Aug 20, 2026 · 50 min · 11 segments
What can today’s Colorado mountain towns learn from a resort community that has already spent decades navigating tourism, second-home ownership, housing pressure, and reinvention? In this episode of…
So we understand that Vail has invested $50 million in workforce housing programs, is now pushing short-terminals, taxes, deed restrictions, and public-private partnerships.
Is this a warning story or a success story? You've kind of already answered this,
Vail has always been somewhat business-friendly, right? we don't have the huge history of having been a non-tourist town.
Being tourist-driven is in our DNA because there was nothing here until we started a ski resort.
I'm on the Vail Economic Advisory Council, which is a group that I helped set up when I was on council many years ago with the current town manager at that point.
And it's pretty incredible how aligned the business community is with the citizens of town.
What do you attribute that to? Because I've sat here on the Salida Downtown Business Alliance and in some of those meetings, and it does often feel like there's a lot of push and pull between we're doing it for the tourists, but we need to do things.
I am of the belief, I'll just state it here, that If you don't build a town for the people that live there, you're never going to have success on the tourist level.
Because the people that live here are really what makes the heart of the town.
That the business owners understand, like, we're here for the tourists, but we've got to have our town.
So we understand that Vail has invested $50 million in workforce housing programs, is now pushing short-terminals, taxes, deed restrictions, and public-private partnerships.
Is this a warning story or a success story? You've kind of already answered this,
Vail has always been somewhat business-friendly, right? we don't have the huge history of having been a non-tourist town.
Being tourist-driven is in our DNA because there was nothing here until we started a ski resort.
I'm on the Vail Economic Advisory Council, which is a group that I helped set up when I was on council many years ago with the current town manager at that point.
And it's pretty incredible how aligned the business community is with the citizens of town.
What do you attribute that to? Because I've sat here on the Salida Downtown Business Alliance and in some of those meetings, and it does often feel like there's a lot of push and pull between we're doing it for the tourists, but we need to do things.
I am of the belief, I'll just state it here, that If you don't build a town for the people that live there, you're never going to have success on the tourist level.
Because the people that live here are really what makes the heart of the town.
That the business owners understand, like, we're here for the tourists, but we've got to have our town.
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