© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Handling the Aspen Institute’s parking, one smile at a time

Aspen residents and visitors will have a little more elbow room this week. The July 4th stretch is one of the busiest on the resort’s calendar, and the epicenter last week was the Aspen Institute’s campus. It’s home to the Aspen Ideas Festival, Jazz Aspen Snowmass, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. And one longtime local was on the front lines directing the thousands of people passing through there.

Basalt resident James Jerome works for private security company, handling a steady stream of people walking, biking, and driving cars to the Aspen Ideas Festival or Jazz Aspen Snowmass. He’s at the Gillespie Street and 3rd St traffic control area, a station Jerome has worked five years in a row. “So I'm pretty familiar with a lot of people who are local, that live along Roaring Fork Drive,” says Jerome, “and they have all kinds of workers that come and I recognize most of them, or they recognize me.”

But the waves of traffic visiting the Aspen Institute usually need a little guidance, whether they want it or not. “Where can they park is a big question,” explains James during the second to last day of the Aspen Ideas Festival. He’s been here every day since it began this summer, working ten hours a day with a lunch and bathroom break here and there.

When visitors ask about parking, Jerome often has to turn them away from the big lot right next to him. “They have to park out in the residential area,” he says, “and that becomes a problem Monday through Friday because most of it is marked 2 hour parking only. So they have to come move their car all the time. And they will ticket it.” So he patiently explains that potentially frustrating news to drivers when they arrive. “A thousand times a day sometimes, the same question. Where can we park, we let them know. Typical thing in Aspen, parking is limited.”

 

But Jerome doesn’t let supply and demand color his friendly manner. “My job is to treat all the people coming in with respect and dignity, and make it a good an enjoyable experience for them. On the way out I say have a good day, thank you for attending. I say that a lot-- thousands of times. And people appreciate that.” For him, the most memorable moment of this summer has been briefly meeting Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, when their motorcade arrived at the campus last month.