Our Changing World

Do you remember driving to Central City in the past and Blackhawk was practically non-existent? Where we felt as if we had returned to those western days we see in movies? Where one could enter a bar and swear time had stopped when can-can like waitresses waited on you? Where there was a lot of rough wood all around. Where music would be country and the area was rustic?

I remember those days and miss the drive to the mountains to go back in time. This was a place I took visitors from the east so they could get a sense of  the wild west. Once casinos came in the cowboy town morphed into a crowded, unrecognizable place for gamblers. Tall hotels have been built against the mountain side. I still take visitors to visit our small casinos, though I miss the days of old at Central City.

While in Estes Park a few weeks ago, most of the tourist shops had signs in their windows: No Action on the Loop.  My curiosity got the better of me and I began asking what the signs meant. I was given a sheet of paper with this information:

What is The Loop? Estes Park has been awarded a Federal Grant for federal land access to RMNP. To do this, they will change streets in downtown to one-way and build a new state highway along the river, through the Riverside neighborhood-creating a big counter-clockwise "loop" of roads. There has been no public discussion of a downtown plan, and these changes will alter the character of Estes forever. Our town leaders think this is what you, our guests, want! If you love the charm of Estes Park and don't want to see it mowed over by one-way streets and highways, LET OUR TOWN KNOW how you feel. Please, speak up for Estes Park! 

Driving through the few short blocks in the downtown area of Estes Park, it was bumper to bumper for about fifteen minutes. I liked the slow ride through town so I could look around at the different stores and the many visitors roaming the sidewalks. I also knew that if I wanted to get across the town and head to the Rocky Mountain National Park I could get on the side road (in front of the Stanley Hotel) and miss the traffic creeping through the town.

In speaking with a local resident she said, "They want to make one way streets and those one ways will pull people away from the downtown area. Businesses will lose money. The place will lose what attracts people in the first place. Construction of roads to accommodate summer tourists for only a few months of the year is not worth it. It will no longer be Estes Park."

The more people, the more improvement and my guess is the bottom line is to how to make more money! I lean toward not changing Estes Park. When the summer tourists are gone, will Estes become a ghost town? What would happen to all the wild life that wander around the area?  I have seen what Central City has become and would hate to see one of my favorite places change.

My world is changing!