals and lifestyles in the high country to date. And the news is not good. Wealthy newcomers are displacing locals. Businesses are struggling to hire staff. The crowds are growing in the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The Windy Gap settlement is a win for the West Slope and its waters
The history of Western Colorado’s water is told in stories of hard-fought wins and losses, of lawsuits and government petitions, of tough negotiations and collaboration. In Grand County, the history of West Slope water — and Front Range demand for that water — is more visible than in other areas west of the Continental Divide. […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, Economy, Energy, News
Utility bills burn through paychecks for thousands of Coloradans
For the past five years, Susana Martinez Oliva has dreaded the onset of winter in Colorado. She lives in a mobile home with her husband and six children in the Dotsero Mobile Home Park, alongside Interstate 70 near the eastern edge of Glenwood Canyon, a cold, windy corridor over 6,000 feet high in the mountains. […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, News, Technology
Spurred by the threat of wildfires, an Estes Park broadband project moved at the speed of light
As the Cameron Peak fire burned in the distance on the morning of Oct. 17, Josh Cramer sprung into action. He worried the fire might reach Estes Park and cause a literal meltdown that could wipe out the town’s internet, emergency lines and prevent reverse 9-1-1 calls. The town needed access to backup broadband. But […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology
Colorado will miss its goal to hit 92% broadband coverage in rural areas by June
The state’s goal to get 92% of rural Colorado connected to decent broadband by June will miss the mark. No single factor was to blame — and it had nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. But an overall reason is that determining the figure is a crapshoot. “There’s no place for us to go […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, News, Politics and Government, Technology
Little-known internet network plans Western Colorado expansion to link students, nonprofits to supercomputers
The text-heavy website looks like it’s stuck in the 1990s. But peering past the Front Range GigaPop’s pages full of Times New Roman font and blue underlined links, you’ll understand what the fuss is about. The broadband network, long exclusive to universities and federal research labs, offers unthinkably fast speeds and access to the brightest […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology
Internet service in western Colorado was so terrible that towns and counties built their own telecom
Internet outages became a distant memory this month as a good chunk of western Colorado turned on a new broadband system. But this wasn’t built by a typical telecom. It took a band of local governments and partners from 14 rural communities to stitch together the 481-mile network, dubbed “Project Thor.” Communities from Aspen to […]