Scared Ground / Protect Wagner Park

Wagner Park in Aspen is sacred ground.  It’s a true community center right in the middle of Aspen’s core  It’s free, it’s not fenced, it’s always open and it’s a jewel to be cherished.  Except when its closed.

 Aspen’s Core has evolved into an urban environment.  There are precious few open spaces available for the public to enjoy.  This has never been more evident than during the pandemic of 2020.  Wagner Park is a place for people to congregate at an acceptable social distance.  People can recreate and experience open space in a town that is often bulging at the seams. 

Protect Wagner Park is a Colorado based non-profit whose sole purpose is to protect Wagner Park.  We are dedicated to ensuring that Wagner Park remains a public amenity for use as a park and for recreation as set forth in it’s deed.  Our goal is to protect Wagner Park from excessive commercialization, privatization and damage.

 Wagner Park is a very valuable public asset that belongs to the people of Aspen. The City of Aspen (COA) is obligated to provide stewardship over Wagner Park.   We have very high expectations for our elected officials and city staff so we question whether the city’s stewardship over Wagner Park is adequate.  The increasing number of high-impact, private and commercial events takes its toll on Wagner Park, every year.  By our count, in a normal year, Wagner Park is closed for more than 120 days  .In 2014, the park was closed for almost an entire year when a $2.5 million upgrade to the park was made.

 Photo: Daniel BayerOur focus on Wagner Park has led us to conclusions about how the City of Aspen (COA) operates.   Many of the poor decisions made about the park serve as metaphors for other issues within the City.    We have observed a pattern of behavior, a habitual modus operandi from the city staff.   Staff creates a “perceived need” or provides a narrative of a “perceived value”. They make recommendations to council, who are already inundated and over whelmed with information.  Agenda items get pushed forward, sometimes with no detailed analysis.  These “projects” take a life of their own and proceed full speed ahead before anyone, including council, has time to react.   We cite, the hydro project, the new city hall building and the parking department fiasco a few years ago as examples of this inadequate and unacceptable style of  decision making.  The City touts their “public outreach” yet they don’t really seem to listen to the public.  The outreach meetings and surveys appear to be perfunctory, more like marketing vehicles to support the “perceived need”. Optics are very important to COA, but the public opinion does not seem to matter.

To  clarify the position of Protect Wagner Park;  We are not anti-fun and we are not anti- events. We embrace public gatherings such as Ruggerfest & MotherLode Volleyball.  Those tourneys don’t close the park, they don’t surround the park with fences and they don’t charge for admission. We are primarily concerned with the stewardship of Wagner Park, it’s preservation and maximizing the park’s accessibility to the public.  These concepts should come first…and not take a secondary position to commerce and privatization of our public spaces.

In conclusion, our goal is to keep the open spaces, open and keep the public spaces, public and to PROTECT WAGNER PARK.