This has been a Plea for Help
TW: suicide
This is a letter to the rich people of Telluride, Colorado,
Who experienced the long food wait at Gorrono Ranch this past winter? It took almost an hour to get your $12 french fries, right? That’s because there were five employees running food on days when the skier count was almost 8,000, and even fewer employees in the kitchen. The manager, who also ran food to help the fight, has already filled all their allotted employee rooms at Big Billies (the dorm-style employee housing building). In my case, we crammed 3 people into a 1 bedroom 1 bath 629 square foot apartment. This year with Giuseppe’s closed Gorrono Ranch is going to get slammed. I am resigning from my position at Gorrono Ranch because my mental health cannot take another season of the high stress physically exhausting work, it demands.
My manger does not have the option to hire more employees because he has nowhere to house them. His only wish is to make the working experience better for his employees and, as a result, elevate the customer experience. Unfortunately that will not happen this winter.
I live in Telski employee housing in Mountain Village (a twin town to telluride, a couple miles from the main resort), surrounded by privately owned condos and multi million dollar mansions. When Roe v. Wade was overturned in late June, Colorado was still a “safe state”. A single small march was organized in Telluride. My small contribution to the cause was to make signs and hang them outside my apartment window.
A few days passed, and I receive an email from Telski HR:
Good Morning.
I am emailing this morning to respectfully request you remove the posters from your balcony at Mountain View. We have a responsibility to the neighborhood to uphold community standards.
to which I respectfully responded with:
Would love to see proof of these “Community Standards” be it in writing via my apartment lease. Or any other legal reasoning for removal.
Would just love a little more explanation!
HR said:
Sure, I am happy to explain. My request was not legal in nature, rather an appeal as a colleague. The Horning Family has been working hard to build more affordable and subsidized housing for our employees. The residents of the Meadows Neighborhood have been vocal and resistant to the idea of us building more housing in that community citing that our current properties are not being well kept. We are working hard to show our commitment to maintain our properties and prove that we are good neighbors so that we can continue to invest in this much needed employee housing.
I responded with a lengthy email explaining my disgust towards this request. I put those posters up to show my fellow neighbors that I support and will protect their right to make decisions about their own bodies. However, I ultimately agreed to remove my posters as I would never want to impede any affordable housing being built. I don’t tell this story to get into political or human rights discussions. I share this story to bring attention to: “The residents of the Meadows Neighborhood have been vocal and resistant to the idea of us building more housing in that community”
These “neighbors” don’t care about us. I didn’t have to take down my posters due to “community standards”, it is because Telski is gripped by fear due to the pressure from my “neighbors” to not build affordable housing. It is not my posters that are deterring theses neighbors from saying yes to new complexes. It is because building affordable housing next to your multi-million dollar condo mansion decreases its property value. They don’t care about us, they care about their property value. But you know what’ll really decrease your property value? When the resort closes because there aren’t enough people to spin the lifts, groom the trails, make snow, or feed your post-ski, hungry bellies. This story isn’t just unique to Mountain Village. This is just one of the problems contributing to the housing crisis.
Telluride claims to have a vibrant, caring community. When in reality, the rich people of Telluride don’t care about the workers of Telluride. They think they are our friends, because they sit at our local bars, share beers with us, share chairlifts with us, share powder days with us, share summer festivals with us, the list goes on. They think they are our friends, but friends don’t ignore friends’ suffering. The working class is suffering. The suicide rate in Telluride is astronomical. We are not killing ourselves just because were sad. We are killing ourselves because our quality of life is continuously decreasing. We can’t find housing, we have to work seven days a week to even afford a spot in town.
The rich would be happy to see us pushed out into Illium, Saw Pit, Norwood, Rico, etc. But when the rich get to Iive in town and the working poor are pushed out into small living quarters far, far away, that is called a serfdom. Telluride is dangerously close to becoming a serfdom. For those that don’t know what a serfdom is, it’s when the kings live in lavish castles and the peasants live outside the city walls.
I’m from Richmond Virginia, where in the summer of 2020, we marched everyday for weeks to get confederate monuments taken down. We were successful. People can make change. We can make our voices heard. And when we didn’t feel heard back in Richmond windows were smashed and walls graffitied. This is not a threat, this is a promise. We will not be ignored anymore. This housing crisis cannot continue.
The rich people of Telluride offset their guilt by, is by donating to charities. Environmental conservation efforts are their most effective scapegoat. Save the elk! Save the nature! Here’s the money to do so. How about instead, you rent out your second homes to locals (at an affordable price), swallow increased taxes, and donate your money to affordable housing foundations. Say YES to building next your home. Telluride is a symbiotic relationship. But the host animal is dying. Telluride cannot go on like this. This has been a plea for help. Will you answer it, or will you continue to ignore our suffering?